WEBVTT - Xerox: Quick to Innovate. Slow to Integrate. 0:00:04.160 --> 0:00:11.840 Get in text with technology with tech Stuff from dot Com. 0:00:11.840 --> 0:00:14.280 Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. I am your host, 0:00:14.480 --> 0:00:18.160 Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer here at how Stuff Works, 0:00:18.160 --> 0:00:20.560 and I like to talk about all things tech. You guys, 0:00:20.600 --> 0:00:24.160 listen to the last episode, the Xerox Story, Part one, 0:00:24.360 --> 0:00:26.440 then you know what this episode is going to be. 0:00:26.480 --> 0:00:29.520 It's done to be part two of that series, and 0:00:29.680 --> 0:00:32.640 spoiler alert, there will be a part part three because 0:00:32.880 --> 0:00:37.560 it's a bigger story than I anticipated. The Xerox story 0:00:37.720 --> 0:00:40.160 is really fascinating to me. You're talking about a company 0:00:40.200 --> 0:00:43.440 that was founded in nineteen o six and did not 0:00:43.600 --> 0:00:46.800 come out with the flagship product that everyone associates with 0:00:46.840 --> 0:00:50.120 it for more than four decades. It was really almost 0:00:50.240 --> 0:00:53.920 like essentially five decades before Xerox came out with a 0:00:54.080 --> 0:00:58.320 photocetic or electro setic copier and that was the point 0:00:58.360 --> 0:01:02.600 where they you is the term zerography and started to 0:01:02.600 --> 0:01:06.840 switch their company name from Halloid Corporation to Xerox. And 0:01:06.880 --> 0:01:09.400 that story alone was really interesting. That's what took up 0:01:09.400 --> 0:01:11.800 part one. So I guess the too long, didn't read 0:01:11.920 --> 0:01:14.360 version is right there, but you should go back and 0:01:14.400 --> 0:01:17.400 listen to part one. If you haven't already Part two. 0:01:17.800 --> 0:01:20.640 We're going to explore what happened in the wake of 0:01:20.760 --> 0:01:24.240 Xerox kind of finding its corporate identity as far as 0:01:24.280 --> 0:01:27.160 what its new product lines were going to be, and 0:01:27.480 --> 0:01:31.880 how it ended up having an interesting era of innovation 0:01:32.400 --> 0:01:37.880 while simultaneously not really capitalizing on it very well. And 0:01:38.120 --> 0:01:40.080 as it turns out, the story is big enough to 0:01:40.720 --> 0:01:42.880 require a part three. I really thought it was going 0:01:42.920 --> 0:01:45.119 to be a two parter. I set out to make 0:01:45.160 --> 0:01:49.200 a two parter, I swear to you, guys, But once 0:01:49.240 --> 0:01:52.000 I hit the late nineties, I realized there's just way 0:01:52.040 --> 0:01:55.360 too much stuff. I had started to summarize items, and 0:01:55.400 --> 0:01:59.320 I realized that the summaries, while they were accurate, didn't 0:01:59.320 --> 0:02:01.840 really give you a satisfying story. I mean, it just 0:02:01.880 --> 0:02:04.240 sounds like someone rattling off bullet points, and you guys 0:02:04.280 --> 0:02:06.960 deserve better than that. So instead of doing that, I'm 0:02:06.960 --> 0:02:10.040 gonna do even more research and do a Part three, 0:02:10.480 --> 0:02:13.800 because there's some really crazy stuff that went on at 0:02:13.880 --> 0:02:17.560 Xerox at the upper levels of management. I'm talking like 0:02:18.040 --> 0:02:22.960 cloak and dagger betrayals at the most senior levels of 0:02:23.040 --> 0:02:26.960 leadership at Xerox Company in the late nineties, So we're 0:02:27.000 --> 0:02:30.040 gonna explore that in part three. But now this is 0:02:30.080 --> 0:02:32.760 gonna be um. This is gonna be the calm before 0:02:32.760 --> 0:02:34.800 the storm. So it's not exactly like the Star Wars 0:02:34.800 --> 0:02:37.360 trilogy where you hit Empire strikes back and then everyone's 0:02:37.360 --> 0:02:39.920 at their lowest point. Now the lowest point is gonna 0:02:39.919 --> 0:02:42.359 happen sometime in part three. But don't worry. There will 0:02:42.400 --> 0:02:45.520 also be some form of resolution, but there won't be 0:02:45.520 --> 0:02:47.680 an ending because Xerox is still existing, and so we 0:02:47.720 --> 0:02:50.640 won't actually have a the end. We'll just have a 0:02:50.840 --> 0:02:56.360 the end question mark. When we last left our hero 