64 years ago, namely on October 22, 1938, in the bowels of one of the small rooms of the hotel, bearing such a familiar name to the ears of a St. Petersburger - "Astoria", but located on Long Island in New York, a modest employee of the patent department of a local electronics company managed bring to life the long-standing dream of all office workers: he created the world's first device designed to make copies of original documents. Naturally, the first prototype of Chester Carlson’s invention at that time could not yet make high-quality and clear duplicates of documents. The very first print that went down in history was just one inscription: “10.-22.-38 ASTORIA.” Two years later, in November, Chester Carlson received a patent for the technology he discovered, which allowed the use of static electricity to copy texts. The first truly successful device that really received real recognition and application was the unit developed in 1949 by the Haloid company. Well, in 1961, Haloid Xerox Inc presented to consumers the first completely automatic model of an office copier using ordinary paper.
The century has recently ended, and now, once again looking back and summing up the era, we can say with a certain degree of confidence that inventions that made it possible to print, copy and reproduce documents became real “catalysts” of civilization. Through them, humanity has received a great opportunity to transmit knowledge, opinions and experiences in a compact, preserved and accessible form. In fact, these inventions can be compared to the invention of writing and later to the invention of printing by Johannes Guttenberg.
And thus, the hitherto only slightly open door to the cultural space, movement in which led us into the information age, was opened.
The history of the existence of copying technology is very long, even if we do not take into account such predecessors of modern copiers as the printing press and carbon paper. Perhaps, in its extent, it is quite comparable with the history of the emergence and existence of computer technology. Unfortunately, in our country, photocopiers have become so popular and widespread both in corporate offices and among ordinary consumers only very recently, but the rest of the progressive world has known and used their undoubted advantages since the middle of the last century, which, with modern pace of scientific and technological progress - a very respectable period.
It is believed that the prototype of the copier is a device called a mimeograph. The inventor of this device is the brilliant scientist Thomas Alva Edison (1847-1931) - a wonderful scientist and designer who presented civilization with a huge number of technical discoveries; there are even opinions that the number of his inventions and discoveries exceeds anyone else, with the possible exception of only Leonardo da Vinci. But the inventions of the great da Vinci, unlike Edison, could not be in demand by grateful humanity simply because of the era in which he was destined to create. Mimeograph machines used sheet stencils to copy text, which were placed on a rotating drum. This drum contained liquid paint. Thus, the stencils imprinted the image on sheets of paper passing underneath them. Each stencil could reproduce up to 5,000 copies at a time, which was a very impressive amount. In addition to this, no one forbade its reuse. Of course, even without being specialists, we, only based on the description of the device, will immediately be able to notice its main drawback, namely, that each stencil had to be made specially, and the image, which was printed in a different way (for example, on a typewriter), was not suitable as an original. But this was not the only drawback of the unit. Even for those times, the device was too bulky, it heavily polluted the work area with paint, and what is also important, it spread a very unpleasant odor around itself.
A rather interesting fact is that significantly modified and improved mimeographs that use modern image scanning technologies and are capable of independently producing stencils (which are now also called master films) are quite widespread and are actually an alternative to large-circulation photocopying stations. Now there are two particularly well-known brands that are currently engaged in the production of such devices: firstly, the Riso company, which produces risographs, and the Ricoh company, which produces ports (also known as copy printers). Scanning in them occurs using a digital system, which allows them to be used as very productive network printers.
The main advantage of these devices, of course, is their speed, which is several times higher than conventional copiers in the same price category, and in addition, the extremely low cost of the copies produced.
But, despite the advantages, as with any other equipment, there are also disadvantages. The main drawback is the noticeably worse quality of the copies. In addition, if copies are made on ordinary thick office paper, they still need some time after leaving the machine in order to dry. In connection with this property, when copying on devices of such systems, it is recommended to use either special expensive paper, or, conversely, the cheapest paper, but with high capillarity.
A distinctive feature of risographs, copy printers and other stencil devices is the inappropriateness of their use for the production of single copies from various originals, since this will very quickly consume expensive screen master film and, accordingly, the costs of copying work will become too high (if a comparison is made with conventional copiers), thereby losing the advantage stated above.
