Bettmann/CORBIS
Xerography
1938
If Bell Telephone Laboratories hadn’t laid off Chester Carlson in 1933, business might still be making copies with carbon paper. Unemployed, Carlson earned a law degree and took a job in the patent department of a New York electronics firm. Frustrated with the laborious process of hand-copying patent drawings, he experimented in a makeshift laboratory, using electrostatic attraction to adhere powder to plain paper. In 1938, he successfully copied the date and location, “10-22-38 ASTORIA,” onto paper. In 1942, Carlson won a patent. In 1947, the Haloid Co. won commercial rights to xerography and became Xerox. In 1959, Xerox sold the first automatic copier.
