Noiselessly Mesmerising: The Story of the Noiseless Typewriter - Part I

Rocky Road: 1909-1914

It was a slow and jolty start. The 1916 image above represents the "second coming" of the Noiseless Typewriter Company, which started life in Middletown, Connecticut, in the middle of 1909. Within a year it was laying off workers, and in 1912 declaring it was having to make a "fresh start" amid rumours it was the target of a planned Union Typewriter Trust takeover. The overhauled Noiseless typewriter - originally designed by Wellington Parker Kidder on commssion from Charles Carroll Colby - was launched at a business show in New York City in the middle of 1915, and by 1921 the company was thriving. But just before Christmas that year, the company's main backer and president, William Caryl Ely, of Buffalo, suddenly died, at the age of 65. It was downhill for Noiseless after that, until production at Middletown was taken over by Remington in 1924.

Above, Typewriter Topics, 1909; below 1910

 

Below, 1911

Tomorrow: The Golden Years - 1915-1920