But, nevertheless, despite all these problems, modern versions of the mimeograph are quite firmly held in their niche in the market, as they are capable of remarkably satisfying the needs of consumers (and the customer is always right) who want to be able to receive significant circulations in short periods of time identical copies of the original they ordered, without spending large sums on the purchase of complex photocopying machines.
Once upon a time, along with the mimeograph, such a device as the hecto-graph was widely known, in which the intermediate carrier when transmitting the image was a sheet with a special gelatin coating. But, of course, this unit was much less promising and convenient than the mimeograph, since it allowed only 200-300 copies to be reproduced. It is not surprising that it could not survive the process of natural selection. There were also alcohol hectographs, based on a slightly different principle of chemical image transmission.
No matter how diverse the options for producing paper copies were, all of them, by and large, related not to copying in the traditional sense of the term, but to replication: after all, the production of each type of copy required the creation of a special working print. Even today, this significantly increases the need for much greater costs, and previously, in addition, the process of creating templates took a significant amount of time.
Later, devices appeared that were more reminiscent of copiers in their modern form, but their technology was not based on the use of an electrostatic charge when transferring an image, but rather was close to conventional photography, where chemical developers and infrared radiation were present. Similar devices were originally produced by Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing and Kodak. Then other companies began to actively offer their ideas in developments in this direction. The obvious disadvantage of these models was the fact that they used only specially treated paper. Devices similar to those continue to be produced today, but their share of sales on the market is insignificant.
It is at this moment that the photocopying process majestically rises to the fore...
At the time when the dry electrostatic photocopying method was finally invented, all other methods of producing copies were too imperfect, so office work almost entirely had to be done by reprinting documents through carbon paper.
Naturally, it was much easier for any manager to spend a few extra days, or even weeks, of hired typists than to deal with a huge machine that was extremely difficult to use and maintain, and most importantly, required the constant presence of an engineer for correct and safe operation. , who would have to pay more than several typists. In addition, the copies could come out even worse than they came out of the typewriters, and the office began to look like a dirty work shop.
This, to put it mildly, inconvenient situation, when the activity associated with reproducing a large number of copies actually turned into hard, one might say, hard labor, was the factor that forced the discoverer of dry electrostatic transfer, Chester F. Carlson (1906-1968), to begin to the creation of a new engineering system that could reproduce copies much faster, cheaper, of better quality, and - most importantly - more simply than the old monstrous units.
Chester F. Carlson was a native of Seattle, Washington, and from the age of fourteen became virtually the sole breadwinner in the family and supported his sick parents. However, this did not stop him from finishing college, and in 1930 he received a bachelor's degree in physics from the California Institute of Technology. For a short time after graduating from college, Carlson worked for the Bell Telephone Company, then with great difficulty he got a job in the patent department of the New York electrical company P. R. Mallory Company, as a copyright lawyer. It was here that for the first time young Chester came face to face with the need to make huge numbers of copies of documents, drawings and manuscripts by hand. The desire to somehow automate this process led him to the idea of creating a machine that could make copies at the touch of a button. Carlson realized how great the need was for a simple and cheap way to produce high-quality copies. After that, he firmly decided to devote all his free time to working on solving this problem. In 1934, he began to get acquainted with all the materials of that time that in one way or another related to the photographic and printing processes. His attention was drawn to one publication, which provided information that the electrical conductivity of certain materials changes when exposed to light. In one of the scientific journals, Carlson discovered a message that a certain Hungarian scientist tried to duplicate drawings using powder charged with static electricity, and has since lost peace.
He decided to base his research on this principle.
But the tale is told quickly, but the deed is not done quickly. Usually, a considerable period of time passes from the emergence of a bright idea to the moment of its actual implementation. This case was no exception. Only after long and lengthy experiments, which took four whole years, was Carlson finally able to obtain material confirmation of his ideas and made the first dry photocopy in history. A year later he received the first of numerous patents for his invention. But it was too early to say that all the problems had already been solved and the copying machine finally saw the light of day, giving freedom to countless typists. In those days, science and technology developed much more slowly than today, and the creation of a photocopier was still a long way off.
Like most innovators and inventors, Chester Carlson did not initially intend to put his invention into production. The ultimate desire was to sell the idea to some large corporation and get a lot of money for it, and even, if you were lucky, a percentage of sales. However, the problem (or luck) of talented inventors is that their ideas are often so revolutionary that they do not fit into the framework of the traditional market of that time. Nobody believes in these ideas except the inventors themselves.
