10 Xerox Trivia Questions

By Gregory Pings

“This photocopier company ran an ad stating that its brand is not a noun or a verb and cannot be pluralized.”

That was a pretty good question. (And this is not the first time I wrote about the word “Xerox.”)

I have 10 more Xerox trivia questions that might help Alex Trebek put a contestant over the top – or make way for a new champion.

When was Xerox founded?

 Xerox was founded as The Haloid Company in 1906 in Rochester, N.Y. The tiny company manufactured photographic paper.

What was the first xerographic product named?

The first (and uninspiring) name of the first xerographic product was the Model A, which was followed by Model B, Model C, Model D. These manual products were time-consuming and cumbersome, but they brought in just enough revenue to fuel Haloid’s development of a fully-automatic and easy-to-use machine that would quickly produce a perfect copy at the press of a button.

When did Haloid launch the first fully automatic xerographic machine?

To correct answer is 1955. “Wait, what?”, you say? “Didn’t this blog report the 914 copier’s first-ever commercial installation in 1960?” Yes, we did, and – yes — this is a trick question.

The CopyFlo, which produced enlarged prints on a continuous roll from microfilm originals, was launched in 1955. It was the first fully automatic xerographic machine. The 914, introduced four years later, was the first fully automatic, plain paper xerographic machine that produced copies from hard copy. This is the machine that launched a billion-dollar market, and transformed the then-tiny Haloid Company into the global, Fortune 500 Xerox Corporation.

Who was the first musical group to broadcast live video and audio on the internet?

Lawrence Welk. No, just kidding. The correct answer is Severe Tire Damage. They were the first musical group to broadcast live video and audio on the internet, using the experimental Mbone (multicast backbone) for IP Multicast. The live performance was hosted at Xerox PARC (Palo Alto Research Center) in 1993.

When was the laser printer invented?

Gary Starkweather invented the laser printer in 1969 while working at a Xerox research lab in Webster, N.Y. Soon after, he transferred to the newly opened Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC). There he developed a prototype that eventually provided the guts of the first laser printer – the Xerox 9700 – which was launched in 1977.

How much was the monthly rental charge for the 914 copier?

Xerox charged $95 a month to rent the 914 copier when the product was launched in 1959. The price included 2,000 free copies. Each additional copy cost 4 cents, and the contract included a 15-day cancellation clause.

Innovation and innovators at Xerox

Learn more about Chester Carlson, the man who invented xerography in 1938.

Read news and ideas from or about Xerox researchers and engineers.

Explore Xerox press releases about research and development at Xerox.

What was The Amateur Chemists’ Press?

Ever the high school nerd, the future inventor of xerography, Chester Carlson, created The Amateur Chemists’ Press, while he was in high school. It was a magazine for science-minded high school students. The price for a six-month subscription was 65 cents. Chet worked for a local printer, from whom he acquired a small printing press in return for his labor. He used the press to publish his magazine.

“I don’t think I printed two issues,” Chet later recalled,” and they weren’t much. However, this experience did impress me with the difficulty of getting words into hard copy, and this, in turn, started me thinking about duplicating processes. I started a little inventor’s notebook, and I would jot down ideas from time to time.”

Where did Chester Carlson go to school?

Chester Carlson, the inventor of xerography, received a degree in physics from the California Institute of Technology, and a law degree from New York Law School.

Who was Chester Carlson’s lab assistant in Queens, N.Y.?

Otto Kornei, a physicist who immigrated to the United States from Austria, agreed to work for Carlson for $90 a month, and an expense budget of approximately 30 cents a day.

What was the name that Chester Carlson bestowed on his invention?

Chester Carlson chose “electrophotography,” because he believed it was more technically accurate, and fit better in technical parlance. The term “xerography” was coined in 1948 at the direction of then-Haloid president Joseph C. Wilson.