Photostat Machine - History - Rectigraph and Photostat Machines

Rectigraph and Photostat Machines

George C. Beidler of Oklahoma City founded the Rectigraph Company in 1906 or 1907, producing the first photographic copying machines; he later moved the company to Rochester, New York in 1909 to be closer to the Haloid Company, his main source of photographic paper and chemicals.

The Rectigraph Company was acquired by the Haloid Company in 1935. In 1948 Haloid purchased the rights to produce Chester Carlson's xerographic equipment and in 1958 the firm was reorganized to Haloid Xerox, Inc., which in 1961 was renamed Xerox Corporation. Haloid continued selling Rectigraph machines into the 1960s.

The Photostat brand machine, differing in operation from the Rectigraph but with the same purpose of the photographic copying of documents, seems to have been invented in Kansas City by one Oscar T. Gregory in 1907. A directory of the city from 1909 shows a "Gregory Commercial Camera Company". By 1910, Gregory had co-filed a patent application with Norman W. Carkhuff, of the photography department of the United States Geological Survey, for a specific type of photographic camera, for quickly and easily photographing small objects, with a further object "to provide a camera of the type known as 'copying cameras' that will be simple and convenient " In 1911, the Commercial Camera Company of Providence, Rhode Island, was formed. By 1912, Photostat brand machines were in use, as evidenced by a record of one at the New York Public Library. By 1913, advertisements described the Commercial Camera Company as headquartered at Rochester and with a licensing and manufacturing relationship with Eastman Kodak. By 1920, distribution agency in various European markets was by the Alfred Herbert companies. The Commercial Camera Company apparently became the Photostat Corporation around 1921, for "Commercial Camera Company" is described as a former name of Photostat Corporation in a 1922 issue of Patent and Trade Mark Review. For at least 40 years the brand was widespread enough that its name was genericized by the public.

The Photostat Corporation was eventually absorbed by Itek in 1963.