HOW AN OVERWORKED PATENT CLERK INVENTED THE PHOTOCOPIER
FEB. 8, 1906
Chester Carlson is born in Seattle. About a year later, his father develops tuberculosis. The family moves to San Bernardino, California.
By the time he’s 14, Carlson is the family’s primary breadwinner. He raises money by self-publishing a magazine about chemicals. Unable to make copies any other way, he buys a small hand-operated printing press.
1930
Carlson earns a bachelor’s degree in physics from the California Institute of Technology. He starts work for Bell Labs in New York City but is soon laid off as the Great Depression deepens.
1934
Carlson begins work for P.R. Mallory, an electronics firm as a patent clerk. He begins taking classes in patent law at the New York Law School.
In his job processing P.R. Mallory patent applications, Carlson grows frustrated by his need for copies of paperwork. He couldn’t make enough carbon copies to suit his needs. Sending documents out to be photographed was prohibitively expensive. The only real option was to rewrite them or retype them, possibly introducing errors.
It begins to dawn on Carlson that a device that could make copies of documents in seconds might be useful in office environments. He begins researching the possibility of using electrostatic images to somehow make copies.
1937
Carlson, having worked out a theory for a process of making copies, applies for a patent for what he calls electrophotography — even though he hasn’t managed to make that process actually work just yet.
Carlson continues to work on the process, mostly in his own kitchen. When his wife stops that, he moves to his mother-in-law’s beauty salon.
Oct. 22, 1938
Working with his assistant, Otto Kornei, Carlson successfully makes his first xerographic reproduction.
1939
Carlson earns his law degree from the New York Law School. He passes the bar exam and becomes a patent lawyer in New York state.
Nov. 22, 1940
Carlson’s patent application is granted. He tries to find a company interested in his invention, but is turned down by more than 20 firms, including IBM, Kodak, General Electric and RCA.
1944
Carlson signs a royalty-sharing deal with the Battelle Institute, a nonprofit research institute in Columbus, Ohio. He receives $3,000 to continue his research. The Battelle Institute, however, can’t figure out how to market or sell Carlson’s invention.
Jan. 2, 1947
Carlson and the Battelle Institute sign a licensing agreement with Haloid Company.
Over the next 13 years, Haloid would spend more than $75 million perfecting and simplifying Carlson’s process. People at Haloid don’t like “electrophotography,” so a college professor suggests they coin a new term using the classical Greek words “xeros” for dry and “graphein” for writing. The term “xerography” is born.
1949
The Haloid Company introduces its Model A copier using Carlson’s xerography process. It takes 14 steps and up to 45 seconds to make a single copy. Users not-so-lovingly refer to the Model A as the Ox Box.
1959
Haloid changes its name to Haloid Xerox, which then introduces the Xerox 914 copier, the first successful dry copier using plain paper.
The Xerox 914 is fast, capable of making more than 100,000 copies a month. It’s also affordable, given the company’s decision to rent them for $25 per month plus 10 cents per copy.
1961
Haloid Xerox changes its name again — this time, to just Xerox.
1964
Carlson is named Inventor of the Year by the Patent, Trademark & Copyright Research Institute. Two years later, he wins the Horatio Alger Award.
1965
Carlson’s wife asks him if he had any unfulfilled wishes for his life. “Just one,” he says. “I would like to die a poor man.”
Now worth $200 million, Carlson begins donating most of his fortune to charities. He donates some of his original equipment to the Smithsonian Institution.
Sept. 19, 1968
While walking down New York’s 57th Street on his way to see a movie, Carlson has a heart attack and dies at age 62.