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

People copied their faces since Andy Warhol’s first attempt to use Photostat (projection copier) in 1969

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

Then, before the start of the revolution, desktop publishing was only a few years old. Thanks to her multiplied the amount of information placed on one page. At the same time, the “ zin ” movement was at the peak of its popularity. trans.]. It was an important way to democratize content.

And around this time, Xerox was at the top of its might, both culturally and in a business sense. And for this she needed a paper break. The fact that this technology was so popular, it makes sense, since this invention has become truly revolutionary.
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It seemed that the technology came out of nowhere. 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] Clark [Harold E. Clark] noted the factors that made xerography, the invention of Chester Carlson [Chester Carlson], so unique.


Illustration to the application of hectograph, working with gelatin

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

A technology that combines electrically charged inks (or toner), a small amount of heat, and a photographic process has helped change offices forever. It’s not easy to explain this process - try reading the Carlson patent - but the result has simplified life for almost everyone.

The area in which Xerox does not declare its inventive priority is color photocopying. In 1968, it overtook 3M, releasing a Color-in-Color device. For his work required paper with a special coating. The company introduced its version of such a device, the 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 understand how revolutionary this idea was, here are some examples of how people made copies of documents before the advent of photocopiers.

A carbon copy . It was invented at the beginning of the XIX century . The material covered with ink allowed to write on several sheets at the same time, and for some time it was useful. It still occurs, but its use is very limited. Those who grew up already in this century laugh at carbon copy buyers.

Hectographs . Gelatin derived from meat is not only a wonderful dessert [or aspic! - approx. trans.]. This is a suitable substance for making copies. To do this, take a large piece of gelatin, write the desired text on paper with ink, transfer the ink to the gelatin, and then transfer the same ink to other pieces of paper attached to the gelatin.



Because of the simplicity of the technology it is still used for various kinds of handicrafts .


Copying on a mimeograph at a school in New Mexico, 1941

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



Ditto machine [ditto machine]. If you went to school in the 70s - 80s, you might encounter 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 mimeograph, but with the help of alcohol. As a result, the ink was not used, but the smell was strong.




Photoostat with an operator

Photostats . The closest relative of the copier. They took photographs of documents, received their negatives, and then reprinted them. It was a combination of a camera and a development room , placed in one device. The machines were cumbersome, 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 basis for the modern Xerox company.

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

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

He was friends with the owner, Donald Havenick, so I asked him to let him play with the car. Havenick warned that she had heating parts, but this did not stop Warhol or Bridget Berlin, the star, who also captured this entertainment. This led to the creation of the famous Warhol self-portrait, which was often imitated by people who played with the office copy.


Advertising photostat 1920

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

For Warhol, it was just one of the tools. He honed his skills by experimenting with screen printing, engravings and photography. But the fact that he first saw a photocopy, he immediately decided to copy his face, speaks about 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 Zin movement helped to highlight the importance of photocopying as a form of creativity. Punk zines like " Sniffin 'Glue " have enriched themselves and gained influence thanks to copiers, which have become an excellent substitute for Gutenberg's presses.

Some zines contained interesting artwork. Destroy All Monsters , a proto-punk band from Ann Arbor, Mich., Made its early zines with various copy technologies — from mimeographs to color copies on copiers. The band, in which Stooges guitarist Ron Ashton has been playing for some time, still remains quite influential, but lately it has been mainly distinguished by visual works, both through exhibitions in art galleries and through copies of Zina .


Photostat at work

Part of its vigor, this zine is due to the fact that the group lived not far from the University of Michigan. This helped them reduce the cost of releasing a zine. “We had access to the copier and mimeograph through the institute. Some of our friends worked in the art department and in the university shop. We could work there all night for free, ”explained Niagara, the singer of the group, in an interview in 2011.

Soon, Xeroxes broke down a path to the world of New York art. Before Jean-Michel Basquiat fully focused on drawing, he sold his photocopies to Andy Warhol in the early 80s. Before Keith Haring plunged into his world of monographs, he cut up the newspapers and created his shocking headlines , which were then xeril.



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

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

We see them in movies and TV shows. Xerox tries to maintain its heritage as much as possible, and gives the old versions of its copiers to such TV shows as Mad Men.



"Morgue" of the company is filled with old devices , which are sent on request to shoot movies and TV shows. But perhaps in the most interesting film episode with the Xerox product, a fax machine appeared, not a copier. In the 1968 film Detective Bullitt , there is a scene in which a group of people in suspense clumped around a giant fax machine, Xerox Telecopier, to see the result of his work.



Interestingly, the device from the movie made the company Xerox. After all, crowds of people waiting for the results of the Photostat apparatus, prompted Chester Carlson to invent an improved version of the machine.