Paymaster Corp., est. 1917 - Made-in-Chicago Museum

PAYMASTER CORP SHARE OF THE DAY

Museum Artifact: Paymaster Series X-550 Check Writer Machine, 1960s

Made By: The Paymaster Corp., 1811 W. Winnemac Ave., Chicago, IL [Ravenswood]

“The only way to have the Paymaster system when you NEED it is to have one all the time—NOW!”—tagline from 1951 Paymaster sales manual

Often kept well out of sight in the backrooms of banks and the HR departments of small businesses, the nearly 15-pound Paymaster X-550 Check Writer had the heft and durability of a small burglary safe. Only, instead of storing cash in it, this magical machine produced its own money . . . in a manner of speaking. As the name would suggest, a pull of the Paymaster’s handle activated an internal pressure bar and ink rollers, which then stamped down the monetary value (selected via the levers under “DOLLARS” and “CENTS”) on to an inserted blank check.

Devices like this were the integral conduits through which millions of paychecks and billions of dollars were distributed to workers for much of the mid-to-late 20th century. They were also the best friend of the business owner, as the tiny pin-point perforations the machine created in each check offered a useful defense against fraudsters.

There were several large national manufacturers of check writers (aka check protectors), including Chicago’s Hedman MFG Co., makers of the F&E Check Writer. The biggest name in the business after WWII, however, was the Paymaster Corporation, whose army of freelance salesmen helped put new models like the X-550 in offices from Fort Bragg, California to Fort Bragg, North Carolina. Each of those machines was manufactured at Paymaster’s Chicago factory, produced by a dedicated workforce that excelled and bonded with one another in the face of an often unsympathetic, union-busting executive board.
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