Since the advent of the typewriter in 1874, one firm of selling agents after another had been battling against heavy odds to find a profitable market for the machine. Densmore and Yost were the first selling agents, followed by Densmore, Yost & Company, General Agents (the style assumed when Densmore personally withdrew from the selling agency), and finally by Locke, Yost & Bates, a firm composed of D. R. Locke (Petroleum V. Nasby), G. W. N. Yost, and J. H. Bates, afterwards a successful advertising agent in New York. During all of this time the load of debt on the enterprise grew greater and greater, until the problem of getting back the amount that had been sunk in manufacture and unsuccessful sales effort seemed well nigh impossible of solution. Further changes were now made which eliminated Yost entirely, and in July, 1878, the selling agency was entrusted to the well-known house of Fairbanks & Company, the celebrated scale makers. As the Fairbanks business was well organized, it was thought that their facilities would largely increase sales. One of the first acts of Fairbanks & Company was to appoint C. W. Seamans as manager of typewriter sales. With the appearance of Seamans in the story begins the chain of events which finally led to the commercial triumph of the writing machine. CHAPTER V. LAUNCHED ON THE COMMERCIAL WORLD Clarence Walker Seamans was born in Ilion, and his first employment was in assisting his father, who had charge of the gunsmithing department of the Remington factory. This was in 1869, when he was only fifteen years old, and he continued in this service through the memorable years 1873 and 1874. In the following year, however, a company of Ilion men of means bought a silver mine in Utah and sent young Seamans to the mine to look after their interests. Here he remained for the next three years. In 1878 we find Seamans again in Ilion, just at the time when Fairbanks & Company had been intrusted with the selling agency for the typewriter. They needed some one to look after this branch of the business, and Yost recommended Seamans. Philo Remington thought him too young, and was not favorably disposed to the selection. Henry H. Benedict, however, strongly advised that Seamans be appointed, and this was finally done. Seamans entered upon his new work with enthusiasm and enterprise. He held his position with Fairbanks & Company for three years, and they were years of tremendous struggle. Nevertheless some progress was made, and in the year 1881, when E. Remington & Sons decided to take over the selling agency, the efficient work already done by Seamans resulted in his appointment as the sales head of their typewriter business. Under this new arrangement progress became more pronounced, but still the business was absurdly small, judged by present-day standards. The actual sales in this year numbered 1200 machines.