History of Xerography
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Chester Carlson, a patent attorney and part–time inventor, made the first xerographic image in his makeshift laboratory in Astoria, Queens, in New York City, on Oct. 22, 1938. He spent years trying to sell his invention without success. Business executives and entrepreneurs didn’t believe there was a market for a copier when carbon paper worked just fine. And the prototype for the copier was unwieldy and messy. Some 20 companies, IBM and General Electric among them, met his invention with what Carlson called “an enthusiastic lack of interest.” |
 Chester Carlson’s first xerography impression 22 October 1938 |
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Finally in 1944, the Battelle Memorial Institute in Columbus, Ohio, contracted with Carlson to refine the process, which Carlson called “electrophotography”. Three years later, The Haloid Company, a maker of photographic paper in Rochester, New York approached Battelle and obtained a license to develop and market a copying machine based on Carlson’s technology. Haloid later obtained all rights to Carlson’s invention. |
 The Xerox 3600 had a reputation for reliability and quality in the 1970’s producing a copy a second. It was the first production copier and a leader of its time. |
XEROX 9700. FIRST LASER PRINTER TO REACH THE WORLDWIDE MARKET, WAS CAPABLE OF PRINTING AT 120 PPM. | |
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In the late 1960’s Xerox revolutionised the corporate world by introducting the classic 9700. It was the first laser printer to reach the worldwide market and was capable of printing at 120 PPM. |
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Carlson and Haloid agreed the word “electrophotography” was too cumbersome. A professor of classical languages at Ohio State University suggested “xerography”, derived from the Greek words for “dry” and “writing”. Haloid coined the word “Xerox” for the new copiers and in 1948 the word Xerox was trademarked. Inspired by the early, modest success of its Xerox copiers, Haloid changed its name in 1958 to Haloid Xerox Inc. The company became Xerox Corporation in 1961 after wide acceptance of the Xerox 914, the first automatic office copier to use ordinary paper. September 1999 marked the 40th anniversary of the Xerox 914. More than 200,000 units were made around the world between 1959 and 1976, the year the company stopped production of the 914. In 1985, 26 years after its introduction, Xerox announced that it would no longer renew 914 service contracts in the United States. Instead, a time and materials repair service was offered for the more than 6,000 units still in operation. Today, the Xerox 914 is part of American history as an artefact in the Smithsonian Institution. |