0:02:57.240 --> 0:02:59.799 known as Xerox, the company had just started to experience 0:03:00.080 --> 0:03:04.200 serious revenue growth in the early nineteen sixties. The company 0:03:04.200 --> 0:03:07.400 had made its money on photographic paper products up to 0:03:07.560 --> 0:03:10.680 that point, but now had branched out by creating electro 0:03:10.760 --> 0:03:14.880 static copiers, which used the electro static charge to imprint 0:03:14.880 --> 0:03:20.840 paper with toner It used photo conductive materials selenium specifically, 0:03:21.200 --> 0:03:23.240 in order to do this. We will touch back on 0:03:23.320 --> 0:03:25.720 that in a little bit. And this was a much 0:03:25.760 --> 0:03:29.280 faster method than earlier technologies that would allow you to 0:03:29.320 --> 0:03:34.960 make copies, and the orders were pouring in from enterprises 0:03:35.000 --> 0:03:38.520 around the world. Enterprises as in big companies. That's what 0:03:38.720 --> 0:03:42.640 Xerox was targeting. They were looking at selling products to 0:03:42.920 --> 0:03:46.960 major companies, not to your individual consumers that was not 0:03:47.080 --> 0:03:52.200 really on their radar, and pretty much that was fueling 0:03:52.280 --> 0:03:57.120 Xerox's success. It was practically doubling their revenue every year 0:03:57.200 --> 0:04:00.440 for a few years, they started seeing those number go 0:04:00.600 --> 0:04:04.360 up dramatically year over year. That led to Fortune magazine 0:04:04.360 --> 0:04:10.000 to declare Xerox the most successful product ever marketed in America. Specifically, 0:04:10.000 --> 0:04:13.400 they were talking about the nine fourteen copier, so called 0:04:13.440 --> 0:04:16.760 because that was the dimensions of paper you could use 0:04:16.880 --> 0:04:21.760 in the machine, nine inches by fourteen inches. So yeah, 0:04:21.920 --> 0:04:25.560 they had gone from a modest, little photographic paper company 0:04:25.600 --> 0:04:28.159 to one of the biggest companies in America due to 0:04:28.240 --> 0:04:33.960 this incredibly popular and very profitable product. In nineteen sixty two, 0:04:34.080 --> 0:04:37.600 Xerox formed a joint venture with the Japanese photography company 0:04:37.640 --> 0:04:40.840 Fuji Photo Film Company, and this venture was called the 0:04:40.839 --> 0:04:45.480 Fuji Xerox Company Limited, and essentially it was formed so 0:04:45.520 --> 0:04:49.120 that they could distribute Xerox products in Japan and later 0:04:49.279 --> 0:04:53.279 it also served as a research and development platform. So 0:04:53.440 --> 0:04:55.919 Fuji and Xerox would work together doing R and D 0:04:56.400 --> 0:05:02.760 on various technologies. That same year, Xerox acquired University Microfilms. 0:05:03.400 --> 0:05:06.240 This was a small company founded by Eugene Power. It 0:05:06.320 --> 0:05:09.599 got its start preserving works from the British Museum and 0:05:09.640 --> 0:05:12.760 it was preserving them obviously on microfilm. As you would 0:05:12.800 --> 0:05:16.000 imagine based on the name. The company changed names a 0:05:16.000 --> 0:05:19.800 few times while it was under Xerox's ownership, but ultimately 0:05:19.960 --> 0:05:24.120 the company would sell off University Microfilms to another company 0:05:24.160 --> 0:05:27.039 called Bell and Howell in the nineteen eighties, and today 0:05:27.680 --> 0:05:31.160 University Microfilms is better known as pro Quest, so if 0:05:31.200 --> 0:05:33.400 you ever heard a pro Quest, it started off as 0:05:33.560 --> 0:05:36.719 University Microfilms and for a while it was owned by Xerox. 0:05:37.160 --> 0:05:41.719 In nineteen sixty three, Xerox acquired Electro Optical Systems, and 0:05:41.800 --> 0:05:45.240 that same year Xerox released the first desktop cop year 0:05:45.560 --> 0:05:48.680 called the Xerox eight thirteen, and like the nine fourteen, 0:05:48.920 --> 0:05:52.039 this was named by the dimensions of paper you could 0:05:52.120 --> 0:05:55.280 use in it. Unlike that larger nine fourteen, this one 0:05:55.320 --> 0:05:59.080 didn't sell nearly as well, and eventually the company would 0:05:59.120 --> 0:06:02.159 discontinue it decide that it would really just focus on 0:06:02.440 --> 0:06:06.960 developing those larger, high capacity copiers and leave the desktop 0:06:07.000 --> 0:06:09.600 market to other companies. For the most part, this would 0:06:10.600 --> 0:06:14.479 eventually come back to haunt them. Xerox also formed a 0:06:14.560 --> 0:06:18.160 joint venture with the Rank Organization, which was not a 0:06:18.200 --> 0:06:22.120 group of smelly people, but instead, the Rank Organization was 0:06:22.160 --> 0:06:25.080 a company out of the United Kingdom, was a film company. 