Another four whole years were spent by Carlson in unsuccessful attempts to interest office equipment manufacturers in his revolutionary invention. Unfortunately, people tend to doubt everything new and unusual. What was obvious to an ordinary clerk looked at least dubious in the eyes of company executives. A large number of companies, including such monsters as IBM, Remington and General Electric, refused his proposal. “I never managed to convince anyone that my invention was the key to a huge and completely new industry,” Chester Carlson later recalled about those days. But finally, Carlson managed to agree with the non-profit organization Bettell Memorial Institute, which was engaged in scientific research, to invest in his further work on improving the new process, which Carlson called “electrophotography.”
In 1947, the little-known Haloid Company, which produced photographic paper and was interested in advanced discoveries in its own and related industries, drew attention to Carlson’s work and bought the rights to use his patents.
After this, the process began to move much faster, because a commercial organization took over the matter. The first task on the agenda was to resolve the issue of what catchy trade name to give to the process of dry electrostatic image transfer invented by Carlson. As a result of much torment, we settled on an offer from a teacher of classical languages at Ohio State University. He proposed the term xerography, which was derived from two Greek roots: xeros (dry) and graphein (to write). This decision turned out to be fateful, because the term later gave the name to the company itself, which first became known as Haloid Xerox, then Xerox Corporation and, finally, relatively recently, The Document Company Xerox. So, many people who believe that the term “photocopy” came from the name of a well-known company are mistaken; everything turned out to be the opposite, and even moreover, if Carlson’s apparatus had not appeared, perhaps the Haloid company would have gone into oblivion, like many small companies that existed at that time.
A year later, the first working devices of the so-called Model A went on sale, but due to numerous shortcomings, this model was never destined to become serial.
Time passed, the developers kept improving the components and parts involved in the xerographic process, and finally, in 1959, the company released model 914, which was released after a number of intermediate unsuccessful designs. This device became the same breakthrough for the office equipment market as the computer mouse was for personal computers or the Ford Model T for the automotive industry.
The Xerox 914 was the first fully automatic machine that made copies on plain paper (7 copies per minute). It was a revolution. The model has not been discontinued for 26 years. To this day, Xerox 914 machines are used in the offices of many American companies.
In the same year, shares of Xerox Corporation began to be highly quoted on the New York Stock Exchange, and to this day they occupy one of the most stable positions.
All competitors who at that time produced copying devices based on any other principles turned out to be powerless against xerographic technology. They could not compete with the quality, simplicity and low cost of copies that were introduced with Xerox's Model 914.
Both "aemocmamu", and verifaxes, and thermal faxes, which were much simpler in design than copiers, could not compete with them, since they worked on special expensive paper, which, with large volumes of copy production, resulted in too significant a blow to the budget for consumers. In addition, the quality and durability of copies made using alternative technologies left much to be desired.
Thus, we can say that it was the fact that Carlson’s machine did not require any special paper carriers, but the most ordinary office paper was enough, that became decisive in the victory of the copier, which it won over all its competitors. It’s not for nothing that you can still see the phrase plain paper copier in technical specifications, and simply in advertising brochures of many manufacturers, emphasizing this feature.
Of no small importance was the fact that Haloid, and then Xerox, basically did not sell, but rented out their rather expensive devices to consumers for a very reasonable fee. Thus, they became accessible to everyone, including small low-budget enterprises. Even today, the United States of America has developed a system of renting copiers, where the consumer pays only for the copy. We can now observe the same thing in Russia.
An interesting fact is that the Model 914, despite the fact that it had certain shortcomings as the first serious attempt in a new industry, became so popular that Xerox was forced to conduct a special “anti-advertising” campaign, which was aimed against its use trademark for the name of all devices producing copies. As we know, the words “copier”, “photocopy”, “photocopy” have taken root in Russia, even today they are still very firmly, and as we see, not unreasonably, held in people’s minds as generic concepts - you can often find an engineer specializing in the repair of Ricoh or Canon devices, but nevertheless calling them copiers.
By the way, with the arrival of large Japanese companies on the copier market, including Ricoh, which is now one of the leaders in the industry, the term “ricopy” rather than photocopy took root in Japan itself.
