Carlson, Chester

Carlson, Chester (Floyd)

(1906–68) inventor; born in Seattle, Wash. A physics graduate of the California Institute of Technology (1930), he took a law degree and worked as a patent lawyer in an electronics firm. He experimented on his own time with photocopying processes and by 1938 had discovered the electrostatic "xerography" process, which he patented two years later. Xerox Corporation's development and marketing of Carlson's invention made him a multi-millionaire.

The Cambridge Dictionary of American Biography, by John S. Bowman. Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1995. Reproduced with permission.