History of xeroxgraphy
| 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." |
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Finally in 1944, the Battelle Memorial Institute in Columbus, Ohio, contracted with Carlson to refine his new process, which Carlson called "electrophotography". Three years later, The Haloid Company, a maker of photographic paper in Rochester, N.Y., 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. 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.
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