At that time, a lot of copying work was done with carbon paper or photocopiers, and the demand for electronic photocopiers was not strong. From 1939 to 1944, Carlson was rejected by more than 20 companies such as IBM and General Electric. None of them expected that there would be a great market demand for photocopiers. 1944, a non-profit organization in Columbus, Ohio signed a contract with Carlson to improve his new technology. In the next five years, this institution conducted many experiments to improve the electrophotographic process. 1947, Haloid (a small organization located in new york at that time) approached Battelle and requested authorization to develop and sell photocopiers based on this technology.
Harold realized that the word "electrophotography" was too complicated to have a good memory. After consulting the professor of classical languages at Ohio State University, Harold and Carlson changed the name of this process to "xerography", which is derived from the Greek word "dry writing". Harold decided to name the new copier "Xerox", and Xerox became a trademark on 1948. At the beginning of the 20th century, blueprint method and diazo method were mainly used to copy documents and drawings. Diazo method is more convenient and faster than blueprint method, and has been widely used. Later, dye transfer, silver salt diffusion transfer and thermal replication appeared.
1938, Carlson of the United States rubbed a zinc plate coated with sulfur with cotton cloth in a dark room to make it charged, and then covered it with a transparent manuscript with images on it. After exposure, sprinkle with lycopodium powder to present the original appearance. This is the original way of xerography.
1950, the first hand-operated ordinary paper electrostatic copier with selenium as light conductor came out; 1959, a 9 14 copier with more perfect performance appeared. Since then, the research and production of photocopiers have developed rapidly. Electrostatic copying has become the most widely used copying method.
In the 1960s, we began to study color copying, and the method used was basically decomposition of three primary colors, and adding black became four-color copying. At the end of 1970s, a research report on the color imaging of electrophoretography was published at the third international electrostatic photography conference, which was a step forward than the previous method. In the 1990s, the laser color copier reappeared. 1949, Xerox Company developed the first electrostatic image copier, called Model A ... Xerox achieved such great success that the copying technology was called "Xerox" by the public, and Xerox actively responded to prevent "Xerox" from becoming a general trademark. "Xerox" appeared as a synonym for reproduction in some dictionaries, which led Xerox to send letters and advertisements asking them to change these items and asking people not to use "Xerox" like this. However, this is only the case in North America. For example, in the British Isles, "photocopying" is far more popular than "Xerox", which may be because the number of photocopiers of Japanese and European manufacturers far exceeds that of Xerox. Mixed words are used in some languages, such as kserokopia ("Xerocopy"), which is widely used in Polish, although the market share of Xerox brand photocopiers is very small.
With the development of technology, xerographic technology was born. Firstly, a high-contrast electrostatic image is generated on the toner box, and then a meltable plastic powder (called toner) is transferred to ordinary paper and melted on the paper after heating. This process is similar to the technology used in laser printers. Technological progress brought about the development of color photocopying and electrostatic photocopying in the 1970s and 1980s.
Some copier products sold in the market use inkjet or film expansion technology instead of the workflow based on toner cartridges.
In the early 1950s, RCA (American Radio Company) developed a series of processes called electronic fax, in which images were generated directly on special coated paper and colored with liquid toner.