Cambridge History Minute: Can You Name This Machine?

CAMBRIDGE, MA — If an inventor is in love with riding the bicycle, he'll want to publish a bicycling magazine, and if he wants to publish a bicycling magazine he'll want to mail those issues with efficiency. And if he wants to mail those issues out with efficiency, he'll want to make his own addressing machine.

That's the gist of the story behind the Elliot Addressing Machine, which today sits in the offices of the Cambridge Historical Society. It was built in the late 1800s by inventor Sterling Elliot.

In 1882, Sterling Elliot landed his first patent at age 22. Putting out his cycling magazine, he was "unsatisfied with the selection of (addressing) machines and decided that he could build a better one himself," according to a description attached to the machine today.

"One year later, in 1898, Elliot produced his first addressing machines, which were manufactured in his factory in Watertown, Massachusetts and on sale for the first time in 1900," the note says. "Due to the success of his invention, in 1911, the Elliots left their factory in Watertown and constructed a three story factory at 143 Albany St. in Cambridge. To accommodate their growing business, the factory was expanded in 1913 to include two additional floors."

The Elliot and his son tinkered and updated his reinvented addressing machine numerous times over its existence.

According to the note, "The demise of the company began in 1959 when Harmon Elliot sold the company to Bessemer Securities of New York in order to retire. Part of the terms of the original sale included keeping the factory in Cambridge and retaining all of the original workers. Bessemer invested millions of dollars in modernizations of the factory and the management. However, after a few years of their investments not paying off they sold Elliot to Dymo Industries. During Elliot’s time under Dymo the factory was moved to Randolph, Massachusetts and the name was changed first to Elliot Business Machines then in 1973 to Dymo Business Systems. Though the name Elliot ceased to exist or produce addressing machines in the early seventies the Randolph factory continued to produce a variety of other products for various parent companies. In 1978, the President of the Randolph factory was able to buy it from Swedish conglomerate Esselte, it operated independently as Addressograph-Farrington Inc. or AFI until 1986 when it was sold to Data-card, which closed the factory in 1987."

Every few weeks, Patch will be featuring images from the Cambridge Historical Society and other sources to give you a glimpse into the city's past. Send your historic family photos or images of city life to alison.bauter@patch.com for a chance to be featured on Cambridge Patch.