Typewriter Database Update: Molle!

Well, this one wasn’t bad, though I did all the grunt work of hunting down sources before I found Robert Messenger’s blog post from Jan, 2013 where he’d already done most of that grunt work. Turned out to be a good thing, as I turned up just a couple bits that prolly weren’t available when Robert did his post. It appears that Molle formed his company twice, (first in 1907, later in December of 1911, presumably with a bankruptcy in between), which would indicate that the Molle No. 1 and No. 2 were probably meant to be sold by Molle Typewriter Co., even if the No. 1 was (maybe, but probably not) built in Dayton and supposed to be called the “Jundt”. It’s tough to tell, because the Tertiary sources we get the “Jundt” part of the story from are unspecific about *their* sources, so we can’t really go back and check.

Messenger relates a Typewriter Topics announcement of Molle finally completing their own factory in 1915, just 2 years after the No. 2 is patented and a year after an attempt is supposedly made to bring it to production. My impression from what I’ve read is that Molle probably had developed enough improvements on the No. 2 before they had the factory built that they didn’t actually intend to bring it to market until it had been improved to the No. 3 – thus no name for the No. 2. There’s no data to tell for sure, though, but I’m seeing plenty of indications that he designed *all* of his machines for his own company. This is 180 degrees from my reading of Tertiary sources which seem to imply that Molle designed his first 2 machines for *other* companies.

There’s still holes – that chunk of missing Typewriter Topics from 1908-1914 is sorely felt, as are the missing issues prior to 1907 and that yawning chasm after 1922. Still, it’s a bit more filled out, and you get some context of what was happening in the business side, plus production amounts for the whole of 1919 and the first 3 months of 1920, which will be useful if we ever get a good grip on what the upper range of serial numbers is.

For your enjoyment: Molle Typewriter