1872.05.21 English

Patent  Agency,
   

<address w:st="on">514  Ninth Street;</address>

 

 

Royal Swedish and Norwegian Vice Consulate, Washington, May 21st 1872[1]

 

 

            Mr. Tho. Schmidt.                  Legation Secretary New York.

 

Dear friend.

 

            Enclosed I am forwarding you a cheque of $ 550 for your kind purchase of 2 return tickets for my wife and myself and 2 tickets (at $ 100 each) for Mr Lauritzen and his wife. Please select 2 good state-rooms for us, and I hope to have the pleasure of meeting you on Thursday next week and thank you for your inconvenience.-  Please keep the balance of the money until I get to New York.      I cannot send you Reverend Hansen’s typing machine[2] until next week – I only have the one machine, and since it is to be demonstrated towards the end of this week[3] I cannot send it before that.     You will receive everything I have in my possession related to this machine. And I hope to have time in New York to show you everything about how to operate the machine etc.[4]- -

 

     When it is convenient for you, kindly let me know whether one can dispatch one’s luggage directly to the good ship “Humboldt” – it would be easiest and by far best option. –

 

                                   Yours faithfully

 

                                    C.F.Clausen

 

                                (in great haste)

 

 

[1] JMC: Handwritten letter with pre-printed letterhead

[2] JMC: In his letters to Schmidt, Clausen uses three different designations: ‘typewriter’, ‘writing or typing machine’ and ‘writing ball’. This is probably connected to the fact that this was very early days for the invention, and there wasn’t as yet a settled term.

[3] JMC: Clausen was preparing to show the machine to members of the very important Japanese diplomatic and trade mission, lead by Prince Iwakura, that toured the U.S.A. at the time and later on visited some 20 European countries, looking for technical and scientific innovations, among many other tasks. See photo and footnotes to letter 18720426.

[4] JMC: In an earlier letter – see 18720506 – Clausen encouraged Thomas Schmidt to take over the responsibility for the marketing of RMH’s patent