The Worcester of eighteen hundred and ninety-eightFifty years a city . e receivedfor each machine sold being suffi-cient to build two of the Swiftspatent. The Reay machine andthe Swift patent were folding-machines, which fastened the bag partof the envelope, but did not gum the flap. This had to be done byhand, and the desideratum now was a machine which would perform thisoperation in addition to what these could compass. After much cooper-ative study and effort this was successfully accomplished by the brothers,and in 1875 the Swift self-gumming machine was patented. This machineincluded the
The Worcester of eighteen hundred and ninety-eightFifty years a city . e receivedfor each machine sold being suffi-cient to build two of the Swiftspatent. The Reay machine andthe Swift patent were folding-machines, which fastened the bag partof the envelope, but did not gum the flap. This had to be done byhand, and the desideratum now was a machine which would perform thisoperation in addition to what these could compass. After much cooper-ative study and effort this was successfully accomplished by the brothers,and in 1875 the Swift self-gumming machine was patented. This machineincluded the counting and registering mechanisms, which made itpossible for one girl to operate two machines. At the end of ten yearsthirtv-one had been constructed and were in operation in the Whit-comb factory, giving that concern a great advantage over its a short time the Swift automatic printing-press was produced, theuse of which enabled the Whitcomb Company to obtain the contract forprinting the envelopes of the Western Union Telegraph Company, a result. WHEELER SWIFT. The Worcester of 1898. 483 of great pecuniary benefit to the proprietors of the factory, the Swiftshaving assigned to them the controlling right in all their patents. TheWhitcomb manufactory with these advantages largely increased its capacityof production, and soon outstripped all its rivals. At the time of theformation of the Logan, Swift & Brigham Company, it had become thelargest envelope factory in this country if not in the world. The causesinfluencing and the circumstances attending the forming of the new com-pany, with which the Swifts associated themselves, need not be enteredinto in this sketch. The record of the advance of this enterprise is one ofhard struggle, desperate courage, wonderful persistency and great patienceunder formidable difficulties at first, and complete triumph and success inthe end. All the obstacles to mechanical execution in the business had tobe overcome anew by meth
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