From Publishers Weekly
As New Yorker staff writer Owen explains in this fast-paced account of one inventor's hopes and dreams, the technology of copying is a relatively modern phenomenon. He recounts the history of copying documents from the scribal work of monks to the invention of the printing press and lithography, to the process that eventually resulted in today's Xerox machine. Owen narrates the life story of the man behind the Xerox machine, Chester Carlson (1906–1968), and his lonely efforts to find a way to reproduce documents. An inventive soul from a young age, Carlson as a teenager sketched out concepts for a trick safety pin, a new type of lipstick and a disposable handkerchief made of soft paper. After he graduated from college, he went to work for Bell Laboratories and continued his inventive ways. When he finally landed on an electrostatic process that would act like both a printing press and a camera, he began to shop the concept around and the Xerox machine was born in the mid-'50s. Owen's sympathetic portrait of Carlson's life and the difficulties and rewards inherent in the inventive process provide a window into the birth of one of our most ubiquitous office machines. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.


From Booklist
The next time the copier jams, fill the downtime with Owen's interesting, informative history of the contraption and its inventor. He was Chester Carlson (1906-68), whose boyhood of depressing destitution was brightened by science teachers who took seriously his dream to invent something marvelous. In the late 1930s, Carlson worked by day as a patent lawyer and by night and weekends on the problem of duplicating documents, the historical lineage of which, from scriptorium to mimeograph machine, opens Owen's work. The narrative then cascades from Carlson's light-bulb moment when he read a technical article on light's electrical effect on certain metals to his and an associate's fabrication in 1938 of a rudimentary process of xerography (from the Greek for "dry writing"). Owen then recounts Carlson's course through the next gauntlet every inventor faces: convincing a business to develop his gadget, in this instance, a two-decade-long ordeal that culminated in the Xerox Corporation. While sensitively portraying Carlson's self-effacing personality, Owen entertainingly presents the surprising story behind an indispensable technology. Gilbert Taylor
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved


Book Description
The first plain-paper office copier -- which was introduced in 1960 and has been called the most successful product ever marketed in America -- is unusual among major high-technology inventions in that its central process was conceived by a single person. David Owen's fascinating narrative tells the story of the machine nobody thought we needed but now we can't live without. Chester Carlson grew up in unspeakable poverty, worked his way through junior college and the California Institute of Technology, and made his discovery in solitude in the depths of the Great Depression. He offered his big idea to two dozen major corporations -- among them IBM, RCA, and General Electric -- all of which turned him down. So persistent was this failure of capitalist vision that by the time the Xerox 914 was manufactured by an obscure photographic-supply company in Rochester, New York, Carlson's original patent had expired. Xerography was so unusual and nonintuitive that it conceivably could have been overlooked entirely. Scientists who visited the drafty warehouses where the first machines were built sometimes doubted that Carlson's invention was even theoretically feasible. Drawing on interviews, Xerox company archives, and the private papers of the Carlson family, David Owen has woven together a fascinating and instructive story about persistence, courage, and technological innovation -- a story that has never before been fully told.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

"Chester Carlson grew up in poverty, worked his way through junior college and the California Institute of Technology, and made his discovery in solitude in the depths of the Great Depression. He offered his big ideas to two dozen major corporations - among them IBM, RCA, and General Electric - all of which turned him down. So persistent was this failure of capitalist vision that by the time the Xerox 914 was manufactured by an obscure photographic supply company in Rochester, New York, Carlson's original patent had expired. Xerography was so unusual and nonintuitive that it conceivably could have been overlooked entirely. Scientists who visited the drafty warehouses where the first machines were built sometimes doubted that Carlson's invention was even theoretically feasible." Drawing on interviews, Xerox company archives, and the private papers of the Carlson family, David Owen has woven together a story about persistence, courage, and technological innovation - a story that has never before been fully told.

FROM THE CRITICS

David Walton - The New York Times

Owen, a staff writer at The New Yorker, tells the story with a great deal of heart, grace and enthusiasm.

The New Yorker

This history of the Xerox copier starts with its inventor, a Caltech graduate named Chester Carlson, who in 1938 made the first xerographic reproduction—a piece of waxed paper that read “10-22-38 Astoria.” Xerography was difficult to perfect, requiring a coördinated ballet of paper-handling and electric charge, and it was more than twenty years before the first commercial copier, Model 914, went into production. An ungainly machine, it imparted electric shocks and used rabbit fur as a key part, but it solved a centuries-old problem—making document reproduction possible without a roomful of monks or a collection of foul-smelling chemicals. One-touch copying (and its evil twin, the paper jam) was born. Owen has a knack for explaining technical innovations in layman’s terms, and he vividly conveys the magnitude of Xerox’s coup: in 1961, when a television ad showed a young girl making copies, a competitor demanded proof that she was not a midget.

Publishers Weekly

As New Yorker staff writer Owen explains in this fast-paced account of one inventor's hopes and dreams, the technology of copying is a relatively modern phenomenon. He recounts the history of copying documents from the scribal work of monks to the invention of the printing press and lithography, to the process that eventually resulted in today's Xerox machine. Owen narrates the life story of the man behind the Xerox machine, Chester Carlson (1906-1968), and his lonely efforts to find a way to reproduce documents. An inventive soul from a young age, Carlson as a teenager sketched out concepts for a trick safety pin, a new type of lipstick and a disposable handkerchief made of soft paper. After he graduated from college, he went to work for Bell Laboratories and continued his inventive ways. When he finally landed on an electrostatic process that would act like both a printing press and a camera, he began to shop the concept around and the Xerox machine was born in the mid-'50s. Owen's sympathetic portrait of Carlson's life and the difficulties and rewards inherent in the inventive process provide a window into the birth of one of our most ubiquitous office machines. Agent, Susan Shulman. (Aug.) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

This work compares the impact of the copier, or Xerox machine, to that of Gutenberg's printing press, and many of us who use copiers daily would agree. A staff writer for The New Yorker, Owen tells the story of Chester Carlson, the man behind the copier, using Carlson's family archives, private Xerox company records, and interviews; it is fascinating to see the lonely inventor pursuing a way to reproduce documents. Between 1938 and the mid-1950s, big corporations like IBM, RCA, and GE all turned down the chance to make and market Carlson's electrostatic process, which acted as both a printing press and a camera. This story includes lessons for every entrepreneur, and Owen's sensitive and captivating portrait of the self-effacing Carlson will enable readers to understand the ordeal every inventor faces in making his idea a reality. Recommended for most collections.-Susan C. Awe, Univ. of New Mexico Lib., Albuquerque Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews