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Chester F. Carlson Invents Xerography Have you heard the saying, “Necessity is the mother of invention?” Can you guess what it means? The life story of the determined physicist Chester F. Carlson provides an answer. Carlson was born in Seattle, Washington, in 1906. By age 14, he had to work to support his sick parents. Still, he managed to go to college; and in 1930, he earned a degree from the California Institute of Technology. Carlson soon went to work for an electronics firm in New York state, preparing patent applications for new inventions. Each application had to include multiple copies of the papers explaining how the invention worked. Back then, reproducing documents or drawings involved taking photographs, which was costly, or making copies by hand. Hand-copying was a problem for Carlson; he had arthritis. He needed a machine that made quick, clean copies. In 1934, he decided to invent it. After four long years of experimenting, he made a machine that worked. It used electrostatic energy, light, glass plates and a powder called toner—not liquid ink—to make copies. Carlson’s process was called Xerography, from the Greek word for dry writing. Neither the name nor the machine interested companies such as General Electric and IBM, who thought customers wouldn’t buy it. They said no to Carlson and his machine. Finally, in 1944, the inventor visited the Battelle Memorial Institute in Columbus, Ohio. The scientists there liked his idea and worked to improve it. In 1947, the Haloid Company took over Battelle’s research. Eleven years later, the company sold its first copy machine. In 1961, Haloid changed its name to Xerox Corporation. When Carlson died in 1968, his machine was a success, and he was a millionaire. Today, around the world, people use Xerox machines more than 3 billion times a day at work and at home, all because Chester Carlson needed a solution to his copying problem.
Xerography at the Battelle Memorial Institute (photograph courtesy of the Columbus Dispatch)
Words to Know: physicist patent arthritis electrostatic energy For Discussion: 1. Based on the article, what would you say is the meaning of the phrase, “Necessity is the mother of invention?” 2. What is the tone of the story, or the author’s point of view? 3. The story calls Chester Carlson determined. Give examples from the story to support this. 4.Why weren’t General Electric and IBM interested in Carlson’s machine? 5. The Battelle Memorial Institute in Columbus has helped make all kinds of inventions better or created new products to solve problems. Where could you find information on some of these?
Newspaper Activity: Look through your newspaper to find examples of people who are trying to overcome problems. What kinds of problems are they working on? Sort the problems by type. Can you predict which problems the people might be able to solve? What are your criteria for both your sort and your predictions? “Ohio: The Inside Story” is produced through a grant from The Ohio Newspapers Foundation, a nonprofit charitable and educational organization affiliated with The Ohio Newspaper Association. This is one of a series of 24 Ohio profiles.
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