So, Xerox electrostatic copiers became an integral attribute of American and then world offices. Copiers were used by both private companies of any size and various government agencies. For example, in police stations they found a very original use for copiers: with the help of copiers, in a rather interesting way, they saved time on compiling a list of small items found in the pockets of detained people - all the little things were simply placed on the exposure glass, and then a copy was made. It so happened that Xerox had a virtual monopoly on an extremely profitable market. Over these few years, the company's trade turnover increased many times and by 1968 amounted to more than a billion dollars.
But, as you know, the laws of the United States prohibit the introduction of monopolies in any form, and in the early seventies, the US Federal Trade Commission forced the Xerox Corporation to provide free of charge the basic patents for the invention of Chester Carlson to all competitors interested in this (thus, Xerox suffered from Antimonopoly Committee even earlier than Bill Gates), including Japanese companies, which were not at a loss and immediately flooded the American market with their even cheaper and high-quality products. At that time, manufacturers such as Ricoh, Canon and Sharp firmly established themselves. But, as befits a true leader, the Xerox Corporation withstood the increased competition with honor. This corporation continues to occupy one of the leading positions in the production of copying equipment to this day.
Today, The Document Company Xerox gives preference to specializing in copy stations of the highest price category, and, thus, pursues an economic policy similar to the founder of the computer industry - IBM, which also somewhat moved away from the personal computer market it actually created and moved into more expensive and advanced projects.
It is also significant that a number of portable small-format models that are currently produced under the Xerox brand were actually developed by Sharp. This is explained by the fact that Xerox does not see much point in spending money on creating its own cheap and low-performance devices, and therefore prefers to outbid them from a competitor, so as not to leave the range of its products incomplete.
Xerox pays exceptional attention to the development of digital copying technologies. We can see this if we look at the company's new logo, which is a partially rasterized X. This is not surprising. After all, if you pay attention to the general state and trends in the copier production industry, it becomes clear that fewer and fewer analogue copiers will be produced every year and, most likely, they will very soon be completely replaced by digital models.
In recent years, Xerox has begun to expand into new markets. It now produces laser printers, scanners, fax machines, software and much more (the full list takes 14 pages).
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In 1906, the Haloid Company was founded in Rochester (USA), which began producing photographic paper. Several decades later (in 1947), the company's management acquired a patent for a copier previously developed by Chester Carlson. Even later, in 1958, the company was renamed Haloid Xerox, and in 1961 - Xerox Corporation. These are just some moments from the history of today's most famous manufacturer of copiers and peripheral devices. In reality, there was a stunning rise, then a near collapse, and finally a revival. This is all about Xerox.
Chester Carlson - inventor of the photocopier
In the 1930s, not all Americans had jobs that paid well. As for the inventor of the first copying machine, Chester Carlson, he had to start earning money at the age of twelve, combining work and study at college, and then at the Polytechnic Institute in California. Chester graduated from the educational institution with a bachelor's degree in physics.
Having worked as a janitor, cleaner, and printer's assistant, Carlson sent out several dozen resumes. The patent department of P.R. Mallory and Co. responded to one of them and hired the young guy. The task was to photocopy and distribute copies of the drawings. The clients were various companies.
Copying methods at that time were “old-fashioned”: labor losses were enormous, there were a lot of defects. It was for this reason that Chester came up with the idea of using some method to mechanize his work. Thus, the closet of his small apartment became a laboratory for conducting experiments and moving towards the goal. After 3 years of intensive work, Carlson and his partner received the first copy created using the electrostatic method. Having received a patent, the inventor began to offer the product of his work to various companies.
Xerox: from first profit to millions of dollars
Demonstrations of the operation of the first copying machine were often unsuccessful: the paper was damaged and the copies turned out blurry. This forced Carlson to look for lenders, without whom further development would be impossible. 3,000 thousand dollars were allocated by the management of the Bettel Memorial company, under whose tutelage the inventor continued to work. Bettel Memorial's partner was Haloid. Later, a joint venture was formed - Rank-Xerox.
After the formation of the new company, the main task of the inventor and the team was to improve the apparatus of the 914 model, which had a number of shortcomings. At first it even went on sale with a fire extinguisher. The reason for this was frequent paper fires. Over time, the model was eventually made more advanced, and thanks to a television commercial, it gained popularity. Since that time, these devices began to go on sale and were also rented out.
