Profile America —. Even in a world increasingly reliant on digital files and printouts, there's still a great need for photocopies. What is now old school was a breakthrough invention of a man named Chester Carlson, born on February 8 in 1906. In 1938, he 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 by either using carbon paper when typing or a mimeograph machine for large numbers of copies. Both were messy and not always legible. The first commercial copiers became available in 1959. Now, making copiers and other photographic equipment is a nearly .3 billion a year business for over 200 companies in the U.S. You can find more facts about America from the U.S. Census Bureau online at www.census.gov.

Sources:
Chester Carlson and copiers: http://www.ideafinder.com/history/inventors/carlson.htm
Number of establishments/NAICS 333315: http://factfinder.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/productview.xhtml?pid=BP_2011_00A1&prodType=table 
Revenues/NAICS 333315: http://factfinder.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/productview.xhtml?pid=ASM_2011_31GS201&prodType=table