Carlson wanetd to end boring work by replacing them with more efficient ones. This was a major complaint of Chester Carlson, inventor of the photocopier. Carlson worked as a patent analyzer for an electrical component maker, a job that required him to spend hours going over documents and drawings. It was his job to prepare the paperwork that was submitted to the patent office to register his company's inventions and ideas. He had to redo the same things many times. Redrawing the copies took hours. Carlson had medical problems, which made his job even more difficult. He knew there had to be a better way.

Carlson started to work on ways to help others in their jobs. His idea for a reproduction technique based on photoconductivity, in which some "materials change their electrical properties when exposed to light". Years of this research led to a patent in 1937 for this process called electrophotography.

It took him another 20 years to find a business willing to invest in his technology. In 1960, the Haloid Company, which later changed its name to Xerox, finally brought Carlson's idea to market.