https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/02/12/why-paper-jams-persist Skip to main content The New Yorker * Newsletter To revisit this article, select My Account, then View saved stories Close Alert Sign In Search * News * Books & Culture * Fiction & Poetry * Humor & Cartoons * Magazine * Puzzles & Games * Video * Podcasts * Archive * Goings On * Shop Open Navigation Menu To revisit this article, visit My Profile, then View saved stories Close Alert The New Yorker Science and Tech * The Darker Side of Aaron Swartz * The Friendship That Made Google Huge * Bones of Contention * The Histories Hidden in the Periodic Table Annals of Technology February 12 & 19, 2018 Issue Why Paper Jams Persist A trivial problem reveals the limits of technology. By Joshua Rothman February 5, 2018 * * * * * Save this story for later. For printer engineers solving paper jams is 8220the ultimate challenge8221 combining physics chemistry and programming. For printer engineers, solving paper jams is "the ultimate challenge," combining physics, chemistry, and programming. Illustration by Daniel Savage * * * * * Save this story for later. Content View Iframe URL Audio: Listen to this story. To hear more feature stories, download the Audm app for your iPhone. Building 111 on the Xerox engineering campus, near Rochester, New York, is vast and labyrinthine. On the social-media site Foursquare, one visitor writes that it's "like Hotel California." Conference Room C, near the southwest corner, is small and dingy; it contains a few banged-up whiteboards and a table. On a frigid winter afternoon, a group of engineers gathered there, drawing the shades against the late-day sun. They wanted to see more clearly the screen at the front of the room, on which a computer model of a paper jam was projected. The jam had occurred in Asia, where the owners of a Xerox-manufactured printing press were trying to print a book. The paper they had fed into the press was unusually thin and light, of the sort found in a phone book or a Bible. This had not gone well. Midway through the printing process, the paper was supposed to cross a gap; flung from the top of a rotating belt, it needed to soar through space until it could be sucked upward by a vacuum pump onto another belt, which was positioned upside down. Unfortunately, the press was in a hot and humid place, and the paper, normally lissome, had become listless. At the apex of its trajectory, at the moment when it was supposed to connect with the conveyor belt, its back corners drooped. They dragged on the platform below, and, like a trapeze flier missing a catch, the paper sank downward. As more sheets rushed into the same space, they created a pile of loops and curlicues--what the jam engineers called a "flower arrangement." Published in the print edition of the February 12 & 19, 2018, issue, with the headline "Jambusters." [rothman-jo] Joshua Rothman, the ideas editor of newyorker.com, has been at The New Yorker since 2012. More:Paper JamsXeroxRochester, New YorkPrintersEngineers This Week's Issue Never miss a big New Yorker story again. Sign up for This Week's Issue and get an e-mail every week with the stories you have to read. Enter your e-mail address [ ] Sign up By signing up, you agree to our User Agreement and Privacy Policy & Cookie Statement. Read More The mouse was conceived by the computer scientist Douglas Engelbart developed by Xerox PARC and made marketable by Apple. Annals of Business Creation Myth Xerox PARC, Apple, and the truth about innovation. By Malcolm Gladwell Goats badgers and foxes may teach us how to escape the human condition. Books The Metamorphosis What is it like to be an animal? By Joshua Rothman The World of Competitive Drone Racing Video The World of Competitive Drone Racing Watch professional pilots guide their aircraft around mountains and through obstacle-ridden warehouses at up to eighty miles per hour. The New Yorker Sections * News * Books & Culture * Fiction & Poetry * Humor & Cartoons * Magazine * Crossword * Video * Podcasts * Archive * Goings On More * Customer Care * Shop The New Yorker * Buy Covers and Cartoons * Conde Nast Store * Digital Access * Newsletters * Jigsaw Puzzle * RSS * Site Map * About * Careers * Contact * F.A.Q. * Media Kit * Press * Accessibility Help * Conde Nast Spotlight (c) 2021 Conde Nast. All rights reserved. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement and Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement and Your California Privacy Rights. The New Yorker may earn a portion of sales from products that are purchased through our site as part of our Affiliate Partnerships with retailers. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Conde Nast. Ad Choices * * * * * Do Not Sell My Personal Info