U.S. Census Bureau Daily Feature for October 22: The First of Billions

WASHINGTON, Oct. 22, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Following is the daily "Profile America" feature from the U.S. Census Bureau:

THE FIRST OF BILLIONS

Profile America — Saturday, October 22nd.  "10 – 22 – 38 Astoria." That cryptic sequence indicating date and place was the very first photocopied image, created on this date in 1938 in Astoria, New York. A man named Chester Carlson developed a method of making dry copies of documents on plain paper, known as xerography — which we take for granted in using photocopiers today. Before his invention, copies were made either by using carbon paper when typing or by a mimeograph machine for large numbers of copies. The first commercial copiers became available in 1959. Now, 78 years to the day after the first photocopy, making copiers is a nearly $1.7 billion a year business in the U.S. You can find more facts about America from the U.S. Census Bureau online at www.census.gov.

Sources: Kane's Famous First Facts, 2372
First photocopy/accessed 7/15/2016:  http://www.cio.com/article/29833/Chester_Floyd_Carlson_Father_of_the_Photocopy 
Inventor's biography/accessed 7/15/2016 http://www.ideafinder.com/history/inventors/carlson.htm 
Photo and copier manufacturing/NAICS 333316: http://factfinder.census.gov/bkmk/table/1.0/en/ASM/2014/31GS101//naics~333316

Profile America is produced by the Center for New Media and Promotion of the U.S. Census Bureau. Statistics and accounts drawn from cited non-Census sources are employed for illustrative or narrative purposes, and are not attested to by the U.S. Census Bureau. These daily features are available as produced segments, ready to air, on the Internet at http://www.census.gov (look for "Audio" in the "Library" pull-down menu). 

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SOURCE U.S. Census Bureau

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