our modest presence on the World Wide Web. We have had a presence world wide since our humble beginnings in 1919...as manufacturers of one-time, and multi-use pencil and typewriter carbons and inks..the finest in the world today.. ..
Read about the exciting history of carbon paper......
Stenno Carbon Co., is located in Portland, Oregon, Indianapolis, Indiana (Stenno/Midwest) and Parsons, Kansas (Stenno Carbon Co. LLC/Kansas Division). As sister companies, we now have a presence on the World Wide Web. And we thank you for finding your way to our new web site. We're glad you came. Please visit us as often as you wish as our site will be continually up-dated with new and exciting information (and maybe a few pictures from our fishing trips, too). Please sign our guest book and comment on anything appropriate. Thanks for visiting us.....
.....ONLINE DICTIONARY...click on the link.
Stenno Carbon Co.
We trace our humble beginnings to 1919 in Portland, Oregon, the City of Roses, to a location on Northeast Sandy Boulevard where we manufactured cloth typewriter ribbons, register rolls, multi-use pencil carbons and our "Stenno-Jet" typewriter carbon. After a few moves on Sandy Boulevard from 1919 to about the mid l930's we relocated to a four story building located at 3207 S.W. First Ave. on the south side of downtown Portland. The building still stands today! This is where we began coating paper for the manufacture of salesbooks. And the salesbook was the beginning of the "business form" as we know it today. Our motto then was "STENNO-THE GUARANTEED LINE" and it continues as our philosophy today, almost 80 years later. Our manufacture and sales of boxed typewriter and pencil carbon, together with inked ribbons were directed, primarily, to government agencies, both federal and state. In addition we sold specialty packaged carbon paper and ribbon products to what was refered as "five and dime" stores: Remember Sprouse-Reitz, Woolworth's, Newberry's, H.J. Kress and the like? The five and dime stores sold small packets (8 and 12 count) of "school" carbon paper for the typewriter classes. I can remember in the late 50's in my typing class having to type a "timed" test with three carbons. We were allowed 5 errors in a five minute timed test. And have things changed!
As the years progressed, so did Stenno. In the early 1950's unit set business forms began replacing the "old" salesbook
presentation of forms. And in this was born one-time carbon paper. In the later l950's (around 1956-57) continuous forms (Tab
Forms) began their approach into the market place. In 1957, Mr. Dick Waters and Andrew Leon purchased Stenno Ribbon & Carbon Co. from
George Koehn and began the earnest manufacture of one-time carbon paper as associated with the southern California manufacturing facility, Valley
Carbon Company. Valley had started out years earlier manufacturing one-time carbon out of a group of garages rented from an apartment building
in Culver City, California. Dick Waters began his career in carbon paper in the mid 1940s in St. Louis, MO as "Waters and Waters Manufacturing",
while Andy Leon was an expert machinist who crafted machinery from dick Waters' ideas. Together they were the "kings" of the west coast with Valley
Carbon Company (Northridge, CA), Bay Carbon Co. (San Francisco, CA) and Stenno Carbon Co. (Portland, OR).
In May of 1969, Stenno Carbon Company moved to its' present location. A 40,000 square foot building in the Saint Johns area of Portland which, design wise, could not have been improved upon at all for the manufacture of one-time carbon paper. In this location, our primary focus has always been the production of one-time carbon paper and inks. At the time of moving into the new building we were the world leaders in the manufacturing of tele-type rolls before the personal computers came upon the scene.
As the business climate changed, so did Stenno's direction of sales. Today we are manufacturing one-time and multi-use inks that are sold all over the world. We have etched out a market place from very humble beginnings to world wide sales of all carbon paper and related products. We are currently woman owned by the same family of the Dick Waters era. Stenno can be reached at the following:
Bay Carbon Co., Inc.
Born as a warehouse extension of the southern California facility, Valley Carbon Company, Bay Carbon Company opened their doors in the summer of 1958 in San Francisco, California on Fitzgerald Avenue. At one time, the printing business was the second largest industry in San Francisco. Moore Business Forms was located in Oakland as was UARCO Business Forms. Additionally, Standard Register, Diamond National, Redi-Rite (Victor Business Forms/and Control Data) was also located in the Bay area. Bay Carbon Company remained at the Fitzgerald address until 1971 when they moved to the location on Airport Blvd. in South San Francisco, California. On June 1, 2000 the manufacturing operation of Bay Carbon Company was merged and moved to the Stenno location in Portland, Oregon. After almost 50 years of servicing the business forms manufacturer, Bay Carbon Company was closed. The email address continues to be a viable internet address, poised for your comments and suggestions. e-mail address: baycarbon@earthlink.net
Stenno/Midwest
Born as a manufacturing extension of Stenno Carbon Co., Portland, Oregon, Stenno/Midwest opened in mid-October, 1997. We have added machinery (two 48" coaters and a Stevens Spot Coater with interchangeable heads) for manufacturing carbon papers for use in the mid-west and east coast. As of February 1, 1998, we are manufacturning one-time carbon paper from this location, both stock and made to order items. We would appreciate the support that you have given us in the past. We await your orders!
Stenno/Kansas Division
Originally founded in Parsons, Kansas in 1997 as Independent Specialty Coatings, LLC, Stenno's Kansas Division was purchased and joined the Stenno family on May 1, 1999. There has been an operating carbon coating facitity located in Parsons since 1972, and the present operation is managed and staffed by a group of people with over 150 years of combined experience in the business Forms industy. We offer a complete line of carbon paper products through this facility, including all grades of one-time carbon, multi-use and typewriter carbons, spot carbon and sheet carbon. We are now capable of servicing the southern and southeastern areas of the country from this location. We look forward to our present customer base's continuing support, and to a future relationship with new customers as we continue to grow!