0:06:25.120 --> 0:06:28.920 It's an entertainment conglomerate. And in the late nineteen forties 0:06:28.960 --> 0:06:32.440 the Rank Organization had hit on hard times. The leadership 0:06:32.600 --> 0:06:36.000 of the Rank Organization looked for ways to diversify their businesses. 0:06:36.440 --> 0:06:39.159 A purchased a radio station in nineteen forty nine, and 0:06:39.200 --> 0:06:43.880 they entered into this venture with the Halloid Slash Xerox 0:06:43.920 --> 0:06:47.719 Company in nineteen fifty six. Nine years later, in nineteen 0:06:47.760 --> 0:06:52.040 sixty five, Rank Slash Xerox opening manufacturing plant in ven Ree, 0:06:52.080 --> 0:06:56.040 the Netherlands. And business is so weird, you guys. There's 0:06:56.040 --> 0:07:00.720 a lot of interesting and odd joint ventures in Xerox's past. Now, 0:07:00.800 --> 0:07:04.240 Joe Wilson, you may remember Joe Wilson as the son 0:07:04.640 --> 0:07:07.880 of the founder of the Halloyd Corporation. He was also 0:07:08.240 --> 0:07:11.560 the man who instilled a lot of his own personal 0:07:11.640 --> 0:07:15.240 values into the company that became kind of its mission statement. 0:07:15.720 --> 0:07:19.280 He stepped down as president of Xerox in nineteen sixty six. 0:07:19.640 --> 0:07:23.200 He kind of thought that once you started hitting sixty 0:07:23.280 --> 0:07:28.080 years old, you should really withdraw from leadership positions in 0:07:28.120 --> 0:07:31.040 the company, and that became a tradition at Xerox. As 0:07:31.400 --> 0:07:34.360 c e O s or presidents would start to hit sixty, 0:07:34.400 --> 0:07:38.160 they would typically resign and they would train up somebody 0:07:38.200 --> 0:07:42.320 to be their replacement. Uh. Kind of a scythe apprentice 0:07:42.360 --> 0:07:46.800 thing going on there, but you know less, sinister. Now. 0:07:46.800 --> 0:07:49.840 Wilson would remain the CEO of the company for another 0:07:49.920 --> 0:07:53.280 year until nineteen sixty seven, and he was chairman of 0:07:53.280 --> 0:07:56.520 the board until he passed away in nineteen seventy one 0:07:56.600 --> 0:07:59.600 at the age of sixty one years old. Wilson had 0:07:59.640 --> 0:08:02.040 imbued the company with a focus on innovation, as he 0:08:02.080 --> 0:08:04.720 had felt since he first started at the Halloy Company 0:08:04.760 --> 0:08:07.560 that sitting back and relying on an established business was 0:08:07.600 --> 0:08:11.400 a guaranteed path to failure in the long run. His 0:08:11.480 --> 0:08:15.280 successor in all three of his roles of President, CEO, 0:08:15.520 --> 0:08:19.880 and chairman was C. Peter McCullough. Now, a little bit 0:08:19.920 --> 0:08:23.000 more on Wilson is warranted, However, before we move on 0:08:23.200 --> 0:08:25.840 with the rest of the Xerox story. So Wilson had 0:08:25.880 --> 0:08:30.320 involved himself in numerous social causes. In his will, he 0:08:30.480 --> 0:08:33.920 willed more than twenty million dollars in cash and even 0:08:33.960 --> 0:08:37.520 more in stock options to the University of Rochester. Upon 0:08:37.600 --> 0:08:41.600 his death, the university actually closed down campus except for 0:08:41.679 --> 0:08:45.160 emergency services in the hospital, for two days of mourning 0:08:45.640 --> 0:08:49.360 in memory of Joe Wilson. He had spoken at a 0:08:49.400 --> 0:08:52.360 conference for a Council for Financial Aid to Education and 0:08:52.360 --> 0:08:55.800 the Academy of Political Science, and at that speech he 0:08:55.840 --> 0:08:59.960 said that quote businessmen and scientists have a moral imperi 0:09:00.080 --> 0:09:04.120 div to extend their technology to society end quote, and 0:09:04.400 --> 0:09:07.880 went on to say, quote, our technology has not lived 0:09:07.960 --> 0:09:11.960 up to its obligations to society. Technological companies are at 0:09:12.000 --> 0:09:15.960 the center of social change and therefore have a responsibility. 