In 1966, the company sold a more advanced model 813. It was 6 times smaller than the 914. Later came the 2400. Sales grew over the years and it looked like this:
- In 1959 the volume was $32 million;
- In 1961 – 61 million;
- In 1962 – 104;
- In 1968 – 1125.
Decline in production and loss of sales market, return to leading position
Almost all of Xerox's successes were due to the lack of competition at that time. After Kodak and IBM began to strengthen their position, Xerox fell on hard times.
The near collapse of the company forced management to look for a variety of ways to solve the accumulated problems. One of these was an appeal to the consulting firm of Nedler, who identified the main problems and drew up a further action plan. The main points were:
- Clear and precise formulation of tasks;
- Organization of innovations;
- Transfer of production to new rails.
The implementation of new ideas was impossible without new knowledge. In order to obtain them, Xerox management turned to Phil Crosby with a request to give a series of lectures for the company's senior management on the topic of quality problems. The question also arose about complete retraining of personnel. To solve this problem, a training complex was built in Leesburg.
By the end of 1988, 100 thousand Xerox employees had undergone retraining, which gave excellent results: product quality became noticeably higher, profits began to grow. In the same year, the French, English and Dutch branches received a number of awards for high quality products.
The year 1989 is one of the most successful in the company’s history: Xerox receives the “Baldridge Prize,” which greatly strengthens its position in the market of copiers and peripheral devices.
The man to whom office workers and others owe the creation of the copy machine was named Chester Carlson. His father worked as a hairdresser almost all his life, but due to the discovery of tuberculosis he was forced to leave his job. It soon became clear that the mother was also sick.
Very difficult times have come for the Carlson family. At the age of 14, Chester left school and got his first job in his life. At the age of 17, Chester lost his mother and was left alone with his seriously ill father, at whose insistence he entered the California Institute of Technology to study physics. To pay for his studies and feed his family, the young man worked in three different places. At the age of 24, just during his final exams, Chester Carlson lost his father.
The Great Depression, which struck a few years later, deprived young Mr. Carlson of even the job he had. We must pay tribute to the persistence of the future millionaire: he did not give up, but continued to send out his resumes and go to interviews, even when refusals fell one after another.
According to his biographers, Chester Carlson got a job as an application photographer in the patent office after 82 or 83 rejections elsewhere. There was a lot of work in the bureau, despite the economic crisis, but the speed of completion left much to be desired: Chester sometimes stayed at work until three o’clock in the morning.
The young man wanted to optimize the production process at least a little and he decided to make it so that he could copy the application without using photography. He was 28 years old.
Invention of the copier
I had to work at home to create the miracle device. The first xerographic process carried out by Carlson was carried out on October 22, 1938 and “from the inside” looked like this: on a glass sheet Carlson wrote in ink the date and place of the experiment: 10-22-38 Astoria. Astoria is the big name of the large barn where the experiment was carried out.
Then he rubbed the sulfur-coated metal plate with all his might with a cotton cloth until it became electrified. Then he placed this plate under the glass with the inscription and turned on a bright lamp.
Under the influence of light, an electric charge “drains” from those areas of the plate that are not covered by letters. Then the inventor sprinkled the plate with lycopodium (a powder made from moss moss spores), blew off the excess, and pressed waxed paper onto the plate.
This is how the first photocopy was obtained. In modern copy machines, exactly the same processes occur. Only lycopodium was replaced with toner, which a bright lamp “welds” to the surface of the paper.
Photocopy distribution
Having made sure that the copying method was quite feasible, Chester went to large companies, offering his invention. His working tool did not make the right impression on potential consumers, and at first no one was particularly interested in the new device.
The Haloid company from Rochester, which produced photographic film in those years, became interested in the production of copying machines. The company was not doing well and needed to find a new product. Therefore, management reviewed all reports of inventions and patents.
In April 1945, they came across a note about Carlson’s achievements. The president of the company, Joe Wilson, came to the institute and repeated all the experiments himself, after which he decided to invest money in this business. They launched an active marketing campaign, the results of which were not particularly positive. Potential consumers asked questions about the cost of the device, its performance and the size of the new miracle technology.
Despite the difficulties that arose, Haloid acted as an investor in the project. They began to fine-tune the xerographic machine. The next difficulty was finding employees: technical graduates preferred to work on radars and missiles.
