A photocopier is a machine that makes copies of documents and other visual images onto paper or plastic film quickly and cheaply, and most modern photocopiers use xerography, a dry process that fixes toner to paper using an electrostatically charged photoreceptor, heat and pressure. It was invented by the American patent attorney Chester Carlson, who was motivated by the pain that arthritis caused him during manual document copying to experiment with electrophotography, producing the first photocopy in 1938 using a sulfur-coated zinc plate; after Carlson's process was rejected by more than twenty companies, the Battelle Memorial Institute helped refine it, and the Xerox Corporation commercialized the first practical xerographic copier, the Model A, in 1949.
Facts
Patent or First-Use DateSourced to the subject's own accountOnly the year of the patent application is given in the source; the exact day is not stated. YearSourced to the subject's own account SignificanceSourced to the subject's own accountChester Carlson, a patent attorney frustrated by the tedious work of copying documents by hand, developed the xerography process in his kitchen; his first successful copy proved the process could transfer an image with no chemical development bath or wet processing. 1 FAQs
Why do people say xeroxing for photocopying?
Xerox was the trademarked name of the first successful xerographic copiers, and it became everyday shorthand for photocopying in North America.
Chester Carlson first called his process electrophotography. When Haloid Corporation licensed it, the company felt that word was too complicated and did not have good recall value. After consulting a professor of classical language at Ohio State University, Haloid and Carlson renamed the process xerography, a term coined from Greek roots that meant dry writing. Haloid called its copiers Xerox Machines and trademarked the term Xerox in 1948. Xerox Corporation introduced the first xerographic copier, the Model A, in 1949, and the company became so successful that in North America photocopying came to be popularly known as xeroxing.
Connections
In Field
Source Photocopier (Wikipedia)
Invented By
Produced the first photocopy in 1938 using a sulfur-coated zinc plate; Xerox commercialized his process as the Model A in 1949.
Sources
1. Photocopier (Wikipedia)
WikipediaHistory section, opening paragraph
This motivated him to conduct experiments with photoconductivity. Carlson used his kitchen for his "electrophotography" experiments, and, in 1938, he applied for a patent for the process.
History section, patent application sentence
This motivated him to conduct experiments with photoconductivity. Carlson used his kitchen for his "electrophotography" experiments, and, in 1938, he applied for a patent for the process.
History section, first photocopy paragraph
He made the first photocopy using a zinc plate covered with sulfur.
In Field: Electrical Engineering, Introduction
Most modern photocopiers use a technology called xerography, a dry process that uses electrostatic charges on a light-sensitive photoreceptor to first attract and then transfer toner particles (a powder) onto paper in the form of an image.
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