Austin Cooley (1900-1993) invented the Rayfoto (or radio photograph) in 1927. Cooley was born in Seattle and experimented in radio technology early on, even installing the first radio station in a small town in Alaska at the age of 16 before attending the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) as a college student. The Rayfoto radio picture receiver was, essentially, the precursor to the fax machine, transferring data into print. It would function by attaching the device to a radio and then convert the radio program currently broadcasting into printed form, similiar to a newspaper. Although there were high hopes for this new device, the technology proved too costly and slow for mass consumption and was soon usurped by the introduction of television.