Willam Palmer Papers

Box 1 (1-4) consists of miscellaneous business records pertaining to the United Verde Copper Company from 1913 to 1916. These records include accounts, blue prints, calculations, diagrams, estimates, power costs, price lists, and work orders. The majority of the correspondence from 1913 to 1918 is from T.C. Roberts, the Chief Engineer at the United Verde and Pacific Railway Company in Clarkdale, Arizona. Subjects include the water situation in Clarkdale and sidewalk construction. There are also letters from William Palmer, who provides business updates. The correspondence from 1920 to 1922 mostly concerns Palmer's time at the Columbia Graphophone Company where he was General Superintendent of Engineering. The letters include technical reports and the development of a radiophone. Folder 7 consists of miscellaneous correspondence related to investments and the construction of a professional building in New York. The correspondence from 1931 to 1932 concerns the financing of the Northern Champlain Bridge, which replaced the ferry at the northern end of Lake Champlain in Vermont. Palmer was the construction engineer for this project. The subject matter from 1933 to 1939 documents the estate of Rodolphus N. Swift. The title to the Tioga Mines in Mono County, California, originates with the Swift estate. There is one letter [undated], which advertises commercial linoleum. Box 1 also includes photostats of performance data from Westinghouse Electric & Mfg. Co., three diagrams, financial records, mining deeds related to the Swift family, and a lease.

Box 2 also includes legal documents related to the Swift estate and several agreements. There are also maps and tracts related to the Great Sierra Consolidated Silver Company (reproduction), United Verde Copper Company, Columbia Graphophone Company, and Tioga Mining Company. Notes include the "Palmer-Messer Process," which is the extraction of mercury bearing ores or other sulphides by amalgamation, which Palmer applied to patent around 1932. There is a folder with miscellaneous notes related to Tioga Mining Company, including calculations, claim ties, and legal notes. Another folder contains notes regarding a record press. Miscellaneous plans and drawings pertaining to United Verde Copper Company, archways, building, and kitchen cabinets are also included. There is also a folder with miscellaneous prices and estimates from various manufacturers and firms, which include asphalt, brick machinery, cement, brick, electrical wiring, and lumber work. These lists were once contained in a binder and include an index.

Box 3 includes reports related to the geology of the Comstock Lode by George F. Becker, a shellac shipment, and a summary report of matrices stopped by the Columbia Graphophone Company. There is a short story entitled "The Double Double-Cross" by Sidney Sutherland about two wise-cracking touts named the El Paso Kid and Rubber Lip. There are also two specifications, one for Dictaphone wax and the other for a revolving screen for the Canadian Copper Company. There is also an administrative survey by the Columbia Graphophone Company about the organization and methods along with a review and forecast of its financial condition. This was prepared for the President and Board of Directors by Holton, Richard and Company, Inc. The remainder of the box consists of ephemeral items such as newsletters, bulletins, and miscellaneous articles removed from periodicals. Some of these items are photostats.