InventHelp Sales Representative - Alonzo Rivera

Chester Carlson and the Invention of the Photocopier

As seen in the July 2004 issue of InventHelp's free newsletter for inventors

At the age of 12 Chester Carlson told his cousin Roy, "Someday, I'm going to make a great invention." Throughout his life, Carlson would walk from place to place with a notebook in his hand and jot down ideas for changing the world. He was always looking for ways to make life easier for people.

In spite of difficult circumstances while growing up, Carlson never lost his desire to impact the world. During the 1910's, Carlson's father was crippled by arthritis and his mother had to work as a housekeeper to support the family. While Chester also suffered from arthritis and near-sightedness, at the age of fourteen he became the chief financial supporter of his family. When he was 17, Carlson's mother died of tuberculosis.

While working full time, Carlson attended junior college majoring in chemistry and later graduated from the prestigious California Institute of Technology with a major in physics. With degree in hand, Carlson found himself looking for work in the midst of the Great Depression. He sent out 82 applications from which he only received two replies. While he landed a job with Bell Laboratories, Carlson was laid off within a year.

Later while working as a patent analyzer, Carlson found the task of making hand copies of patent documents tedious. Since messy carbon paper and ink mimeographs were ineffective ways to make high-quality copies, Carlson often had to rewrite and recreate the original documents by hand. This task was made more difficult by Carlson's nearsightedness and arthritis. He wanted to find an easier and more efficient way to complete this work.

Tinkering in a rented lab, Carlson discovered a process that could be used to put an image on paper. After gathering and combining the proper materials, Carlson came up with the invention of the electrostatic copying method in 1938. He patented the process in 1942.

For the next 6 years Carlson tried to interest a company in his invention. Companies such as IBM, RCA, and GE turned him away. In 1944 a non-profit research group named Battelle Memorial Institute licensed his idea and in 1947 Xerox, then known as the Haloid Company, entered into an agreement with the Battelle Memorial Institute, giving Haloid the right to produce a xerographic machine.

It wasn't until 1959 – 21 years after the original invention – that Carlson's idea turned into reality in the form of a 2,000 pound copy machine. Still, it took Carlson and the Haloid Company several years before they developed a practical version that has grown into today's photocopier industry.

The Xerox process is a major technology and far more complex than what the average inventor might dream up. Nonetheless, InventHelp® believes Carlson's story is fascinating because it illustrates how most ideas are born out of an individual's desire to solve a problem. The story also shows the difficulties that face a new invention in gaining acceptance. This is a message that InventHelp® makes sure our clients understand.

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