On October 22, 1938, Chester Carlson invented electrophotography, which was later renamed xerography, from two well-known natural phenomena: materials with opposite electrical charges attract each other and certain materials become better conductors of electricity when exposed to light. By combining these phenomena in a unique way, he was able to create a new process for making cheap, fast, good quality prints on plain paper.
Carlson, after trying to sell his invention to companies like IBM, approached a small photographic paper manufacturing company, Haloid Company, they took on the challenge of developing what we know today with Xerox Corporation who launched in 1959 the first one-piece photocopier using the Xerography method, the Xerox 914. Precisely the name "Xerox", determined by its inventor Chester Carlson, differentiated in the market its "dry" copying technology (χερός, in Greek). In those days, "wet" copying was the one mostly used in the industry.
When Chester Carlson died in 1968 at the age of 62, he was a wealthy and honest man, Xerox's annual revenues were approaching $1 billion, and the whole world was making copies at the push of a button.
Imagine a world without photocopying?
Today Xeros is synonymous with copies.
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Sources:
Xerox.com
Britanica.com
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