Xerox Innovation

A century ago if a human being wanted to make a single copy of a document there were few affordable options other than transcribing the material by hand. This frustration drove Chester Carlson, the inventor of “xerography” to experiment with new “dry copying processes.” Carlson was a patent lawyer who had grown tired of hand copying patent applications. Obsessed with printing processes from an early age, Carlson spent several years of his life experimenting with plates full of burning sulfur in his own kitchen. Like many other inventors Carlson developed “xerography” through a long process of trial and error.