Electric scoring: when each weapon went electric.

Four kinds of date

British Fencing's history, by Malcolm Fare, says experiments with electrical scoring began in the late 19th century. After that, each weapon went through several steps: a working apparatus, a first use at the World Championships, the FIE's adoption of rules for judging with it, and a first Olympic Games. Sources pick different steps, which is why the years differ.

The FIE's rule dates are the governing body's own. The other dates may describe successive steps rather than contradictions, but no source found reconciles them, so each is given with who holds it.

Epee: the 1930s

Fare says epee was the easiest weapon to electrify, and that this happened in the 1930s. His history also says the pointe d'arret was developed to help judge epee hits: first a single point 2 mm long, later a safer triple point.

The FIE's magazine Escrime XXI, in a history timeline in issue 94, says the electrical epee was introduced in 1933 with the Laurent-Pagan scoring apparatus and adopted for competition at the Berlin 1936 Olympic Games, and that metallic pistes replaced cork ones that year. The FIE's historical note (i.3.3) dates its rules for epee judged with the electrical apparatus to 1936, and Olympedia says electric scoring was first used at the Olympics for epee at Berlin 1936.

Who built the first Olympic machine is disputed. A fencing club's web page, an operator statement seen only in a search summary, credits three men from Columbia University with a 1936 machine approved for the Olympics. The FIE's Escrime XXI timeline names the Laurent-Pagan apparatus of 1933 as the one adopted for Berlin. The FIE's account is the governing body's; the club's is unconfirmed.

Foil: 1955, 1956 or 1957

• 1955. Fare's history for British Fencing says foil was first fenced electrically at the World Championships in 1955.
• 1956. Olympedia dates electric scoring for foil at the Olympics to Melbourne 1956.
• 1957. The FIE's historical note (i.2.3) says its rules for foil judged with the electrical apparatus were adopted in 1957.

The foil bib

The FIE's 2009 homologation handbook records the introduction of the M2009 foil mask with a conductive bib, and that retrofitted conductive bibs were accepted from May 2009 until July 2012, only on masks of the same brand and not at the Olympic Games. A Reuters report of 2012 lists the foil bib becoming valid target among the changes made since 1982. The same handbook allowed a foil mask wire of 40 to 45 cm, or a coiled cable 25 cm long at rest; the FIE Material Rules of August 2026 (m.27.3) require 30 to 40 cm and ban coiled mask wires.

Sabre: 1986, 1988 or 1992

• 1986. Fare's history says sabre was the last weapon to be electrified, in 1986.
• 1988. The FIE's historical note (i.4.3) says its rules for sabre fenced with an electrical apparatus were adopted in 1988, and Wikipedia's sabre article gives the same year.
• 1992. Olympedia dates electric scoring for sabre at the Olympics to Barcelona 1992.

The 1988 date is the FIE's own date for its rules.

Wireless scoring

Fare's history says a Ukrainian company perfected a wireless system for sabre in the late 1990s, and that it has since been used in the final stages of all major events. It gives the first uses weapon by weapon:

Today the FIE Material Rules (August 2026, m.45) authorise only wired apparatus that shows hits by lights with an auxiliary sound, except wireless apparatus using encoded waves that the SEMI, the FIE's equipment commission, has authorised. Wireless apparatus is optional at the Veteran World Championships (m.44.7).

Recent changes to the wired kit

British Fencing's summary of the FIE's 2020 rule changes (7 January 2020) records that transparent plugs at both ends of body wires were introduced, applied at the 2020 Junior and Cadet World Championships and at Tokyo 2020, where the FIE supplied them, and made compulsory for all from the 2020-2021 season. It records epee guard sockets with two separate holes from the same season. The current rules for the scoring apparatus, weapon by weapon, are on the scoring equipment.