The Wonder Book of Knowledge: The Marvels of Modern Industry and Invention, the Interesting Stories of Common Things, the Mysterious Processes of Nature Simply Explained
History
The Wonder Book of Knowledge: The Marvels of Modern Industry and Invention, the Interesting Stories of Common Things, the Mysterious Processes of Nature Simply Explained
Industrial arts -- History
Mr. Hall’s first step was to find out what the leading business men of
his time thought of the addressograph. So he made a trip to New York
City--taking with him one of the little hand-operated chain
addressographs. Here, Mr. Hall called upon Henry Clews, J. Pierpont
Morgan and other prominent business men. He also visited the offices of
the large public service and insurance companies. In every case, Mr.
Hall was courteously received, but after demonstrating the addressograph
was told that while it was interesting and a step in the right
direction, it was still in too primitive a state to prove of any great
value in addressing a large list of names.
Answering Demand for Greater Speed.
Naturally, Mr. Hall’s first thought on his return to Chicago was to
induce Mr. Duncan to build a larger model, capable of greater speed and
greater output. Acting upon Mr. Hall’s suggestion, Mr. Duncan, in a
short time, perfected a larger chain addressograph, operated by
foot-lever and embodying several important improvements. As the
Addressograph Company was maintaining at that time only a small sales
office, a contract was let to the Blackman Machine Company, of Chicago,
to build fifteen of these new foot-lever chain addressographs. And it
was this new model which caused the addressograph to take its place in
the business world as one of the leading office appliances. Many of
these new chain addressographs were sold. Having formerly been engaged
in the public service field, Mr. Hall was quick to realize the
advantages which mechanical addressing offered to gas, electric light,
water and telephone companies. As a result, the majority of the first
addressograph sales were made to these lines of business.
[Illustration: RUBBER CHAIN ADDRESSOGRAPH OPERATED BY FOOT LEVER AND
MOUNTED IN WOOD CABINET]
With the constantly increasing use of the addressograph, suggestions for
improvement and further development were freely offered by addressograph
customers and just as liberally entertained by Mr. Duncan. As a result
of these suggestions, another important advance took place in
addressograph development. A customer, after writing words of praise
about his addressograph, suggested that if some means could be arrived
at to avoid the necessity of setting and resetting the individual pieces
of rubber type, a great saving in time and money could be accomplished
in making changes and additions to a list of names.
Invents Embossed Metal Address Plate.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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