How the First Copy Machine Was Invented

In this episode of Tech History with Fexingo, Lucas and Luna dive into the surprisingly dramatic story of the first photocopier. Long before 3D printers and cloud storage, copying a document meant carbon paper or a mimeograph — until Chester Carlson, a patent attorney with a physics degree, invented electrophotography in his makeshift lab above a bar in Astoria, Queens. But Carlson's invention almost died in obscurity. More than twenty companies, including IBM and Kodak, turned him down. It took the persistence of the Battelle Memorial Institute and the Haloid Company — a small Rochester paper company that would later rename itself Xerox — to bring the first automatic copier, the Xerox 914, to market in 1959. The 914 was a breakthrough: it made copying as easy as pushing a button, and it sold over 200,000 units, transforming offices worldwide. This episode unpacks how Carlson's patent foreshadowed the rise of Silicon Valley's innovation economy, the near-death of the technology, and the legacy that made Xerox a verb. A story about invention, rejection, and the moment a machine changed how we work. #TechHistory #ChesterCarlson #Xerox #Photocopier #Electrophotography #Invention #Innovation #OfficeTechnology #BusinessHistory #SiliconValley #Patents #HaloidCompany #Xerox914 #Technology #ScienceHistory #Entrepreneurship #FexingoBusiness #BusinessPodcast Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo