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macabethiel · 29-10-2019, 22:57

Back in 1972/3 when I was stationed at Renishaw - at that time it was a sub-divisional Headquarters for Chesterfield Division we had a prototype of what became the fax machine it was called a Facesimile Machine.

They installed what was a thermal printer connected to the Police Radio VHF set via a telephone handset in a number of Supervision Pandas (Moggie 1000). Operations room would scan a black & white photo of a suspect and call you up on the radio. When instructed you placed the telephone type handset into a cradle in the Panda Car and the photo was sent to you over the air.

It was not cheap, after a trial period Derbyshire decided not to buy the "Facesimile" machine. To give you a feel of the period all operations room messages from other Divisions & Police Forces were sent by Telex Machine. The noise in the Telex area was so bad that it was boxed in with a huge perspex lid!

29-10-2019, 22:57	#3
macabethiel Senior Member Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: Derby Vehicle: Freelander & Jeep GC 3.0 Posts: 4,415	Early Satnav video reminded me of this!! Back in 1972/3 when I was stationed at Renishaw - at that time it was a sub-divisional Headquarters for Chesterfield Division we had a prototype of what became the fax machine it was called a Facesimile Machine. They installed what was a thermal printer connected to the Police Radio VHF set via a telephone handset in a number of Supervision Pandas (Moggie 1000). Operations room would scan a black & white photo of a suspect and call you up on the radio. When instructed you placed the telephone type handset into a cradle in the Panda Car and the photo was sent to you over the air. It was not cheap, after a trial period Derbyshire decided not to buy the "Facesimile" machine. To give you a feel of the period all operations room messages from other Divisions & Police Forces were sent by Telex Machine. The noise in the Telex area was so bad that it was boxed in with a huge perspex lid!