[inforoots] Laser Printers

[Paul Vilandre]

I was directly involved with Itek Corporation in Lexington MA, in the
1974-75 Time Frame, working at HQ with the newly formed Graphics Systems
Division as their CFO, working for senior VP and GM Brian Fernandez..
This is not to be confused with the Graphics Products Group in Rochester
NY, a sister division at Itek.

The graphics group I was associated with was formed to commercialize
selected "corporate products" associated with other Itek activities, in
particular an innovative high precision printing process that used
positive resist printing plates  (vs. the traditional "negatives" ) for
photo imaging reproduction.  This very high quality printing technology
was developed with CIA funding to better reproduce enhanced photo
imagery from spy satellites, also developed by Itek.  This information
about the Itek programs is no longer classified and a couple of books
have been published describing such activities at Itek.  Frank Lindsay,
Itek CEO at the time, was an old CIA hand having served in the
predecessor organization, the OSS. I was recently able to find reference
to the Itek/CIA books on Google and at Amazon.com. Note that Itek was
acquired and traded a few times between conglomerates over the last 30
years and is no longer a stand-alone company.   

As an adjunct to the corporate R&D programs associated with the above
"graphics systems" activities, Itek was developing a desk top laser
product which I personally saw in operation as a prototype.  The
development team was lead by top engineers who worked on the original
xerography technology at the Battelle Institute (Halloid Corporation,
later DBA Xerox, acquired the technology from Battelle).  I worked first
hand with this Itek engineering team, attempting to meet certain cost
and performance goals.  Up through my departure from Itek in early 1974,
I was not aware of any work on color copying technology, laser or
otherwise. And, cost and performance goals were not achieved at the
time.

As an interesting side comment, Itek HQ in Lexington MA was located a
mile away from Digital Equipment in Maynard MA. And Itek was one of the
first customers to acquire Digital Equipment Corporation computer
systems-as I recall acquiring the second PDP-1 to work on the above
projects.  Itek also used their imaging technology as an important part
of the Viking project that created the first images returned from the
surface of Mars, and used the photo enhancement technology to create a
page by page publication of each frame of the Zapruder film of the
Kennedy assassination.

=====================================================================
-----Original Message-----
From: inforoots-bounces at computerhistory.org
[mailto:inforoots-bounces at computerhistory.org] On Behalf Of Bill
Selmeier
Sent: Monday, April 24, 2006 8:19 PM
To: Inforoots
Subject: [inforoots] Laser Printers

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=======================================
I recently heard there was a color laser printer from Itek that predates

the PARC Laser Printer.  We have a new list member that may be able to 
post the background on that printer and possibly some pictures of it or
of 
its output.  I think I heard it was built for NASA.

************************************************************************
Bill Selmeier		voice  (408)655-3400
Internet Developer    http://www.inetdevgrp.org     bills at inetdevgrp.org
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