0:09:16.360 --> 0:09:19.600 Those in the inner city have derived little benefit from 0:09:19.640 --> 0:09:23.440 technology and no profit from it end quote. And I 0:09:23.480 --> 0:09:26.959 really think it's kind of remarkable that a successful businessman, 0:09:27.480 --> 0:09:31.520 he's a multi millionaire who came from a family of conservatives. 0:09:31.600 --> 0:09:35.240 He himself was a registered Republican, though he was certainly 0:09:35.960 --> 0:09:39.560 less of a conservative Republican than some of his family were, 0:09:39.880 --> 0:09:42.120 but he saw that there was this social responsibility on 0:09:42.160 --> 0:09:46.320 the part of successful business owners to contribute back to society. 0:09:46.640 --> 0:09:48.600 And I should also say that during this time the 0:09:48.800 --> 0:09:52.840 Republican Party was a little different than the modern Republican Party, 0:09:52.920 --> 0:09:59.000 but even so he had several more like Democratic Party 0:09:59.160 --> 0:10:05.160 leanings although he identified as Republican. His successor McCulla, whom 0:10:05.360 --> 0:10:09.600 Wilson chose, was in fact a registered Democrats. So Wilson 0:10:09.760 --> 0:10:13.120 also was able to rise above his own political beliefs 0:10:13.440 --> 0:10:16.640 and look at a person's contributions and say this is 0:10:16.679 --> 0:10:19.200 the right person for the job, even if they did 0:10:19.240 --> 0:10:22.679 not agree on everything politically, which I think is also 0:10:22.840 --> 0:10:27.280 very telling of Joe Wilson's character. Uh McCulloch was born 0:10:27.320 --> 0:10:29.959 in Canada. He was the son of the Director of 0:10:30.000 --> 0:10:34.319 Public Works for Canadian Parliament, and he attended the Harvard 0:10:34.440 --> 0:10:37.800 Harvard Business School and graduated with a degree. After serving 0:10:37.800 --> 0:10:40.520 in World War Two, he served in the British Navy 0:10:40.880 --> 0:10:44.160 briefly in the last year of World War Two. He 0:10:44.200 --> 0:10:47.720 had started back at nineteen fifty four at Halloyd as 0:10:47.760 --> 0:10:51.120 the general manager of the company's first reproduction service center 0:10:51.160 --> 0:10:54.040 in Chicago, and by nineteen fifty nine he had been 0:10:54.120 --> 0:10:57.720 named a general sales manager. In nineteen sixty he became 0:10:57.720 --> 0:11:01.000 the vice president for sales, and nineteen sixty one he 0:11:01.040 --> 0:11:03.720 was elected to the board of directors and he assumed 0:11:03.760 --> 0:11:05.959 the role of president in nineteen sixty six. So it 0:11:06.000 --> 0:11:09.400 was a pretty meteoric rise in the ranks, and like 0:11:09.559 --> 0:11:12.640 Joe Wilson, McCullough had a strong sense of social justice. 0:11:12.679 --> 0:11:16.240 He and Wilson had created an affirmative action program at 0:11:16.240 --> 0:11:19.280 the company, which continued under McCullough's leadership when he became 0:11:19.320 --> 0:11:22.800 president and CEO. This was really remarkable. Remember this is 0:11:23.000 --> 0:11:25.360 during the era of civil rights, when there was a 0:11:25.440 --> 0:11:28.360 lot of turmoil going on in the United States on 0:11:28.400 --> 0:11:31.959 these issues, and meanwhile the leadership of Xerox came out 0:11:31.960 --> 0:11:37.240 and said, we fully support trying to balance the scales 0:11:37.360 --> 0:11:41.200 to create a system that will promote equality at our company, 0:11:41.480 --> 0:11:44.040 which I think says a lot again about the leadership 0:11:44.080 --> 0:11:47.000 of the company at the time. Mccull and Wilson shared 0:11:47.040 --> 0:11:50.160 many of the same beliefs, including a strong reliance upon innovation, 0:11:50.480 --> 0:11:52.720 but many would say McCullough would take Xerox into a 0:11:52.760 --> 0:11:56.160 new direction and lead the company to unprecedented profit as 0:11:56.160 --> 0:12:00.000 well as steered into some stormy waters. In nineteen six 0:12:00.040 --> 0:12:03.200 s seven, in an effort to reduce waste and costs, 0:12:03.400 --> 0:12:06.800 Xerox began a new policy of recovering