WASHINGTON, Feb. 8, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Following is the daily "Profile America" feature from the U.S. Census Bureau:

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PHOTOCOPYING

Profile America —Saturday, February 8th. Even in a world increasingly reliant on digital files and printouts, there's still a great need for photocopies. What is now old school was a breakthrough invention of a man named Chester Carlson, born on this date in 1906. In 1938, he developed a method of making dry copies of documents on plain paper, known as xerography — which we take for granted in using photocopiers today. Before his invention, copies were made either by using carbon paper when typing or a mimeograph machine for large numbers of copies. Both were messy and not always legible. The first commercial copiers became available in 1959. Now, making copiers is a $2.2 billion a year business for some 230 companies in the U.S. You can find more facts about America from the U.S. Census Bureau, online at www.census.gov.

Sources: http://www.ideafinder.com/history/inventors/carlson.htm http://factfinder2.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/productview.xhtml?pid=ECN_2007_US_31SG1&prodType=table NAICS 333315

Profile America is produced by the Center for New Media and Promotions of the U.S. Census Bureau. These daily features are available as produced segments, ready to air, on the Internet at http://www.census.gov (look for "Multimedia Gallery" by the "Newsroom" button). 

SOURCE U.S. Census Bureau

RELATED LINKShttp://www.census.gov