How Xerox invented a copier, and artists squeezed everything possible out of it

Original author: Ernie Smith
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People have been copying their faces since Andy Warhol’s first attempt to use Photostat (a projection copier) in 1969.

Nowadays, paper is becoming less and less necessary, and it is rather strange to mentally go back 35 years ago, at a time when paper was in its prime.

Then, before the start of the revolution of computer publishing, desktop publishing was only a few years away. Thanks to her, the amount of information posted on one page has multiplied. At the same time, the “ zine ” movement was experiencing a peak of popularity ['zine - the distribution of “samizdat” in the form of magazines and newspapers using photocopying - something like the grandfather of blogs - approx. transl.]. This was an important way to democratize content.

And around the same time, Xerox was at the pinnacle of power, both culturally and in business. And for this, she needed a breakthrough in paper. The fact that this technology was so popular makes sense, because this invention has become truly revolutionary.

It seemed that the technology came out of nowhere. In the book " Copies in Seconds: How a Lone Inventor and an Unknown Company Created the Biggest Communication Breakthrough Since Gutenberg " [Copies in Seconds: As an Independent Inventor and an Unknown Company Created the Biggest Communication Breakthrough Since Gutenberg], one of Xerox’s earliest collaborators Clark [Harold E. Clark] noted the factors that made xerography, the invention of Chester Carlson [Chester Carlson], so unique.


Illustration for the use of a hectograph working with gelatin

“Xerography had no foundations among previous scientific papers. Chet brought together very interesting phenomena, each of which was quite incomprehensible to the average man, and no one had thought that they were somehow connected, ”explains Clark. - The result was the largest phenomenon since the invention of photography. Moreover, he did this without any help from the scientific community. ”

Technology that combines electrically charged ink (or toner), a small amount of heat and a photographic process has helped change offices forever. Explaining this process is not easy — try reading Carlson’s patent — but the result has made life easier for almost everyone.

An area in which Xerox does not claim to be an inventive priority is color photocopying. In 1968, 3M overtook it with the release of the Color-in-Color device . For his work required paper with a special coating. The company introduced its version of such a device, Xerox 6500 in 1973. Unlike his relatives, workhorses, this device printed 4 pages per minute. The market for color photocopies hardly developed until the 1990s.

Just to make you realize how revolutionary this idea was, here are some examples of how people made copies of documents before photocopiers appeared.

Carbon paper . It was invented at the beginning of the XIX century. The material coated with ink allowed writing on several sheets at once, and for some time it was useful. It is still found, but its use is very limited. Carpet buyers are laughing at those who have grown up already in this century.

Hectographs . Gelatine obtained from meat is not only a wonderful dessert [or aspic! - approx. transl.]. It is a suitable substance for making copies. To do this, you need to take a large piece of gelatin, write the desired text on paper using ink, transfer the ink to gelatin, and then transfer the same ink to other pieces of paper applied to the gelatin.



Due to the simplicity of the technology, it is still used for various kinds of needlework .


Copying on a mimeograph at a New Mexico school, 1941

Mimeograph . The system, which Thomas Edison also contributed to, was one of the most popular ways to make copies of documents before the invention of Xerox. A page of paper was placed on a stencil inside a metal drum, the machine was filled with ink, and the drum was twisted to place words on the page. The results were not bad, but the process was complicated, because for each copied document it was necessary to create templates.



Ditto machine[ditto machine]. If you went to school in the 70s - 80s, you might be faced with documents copied using one of these machines. The text on them was sometimes slightly purple. These devices , also known as alcohol copiers, worked according to a pattern similar to a mimeograph, but using alcohol. As a result, ink was not used, but the smell was strong.




Photostat with operator

Photostats . The closest relative to Xerox. They took photographs of documents, received their negatives, and then reprinted them. It was a combination of a camera and a development room , housed in one device. Machines were bulky, the process was slow, but unlike some others, not destructive. After making one negative, an unlimited number of copies could be made. Like Xerox, Photostat became so popular that its name became a household name. Rectigraph, one of Photostat’s main competitors, served as the foundation for the modern Xerox company.

But photocopiers loved not only in offices. Ask Andy Warhol.

Warhol was probably the first person who considered it a good idea to copy his face with a photocopier. In 1969, the artist went to an art store at the School of Visual Art in New York and saw an early Xerox photostat printed on photo paper.

He was friends with the owner, Donald Havenick, so he begged him to let him play with the car. Havenik warned that she has heating parts, but that did not stop either Warhol or the star Bridget Berlin, who was also captured by this entertainment. This led to the creation of Warhol's famous self-portrait, which was often imitated by people playing with an office copier.


1920 Photostat Advertising

“In 1969, when I showed the resulting photo to my wife, she said that the photo was like death!” Said Havenik in 2012. “She thought the picture was too disgusting to hang in the room.”

For Warhol, it was just one tool. He honed his skills by experimenting with screen printing, prints and photography. But the fact that he first saw a photocopier, he immediately decided to copy his face, speaks of the innovativeness of the machine and its potential for use in the art world.

A few years after Warhol came up with a new way to take self-portraits, the zing movement helped to identify the importance of photocopying as a form of creativity. Punk zines like ' Sniffin' Glue"enriched and gained influence thanks to copiers, which have become an excellent substitute for Gutenberg presses.

Some zines contained interesting artwork." Destroy All Monsters , a proto-punk band from Ann Arbor, Michigan, composed their early zines using various copying technologies -. from mimeographing to color copies Copier Group, which for a while played guitar Stooges Ron Asheton, still remains powerful enough, but lately it is mainly excreted visual works - either through exhibitions in udozhestvennyh galleries, and through copies of zina .


photostat at work

In part, this zine owes its vigor to the fact that the group lived near the University of Michigan. This helped them reduce the cost of releasing zine. “We had access to the photocopy and mimeograph through the institute. One of our acquaintances worked in the art department and in the university’s store. We could work there all night for free, ”explained Niagara, the singer of the group, in an interview in 2011.

Soon, photocopiers paved the way into the world of New York art. Before Jean-Michel Basquiat focused entirely on drawing, he sold photocopies of his work to Andy Warhol in the early 80s. Before Keith Haring went deeper into his world of foreign art, he cut the newspapers and created his shocking headlines , which he then scammed.



Perhaps the peak of the popularity of such use of machines from Xerox came in the early 90s, when director and artist Chel White created a three-minute cartoon from a mountain of photocopies, several pieces of plastic and many faces.

Like today's retro computers , the photocopying process in the 60s, 70s and 80s breathed newness into the world of art and expanded its capabilities. The revolutionary approach to photocopying from Chester Carlson, of course, practically meant much more than just making zines - that is why you can meet these machines in offices around the world.

We see them both in the movies and in the series. Xerox tries to maintain its legacy whenever possible, and presents old versions of its copiers to series such as Mad Men.



The “morgue” of the company is filled with old devices , which, upon request, are sent to shoot films and TV shows. But, perhaps, in the most interesting movie episode with the participation of the Xerox product, there was not a copier, but a fax. There is a scene in the 1968 Detective Bullitt film in which a group of people crowded with suspense around a giant fax machine, Xerox Telecopier, to see the result of his work.



It is interesting that the device from the film was made by Xerox. After all, it was the crowds of people who were waiting for the result of the Photostat apparatus that prompted Chester Carlson to invent an improved version of the machine.

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I used

  • 88.7% carbon paper 393
  • 1.5% hectograph 7
  • 1.3% by mimeograph 6
  • 1.8% ditto machine 8
  • 1.5% photostat 7
  • 93.6% Xerox 415
  • 67.4% fax 299

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