In the literature of the 1930's there are numerous references to "facsimile broadcasting", which the FCC rules defined as the broadcast of still images for reception by the general public. What is unclear to me is how this broadcast service was meant to be used. What kind of still images would be transmitted, and why would the general public want to look at them?

They were marketed to be "newspapers of the air". Several AM broadcasters experimented with it. Given the technology of the era and the economics, it went nowhere fast. I guess you could say it was the AM Stereo of its time...

Crosley here in Cincinnati breifly marketed it as well. If you can find the book "Not Just a Sound" by Dick Perry there is a pretty good description of what WLW/Crolsey was trying to sell.

At one time you could get facsimile decoder software for the PC that worked by playing the shortwave weather facsimile audio into your sound card. Something interesting to do combining shortwave listening and PCs.

The early weather satellites used a single point sensor that worked by spinning the satellite at the facsimile rate cross-wise to its orbital path. Later satellites had more video detail, but the signal was also converted to facsimile. A couple of short wave stations (I think one in New Orleans and one in Hawaii?) rebroadcast the satellite images plus weather charts. Don't know if they still do, but I should try to resurrect the old software and the shortwave receiver. The guys selling the shortwave converters also sold plans and kits for picking up the satellites directly, but again, I don't know if the current satellites provide the facsimile signal any more.

This is an interesting subject. I wonder if anyone has written a book on inventions that went nowhere--not things that didn't work but things that did but were never adopted for other reasons. DuMont's Electronicam would be an example.