Joe Wilson and the Creation of Xerox Review

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(More customer reviews)Joe Wilson would likely be the first to admit that many contributed to the creation of Xerox. But he was the glue that held everyone together. Without Wilson, adoption of the technology might have been delayed by decades. Computer printers would have remained impact devices for decades longer. The laser printer might not have seen the light of day until recently.
There are so many remarkable facets to this story, that if it were a work of fiction readers might criticize the plot for being too fantastic and contrived.
First, the technical inventor, Chester Carlson, was listed as one of the richest men in America in the late 1960s by Forbes Magazine. He wrote the magazine informing them that they ranked him too high because he had donated two-thirds of his fortune away anonymously in earlier years.
His mother died as he was entering his teen years and his father had tuberculosis. Chester had to work for a living as an adolescent. Despite this, he somehow graduated from Cal Tech during the Great Depression.
Second, when Wilson's company was looking for funding he sought financial partnerships with every important office equipment company in the United States, but was turned down in every instance.
Third, IBM declined to partner with Xerox in the formative years. They hired Arthur D. Little to do a nearly year-long study of the product potential which concluded that the market size was too small at only $200 million. Later, after Xerox was an obvious success, IBM told Wilson that it should be granted an exclusive license to compete so that Xerox would not run afoul of antitrust regulations.
Fourth, during an era when the company was a shinning success, Wilson's publicity-hungry lawyer permitted Life Magazine to prominently feature a story implying he (the lawyer) was the "man behind Xerox". While this infuriated his wife, Wilson seems to have been largely silient on the transgression.
Fifth, xerography was invented during the Great Depression, in an era that was risk averse. It was brought to commercial success by a lab in Columbus, Ohio and an modest company in upstate New York. While the cities were far from being technological backwaters, neither were they the putative leaders.
The story inspired me to start a Wiki on this book.


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