The management decided to use a trick: next to the laboratory where work was being done on improving the copier, a space research laboratory was opened, where young specialists flocked. Of course they looked into the photocopying laboratory. Many interested people stayed to work there.
Chester Carlson's invention received recognition only in 1948, exactly 10 years after its “birth.” This happened thanks to the intervention of Philip Rogers Mallory, founder of the Duracell battery manufacturing company.
By 1950, the first serial device was assembled. To get one copy, you had to perform 12 different manipulations with this wooden box. For offices, such a machine was too slow, but the machine found another use: its low cost (37 cents per photocopy form) and the ability to relatively quickly make copies interested book publishers.
Now, to prepare the printing form, there was no need to melt the type to get the first print - it could be a photocopy. Now a book of 200 pages could be printed in just six months.
Another 10 years later, the very same model of the copying machine that Carlson dreamed of creating was born and put into mass production: put down a page, pressed a button, and a copy came out.
Copier operation diagram
In general terms, the copying process can be described as follows:
- information is read from the original,
- information about the original is transferred to the copy in the form of giving a different
- electrostatic charge on the surface of the copy sheet,
- the toner is distributed on the copy sheet according to the distribution of charges,
- The copy image is fixed with a high-temperature roller.
To read information, a combination of a cold-glow halogen lamp and a sensor is used. Depending on the size of the device, either the cover of the device with the original moves, but the lamp is motionless, or the lamp moves, but the original remains motionless.
The operation diagram of the copier is presented in the diagram on the right and consists of the following main stages:
- Charger,
- Exhibition,
- Manifestation,
- Image transfer,
- Paper separation,
- Drum cleaning,
- Discharge.
And finally, a couple of interesting facts from the history of this wonderful office equipment:
In the first copying machines, the ink did not adhere well to the page; it had to be heated very much. That's why the first copiers caught fire from time to time. From 1950 to 1960 they were produced with a built-in fire extinguisher.
The general manager of the Xerox company decided to present the device to representatives of various trade organizations. He gathered them for a conference and said: “The guys have finally made such a device that even I can work.” Then he took a page of some document, put it where it should be and pressed a button. A completely white sheet crawled out of the car.
The manager just mixed it up and put the sheet with the white side down. The head of the public relations service was the first to understand this. He immediately ran to the machine and turned the page. A wonderful copy came out. The manager shook for a long time and repeated: “You can’t overload managers with engineering tasks.”
Today, copying equipment is a vital tool for many organizations and companies that have not yet switched to full internal electronic document management. The Xerox brand has long become a common name for all copiers.
However, we could have a domestic “copier”. Attempts to create a similar technique were carried out back in the mid-1950s, simultaneously with the developments of Xerox itself. But the state then saw a threat to itself in the uncontrolled distribution of data, so it deliberately slowed down innovation.
It was believed that in the Soviet Union, with a planned economy, the issue of prompt copying of documents was not as pressing as in countries with a free market. In numerous Soviet institutions, this problem was initially solved by photographic methods and microfilming. Technical and design documentation had to be transferred manually onto tracing paper and reproduced using photocopying. All this was long, difficult and inconvenient.
"Xerox" by Friedkin
Perhaps the most interesting story is connected with the scientist Vladimir Fridkin, whose invention anticipated the development of the industry by a whole decade.
Fridkin graduated in 1952 with honors from the physics department of Moscow State University. But for a long time I could not start working in my specialty because of problems “on the fifth point.” The anti-Semitic campaign carried out at that time nullified the benefits of a honors diploma.
Only a few months later, Vladimir Fridkin managed to get a job at the Research Institute of Printing Engineering, although initially he wanted to become a nuclear physicist.
At the research institute, Friedkin was given a completely empty office to work in - there was only a table and a chair. Doing anything productive in such conditions was not easy.
Friedkin spent a lot of time in the reading room of the Lenin Library, where a large collection of documents, scientific works and books from all over the world was kept. One day he read an article by the American physicist Chester Carlson, which was devoted to photocopying. There was nothing like this in the Soviet Union back then. Friedkin got the idea to create a copy machine.
He turned to the electrical engineering department of his research institute and asked for a high-voltage current generator. At his home physics department at Moscow State University, he obtained sulfur crystals and the necessary photographic enlarger. The inventor conducted all experiments in his small office. He managed to assemble a device called "Electroscopic Copier No. 1." The number “1” in the name meant that others would follow the first model.
