The Burlingame Telegraphing Typewriter Project

I first became aware of Elmer Allah Burlingame several years ago while working on a Burlingame family genealogy.  A distant relative sent me two printed pages of information about Elmer Burlingame, and it was of a nature that I was certain that it was the product of a genealogy mill.  One of the sheets was the "Burlingame Bulletin" [Click here to view it in PDF] and it consisted of endless testimonials about Burlingame that indicated that he was a combination of Tesla, Edison, Steinmetz, Einstein, Alger and Bell.  It was pretty putrid stuff.  I realize now that it was part of the hype for a stock prospectus for the Burlingame Telegraphing Typewriter Company.  Burlingame was apparently the inventor of this wondrous machine.  The other was a clipping sheet [Click here to view it in PDF] from newspaper articles about Burlingame and his wondrous machine.

Several years later I noticed a stock certificate on ebay for "The Burlingame Telegraphing Typewriter Company", and the hunt was on.  Since then I have gleaned  bits and pieces of information about Burlingame and his company, and they are presented in the following table.  If you have any information about this gentleman, I would certainly appreciate it.

The really strange thing about all of this is that I have yet to find any traces of the Burlingame Telegraphing Typewriter Company after about 1910.  What happened to them?  Was this a scam?  Did they go bankrupt?  Were they bought out by another company?  If you have any clues, please pass them on!

Update:  Jan Cook found this citation on line in Google Books.  Apparently it was a scam!

Elmer Burlingame Timeline

The device

What Burlingame Did

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