Remington Typewriter with Wahl Adding and Subtracting Attachment, 1908

John Conrades Wahl was born near Morrisonville, Illinois in 1876 and trained as a machinist and then a draughtsman.  He began his employment as a tool designer with the Universal Adding Company in St. Louis, Missori.  In 1903 he designed a visible typewriting machine and one year later he came up with his adding and subtracting attachments.  The Wahl Adding Machine Company was incorporated in 1905, and a plant was built in Chicago to manufacture the machines.  In 1907, an 18-year contract was signed with the Remington Typewriter Company. Before this was up, in 1920 the Remington Company bought all of the Wahl company's machinery, equipment and patents.  Wahl went on to form a new company to manufacture the "EverSharp" mechanical pencil that he had developed in 1915, as well as fountain pens.  In the mid- to late-1940's, the company put millions of dollars into developing their own ballpoint pen, including an expensive lawsuit against the Renolds Pen Company. The company, weakened by these expenditures, was bought by the Parker Pen Company, changing hands many times until recently being resurrected as the Wahl-Eversharp Company of Scotsdale, Arizona.