Australia nearly had its own typewriter industry. Does that sound odd? It all started with the Demountable DEM07.
Let’s step back to March 1937. The Demountable Typewriter Australia Ltd was established in Sydney. The company had a hefty capital of £100000. The plan was ambitious. It involved moving the Demountable Typewriter Company’s factory. The factory was located in Fond du Lac. This city is at the bottom end of Lake Winnebago in Wisconsin. The idea was to “remount” it here in Sydney. The US Demountable Typewriter Company had closed the year before.
One of the project’s promoters was Leslie Percival Reed Bean. In 1919, he had started L. P. R. Bean & Co Ltd in Sydney. Bean imported radio and telephone equipment. He sourced it from Stromberg-Carlson in New York. By 1923, Bean’s company was manufacturing some equipment locally. They also imported Stromberg-Carlson radio products. Before 1927, Bean was producing five models of valve radio. He also made one crystal set under the Audiola brand. In 1927, the company became Stromberg-Carlson Australasia Ltd.
The driving force behind the Australian Demountable proposition was Stanley Edward Chatterton. He was the chairman of Woolworths in Australia. Chatterton was born in New Zealand in 1887. In 1919, he became the department manager of David Jones Ltd in Sydney.
Woolworths was established in Australia in 1924. The first store opened in Sydney on December 5 that year. It was in the Imperial Arcade on Pitt Street. The aim was to be a place “where good things were cheap”. Chatterton founded Woolworths with Harold Percival “Father” Christmas. Christmas was the company’s first managing director.
Apart from Chatterton and Bean, the other founding directors of Demountable Typewriter Australia Ltd were M.B.Young and H.A.Bowden. Sadly, the scheme failed. The Demountable’s tools and dies ended up in Italy.
The Demountable Typewriter Company started in New Jersey in 1911. It began as the Harris Typewriter Company. The machines were made in Fond du Lac. In 1914, the Harris company was reorganized. It became the Rex Typewriter Company. The Demountable typewriter appeared in 1921. The company name changed in 1923.
The Harris-Rex-Demountable was created by De Witt Clinton Harris. All four of his patents were granted on October 27 in 1914. Harris was born in Texas in 1876. In 1900, he was a salesman in Chicago. By 1921, he had moved to Florida. He resumed work on typewriters. He designed the components for the Demountable. In 1925, Harris designed a flashlight. He did this for the Burgess Battery Company.
So, while the Demountable DEM07 never truly took off here, it represents a fascinating what-if in Australia’s industrial history. It shows a bold attempt to establish a local typewriter industry.