metals from used 0:12:06.840 --> 0:12:10.360 photo receptor drums. Remember this is the big drum inside 0:12:10.360 --> 0:12:15.440 of a photocopier that carries that electrostatic charge. Use light 0:12:15.720 --> 0:12:19.199 to negate that charge, and then you put toner. The 0:12:19.280 --> 0:12:22.600 towner adheres to any place where the light has not touched, 0:12:23.200 --> 0:12:26.800 and then a similarly charged piece of paper that actually 0:12:26.800 --> 0:12:29.920 carries a stronger charge than the drum does will pick 0:12:30.000 --> 0:12:33.400 up the toner, move through a pair of fusers. These 0:12:33.440 --> 0:12:36.960 are high temperature rollers, and then the ink or toner 0:12:37.240 --> 0:12:41.800 is fused onto the paper. Well, those those photo receptor 0:12:41.880 --> 0:12:47.120 drums had some hazardous materials two as part of them. 0:12:47.120 --> 0:12:50.080 I mean, it was just it required using some stuff 0:12:50.120 --> 0:12:54.840 that's pretty dangerous, including some heavy metals, which is not 0:12:55.000 --> 0:12:58.720 the kind of music nor the Ralph Boxhi film. It 0:12:58.840 --> 0:13:03.120 is instead, in fact actual heavy metals. Uh So the 0:13:03.160 --> 0:13:06.560 company had to purchase those regularly in order to make 0:13:06.559 --> 0:13:08.920 the photo receptor drums. Those are expensive and they're dangerous 0:13:08.960 --> 0:13:11.920 to ships. So by reclaiming some of those materials from 0:13:11.920 --> 0:13:16.400 older drums. The Xerox was able to reduce their reliance 0:13:16.559 --> 0:13:21.239 on new material, and they viewed that as both economical 0:13:21.360 --> 0:13:25.880 and environmentally friendly. In ninety eight, at the age of 0:13:25.920 --> 0:13:30.240 sixty two, Chester Carlson passed away. Now, if that name 0:13:30.280 --> 0:13:32.640 does not sound familiar, you haven't listened to part one, 0:13:32.800 --> 0:13:35.160 but if you did, you may remember he was the 0:13:35.240 --> 0:13:40.280 inventor of the electrostatic copier. His success was emblematic of 0:13:40.320 --> 0:13:43.280 the American dream. He worked for a printer when he 0:13:43.320 --> 0:13:45.800 was in high school. He received from his employer an 0:13:45.840 --> 0:13:48.640 old printing press that otherwise was going to be destroyed, 0:13:48.880 --> 0:13:52.120 and he used it to print a magazine for amateur chemists. 0:13:52.559 --> 0:13:55.319 He attended junior college and majored in chemistry before he 0:13:55.360 --> 0:13:58.920 transferred to the California Institute of Technology Caltech, in other words, 0:13:58.960 --> 0:14:01.320 and earned a degree in physics while he was there. 0:14:01.800 --> 0:14:04.040 When he graduated college, he did so just as the 0:14:04.040 --> 0:14:06.760 Great Depression was really taking its toll, and so his 0:14:06.880 --> 0:14:10.120 prospects were pretty grim. He worked in patent law, as 0:14:10.120 --> 0:14:12.439 I mentioned in the last episode, and he found himself 0:14:12.480 --> 0:14:15.120 frequently in need of making copies of material, and that's 0:14:15.360 --> 0:14:17.840 not an easy thing to do in the era before 0:14:18.120 --> 0:14:21.240 photo copiers. So Carlson, wishing to put his knowledge of 0:14:21.240 --> 0:14:24.200 physics and chemistry to use, wanted to solve that problem. 0:14:24.440 --> 0:14:26.320 I talked about how he did that in the last episode, 0:14:26.320 --> 0:14:28.120 so I'm not going to retread it here, but let's 0:14:28.120 --> 0:14:31.680 just say he ended up falling in with Halloyd, which later, 0:14:31.720 --> 0:14:34.960 of course became Xerox. This was after he had been 0:14:34.960 --> 0:14:38.640 turned away by twenty different companies that were uninterested in 0:14:38.720 --> 0:14:44.720 his ideas. Now, he earned millions of dollars from his invention, 0:14:45.200 --> 0:14:48.560 like a hundred fifty million dollars, which is already a 0:14:48.680 --> 0:14:52.720 huge amount of money before you adjusted for inflation. But 0:14:52.800 --> 0:14:55.400 he was also a philanthropist, and he gave away more 0:14:55.440 --> 0:14:58.840 than a hundred million dollars in his lifetime to charities 0:14:58.880 --> 0:15:02.920 and foundations. He was awarded numerous times for his contributions 