PROFILE: Roland Schaffert
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Roland Schaffert: Physicist credited with developing first practical dry-process photocopy machine
Copyright © 2005 by E. A. KralThe first successful experiment using electrophotography was conducted in 1938 by Chester F. Carlson, considered the "father" of the process that led to the modern copy machine.
But it was the former Hayes County, Nebraska resident Roland M. Schaffert who formed the research team that pioneered development of the world's first practical, dry-process photocopy machine, an event that gave birth to the photocopier industry.
For several centuries, the printing press could duplicate many copies, of course, though it required specially prepared originals. And the cost of hiring publishers or printers was not affordable for making only a handful of copies.
Available in the 1940s were copying equipment and processes that offered a few copies for the consumer, but they required moist paper or chemicals, involved cost and time factors, and reproduced with variable quality.
In 1944, to find someone who could envision usefulness in his idea for a copier and help in its development, Carlson met with officials at Battelle Memorial Institute, a research organization at Columbus Ohio.
As supervisor of Battelle's graphic arts department, Roland Schaffert was among the small group that evaluated the idea. Upon his recommendation, work conducted by his research team culminated in the first public demonstration of the dry-copy process on October 22, 1948. It produced a clear copy in 60 seconds, and was termed xerography.
From 1944 to 1948, researchers at Battelle developed some of the most important basic technological advances, and Schaffert summarized them as lead author of a paper published in the Journal of the Optical Society of America in December 1948.
According to a dictionary definition, "xerography is the formation of pictures or copies of graphic matter by the action of light on an electrically charged photoconductive insulating surface in which the latent image usually is developed with powders." It is also a positive-to-positive process, something not normally seen in photographic processing.
One of the discoveries by Schaffert and his team was that, by use of the attractive forces of electric charges, the image to be copied is transferred to a plate without direct contact. Another was that by careful selection of materials, it was possible to produce developers in which fine powder (toner) was charged by contact with larger (carrier) granules that could be tumbled over a xerographic plate or drum to deposit the toner on the electrostatic image and leave a clean background.
Still another key discovery was that selenium, a non-metallic element having electrical resistance that varies with the influence of light, was the most effective and most light-sensitive photoconductor, provided one used it in dim light.
Of course, subsequent refinements were made over a period of years before the Schaffert-led discoveries became the fundamentals of successful commercial equipment.
By agreement with Battelle, the Haloid Company of Rochester, New York, later renamed the Xerox Corporation, had obtained commercial rights in 1947 to develop the copy machine.
In 1950, the Xerox Model A Copier was introduced. Because of its bulk, it was leased rather than sold to large companies, and it offered the advantages of saving time, money and materials in the offset printing field. In 1959, the Xerox 914, the first marketable copying machine for office use, was introduced.
By 1965, an estimated 500,000 business offices in the United States had dry-process copiers, and they duplicated some 10 billion copies annually. At the turn of the 21st century, with more improvements in copy machine technology, some dry process copiers can duplicate 60 copies in one minute.
Meanwhile, Schaffert relocated from Battelle and its affiliation with Haloid-Xerox Corporation to work with International Business Machines in San Jose, California until his retirement in 1970.
When his book Electrophotography was published in 1965 by Halsted Press, a division of John Wiley & Sons, he was known as the authority in the field. And his book, which was revised in 1975, was considered the "bible" by his peers worldwide. By invitation, he presented a paper at the International Congress of Photographic Science at Moscow, Soviet Union.
He was holder of almost 20 patents, according to the U.S. Index of Patents, including the electrostatic transfer of a toner image. And he was also co-inventor of xeroradiography in 1954, a system used to produce mammograms in many U.S. hospitals.
Publications that reported on Schaffert's contributions include Fortune Magazine, June 1949, and the book by John Dessauer titled My Years With Xerox (Doubleday, 1971).
Other sources include American Men & Women of Science, Vol 5 (1976) and a memoriam by research colleague William E. Bixby in the Journal of Imaging Science and Technology, Vol 36 (March/April 1992).
Among his many awards for his scientific achievements was an honorary doctor of science degree from Doane College in 1978. And the Royal Society of Science in London, England presented him an award in 1983 in recognition of his lifelong contributions to applied science.
Born in 1905 at Minden, Iowa, the oldest boy of 14 children of Michael and Elizabeth Miller Schaffert, Roland moved at a young age to a farm near the village of White in Hayes County, Nebraska.
After attending rural school through the 8th grade, he helped his father on the farm for nearly five years, then moved to Hayes Center, graduating in three years with straight A's from Hayes County High School in 1926.
While attending high school, he supported himself by working at a local restaurant, and was on the staff of the Hayes Center Times-Republican, reported the May 27, 1926 issue, learning from tasks with advertisements, composition, linotype and press work, and becoming shop foreman. He saved money to enter college, with plans to specialize in journalism.
Schaffert attended Doane College, and worked in a print shop at night, likely The Crete News. He found time to participate in orchestra and pep band, and was on the college newspaper staff in the spring semesters of his freshman and sophomore years.
During his senior year, he was business manager for the Doane Players drama group, which at the time included Spangler Arlington Brugh, later the famous Hollywood movie star Robert Taylor. He earned his bachelor's degree in physics in 1930.
With the help of a scholarship offer, he then attended the University of Cincinnati, where he received his master's degree in 1931 and his doctorate in physics in 1933. The following two years Schaffert taught at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh.
His printing background helped him gain a position as research physicist for Mergenthaler Linotype Company in New York from 1936 to 1941, then he began employment with Battelle at Columbus, Ohio.
Roland M. Schaffert married Isabelle Krehbiel, and the couple raised two daughters. According to an obituary in the August 22, 1991 Curtis, Nebraska Hi-Line Enterprise and Eustis News, he died at Santa Cruz, California on July 26th of that year, with interment at the Curtis Cemetery. He was survived by his wife, daughters, five grandchildren, one great-grandchild, and several siblings.
For more information, consult "900 Famous Nebraskans" on the Internet at www.nsea.org or www.beatricene.com/gagecountymuseum or www.nebpress.com.
