Xerography

For a long timeChester Carison carried around his the invention,the little black box,overwhich he had worked and struggled for years.He presented it to the directors of

twenty-one largeAmerican corporations,such as"General Electric,International BusinessMachines(IBM),Lockheed,and RCA."Nobody wanted it.

Nobody wanted toinvest a penny in it.

It must be painfulfor those directors to think of Chester Carlson now. For the little black boxis the heart of the multi-billion-dollar Xerox Corporation. Carlson is theinventor

of "xerography（静电复印术）"(from two Greek wordsmeaning "dry writing"),the dry-printing process used in thousands andthousands of

offices,businesses,industries,universities,shops,andgovernment agencies around the world.

Thanks to Carlson,itnow takes minutes to copy a document which,twenty years ago,would have kept asecretary busy for a whole day.And for a few pennies anyone can have

a copy of anythingfrom cooking recipes to Greek poetry.More than thirty billion such copies aremade each year.

When Chester Carlsonwent to work in a patent office in 1930,the copying methods were slow,dirty,and expensive.In his job,Carlson had to make many copies of patents for

inventions.Onenight,after working late and painfully,he decided that somebody had better findan easier way to do it. He went to work in the kitchen of his apartment with

measuring cups andcooking pots.By 1937, having developed a simple form of xerography,he appliedfor his first patent on the process.

Then began Carlson'sfamous unsuccessful search for investors.Only in 1944,did the Battelle MemorialInstitute of Columbus agreed to lent$3,000 to Carlson for research on

hisinvention.According to the agreement,Carlson was to receive 25%of allprofits.This part of the agreement later brought millions of dollars toCarlson,who borrowed

money from hisfamily to repay his debt.

Even with Battle's help,it tookanother year to find a company willing to buy Carlson's process. In 1945,Dr.Dessauser,director of the Haloind company,decided to adopt and

market the process,which was then named"Xerox".Three years later,the Haloind companychanged name to the Xerox company,which now is the 39 th largest company in the

United States,with sales of over four billion dollars ayear.Why did ChesterCarlson carry around his little black box for a long time?

A.Because nocorporation wanted to invest money in it.

B.Because hisinvention looked too ordinary.

C.Because he wasafraid that his invention might be stolen.

D.Because he hadnowhere to place it.