0:15:02.960 --> 0:15:05.600 to business and science as well as for his philanthropy, 0:15:05.920 --> 0:15:10.480 and his passing was also marked with reverence and sorrow. Also, 0:15:10.520 --> 0:15:14.800 in nineteen sixty eight, Xerox opened the Xerox Tower in Rochester, 0:15:14.920 --> 0:15:17.760 New York. Remember that was their headquarters. It's where the 0:15:17.840 --> 0:15:22.800 Wilsons were living when they founded Halloyd Corporation, which would 0:15:22.880 --> 0:15:26.360 later become Xerox, But just one year later, in nineteen 0:15:26.400 --> 0:15:30.520 sixty nine, the new president and CEO McCullough, would lead 0:15:30.560 --> 0:15:34.560 the company in a new direction, literally by relocating the 0:15:34.600 --> 0:15:38.440 corporate headquarters to Stanford, Connecticut. By this time, the company 0:15:38.520 --> 0:15:42.320 was making one billion dollars in revenue and had been 0:15:42.360 --> 0:15:44.800 listed as one of the one largest corporations in the 0:15:44.880 --> 0:15:48.160 United States. McCullough was looking into the future and was 0:15:48.200 --> 0:15:51.360 imagining a world in which the offices of tomorrow wouldn't 0:15:51.440 --> 0:15:54.240 need paper at all. Everything would be stored in some 0:15:54.320 --> 0:15:57.800 other medium. And this probably sounds familiar to anyone who 0:15:57.800 --> 0:16:00.800 has gone through one of those big technological rollouts at 0:16:00.840 --> 0:16:04.440 a company where people are talking a big game early on, saying, Oh, 0:16:04.440 --> 0:16:07.040 it's gonna eliminate the need of ever having a print 0:16:07.040 --> 0:16:09.320 out or a piece of paper. You'll never have to 0:16:09.320 --> 0:16:12.320 touch it. I'm still waiting for that day. I'm still 0:16:12.320 --> 0:16:15.240 waiting for the paperless office. But Xerox's approach to this, 0:16:15.360 --> 0:16:19.440 initially at least, was to invest in existing companies. So 0:16:19.600 --> 0:16:24.840 to that end, Xerox made an enormous deal, some would 0:16:24.840 --> 0:16:28.160 say a truly disastrous one, with a computer company called 0:16:28.200 --> 0:16:32.280 Scientific Data Systems in nineteen sixty nine, and that acquisition 0:16:32.320 --> 0:16:37.240 deal costs Xerox nearly a billion dollars in stocks. Unfortunately 0:16:37.280 --> 0:16:40.520 for Xerox, that particular deal would not work out for 0:16:40.560 --> 0:16:43.240 the company. The computers, which were not meant for the 0:16:43.280 --> 0:16:45.840 general public, were difficult to sell. They were meant for 0:16:45.880 --> 0:16:51.400 scientific research and government organizations. By nineteen seventy five, Xerox 0:16:51.480 --> 0:16:55.200 executives realized that this division wasn't going anywhere, and they 0:16:55.200 --> 0:16:58.000 shut it all down. But that wouldn't be the only 0:16:58.000 --> 0:17:01.360 contribution Xerox would make to the world of computing. When 0:17:01.400 --> 0:17:03.360 we come back, we'll look at the R and D 0:17:03.480 --> 0:17:06.800 branch Xerox form that is responsible for how we interact 0:17:06.880 --> 0:17:10.600 with technology today. But first let's take a quick break 0:17:10.800 --> 0:17:20.919 to thank our sponsor. So we're up to nineteen seventy, 0:17:21.080 --> 0:17:23.240 which is when Xerox made a few other moves that 0:17:23.280 --> 0:17:26.479 would expand its influence, and one was the formation of 0:17:26.520 --> 0:17:30.320 the Xerox Computer Services Division as the company acquired other 0:17:30.320 --> 0:17:33.840 computer companies. The other big one was the formation of 0:17:33.880 --> 0:17:38.680 the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center or Park Facility p 0:17:38.920 --> 0:17:44.000 A r C in California. Park became an incredibly important 0:17:44.080 --> 0:17:46.520 R and D facility. The work going on there in 0:17:46.560 --> 0:17:49.919 the nineteen seventies would later transform personal computers in the 0:17:50.040 --> 0:17:55.560 nineteen eighties. Xerox Park opened on July one, nineteen seventy, 0:17:55.720 --> 0:17:57.560 and the whole purpose of this part of the company 0:17:57.920 --> 0:18:01.680 was to innovate new technologies. The focus at that time 0:18:01.720 --> 0:18:06.840 was on