The first fax-machine patent is older than modern Italy.

Italy feels ancient because Roman history is ancient. But modern Italy as a unified state is much younger. Alexander Bain received a British patent for early facsimile transmission in 1843. The Kingdom of Italy was proclaimed in 1861, nearly two decades later. So the first fax-machine patent predates modern Italy, even though it obviously does not predate the long history of the Italian peninsula. The fact works only when you compare the invention with the modern nation-state, not with Rome. That distinction is what makes it click. One word changes the timeline.

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