Sunday, September 16, 2012

Was it Haloid? Why yes it was.

Xerox 914
  On September 16, 1959 Haloid-Xerox introduced the Xerox 914 copier.  It was done in Times Square, New York City, on live television (to a limited audience).
  It weighed in at 648 pounds and you could ask for 20 copies at the same time. What a difference a few years made back then!
  Oh! By the way, this machine became so popular that the company became known as, and changed it's name to Xerox Corporation.
  Wilbur and I can remember the Thermo-Fax made by Haloid, with its yellowish copies that curled up and faded in a couple of days.  And back then "Fax" or facsimile just meant copy, nothing like the use of the word now.  This machine, the Xerox 914, as bulky and slow as it was, was a huge improvement.
  Why pretty soon you wouldn't even have to use carbon paper!  Remember those little bits of torn paper you used when erasing a mistake?  How could you forget?  Then came "carbon sets"; sheets of pastel colored paper, each with its very own carbon paper already attached.  Of course if you made a mistake you had to separate the carbon to erase.  Those were the good ol' days alright.

No comments:

Post a Comment