December 15, 2025
Hot off the copier
The History of Xerox - by Bradford Morgan White
From kitchen chemistry to pay‑per‑copy: readers crown Xerox the OG rent‑a‑copier
TLDR: Xerox began as Haloid and won big by renting copiers and charging per page, which commenters hail as the OG subscription—while others call it nickel‑and‑diming. An ex‑R&D insider’s link fuels the “print to AI” debate, turning a history lesson into a lively money‑model vs. future‑tech showdown.
The comments are buzzing like a busy office printer. Bradford Morgan White’s deep dive starts with Haloid, a modest paper shop in Kodak’s backyard, then hustles through the 1930s buy‑and‑build era, and lands in Chester Carlson’s kitchen lab (yes, the one with the sulfur spill). But the crowd’s hottest take? The business model. One reader points out Xerox didn’t just make copiers—they made cash by renting the machines and charging per copy, even placing units in public spaces for maximum traffic. Cue debate: half the thread calls it the original subscription; others grumble it was nickel‑and‑dime by the page.
Then a curveball: a commenter who worked at a former Xerox research center (now under NAVER Labs) drops a link to the corporate handoff, sparking “print is dead, long live AI” vibes. The mood flips between nostalgia and futurism as people swap stories about the smelly mimeograph era versus xerography’s clean, fast magic. Jokes fly: “Xerox invented Netflix for copies,” and “Carbon paper was core workout meets office job.” While the article delivers the origin story—Haloid’s rise, Rectigraph’s buyout, and Carlson’s kitchen grind—the community is here for the money moves and the AI takeover drama. Read the NAVER twist here: link.
Key Points
- •Haloid Company was founded on April 18, 1906 in Rochester, New York to produce photographic paper.
- •In 1912, Gilbert E. Mosher bought a controlling interest for $50,000, became president, and pushed development of improved papers.
- •Haloid opened sales offices in Chicago, Boston, and New York City; its Haloid Record paper launched in 1933 and boosted sales to nearly $1 million by late 1934.
- •Joseph R. Wilson pursued acquiring Rectigraph in 1935; Haloid went public in 1936 to finance the acquisition.
- •On March 8, 1938, Mosher became chairman and Wilson became president; the article also profiles Chester F. Carlson’s motivations and experiments to create a better copying method.