The History of Copy Machines: Chester Floyd Carlson, Inventor of Xerography

Carlson's motivation came during his time as a patent analyzer. A large portion of his job was re-creating flawless copies of drawings submitted by inventors, and Carlson quickly realized what an invention that effortlessly made photocopies would mean. So he sat out to design and create was is known today as copy machines.

He graduated with a degree in physics from the California Institute of Technology in 1928, smack dab in the middle of the Great Depression. The legend goes, 22-year-old Carlson applied for over 80 jobs before finally being hired by Bell Laboratories in New York… and was fired within a year.

Carlson would find work again for a patent attorney near Wall Street. About a year later he was hired by P.R. Mallory (now known as Duracell), an electrical parts manufacturer, where he became the head of their patent department.. When not working, Carlson attended New York Law School, and eventually received his LL.B. degree.

It was during his time at the patent attorneys office that Carlson came up with what would be his greatest accomplishment. And in the fall of 1938, Carlson and an assistant, using a complicated procedure that involved glass slides, zinc plates, lamplights, negatively charged powder and heat to make a copy of a slide written in ink that said "10-23-38 ASTORIA."

Despite this incredible creation, no company would financially support Carlson enough to assist him in developing and improving it. It wasn't until 1944, when a nonprofit organization called Battelle Memorial Institute, agreed to financially back Carlson, in exchange for a portion of the profits… if there were any.

However, the Battelle Memorial Institute funding was limited, and Carlson quickly became aware he'd need more financial support to complete his project.

That support arrived from Rochester, New York, home of the Haloid company and their Head of Research John Dassauer. Daussuer's company joined Carlson in 1946 as a research paper, and was also responsible for changing the name of the process from "electrophotography" to "xerography," the name used today. It is derived from the Greek words "xeros" and "graphos," which mean "dry" and "writing," respectively.

In 1947, Haloid manufactured the first copier. By 1949, the first photocopier was offered for public purchase. However, it was massive and difficult to operate, and initially did not succeed financially.

However, technology continued to improve, and Carlson adapted his project to produce a better project. The final result of Carlson's invention was the first commercial automatic copy machine, The Xerox 914, which was released in 1960.

Carlson passed away eight years later. His greatest invention, the Xerox 914, currently sits on display at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C.