Remington, Philo (1816-1889) to Edward Clark
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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC02764 Author/Creator: Remington, Philo (1816-1889) Place Written: Ilion, New York Type: Typed letter signed Date: 4 December 1877 Pagination: 2 p. ; 28 x 21.4 cm. Order a Copy
Signed as President of the Remington Company. Discusses debt owed to the Singer Company which he is not able to pay at this time. Remarks on why he entered into the manufacture of sewing machines, "It was not primarily to make money; ... the impelling motive which drove me into it, was to give my people, ... more especially our skilled labor, - to keep them with us contented in the intervals -- in the periods when we should be without military work." Clark was President of the Singer Company. Singer held Remington's sewing machine division debt. Typed on stationary from the Office of Remingtons Armory, Ilion, N.Y.
Remington was an American inventor and businessman who designed the breech-loading rifle that is named after him. He also began manufacturing typewriters in 1873, using the patent of Christopher Sholes, and made improvements that resulted five years later in the first machine with a shift key, thus providing lower-case letters as well as capital letters. This letter is typed in all capital letters.
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