Vladimir Fridkin:
I didn't waste any time. I went to Leninka, read magazines on physics, and bought some equipment. I came up with the idea of implementing a new photographic process in which the photoelectret served as a photosensitive layer, and development was carried out using the triboelectric effect. The process was also conceived as a method for creating optical memory. The photoelectret not only formed, but also stored the image. The latent image could be stored for quite a long time and could be developed long after exposure. The layout was done quickly. I used polycrystalline sulfur and then other photoconductors such as zinc cadmium sulfide. Developing was done with asphalt powder.
At first, Friedkin tried to copy a page from a book, orders from the institute, then he moved on to photographs. One day he made a copy of a photograph of a Moscow street and showed it to the director of his research institute. He exclaimed enthusiastically: “Do you even understand what you invented?!”
The engineers of the institute were immediately given the order to polish the existing developments and assemble a sample machine that could make photocopies. Thus, Friedkin created the first copying machine in the USSR. It was autumn 1953.
Vladimir Fridkin:
Many years later, I learned that in the USA, at the Haloid company, later renamed Xerox, the first models began to appear at the same time. But their work was based on a different principle.
The first Soviet copying machine was a box about one meter high and half a meter wide. A current generator and two cylinders were attached to it. The device turned out to be surprisingly simple and understandable. The minister personally came to see the invention. He was so impressed by what he saw that he ordered the organization of mass production of new devices at a plant in Chisinau. And in Vilnius, a special research institute was opened that was engaged in electrography research.
Vladimir Fridkin, who was only 22 years old at the time, became deputy director of the institute. He received a good cash bonus. They even made a TV movie about the inventor, dedicated to the achievements of Soviet science.
In 1955, the creator of the Soviet copier went to work at the Institute of Crystallography. He took his own invention with him. Almost every day, colleagues came to his office to copy some scientific article from a foreign journal. But in 1957 it all ended. “Once the head of the special department came to me - there were such departments in every institute - and said that the photocopier needed to be written off,” Friedkin said. The KGB believed that the machine could be used to distribute materials prohibited in the USSR.
The authorities did not encourage the development of communications at that time. For example, every radio receiver was required to be registered. State security agencies demanded that prints from all typewriters be kept in case it was necessary to identify the author of the printout. There was a fight against “samizdat”. Manuscripts of banned authors were reproduced on typewriters at night. And then a whole copying machine was discovered, unattended.
Soon the production of new devices was also closed. The first of the assembled models was disassembled into parts. According to legend, its most valuable part - the semiconductor wafer - was preserved and hung in the women's toilet of the institute as a mirror.
Years later, the Soviet Union began purchasing photocopiers abroad. It was Xerox equipment. One of these devices was brought to the Institute of Crystallography, where Friedkin continued to work. But it was already possible to use the technology only under the supervision of a special person who monitored what was being copied and by whom.
"REM" and "Era"
At the end of the 1960s, the USSR returned to the idea of creating its own copying machines. At the Kazan Optical-Mechanical Plant they began to assemble the REM device - a rotary electrographic machine. It was produced in two modifications - REM-420 and REM-620. The numbers indicate the width of the roll paper. The electrical power of the first devices was very high. For example, REM-620 consumed almost 8 kW of electricity. They weighed about a ton and two people worked on them.
A little later, other factories began to make similar devices - BelOMO and the Grozny Printing Machines Plant under the Era brand. It is noteworthy that in Grozny they made small-format devices for A3 and A4, which worked not only with rolled paper, but also with individual sheets.
“SEM” and “Era”, in contrast to Friedkin’s apparatus, largely replicated the “copiers” of the 1950s and 60s in their operating principle and optical design. But when Western models became more and more reliable, ergonomic and compact, the main advantage of the Soviet ones was the low cost of consumables.
The first Soviet-made photocopiers were also quite fire hazardous. When the paper stopped moving, it almost immediately caught fire under the influence of the heat flow from the infrared emitter. In the rooms where the equipment was located, it was necessary to install a special fire extinguishing system, and attach a carbon dioxide fire extinguisher to the body of the apparatus.
