The long-lost Wm F. Messer

[Allen]

While researching the history of the famous 'July 29, 1902' patent of William Messer (the one we see on the rims of Lambert and Indestructible cylinders), I realized that we don't know (exactly) what eventually became of him. He helped to make the Lambert Co profitable by allowing the cylinders to be manufactured in one piece, instead of requiring thicker celluloid and separately-attached (white) rims.

 

He was born in Illinois on June 11, 1874, to his parents John and Mary Messer, but similar to Lambert himself, he lost both parents while still a teenager. He would marry a British girl 5 years younger than he, Ruth Corbett, and had 3 daughters with her: Dorothy, Mildred, and Gladys. His wife died rather young in March of 1917 (38yo) and she is buried in Chicago with HIS parents, BUT her husband is nowhere to be found, there or anywhere else. Little if anything is seen of him after his WWI Draft Card of late 1918, and he cannot be found in the 1920 US Census.

 

We shall have to give a Reward to anyone who can document what happened to him or when he died.

Watch for the rest of the story in the September issue of "Antique Phonograph."

 

We also deal with the story, enunciated as fact in two major reference books (Sutton/Marco), that Thomas Lambert went to England in 1902; a re-reading of the major legal Court Cases of the period, and a thorough sifting of trans-Atlantic Ship Manifests, shows that this curious episode never happened!

 

Thanks again to all who helped make "The Many Colors of Thomas B. Lambert" possible.

 

Allen

 

[Analogous]

Thanks for whetting our appetites for the article!