Alongside a desk, a telephone and a computer, almost every business relies heavily on a photocopier to rapidly, efficiently and affordably duplicate important documents and pieces of correspondence.
Even most companies that have a paperless office will retain a photocopier or printer to use for documents that need to be printed, signed and scanned, such as contracts.
As documents will need to be printed quickly to avoid delays and reduce timescales, having a high-quality, reliable and well-maintained photocopier is essential.
Thankfully, this is possible thanks to the development and evolution of xerography, the core technology that has been pivotal to photocopying since 1959.
However, since there have been offices, there has always been a need to copy documents, and engineers and inventors had toiled for centuries to find an alternative to painstakingly duplicating documents by hand each time.
The Other Polygraph
Not to be confused with the lie detection technology of the same name, the first polygraph machines were invented and developed in the early 19th century by John Isaac Hawkings of England.
It was an exceptionally rudimentary device consisting of two pens (although more would be added later) mounted next to each other that would move in unison. This meant that one writer could make identical copies simply by writing.
Despite being somewhat rudimentary and hopelessly unreliable, it did have its fans. The biggest of these was then-President of the United States Thomas Jefferson.
President Jefferson bemoaned the number of letters that he had to write, and called the polygraph the “finest” invention of its age, and something he could not do without.
However, even by this point, the standard for document copying had already been set.
The Watt Copying Press
Originally patented in 1780 by James Watt, the letterpress was so popular, fast and confidential that it became the standard in some industries until the rise of xerography and more advanced duplication in the 1950s.
The machine itself was deceptively simple, as it was the duplication process as a whole that produced unique results.
It involved the use of modified slow-drying ink, which was used to write a letter, before being placed on a wet sheet of tissue paper. The two would be physically pressed together, which would create a duplicate sheet that was reversed but visible on both sides.
It was a fascinating process, in no small part because it was the first that showed the importance of both mechanical and chemical processes in producing copies.
The process evolved significantly from the first presses of the 1780s up until the early 20th century, developing alongside the office as we know it today.
This, if anything, highlights that document copying and photocopiers have been the cornerstone of offices for as long as they have existed.
Whilst the roller process would continue to be used up until the 1950s in the law profession, being quick, confidential and capable of producing hundreds of copies in minutes, there were many other technologies that tried to compete.
Hectograph
Whilst some copying processes were popular, long-lasting or at least became the basis of a future system of duplication, hectographs used a bizarre process that required a pan of jelly, special dyes and a special absorbent pad for storage.
The idea is that a master copy written or printed with special inks was placed onto the gelatin, and then blank sheets could be placed on top of the gelatin to print a copy on top. There was a limit of around 100 copies that could be made, depending on the efficiency and skill of the copier.
It was not an ideal solution, but because it did not require any electricity or advanced technology, it saw use for limited print runs of documents and books.
It was commonly used for fanzines, small-circulation school and church newsletters and examination sheets. One makeshift hectograph was even used as part of a plan to escape Colditz Castle.
Mimeograph
The last major document duplication system that was used before xerography was perfected was mimeographs, which used a stencil that was prepared with a document ahead of time, that is then attached to a rotating cylinder.
Ink flows into the etchings of the stencil as it rotates, which creates a copy, and due to the strength of the stencil, up to 5000 copies could be produced from one stencil before it needed to be reproduced.
It was very popular for small-scale production of books, documents and magazines, as it was far cheaper to get a typewriter and a mimeograph than to set up a typical printing press.
It only started to truly disappear when photocopying using xerography became so cheap that it became the obvious choice.