Where Did Copier Machines Come From?

Photoelectric paper was being made and sold by the Haloid company as early as 1906. This company later became known as Haloid Xerox after the term xerography, which was developed by Chester Carlson. Xerography is the process of using electricity and dry ink in the printing process. He later sold the process to Xerox, which made the first copier machine in Rochester, New York, in 1955. It was called the Copyflo 914. Mr. Carlson and his idea became so popular that by the end of 1965, his worth was over $500 million.

The company expanded quickly and made many men wealthy. In 1961, the company formally became known as Xerox corporation and was then listed on first the New York Stock Exchange in 1961 and then the Chicago Stock Exchange in 1990.

In 1963, the first desk top copier was invented, again by Xerox. This invention made the dream of a desktop copier a reality and a few businesses began acquiring them.

In 1969, Xerox bought Scientific Data Systems which then produced the Sigma line of mainframe computers, which then brought about the beginning of the computing age.

Also in 1969, a man named Gary Starkweather, a Xerox researcher, invented the laser printer by changing and upgrading a Xerox printer. The result of this upgrade was that a printer was now available to be purchased for use by companies.

While Archie McCardell was leading the company, Canon invented the color copier. Xerox responded by inventing and releasing its own model. This launched the company to a worth of several millions.

In 1970, Xerox opened a research center in Palo Alto, California. It was there that research produced the technology of the mouse. Steve Jobs later visited the research center and used some of that technology in his Apple MacIntosh computer released in 1984. Apple later considered buying Xerox, but that deal never came to be.

After these times of record profits, an anti-trust lawsuit with the FTC was resolved resulting in some of their patents being sold to Japanese companies. This resulted in their U.S. market falling from 100% to just 14%, until in 2000, under the leadership of Anne Mulcahy, the company began experiencing a turnaround by reducing debt and increasing cash flow, while finding new ways to produce.

Later it merged with fuji film to produce the company fujixerox whose website is www.fujixerox.com.

As new technology is developed in the xerographic process, the future is bright for companies that strive to better themselves by utilizing that technology.

Louis Castellan is a New Caledonian journalist and technology enthusiast. He usualy writes about printers, copiers, usb gadgets and many more.