Xerography
Chester Carlson, USA, patent 2,297,691 of 1942. Dry copying, invented by a patent clerk for patent clerks.
Overview
Carlson, broke in a Depression-era patent office, worked kitchen-lab electrostatics for years, patenting xerography in 1942. Twenty-plus companies, including IBM, passed before Battelle and then Haloid bet on it. The 1959 Xerox 914, leased per copy instead of sold, minted the term xeroxing. Carlson gave two-thirds of his fortune away anonymously until Forbes outed him. Every laser printer is his selenium drum's grandchild. The patent clerk's patent was the industry.
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