Among those who worked with the Eoa and REM devices, there was a saying: “An operator who did not burn and did not extinguish the device is like a tanker who was not in battle.” When hiring, personnel officers seriously asked: “How many times did you burn?”
Similar equipment was produced until the end of the 1980s. This is where the history of Soviet “copiers” ended.
Vladimir Fridkin:
In 1965, Chester Carlson visited our laboratory at the Institute of Crystallography. The founder of xerography became interested in my articles. We were photographed together using an electret-powered camera. At the end of the 50s, Columbia University professor Hartmut Kalman and his colleagues repeated my experiments on electrophotography on photoelectrets and found interesting applications for it in space communications. He spoke about this at a colloquium in Munich, where we met in 1981. For these works, the American Photographic Society awarded me the Kozar Medal, and the German and Japanese Society elected me an honorary member.
In addition, in 2002, the International Committee for Imaging Science awarded Vladimir Friedkin the Berg Prize for "outstanding contributions to the development of unusual (silverless) photographic processes and international cooperation in this field."
Now the inventor is 87 years old.
According to not very reliable information, in 1947 the rights to dry photography were allegedly bought by the Haloid company from Rochester, which specialized in the production of photographic paper. But xerography was not widely used at that time.
The idea of photocopying, which Vladimir Mikhailovich Fridkin, for lack of a better word, called electrophotography, came to the mind of a young graduate of the Physics Faculty of Moscow State University when he was reading physics magazines in Leninka describing the experiments of Chester Carlson and articles by Georgiy Nadzhakov. After a series of not entirely successful experiments, in the fall of 1953, copies of documents and half-tone photographs began to be obtained.
The director of the small NIIpoligrafmash, which huddled in crumbling houses behind the Textile Institute, ordered that a model of the first electrophotographic apparatus, EFM-1, be made at the plant. The abbreviation stood for: electrophotographic duplicating machine. The number 1 meant that the experiment would be continued and the apparatus would be improved. Despite the primitive mechanics, the effect was amazing.
The research institute held an offsite meeting, which was attended personally by the Minister of Communications Industry. As a result, the Institute of Electrography was created in Vilnius, which was immediately classified. In the capital of another fraternal republic - in Chisinau - one of the factories was repurposed for the production of EPM. And while in the West they were inventing words for a machine that did not exist there, in the USSR they were producing such a machine without calling it a copier. Whatever you name the ship, that’s how it will sail!
In 1961, the American company "Haloid" renamed itself "Xerox" and began producing the first models of copiers. They worked on a different principle than the Soviet ones. However, Friedkin's ideas seemed interesting to Chester Carlson. In June 1965, the American visited his colleague. Chester and Vladimir took a souvenir photo together at the EFM.
“Erica” takes four copies, - sang in the famous song of Alexander Galich. - That's all. And that’s enough!” The Erika typewriter was the main tool for dissidents distributing Samizdat in the 1970-1980s. Using the “handwriting” of the typewriter, law enforcement agencies could easily determine the place where seditious literature was printed. Western-made photocopiers were very rare and were found only in special important institutions. Specially guarded rooms were equipped for them, and each copy made was entered in a special registration journal. There were no prospects for the industrial development of copying equipment in the USSR.
In his autobiographical story “A Lifelong Street,” Vladimir Fridkin recalled that “I was not surprised when there was a knock on the room, and the lady from the first department of the institute very politely explained that I had to hand over my device for write-off.
— For what write-off? - I asked. — You know, this is the very first photocopier in the world!
“I know,” the lady answered. “But you have no right to keep him in your room.” In your absence, strangers may come here..."
The dismantled device was taken to a landfill. As a mirror in the women's toilet, they nailed the only surviving part from the first of all photocopiers - a mirror plate of a photoelectret. For many years, employees of the research institute put themselves in order by peering into the remains of a Soviet photocopier.
The inventor was remembered during the years of perestroika. Friedkin was invited to the USA and awarded a medal from the American Photographic Society for his significant contribution to the creation of photocopying technology. In 2003, Vladimir Mikhailovich was awarded the International Committee on Photographic Science for his “outstanding contribution to the development of unusual (silverless) photographic processes and international cooperation in this field.” Timed to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the creation of the first copier, the Berg Prize awarded to Friedkin indicates that the scientific world has recognized that the copier appeared not in 1938, but in 1953. In the USSR, not in the USA.