Photocopier History And Information
A photocopier today is also known as a copier or a copy machine. This is a machine that makes paper copies of documents and visual images to look like the original document. The copier machine does this quickly and cheaply. Years back in the middle of the twentieth century, Xerox introduced photocopying. It was a wonder invention replacing the old usage of carbon paper, duplicating machines, mimeograph machines and the like.
Photocopying today is very widely used in businesses, in educational departments and in government departments all over the world. Many people have predicted that photocopiers will become obsolete as the creation of digital documentation technology grows, but so far photocopier machines are still big business today.
The history behind the copier
Early in the eighteenth century a gentleman by the name of James Watt invested a copy machine. It worked by physically transferring special ink from an original letter or a drawing to a moistened thin sheet of paper by using a press. The copy could then be read from the obverse side. This was a very successful invention and was used for well over hundred years.
Many years later, a man named Chester Carlson who was the inventor of photocopying was actually a patent attorney. He was interested in research and inventing. His job as an attorney required of him to make large volumes of copies of important papers. This led him to experiment with photoconductivity. Around 1938 he made his first photocopy using a zinc plate covered with sulfur. Words were written on a microscope slide which was placed on top of more sulfur under a bright light. When the slide was removed a mirror image of the words remained. Because carbon paper was being used to produce multiple copies and manual duplicating machines as well, people did not see really see the need for an electronic machine however.
A winning combination
Then an institute called the Battelle Memorial Institute became interested in Carlson’s invention and worked with him to refine his invention. Over a few years they greatly improved on the whole process of electro photography. A few years later, the Haloid Corporation who sold photographic paper, together with the Institute and Carlson, obtained a license to market the copying machine based on their discovered technology.
Later the machine was trademarked as the Xerox machine. Photocopying came to be known as Xeroxing. The word Xerox even appeared in some dictionaries as a synonym for photocopying but the Xerox corporation requested that such entries be modified and that people do not use the term in that way.
Color photocopiers
With great advancement in the photocopying industry, coloured toner was being used by the 1950s. Colour photocopying has become a concern though for governments as it facilitates the counterfeiting of money using colour photocopying machines. Some countries have started using techniques to prevent the counterfeiting of money such as watermarks, micro printing, using tiny security strips of plastic and ink. The ink changes colour when it is viewed at an angle. Some copier machines even have special software that can prevent copying of money that has certain special patterns on it.
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