page_title: Smith Corona
section_title: Mid-century
hierarchical_section_title: Smith Corona / History / Mid-century
caption_attribution_description: English: The Silent Speedline was the top of the line portable model from Smith Corona from 1939 to 1949. This specimen (S/N: 4S 180130) dates from 1948.
context_page_description: Smith Corona is an American manufacturer of thermal labels, direct thermal labels, and thermal ribbons used in warehouses for primarily barcode labels. Once a large U.S. typewriter and mechanical calculator manufacturer, it expanded aggressively during the 1960s to become a broad-based industrial conglomerate whose products extended to paints, foods, and paper. The mechanical calculator sector was wiped out in the early 1970s by the production of cheap electronic calculators, and the typewriter business collapsed in the mid-1980s due to the introduction of PC-based word processing.
  Smith Corona addressed this by manufacturing word processing typewriters such as PWP 1400 model. Its competitors were Brother, Olivetti, Adler, Olympia and IBM. In late 2010, Smith Corona entered the industrial ribbon and label market.
  The company no longer manufacturers typewriters or calculators, but does manufacture large quantities of barcode and shipping labels and thermal ribbons used in thermal transfer printers. Their facility is in Cleveland, Ohio. Smith Corona now competes with distributors of Zebra Technologies supplies, packaging companies like Uline and various other private companies.
context_section_description: After the war, the company concentrated on making its typewriters more convenient and efficient for use in business offices. Typewriter sales peaked after World War II; in response to a demand for typewriters capable of faster output, Smith Corona introduced electric typewriters in 1955. Electric portables, intended for traveling writers and business people, but later widely purchased for general home use, were introduced in 1957. The new portable electric typewriters would become an essential tool for generations of U.S. high school and college students.
  In a diversification move into the wider office technology sector, Smith Corona purchased the Kleinschmidt Corporation in 1956 and Marchant Calculator in 1958, changing its corporate name to Smith-Corona Marchant Inc. Also in 1958, Smith Corona acquired British Typewriters, Ltd. of West Bromwich, England, a company that made small portable typewriters. The company invented the typewriter power carriage return in 1960, the same year it moved from Syracuse to Cortland, New York and opened new corporate headquarters on Park Avenue in New York City. 1960 also saw the company's first foray into the photocopier business with the Vivicopy range of machines, also the accounting machinery market with a range of punch card and tape products manufactured for it in Germany by Kienzle. Still on the acquisition trail, SCM acquired the St. Louis Microstatic Company in 1961. This merger gave rise to the Model 33 Electrostatic Copier, which went on sale in April 1962.
  Thus by the mid-1960s SCM had become a major supplier to the office equipment market, offering photocopiers, typewriters and calculating machines.
  In 1962, Smith Corona changed its corporate name to SCM Corporation and adopted the tribar SCM logo. In 1967, SCM purchased the Allied Paper Corporation for $33 million. The new paper-making division was named SCM Allied Paper. In the same year, SCM also merged with The Glidden paint company. Glidden was reorganized as the Glidden-Durkee division of SCM. One reason for this merger was that Glidden saw SCM's bid as a "White Knight" bid in preference to an alternative offer from Greatamerica Corporation in Dallas, Texas and General Anniline & Film of New York. In its turn, the acquisition put the (now much larger) SCM itself beyond the reach of any potential hostile bidders of the time. It was also hoped that Glidden's research into paper coatings would be useful in SCM's copier business.
  The "Letterpack" product of 1967 was a handset on which personal voice messages could be recorded on small tape cartridges which could be mailed to the recipient (who needed another handset to replay it). The cartridges lasted 3, 6 or 10 minutes, and a pair of handsets cost $7.
  In 1965, SCM was instrumental in developing smaller computers for the business market. The basic computer consisted of an electric typewriter, plug boards, card readers, paper and mag tape readers. The client would purchase a computer and programs specifically designed for their operation. This data processing division was eventually sold to Control Data Corporation in the early '70s.
  In 1966, SCM bought the consumer product company Proctor Silex, manufacturers of toasters and can-openers.
  In 1973, a new typewriter manufacturing facility, employing 1,300 people, was erected in Singapore.
caption: The "Speedline" series portables were made from 1939 to 1948.
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