Birth of the Laser Printer

Collection of the Computer History Museum. This event was recorded on March 25, 1997.
In this lecture physicist Gary Starkweather discusses his work developing the laser printer at Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (Xerox PARC) in the early 1970s. Beginning with a discussion of his time at Bausch + Lomb, Starkweather describes how Xerox's earlier innovations, including the xerographic process, influenced the invention of the laser printer, initially at Xerox's Rochester headquarters, later at PARC. Through a series of slides demonstrating early printing methods used by Xerox prior to the laser printer, followed by the concepts he tackled in developing the printer. Starkweather details his challenges, and the often counter-intuitive methods he used to solve the problems.
Catalog number: 102706167

[@Shermanbay]

Fascinating presentation in spite of the vintage video quality! You don't have to understand 100% of the tech talk to appreciate the lecture, just enjoy Gary's narration.

[@rogerawong]

RIP Gary Starkweather. Dec 26, 2019.

[@just4therecord]

I worked on the 9700. I were a field engineer for Burroughs back in the early 80s and we had these xerox 9700 under the Burroughs name. It had its own computer, tape drive and a removable hdd.

[@DavidDawesFXA]

@HGST, that's really interesting. I joined Rank Xerox in 1986 as an analyst to support the sale of Xerox's Laser Printers, and the 9700 & 8700 LPS controller had an absolutely amazing capability to interpret data from almost any mainframe or mid-range computer system (including Burroughs systems of course - (medium: B2500, B2700,B3500,B3700,B4700, and large: B6700 & B7700). :-)

[@anchorbait6662]

That was terrific. We are blessed to have had the engener such a gifted storyteller.

[@douglaswatters7303]

I remember when the first laser printers for home office use came out on the market. A apple laser printer was about 12k back in the 80s. I don't know what they cost to maintain as far as toner, fusers, drums and stuff. Even in the 90s laser printers were pretty expensive, I never thought I'd be able to own one. Nowdays I find them all the time in the trash with very little wrong with them. It's funny how things that were unaffordable one year are at garage sales or in the trash some years later.

[@longlifeprinters9]

I did printer repair in the late 1990's & still do, but, I repaired several apple laser writers and got toner for them & the total repair each was around $400 I think. The guy was ok with that to not lose his old faithful $4,000 printer. In 2022, I sell good used HP printers that are 6 times faster & a quarter of the weight, for $200 & make the same profit margin.

[@stupossibleify]

I learnt so much physics watching this. Thanks for posting.

[@offYears]

now this video is also a small history lesson on late-90's projectors!

[@hellraizer322]

Such a great lecture, you are missed Gary!

[@Allan-mf1he]

Thanks so much for the upload. Fascinating to see how this developer over time.

[@ben_greenman]

Dave's Garage sent me.

[@jolesco]

Very cool to se the early "Free-space optical communications" link they set up. It's a bit easier these days with the ISM bands using microwaves

[@ajmetz82]

Amazing! Thank you so much for uploading this, =D....!

[@RobCCTV]

RIP Gary Starkweather

[@JPTech933]

Interesting video, thank you for posting.

[@jeshkam]

1997 and the lo-fi quality seems like ancient technology compared with HD and 4K of today. I'm officialy old. 🙂

[@churblefurbles]

Laser printer is still best printer.

[@nasnema]

Thank you so much.

[@hashirama_-senju]

RIP Gary

[@janicegreen3836]

enjoy it, Thanks

[@sambaker734]

First

[@linkmyboy9903]

Congrats my dude