computing, which was the realm of scientific research centers, universities, 0:18:06.880 --> 0:18:10.600 big business, and the military. There were no such things 0:18:10.640 --> 0:18:14.639 as personal computers that early on. In fact, many computers 0:18:14.640 --> 0:18:17.440 had no digital or analog display. You had to rely 0:18:17.520 --> 0:18:20.359 on a lighted panel or read results that were printed 0:18:20.359 --> 0:18:24.639 out on long strings of paper tape. Because Park played 0:18:24.680 --> 0:18:27.639 such an important role in Xerox, I'm going to peel 0:18:27.800 --> 0:18:31.160 off from the main company for a bit and talk 0:18:31.200 --> 0:18:34.399 about what was going on over at Park before jumping 0:18:34.440 --> 0:18:37.720 back into the main company's timeline. So let's park it 0:18:38.520 --> 0:18:42.560 in Park for a bit. I don't feel good about that. 0:18:43.520 --> 0:18:49.920 In Park pioneered a method of printing a bitmapped electronic 0:18:50.000 --> 0:18:53.720 image on a zero graphic copyer drum using laser printing. 0:18:55.040 --> 0:18:58.840 Seems simple enough, no, but seriously, how the heck does 0:18:58.840 --> 0:19:01.520 that work? Was it even me? So? If you listen 0:19:01.560 --> 0:19:04.040 to the last episode and I hope you did. Otherwise, 0:19:04.080 --> 0:19:06.879 this show is really confusing to you. You learned about 0:19:06.880 --> 0:19:10.439 how photocopiers use light to create an electrostatic charge on 0:19:10.520 --> 0:19:15.640 a photo conductive drum. Laser printers follow a very similar principle. 0:19:16.119 --> 0:19:20.520 So you have a printer or a copier, inside of 0:19:20.560 --> 0:19:24.639 which is a rotating drum, a cylindrical piece of equipment 0:19:24.720 --> 0:19:29.119 that turns, it rotates around its axis, and near this 0:19:29.280 --> 0:19:32.120 rotating drum, which is photo conductive, that means that when 0:19:32.200 --> 0:19:35.920 light hits it, it can actually create conductivity. You can 0:19:35.920 --> 0:19:39.920 have electron movement through the material. Near it, you would 0:19:39.920 --> 0:19:43.600 have a wire. It's called a corona wire. It's not 0:19:44.359 --> 0:19:47.879 kind of beer, it's just that's what called a corona wire. 0:19:48.440 --> 0:19:51.920 You run uh an electrical current thread. You actually create 0:19:51.920 --> 0:19:56.080 a voltage through this wire, and this preps the drum 0:19:56.320 --> 0:19:59.680 as the drum rotates. The drum rotates near this high 0:19:59.720 --> 0:20:03.679 volt toge corona wire, and that ends up giving the 0:20:03.840 --> 0:20:06.960 rotating drum a charge. And now, for the purposes of 0:20:07.040 --> 0:20:10.600 this example, let's just say it's a positive charge. You 0:20:10.600 --> 0:20:12.840 could do this with a negative charge to everything would 0:20:12.840 --> 0:20:15.800 be reversed, but we're gonna say positive charge for this one. 0:20:16.560 --> 0:20:19.360 So you get a positive charge on the surface of 0:20:19.400 --> 0:20:24.440 this rotating drum. The laser beam would shine down onto 0:20:24.520 --> 0:20:28.920 this photo conductive drum as it rotates, drawing out the 0:20:29.000 --> 0:20:31.720 various letters and images that are supposed to be printed 0:20:31.800 --> 0:20:34.479 on the paper. It hits all the points that are 0:20:34.520 --> 0:20:37.800 supposed to be covered in toner. In other words, all 0:20:37.840 --> 0:20:41.960 the points that should show up as a positive image, uh, 0:20:42.160 --> 0:20:45.399 you know, having actual ink on it. The reaction between 0:20:45.440 --> 0:20:48.240 the laser and the photo conductive drum creates a negatively 0:20:48.400 --> 0:20:51.719 charged area on the drums surface. So think of it 0:20:51.760 --> 0:20:55.040 as painting the drums surface with light, and when you 0:20:55.160 --> 0:20:58.320 finish painting with light, there's an electro static charge there, 0:20:58.320 --> 0:21:01.520 and it's a negative charge. The lasers very narrow and 0:21:01.560 --> 0:21:03.520 it's very focused, so we can do this with really 0:21:03.600 --> 0:21:08.440 great precision. The printer then coats the drum and positively 0:21:08.600 --> 0:21:12.640 charged toner. Now we all remember cool Om's law, right, 0:21:13.200 --> 