Details

Name

L. C. Smith & Brothers

Brief Biography

1903 - 1926, American

Occupation

Typewriter Manufacturing

Description

L. C. Smith & Bros. Typewriter Company was founded in 1903. This company originated from the Smith Premier Typewriter Company founded in 1886 by four brothers formerly in the gun manufacturing business: Lyman, Wilbert, Monroe, and Hurlburt Smith. They created the first machine to use both uppercase and lowercase letters and in 1887 the Smith-Premier was manufactured. Alexander T. Brown, an employee, invented the machine, and Wilbert financed the construction of the prototype. In 1893, the company joined with the Union Typewriter Company, a trust which included rival firms Remington, Caligraph, Densmore and Yost. The Smith brothers quit this union when they blocked them from using a new front strike design. They started their own company and released the 'L.C. Smith & Bros. Model No. 2', followed a year later by the Model No. 1. Carl Gabrielson was the inventor of both. In 1906, the Rose Typewriter Company of New York City marketed the first successful portable typewriter. Bought out entirely in 1909, they were renamed the Standard Typewriter Company and in 1914 the success of their Corona model, resulted in another rename; Corona Typewriter Company. In 1926 they united with L. C. Smith & Bros to create Smith Corona. L. C. Smith & Bros. made office typewriters and Corona Typewriter made portables.