Abstract: A compact facsimile machine comprises a housing having a particular shape. The housing includes a pair of upright side walls and semi-circular and flat walls which are connected as arranged side by side and which extends horizontally between the pair of side walls, and, preferably, it is integrally formed from a reinforced plastic material. With this housing, a roll of recording paper may be stored in the semi-circular wall and a recording device such as a thermal print head may be disposed above the flat wall with an image sensor mounted on the flat wall. More importantly, an optical path from a scanning section for scanning an original document to the image sensor may be defined as folded around the convex surface of the semi-circular wall using a plurality of reflecting mirrors, thereby allowing to make the overall structure small without causing any deterioration in facsimile performance.