In 1938, Chester Carlson was rubbing sulfur and zinc onto a plate when a faint image appeared, sparking the invention of xerography, which changed how workplaces handled paperwork worldwide

When Chester Carlson invented xerography in 1938, he was just trying to copy documents by hand without any intent of building an empire. Using materials from a rented room, the physicist began testing using sulfur, zinc, light, and electrical charge. At some point during his tests, a slight image appeared on one of his plates. This experiment became the foundation of xerography – the dry imaging process that made photocopying easy.

His invention was significant because it addressed a prevalent problem. Document reproduction before xerography was time-consuming and difficult. Most offices relied on carbon papers, ink-based systems, and other laborious techniques. As stated in New York Law School's historical archive, the tedious task of duplicating patent documents inspired Carlson to find an easier process for duplicating.

A paperwork problem


Carlson recognized the challenge since he personally experienced how troublesome it was. Being a patent clerk and law student meant that he would copy many documents manually. As per the historical evidence at New York Law School, Carlson came up with the idea of photoconductivity while reading scientific articles about the effects of light on electrical charge. This became the basis of a new copying method where light would replace wet chemical photography as a means of transferring images.

According to technology historians, Carlson was concerned with efficiency before office automation became common practice, when he recognized paperwork as a bottleneck. This observation turned out to be quite crucial as the importance of paperwork, documents, contracts, records, and reports had already been increasing in offices during the early part of the 20th century.

The first experiment took place in crude conditions

It is worth mentioning that Carlson’s groundbreaking discovery did not take place in a lab but in his rented office in Queens, New York, in the year 1938. According to the University of Rochester, Carlson performed this experiment with the assistance of Otto Kornei, using a zinc plate dusted with sulfur powder and exposing it to light. After many unsuccessful attempts, they managed to create a latent image by electrical charge rather than by using any wet chemicals.

However, this procedure was dirty and smokey. Nevertheless, it proved one groundbreaking thing. It was possible to reproduce images without using any fluids. In a paper published in 1948 at Caltech, Carlson said that xerography involved the utilization of chargeable surfaces and photosensitive compounds instead of traditional photography that employed wet development systems. That was its crucial innovation.

Why xerography made an office revolution

This invention was important because of its simplicity. One did not have to develop various chemical solutions or printing plates but only copy papers quickly and easily. In a historical analysis listed in PubMed, it was stated that Carlson's invention was an answer to the emerging need to reproduce documents for business purposes.

With the rapid growth of office size, companies required fast duplication of various papers such as forms, reports, memos, etc. According to Rochester Institute of Technology, xerography then developed into an automatic copying system.

RIT researchers pointed out in their historical overview that the advent of the photocopier changed the pace of communication within organizations. Now, information was easier to transmit, quicker to transmit. This invention went beyond just being useful for office environments. Educational facilities, libraries, courthouses, and other governmental institutions also started using photocopying technology due to time and labor savings.

It took many years to reach Xerox

While Carlson managed to invent xerography back in 1938, he did not have commercial success from his innovation immediately. He faced many difficulties trying to convince potential partners to help him with his innovation. Many companies refused even to consider investing in xerography since they believed that no one would ever need massive copies of documents.

Finally, the Haloid Company agreed to cooperate with Carlson, which eventually became Xerox Corporation. By the end of the 1950s and beginning of the 1960s, Xerox machines became common office tools in America. Moreover, the arrival of xerography brought changes to office life in terms of increased efficiency in distributing information between employees.

Scientists frequently state that xerography is one of the inventions contributing to faster development of modern administration. This particular narrative is also significant because it tells us that inventions of great significance usually come from simple frustrations in our lives. Carlson was not seeking out the next revolution in the culture he was part of. He just wanted an improved method of document duplication.