The Marchant Calculator Instruction Manuel owned by the Clatsop County Surveyor, Gelo Parker
Publisher: Marchant Calculating Machine Company
Published: circa 1913
Language: eng
Number of pages: 38
Subjects: Gelo Parker; Marchant Calculator; Marchant Calculating Machine Company; Marchant; Pony Model; mathematics
Description: <div>Paperback instruction manual with brown covers and black lettering. The front and back covers have a band of black stripes running top to bottom on the left side. Written at the top of the front cover it says, "Gelo F. Parker, County Surveyor, Astoria.**" There are two pieces of masking tape along the bottom left spine in an attempt to hold the booklet together. The back cover has the advertisement for the calculator that says, "The Marchant makes your figures tell the truth." Overall condition of the booklet is very poor - the covers are completely loose from the pages, and the page edges are ripped and torn in many places. Size: 7" x 10.25"</div><div><br /></div><div>**Gelo Parker was Clatsop County Surveyor from 1908 - 1934. <br /></div><div><br /></div><div>***from: https://www.mortati.com/glusker/marchant/since1910/p1.htm<br /></div><div><font size="-1" face="Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif"><strong>The Beginning</strong></font><font face="Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif">

      </font><p><font size="-1" color="#666666">The

          beginning of the Marchant story is also the beginning of the history

          of the calculating machine industry in the United States. America’s

          first mechanical calculator made for commercial use bore the Marchant

        name. </font></p>

      <p><font size="-1" color="#666666">A crude, wallpapered back room of a small store in downtown Oakland,

        California, was the birthplace of the first American-made calculating

        machine. The first Marchant was produced in painfully laborious fashion

        by hand and with the aid of simple machinery. </font></p>

      <p><font size="-1" color="#666666">This was the brain child and handiwork of Rodney and Alfred Marchant,

        businessman and mechanical mind respectively, who were associated in

        a partnership with two other brothers, Gordon, who operated the foundry,

        and Cyril, who was the traveling salesman.</font></p>

      

      <p><font size="-1" face="Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif"><strong>The First Marchant</strong></font></p>

      <font face="Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif">

        </font><p><font size="-1" color="#666666">Their first Model, called the “Standard,” was a lever-set,

        hand-operated calculator. It was cranked like a coffee grinder, and it

        sounded like one, but it turned out the answers for addition, subtraction,

        multiplication and division accurately and efficiently…although

        slowly by today’s standards.</font></p>

        <p><font size="-1" color="#666666">During the first two or three years, production in the small shop was

        necessarily slow and limited. As each machine was finished one of the

        brothers would tuck it under his arm and start ringing door bells.</font></p>

        <p><font size="-1" color="#666666">Mechanized figuring proved to have a strong appeal to businessmen. The

        ready sale of the machines encouraged the Marchant brothers to incorporate

        in 1913. A new name for the business, Marchant Calculating Machine Company

        was adopted.</font></p>

            

      <p><font size="-1" face="Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif" color="#666666">Faith in the product was rewarded by constantly mounting sales. Word

        about the utility of the Marchant calculators was spreading throughout

        the country. Selling trips by company principals and representatives

    place Marchants in use in most parts of the nation.</font>                </p></div><div><br /></div>