Was Wahl Wahl?

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There was something curious I noted in yesterday’s article that played into something I’ve wondered about for a long time.  I’ve been a huge fan of Eversharp as long as I’ve been collecting, and I’ve always thought the crown jewel of any Eversharp collection would be to have an example of the Wahl Adding Machine calculating attachment.  The attachments were the company’s flagship product from its founding in 1905 until the company sold its adding machine division to Remington in 1920.

The company’s fortunes were founded on this little device.  So, after I’ve looked for an example for so many years without success, I’ve been left to wonder: if these little doohickeys were made in great enough numbers to support the large capital infrastructure and manufacturing capabilities for full-scale production . . . where did they all go?  It’s not like old typewriters haven’t survived in great numbers, including the Remington models 10 and 11 to which it was typically attached, so you can’t blame scrappers for melting them all down.

And why, if Wahl Adding Machine was so successful making these little attachments for Remington, would the company in 1915 thought it would make sense to start making pencils for Charles Keeran, when the company had absolutely no experience with making writing instruments?

These were the questions that have been rattling around in my brain which rattled quite a bit louder when I read the first sentence in the Moody’s 1924 writeup for Wahl:

“Inc. Dec. 19, 1910 in Del. as the Jones Printing Press & Mfg. Co.; name changed to Miehle Printing Press & Mfg. Co. on January 11, 1911, and again changed to Wahl Adding Machine Co. Oct 28, 1911; present name adopted November 27, 1917.”

When I read that sentence, the first thing I thought was that there isn’t one thing correct in that whole sentence.  Our collectors’ lore tells us the Wahl Adding Machine Company was founded in 1905 and blissfully made their adding machines in a citadel on the hill until Charles Keeran bumbled in and caused the multi-million dollar concern to say, “To hell with these adding machines.  Let’s do pens and pencils instead.”

Of course, the version of the story I knew doesn’t make any sense either, does it?

If Moody’s had things all wrong, they weren’t alone.  Exactly the same account appears in Burnham’s Manual of Midwestern Securities for 1921:

And also in Poor’s Supplement, the predecessor to Standard & Poor’s:

OK, I thought.  Three respected securities manuals saying the same thing?  Let’s go back and see just how much of that collectors’ lore we think we know sticks.

The first step in this alternate history was the incorporation of the Jones Printing Press and Manufacturing Company in December, 1910.  I was able to substantiate part of that – Walden’s Stationer and Printer picked up news of the incorporation in its February 25, 1911 issue, although Walden’s stated that it was an Illinois corporation, rather than one formed in Delaware.  Although incorporating in Delaware is what the cool kids do, a plain ol’ home state incorporation in Wahl’s backyard makes a lot more sense:

Although . . . the Illinois Secretary of State’s report shows the incorporation of Jones as a Delaware Corporation on January 7, 1911 – note that this is the date Jones was approved to do business in Illinois, which would explain the slight discrepancy in the date from the securities guide listings:

And then . . . nothing, which is consistent with a prompt “name change” to Miehle Printing Press and Manufacturing Company just four days later, on January 11.  I did find some sporadic references to “Jones Printing Presses” much earlier, in the 1880s, but given the generic name, I can’t say whether it is the same Jones.

Step two is more problematic: Jones couldn’t have changed its name to Miehle, since Miehle had been around for many years prior to 1911 (one source reports the company was founded in 1890).  One reported court case against the company was published in 1905.  At the time, the Court characterized Miehle as "a printing press manufacturer, having a place of business in New York, and its principal manufactory in Chicago":

Miehle was a massive manufacturing operation turning out huge metal printing presses.  Their advertisements boasted “nine acres of floor space devoted exclusively to the manufacture of two-revolution presses”:

Miehle’s operations were headquartered in Chicago, at the corner of 14th and Robey.  They were there before the Wahl Adding Machine Company was incorporated in 1905, and they were there after Wahl moved into the company’s familiar headquarters at 1800 Roscoe Street, Chicago, as announced in The American Stationer on June 19, 1917:

So even though Miehle couldn’t have “changed its name” to Wahl Adding Machine Company, could Miehle have been the manufacturer of Wahl’s early typewriting attachments? 

Maybe.  Tracing Wahl’s history backwards, I hit a dead end.   Prior to the construction of Wahl’s familiar pencil factory on Roscoe, Wahl Adding Machine was located at 232 East Ohio Street, Chicago.  The earliest reference I could find for the company’s location was at that address, in the 1910 Chicago City Directory:

Remington was likely Wahl’s only customer for the adding machines Wahl was making – that would likely explain why the only listing for the company in the directory was in the direct listings, rather than the “yellow pages” portion.  Wahl is conspicuously absent from the “adding machines” section of the directory, although ten or so other firms were.

Now here’s the weird part: I can’t find any information concerning where Wahl’s adding machines were made prior 1910.  Wahl was incorporated in 1905 specifically to make adding machines for typewriters; with such a wide variety of typewriter configurations at the time, unless they were making fifty different versions for fifty different typewriters, they must have been making them to fit the ubiquitous Remington.  But for its first two years, Wahl was on his own -- he didn't secure a deal with Remington until 1907.

So Wahl didn’t need to advertise, which is why there don’t appear to be any showing where the company was “located” prior to 1910.  During those early years, was the Wahl Adding Machine Company making their own product, or did Wahl source production out to a large machine shop with significant manufacturing operations until it built up their own capabilities in-house – a firm such as Miehle Printing Press & Manufacturing, perhaps?

More than perhaps, I think.  Damned likely, I should say.  I don’t think Moody’s, Poor’s and Burnham’s all made a gross mistake: I think in keeping with their mission, they were providing investors with Wahl’s known associations to explain – albeit awkwardly – how Wahl got to be Wahl.  It would make sense for John Wahl to find an established company to manufacture his machines in 1905 – especially without a contract in place with Remington.

And then when Charles Keeran darkened Wahl’s door in 1915, history would repeat itself.  Just as John Wahl likely did ten years earlier, here was another inventor just looking for a way to build the next greatest thing.