Chester grew up in a poor family in 1906, so he had to work at a very young age, sometimes, he would work before and after school. But it was at that young age, Chester became interested in printing and reproducing prints. While most 10 year olds want ponies and train sets, all he wanted was an office typewriter.
When he got out of Caltech with okay grades, he was in debt and the world was in great depression. He applied to 83 companies for job and finally Bell gave him a job as a researcher. But he never gave up his dream on reproducing prints.
While during his free time, he worked on just that. Unfortunately, his wife didn't share his passion and divorced him.
His work on reproducing print didn't go very far, even though he successfully reproduce something in 1938, it took the idea almost 10 years to become a viable product in the market. It was known as Xerox 914.
Since then everyone on this planet uses Chester's technology for about 500 pages a year, with 7 billion on this planet, we make 3.5 trillion copies every year.
15 years after Chester passed away, a young man walked into Xerox's office in California and borrowed the "mouse" idea from Xerox. That young man's name is Steve Jobs.
While Steve was a great promoter with millions of followers, Chester never forget his upbringing. It is said that Chester makes .16 cent for every copy we make. If he is still alive today, he will be making $5.6billion a year, about the net worth of Steve Jobs in 2010. When Chester Carlson passed away in 1968, he gave away most of his fortune. As Chester told his second wife, "my dream is to die a poor man"...