0:21:15.639 We all follow it whether we want to or not. 0:21:15.840 --> 0:21:20.719 Coulomb's law is that like charges oppose each other, and 0:21:20.800 --> 0:21:27.040 opposite charges attract. Just like Paul Abduel said, the positively 0:21:27.119 --> 0:21:29.600 charged areas of the drum, which were the ones that 0:21:29.680 --> 0:21:34.000 were not touched by the laser. Those repel the toner 0:21:34.160 --> 0:21:37.200 because the toner itself is also positively charged, and light 0:21:37.320 --> 0:21:42.840 charge repels like But the negatively charged sections, the ones 0:21:42.880 --> 0:21:46.640 that the laser actually drew upon, those attract toner. Ton 0:21:46.760 --> 0:21:50.400 or sticks to that part of the drum. So then 0:21:50.440 --> 0:21:52.840 the toner adheres to that part of the rotating drum 0:21:52.880 --> 0:21:55.760 as it goes around. Next comes the paper. Now the 0:21:55.760 --> 0:21:59.760 paper first will pass by a negatively charged corona wire. 0:22:00.280 --> 0:22:03.800 This imparts a very strong negative electrostatic charge to the 0:22:03.800 --> 0:22:08.520 paper itself, and the charge has to be stronger than 0:22:08.560 --> 0:22:11.680 the one that's on the rotating drum, because then whichever 0:22:11.840 --> 0:22:14.600 charge is strongest is going to pull the hardest at 0:22:14.600 --> 0:22:17.000 the toner. The toner is going to go which whichever 0:22:17.080 --> 0:22:19.080 one is the strongest. Think of the toner in this 0:22:19.119 --> 0:22:21.600 case as a rope in a in a game of 0:22:21.640 --> 0:22:25.160 tug of war, and the paper that's just gone past 0:22:25.200 --> 0:22:29.199 the corona wire is a big beefy dude, and the 0:22:29.240 --> 0:22:34.080 photo conductive drum is a not so strong dude. Or hey, 0:22:34.160 --> 0:22:38.160 let's say it's a big strong woman is the paper one, 0:22:38.240 --> 0:22:44.720 and the photo conductive dramas myself. Well, the strong woman 0:22:44.840 --> 0:22:47.120 is totally gonna win that game of tug of war. 0:22:47.600 --> 0:22:51.200 Let's just face it. She will. And the same thing 0:22:51.280 --> 0:22:55.000 is true with this particular scenario. The paper comes in, 0:22:55.080 --> 0:22:57.520 the electrostatic charge is stronger on the paper than it 0:22:57.560 --> 0:23:00.320 is on the drum. It then attracts all the toner 0:23:00.400 --> 0:23:02.719 onto the paper, and of course the toner is in 0:23:02.800 --> 0:23:06.320 the shape that was drawn by that laser, and that 0:23:06.359 --> 0:23:09.080 means all the words, all the images, everything is drawn 0:23:09.080 --> 0:23:12.479 out specifically the way the laser had it had moved 0:23:12.560 --> 0:23:15.800 across the surface of this drum. The paper then passes 0:23:15.840 --> 0:23:19.720 through a pair of high temperature rollers called the fusers. 0:23:19.760 --> 0:23:23.199 This melts the toner so that it fuses with the paper. 0:23:23.440 --> 0:23:27.200 The toner has these little plastic particles inside of it, 0:23:27.800 --> 0:23:30.679 and by melting it, that's what makes it stick to 0:23:30.720 --> 0:23:33.399 the paper, and it doesn't just brush off when it 0:23:33.440 --> 0:23:37.040 comes out, because otherwise you just have a electrostatically charged 0:23:37.040 --> 0:23:40.800 piece of paper and some electrostatically charged bits of toner, 0:23:41.280 --> 0:23:44.120 and then you know, a good shake would make all 0:23:44.160 --> 0:23:46.840 of that fall away. So it has to be melted 0:23:46.880 --> 0:23:48.480 to the surface of the paper for it to be 0:23:48.600 --> 0:23:54.160 fused there. And then the drum meanwhile continues its rotation 0:23:54.440 --> 0:23:57.280 and that rotation takes it past what is called a 0:23:57.400 --> 0:24:01.040 discharge lamp, and essentially that erases the drum and prepares 0:24:01.080 --> 0:24:03.919 it for the next electro static image. So the discharge 0:24:04.119 --> 0:24:07.520 lamp kind of sets it at zero. The next time 0:24:07.560 --> 0:24:11.359 the drama rotates past the corona wire, it will be 0:24:11.359 --> 0:24:14.200 prepared again with its positive charge, and the whole process 0:24:14.240 --> 0:24:17.919 can start all over. This, by the way, happens incredibly fast, 0:24:18.400 --> 0:24:20.280