Xerox copiers offered the world the ability to make clean, easy, quick copies on paper. Using photoelectric technology, the Xerox copier could copy a page with the press of a button. The copier quickly replaced the messy mimeograph machine and the time-consuming offset printing processes.

Chester F. Carlson (1906–1968) invented the photocopy machine in his spare time in the late 1930s. His first machines were not immediately appealing to the business community. By 1944, he had failed to sell his patented process and joined with the Battelle Memorial Institute to further perfect the process. Within three years, Battelle had joined with the Haloid Xerox company to sell the machines, but the first ones were difficult to operate. More research resulted in the Xerox copier, Model 914, marketed in 1961 to great success. Profits of the company reached $500 million within three years. The Xerox copier literally changed the way people worked...