Xerox
Founded as the Haloid Company, a photographic-paper maker.
Founded1906
HeadquartersRochester, NY
IndustryImaging / Computing
Replica of Chester Carlson's original xerography apparatus, Battelle Memorial Institute · Public domain · Historic American Engineering Record via Wikimedia Commons
Overview
It acquired the rights to Chester Carlson's xerography and transformed into the copier giant Xerox, later a fountainhead of computing innovation.
Founders
Joseph C. Wilson (early leadership)
Founded 1906 as Haloid
Landmark Achievements
- Introduced the Xerox 914 in 1959 — the first plain-paper photocopier, later called by the company “the most successful product ever marketed in America.”
- Its Palo Alto Research Center (PARC), opened 1970, invented the graphical user interface, the computer mouse, Ethernet, and laser printing.
- Made “Xerox” a generic verb for photocopying, a mark of total market dominance in the 1960s.
Xerox's place in the story
Continue through the chronicle — the builders of American technology, in founding order.