The beginning of Xerox and modern photocopying

Xerox Corporation, the company whose name was synonymous with photocopying for many years, started out an American entrepreneur named Joe Wilson. In 1946, Wilson began to gather funding for research into a technology then known as electrophotography. Wilson wanted to use this technology to develop an office copier, something that few could see the potential benefits and repercussions of at the time.

Copying was not unknown, mimeographs and offset duplication both existed. But only a few small groups, mostly schools and small institutions, not corporations or for-profit companies, used mimeograph machines. Offset duplication was higher quality, but the cost was prohibitive.

Wilson attracted collaboration with brave companies and curious researchers who wanted to explore the new technology of printing, that must have seemed then as cutting edge as search technology does now.

Wilson transformed a company called Haloid into Xerox, and used his determination and business savvy to develop a strong company that could create a revolutionary product.

In 1959, Xerox introduced the first machine, known as a photocopier, which was one piece and used paper. The process it used was dubbed xerography, and it started an upheaval in printing and copying that changed the way we do business today.