The History of Xerox - by Bradford Morgan White
5 days ago
- #Technology History
- #Innovation
- #Xerox
- The Haloid Company, founded in 1906, initially produced photographic paper and later developed the Haloid Record in 1933.
- Chester Carlson invented electrophotography (xerography) in 1938, but struggled to license the technology until Battelle Memorial Institute funded its development in 1944.
- Haloid (later renamed Xerox) commercialized xerography, leading to the revolutionary Xerox 914 copier in 1959, which made automatic plain-paper copies possible.
- Xerox established PARC (Palo Alto Research Center) in 1970, where innovations like the Alto computer, Ethernet, and laser printing were developed.
- The Alto, introduced in 1973, featured a GUI, mouse, and networking, influencing future personal computers, including Apple's Macintosh.
- Xerox struggled to bring PARC's innovations to market, missing opportunities in the computer industry while facing competition in copiers.
- Xerox diversified into financial services and IT outsourcing but faced financial and leadership challenges in the 1990s and 2000s.
- Despite setbacks, Xerox's contributions—xerography, Ethernet, GUIs, and laser printing—profoundly shaped modern computing and office technology.