The Beginning of a Great Industry.
By this time, Mr. Duncan had moved his base of operations from Iowa to Chicago. So well was his first practical model of the addressograph received by Chicago business men that he sold the first half-dozen manufactured within a short time. Enthused with his success, Mr. Duncan decided to enter into the manufacture and sale of addressographs on as extensive a basis as the demand for his invention warranted. But to do this it was necessary for him to secure more capital. Consequently, he interested Mr. J. B. Hall—a Chicago business man—in his project, and in January, 1896, Mr. Duncan and Mr. Hall formed a partnership and called it the “Addressograph Company.”
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.
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.