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> The Xerox 914 was produced between 1960 and 1977.[4] It was introduced to the public on September 16, 1959, in a demonstration at the Sherry-Netherland Hotel

by ralfd 3y ago

> The Xerox 914 was produced between 1960 and 1977.[4] It was introduced to the public on September 16, 1959, in a demonstration at the Sherry-Netherland Hotel in New York, shown on live television.[1] One of the two copiers that were present that day caught fire.[1] Wait, what? > The machine was mechanically complex. It required a large technical support force,[2] and had a tendency to catch fire when overheated. Because of the problem, the Xerox company provided a "scorch eliminator", which was actually a small fire extinguisher, along with the copier.[1] Ralph Nader was among those to complain about the copier fires, reporting that the machine at his office in Washington had caught fire three times in four months. I guess it was a different time? Or the product so immensely useful, that people did oversee that danger?

jacobolus 3y ago
It is impossible to overstate how important/useful Xerox copiers were to offices (and anyone else who needed to make copies on small scale, e.g. schoolteachers, churches, zine authors, ...). The previous state of the art was https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mimeograph https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mimeograph https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spirit_duplicator https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spirit_duplicator https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gestetner https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gestetner https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermofax https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermofax https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_paper https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_paper all of which are more or less terrible by comparison.
- jaclaz 3y ago
  And don't forget whiteprint/bluelines (diazo): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whiteprint https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whiteprint I have worked with them, many years ago, and even with modern (for the time) ventilated developing chambers, using the ammonia was really terrible.
TeMPOraL 3y ago
> I guess it was a different time? The target audience of this demo were all people born before World War II - most of them growing up in the 1920s and/or 1930s. For adults in year 1960, the whole concept of electrical appliance - whether at home and in the office - was something new. Magic being created in front of their eyes. We are talking about people who remember a telephone first appearing in their community, many probably even remembering electricity first appearing in their community. So yeah, it definitely was a different time. Most of the things we see around us - the tools, the appliances, the materials themselves, were all developed during their youth and adult years. They and their parents were the two generations that created modernity - this was not just the time of electrification, but also chemical revolution, general automation, the time shamanism turned into medicine. Theirs was the time where all the pieces fell into place, and they were the ones to make humanity jump from a pile of farmers playing with coal and steam, to a technological civilization that sent people to the Moon. All in under a century. Regulatory frameworks and operational principles and safety standards? Yes, they were all also being developed back then, as part of playing fast and loose with all the new wonders, and figuring how to handle them safely along the way. The guy to complain their new copier caught fire three times in four months? That would be the equivalent of today's person complaining their fancy new self-driving industrial cargo carrier robot self-drove itself into a tree while parking. Sure, the tech is not ready yet for the general population, but it can be used safely when operated with care and forward thinking.

by ralfd 3y ago

jacobolus 3y ago

It is impossible to overstate how important/useful Xerox copiers were to offices (and anyone else who needed to make copies on small scale, e.g. schoolteachers, churches, zine authors, ...). The previous state of the art was https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mimeograph https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mimeograph https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spirit_duplicator https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spirit_duplicator https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gestetner https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gestetner https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermofax https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermofax https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_paper https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_paper all of which are more or less terrible by comparison.

jaclaz 3y ago
And don't forget whiteprint/bluelines (diazo): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whiteprint https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whiteprint I have worked with them, many years ago, and even with modern (for the time) ventilated developing chambers, using the ammonia was really terrible.

TeMPOraL 3y ago

> I guess it was a different time? The target audience of this demo were all people born before World War II - most of them growing up in the 1920s and/or 1930s. For adults in year 1960, the whole concept of electrical appliance - whether at home and in the office - was something new. Magic being created in front of their eyes. We are talking about people who remember a telephone first appearing in their community, many probably even remembering electricity first appearing in their community. So yeah, it definitely was a different time. Most of the things we see around us - the tools, the appliances, the materials themselves, were all developed during their youth and adult years. They and their parents were the two generations that created modernity - this was not just the time of electrification, but also chemical revolution, general automation, the time shamanism turned into medicine. Theirs was the time where all the pieces fell into place, and they were the ones to make humanity jump from a pile of farmers playing with coal and steam, to a technological civilization that sent people to the Moon. All in under a century. Regulatory frameworks and operational principles and safety standards? Yes, they were all also being developed back then, as part of playing fast and loose with all the new wonders, and figuring how to handle them safely along the way. The guy to complain their new copier caught fire three times in four months? That would be the equivalent of today's person complaining their fancy new self-driving industrial cargo carrier robot self-drove itself into a tree while parking. Sure, the tech is not ready yet for the general population, but it can be used safely when operated with care and forward thinking.