What do fax machines have in common with electric cars? More than you may think. History professor Jonathan Coopersmith, who studied the development of fax technology, argues in this March 2017 essay in The Conversation that in order for electric cars to eventually succeed, competing electric car makers need to follow the example of fax development and adopt uniform charging standards. (In case you aren’t familiar with them, fax machines were once key business communication tools, allowing a printed document to be fed into a machine and transmitted over telephone lines; a similar machine on the other end of the call would receive a facsimile of the original document—hence, “fax”.)

Read it here: Coopersmith, “What fax machines can teach us about electric cars”

1. Does Coopersmith’s title live up to its promise? What can fax machines teach us about electric cars? Summarize Coopersmith’s argument. Is it persuasive? Why or why not?
2. Coopersmith’s essay doesn’t really have an explicit They Say; still, he is entering an ongoing conversation with competing positions. What is the conversation that Coopersmith is joining? Why might he have chosen not to present an explicit They Say? Is his choice effective? Why or why not?
3. According to Coopersmith, the eventual success of fax machine standards was due to two key factors. What were they? How easily were you able to find the information for answering that question? What device does Coopersmith use to tie the information together?
4. Coopersmith is a history professor who has done extensive research on the development of fax machine standards. Why might a historian have studied such a topic? Do you think the history of these standards is a topic worthy of research? Why or why not?
5. We generally don’t have to pay much attention to the standards that facilitate our daily lives. One example, as Coopersmith notes, is being able to plug any toaster into any electric outlet in the US without a second thought. What other standards do we rely on and take for granted? (Here’s another example to help you start thinking: standard time zones didn’t just happen by themselves.) Choose one such standard and investigate its history. Write an essay briefly summarizing your investigation and take a position on whether the standard is important and worthwhile, providing reasons to support your conclusion.