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User:Elcobbola/Union

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The Remington Typewriter Company was an American typewriter manufacturer headquartered in ____________________. Ilion, New York.

Originally a division of E. Remington and Sons, the manufacturer was incorporated under several names as ownership of the Remington brand was transferred and consolidated, including Wyckoff, Seamans & Benedict, Remington-Standard Typewriter Company and the Union Typewriter Company.

Background edit

See also: Sholes and Glidden typewriter
 
E. Remington and Sons' factory in Ilion, New York, c 1874

In 1867, Christopher Latham Sholes and several other inventors began development of a writing machine which ultimately became the Sholes and Glidden typewriter.[1] After six years of development and several failed manufacturing attempts, their device was solicited to E. Remington and Sons, an arms manufacturer.[2] Remington possessed the specialized equipment and machinists necessary to produce the complex device, and desired to diversify its operations after the American Civil War. Henry H. Benedict, a Remington director who saw promise in the typewriter, persuaded company president Philo Remington to acquire rights to the device, and a contract for its production and sale was entered on March 1, 1873.[3]

After several months of further refinement, the typewriter was placed on the market on July 1, 1874. Remington, however, was "without skill as a vendor",[4] and the company managed to sell only 400 machines by December as it struggled to convince an apathetic public that the unfamiliar device was "not a toy".[5][6] An exception, however, was William O. Wyckoff, the stenographer for the Supreme Court of the sixth judicial district of New York. After first encountering the typewriter in 1875, Wyckoff became enamored and consequently obtained the marketing rights for his district.[7] Despite design and manufacturing improvements in the intervening years, Remington had managed to sell only 4,000 machines by 1877. In 1878, Remington outsourced marketing to Fairbanks & Company, a scale manufacturer. The venture was short-lived, however, and Remington resumed internal marketing in 1880.[6] At the prompting of Benedict, Clarence W. Seamans, a former bookkeeper at Fairbanks and the "star typewriter salesman",[8] was retained and put in charge of sales within Remington.

History edit

Wyckoff, Seamans and Benedict edit

 
A Wyckoff, Seamans & Benedict advertisement for the 1892 model of the Remington Typewriter

In August 1882, Seamans and Benedict asked Wyckoff to join them in the creation of a partnership to market the typewriter.[9] The company of Wyckoff, Seamans & Benedict contracted with Remington to be the sole marketer of the typewriter.[4]

By 1886, poor fiscal management and numerous business and philanthropic expenditures had damaged Remington financially. In response, Remington began to issue bonds and implemented a system by which employees purchased supplies with payment orders which became notes payable after several months. When Turkey entered the arms market with an order to equip 600,000 infantrymen, Remington believed it could secure the contract, as its M1885 Lee rifle had been well-received. To buy time and eliminate its most urgent debts, Remington sold the typewriter business to Wyckoff, Seamans & Benedict in March.[10]

Wyckoff, Seamans & Benedict leased manufacturing facilities from Remington for three years before moving to a seven story factory north of the Erie Canal.[11] By 1897, the factory employed 800 and produced 100 typewriters per day.[11]

Remington-Standard Typewriter Company edit

The Remington Standard Typewriter Company was formed in 1892, with Wychoff as its president.[12] Remington Standard became the Remington Typewriter Company on July 12, 1902.[13]

Union Typewriter Company edit

 
Clarence W. Seamans, president (1893-1910) and chairman of the board (1910-1915) of the Union Typewriter Company[12]

On March 29, 1893,[14][15] the American Writing Machine Company, Densmore Typewriter Company, Smith-Premier Typewriter Company and the Yost Writing Machine Company where combined under control of Remingtion Standard to form the Union Typewriter Company.[16][12] Also called "The Typewriter Trust", the combined company comprised approximately 75 percent of the typewriter manufacturing industry. As a monopolist, Union enjoyed tariff benefits and the consolidated patent and trademark holdings of its component companies.[15] Union's policy was to utilize all five factories in the production of only three brands: Remington, Smith and and Caligraph. All machines wre sold at a price fixed by the company at $100.[17]

In 1907, Union acquired the Wahl Adding Machine Company, making in the largest typewriter manufacturer in the world. Union had an annual production of approximately 80,000 machines from factories in Bridgeport, Connecticut and Ilion and Syracuse, New York.[12] On March 5, 1912, the Union typewriter Company merged with and into the Remington Typewriter Company.[13][12]

Breakup edit

References edit

  1. ^ Oden 1917, p. 19
  2. ^ Post 1981, p 83
  3. ^ Mayo 2007, p. 29
  4. ^ a b Russell 1897, p. 89
  5. ^ Bliven 1954, p. 58
  6. ^ a b Homans 1918, p. 204
  7. ^ Hill 1895, p. 100
  8. ^ Masi 1985, p.48
  9. ^ Ingham 1973, p. 67
  10. ^ Russell 1897, p. 91
  11. ^ a b Russell 1897, p. 90
  12. ^ a b c d e Ingham 1983, p. 1270
  13. ^ a b Horton 1947, p. 384
  14. ^ Doukas 2003, p. 94
  15. ^ a b Moody 1904, p. 274
  16. ^ Rosenberg 2008, p. 104
  17. ^ Fay 1912, p. 31

Bibliography edit

  • Beeching, Wilfred A. (1974). Century of the Typewriter. New York: St. Martin's Press. ISBN 0434901202
  • Bliven, Bruce, Jr. (1954). The Wonderful Writing Machine. New York: Random House. ISBN 600150329X
  • Doukas, Dimitra (2003). Worked Over: The Corporate Sabotage of an American Community. Cornell University Press. ISBN 0-8014-4092-0
  • Fay, Charles Norman (1912). Big Business and Government. New York: Foffat, Yard and Company
  • Hill, Kendrick C. (October 1895). "William O. Wychkoff". The Stenographer (Philapelphia: Stenographer Printing and Publishing Company) 8 (4).
  • Homans, James E. (1918). The Cyclopedia of American Biography 3. New York: The Press Association Compilers, Inc.
  • Horton, John H., et al (1947) History of Northwestern New York. 3. New York: Lewis Historical Publishing Company, Inc.
  • Ingham, John N. (1983). Biographical Dictionary of American Business Leaders. Westport: Greenwood Publishing Group. ISBN 0313213623
  • Masi, Frank T. (1985). The Typewriter Legend. Secaucas: Matsushita Electric Corporation of America. ISBN 0961438606
  • Mayo, Anthony J., et al. (2007). Paths to Power: How Insiders and Outsiders Shaped American Business Leadership. Boston: Harvard Business Press. ISBN 1422101983
  • Moody, John (1904). The Truth about the Trusts: A Description and Analysis of the American Trust Movement. Moody Publishing Company.
  • Oden, Charles Vonley (1917). Evolution of the Typewriter. New York: J.E. Hetsch
  • Post, Daniel R. (1981). Collector's Guide to Antique Typewriters. Arcadia: Post-Era Books. ISBN 0911160868
  • Rosenberg, Chaim (2008). America at the Fair: Chicago's 1893 World's Columbian Exposition. Arcadia Publishing. ISBN 0738525219
  • Russell, Albert N. (September 14, 1897). "Ilion and the Remingtons". Papers Read Before the Herkimer County Historical Society during the Years 1896, 1897 and 1898 (Ilion: Citizen Publishing Company) 1.
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