The history of the Marchant company

Marchant Calculating Machine Company was founded in 1911 by Rodney and Alfred Marchant in Oakland California USA. The company built mechanical and electromechanical calculators. They started with Odhner pinwheel type of machines and build them til 1930's. The inventor Harold T. Avery created the new technology and named it "Silent Speed Proportional Gears"
In 1918, employee Carl Friden designed a machine model, with this new technology. It was a great success, and Friden became the chief designer. These machines which were twice as fast than the competition, running at 1,300 cycles per minute. Mr. Friden left the company in 1934 to found his own company.

In 1958 the Marchant was acquired by the Smith Corona company and the corporation change name to SCM. In the same time frame, Marchant introduced the TKM ( Ten Key Matic ) which was built by Hamann in Germany. This was a 10 key machine with the Switching Latch Wheel calculating technology . It was later redesigned and called the Model 505 which was finished in Cream and Blue colours.
They also acquired the Allied Paper company and release the Model 55 electrostatic liquid copy machine that was being built in Skoie, Illinois.
In 1963 SCM moved the calculator factory from Oakland California, where it had been located for more than 50 years, to Orangeburg South Carolina. During this time they released the 'Model Consolidation' with new, more modern covers, such Models as the CMF - CM - CDF - CD and SK, were included in this new line.

The Diehl line of calculators were made in Germany and consisted of several mechanical printing calculators with such designations as 212, 312, 416 and 416S and one rotary calculator with 'back transfer,' designated the VSR, which looked very much like a Friden. These were perhaps the very finest mechanical calculators ever build. They had great customer acceptance and operated very well.

More info at serial numbers: http://www.vintagecalculators.com/html/marchant.html

More company information: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marchant_calculator