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The Creative Muse: Stories of Creativity & Innovation

Madhukar Shukla


  • Preface
  • Introduction

    STORIES:

  • Discoveries about Creativity
  • Laws Of Planetary Motion
  • Electricity From Clouds
  • Band-Aid
  • Pneumatic Tyres
  • Gummed Paper
  • The Trap Of Paradigm
  • Invention Of Sewing Machine
  • Just-In-Time System
  • Transmission of Nerve Impulses
  • Printing Press
  • Dangers Of Locomotives
  • Flashlight
  • Lawn Mower
  • Phonograph
  • Rubber Heels
  • The Periodic Table
  • Discovery Of Electromagnetic Fields
  • The Tao Of Physics
  • Congenital Impact of Rubella
  • Typewriter
  • The Theory Of Evolution
  • The Benzene Ring
  • The Wreck Of Titanic
  • Wagner's Rheingold
  • Underwater Construction
  • Search For The "Hidden Likeness"
  • Fermi & Nuclear Fission
  • Cash Register
  • Discovery Of Current Electricity
  • Cure Of Diabetes
  • Boolean Algebra
  • Principle Of Photosynthesis
  • Ball Point Pen
  • The X-Ray
  • The Fuschian Functions
  • Safety Glass
  • The Creative Triggers
  • Why Aeroplanes Cannot Fly
  • The "Brownies" Of Stevenson
  • The Blunder That Founded 3M
  • Invention Of AC Motor
  • Discovery Of Teflon
  • Toynbee's The Study Of History
  • Inventors' Blindness
  • The Excitement Of Creativity
  • Electric Fan
  • How Typhus Gets Transmitted
  • Proof Of The Big Bang
  • Mathematical Theory Of Chance
  • Coleridge's Kubla Khan
  • Vulcanisation Process
  • Structure Of The Crystals
  • The Compulsion To Create
  • 3M's Post-It Note Pads
  • Ice Cream Cones
  • The Structural Theory Of Atom
  • IBM And Computers
  • Helicopter
  • How Experts Resist Ideas
  • Creative Reveries Of Enid Blyton
  • Predictions In Gulliver's Travels
  • Float Glass Technology
  • Principle Of Immunisation
  • Journey Into Unknown
  • The Genius Of Karl Fredrich Gauss
  • Jean Coceteau's The Knights Of The Round Table
  • Neon Light
  • Transistor Radios
  • Precocious Minds?
  • The Masterpiece Of Sir Walter Scott
  • The "Fraud" That Changed The World
  • The "99% Perspiration"
  • Xeroxing
  • The Poem Of Stephen Spender
  • The Anatomy Of Inspiration
  • Travellers' Cheques
  • Edison's Fraud
  • Awe, Wonder And Alienation
  • The Logic Of Irrational

  • Epilogue: Themes & Patterns

    • Xeroxing


    In 1938, after years of efforts, Chester Carlson, a patent lawyer in New York, was finally able to formulate the basic principles of a process which he called electrography. Carlson had worked weekends in his kitchen to develop the basics of this process by which electrostatic images created on a photoconductive surface could be transferred to a paper. But there were no takers for Carlson's invention. It was turned down by almost twenty companies, including IBM, Remington, Bell, General Electric, and Kodak, as unusable technology. IBM, in fact, conducted a market research, and concluded: "...it has no place to go, there really isn't a need for it. It is a very specialised thing, maybe you will build 5000 (copiers)."

    Carlson found some support from Battelle Institute, a contract research consortium, till finally in 1948, an unknown photographic paper manufacturer, Haloid Corporation, decided to invest in developing Carlson's ideas into marketable products. For next 12 years, Haloid invested in developing this product of unknown credentials. Its total development cost was $12.5 million, which was more than Haloid's total earnings in the 1950s.

    Why did Haloid do this? For two reasons. Firstly, developing a copier was a do-or-die strategy for Haloid. Its earnings from the photographic paper business were fast shrinking, and the only way to survive was to develop and make a success of a new product. And secondly (and perhaps more significantly), as Joe Wilson, Haloid's CEO, described to the investors in 1954: "Our company is a cluster of enthusiastic, innovative people who have a dream that they are building an institution which will make a mark in our society."

    And so, in 1960, Haloid Corporation unveiled world's first plain paper copier, Xerox 914. A year later, the company rechristened itself as Xerox Corporation.


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