Talk:Henry S. Parmelee

Untitled
It's spelled Parmelee on his patents. - Mireut 18:34, 22 December 2006 (UTC)

I was just going to add exactly the same information! See http://www.google.com/search?tbm=pts&q=henry+s+parmelee He's Henry S. Parmelee of New Haven, Connecticut 82.71.0.229 (talk) 09:01, 29 July 2012 (UTC)

Requested move

 * The following discussion is an archived discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review. No further edits should be made to this section. 

The result of the move request was: page moved per WP:COMMONNAME. On gbooks, I get about 200 hits for the a form and 1300 for the e form. DrKiernan (talk) 20:32, 5 October 2012 (UTC)

Henry S. Parmalee → Henry_S._Parmelee – If you check on the US Patent and Trademark Office (uspto.gov) or Google Patents, "Parmalee" appears to be a mis-spelling. The correct spelling, according to these sources, is Parmelee. For a list, see http://www.google.com/search?tbm=pts&q=henry+s+parmelee For one example, see: http://www.google.com/patents?id=d7txAAAAEBAJ&printsec=abstract&zoom=4#v=onepage&q&f=false

There are multiple references on Google Books: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&safe=off&site=webhp&tbm=bks&source=hp&q=henry+s+parmelee

The only references to "Parmalee" appear to be recent ones incorrectly copied from Wikipedia. – 82.71.0.229 (talk) 19:29, 6 September 2012 (UTC)


 * Needs further investigation – this has it spelled with a, not e: Court document: sworn statement – Wbm1058 (talk) 14:28, 7 September 2012 (UTC)
 * But notice that the sworn statement says that he is president of "Mathuhek" Piano Manufacturing, while just below that the case name is "Mathu s hek" – Wbm1058 (talk) 14:39, 7 September 2012 (UTC)
 * Here's a 1914 source that spells the name with an a: Fire facts for business men and 1918 source: Manufacturing and wholesale industries of Chicago, Volume 3. Seems a spelling error was introduced by a primary source (court or patent filing, etc.) and many secondary sources ran with the error.  Some detective work will be needed to find if anybody caught the error and pointed it out. – Wbm1058 (talk) 15:03, 7 September 2012 (UTC)
 * And to further muddy the waters, Google patents shows a third name: HENRY S. PAEMELBE, though it's not clear where that came from. Another possibility, rather than a misspelling, is a legal name change between the patent filing and the later court filing.  More research needed. Wbm1058 (talk) 15:15, 7 September 2012 (UTC)
 * Obituary. This man just gets more interesting. Electrical review, Oct. 25, 1902—he ran an electric road (street railway). No direct mention of piano or fire sprinkler businesses, just lines saying "he was a man of inventive talent" ... "besides ...railway enterprises, he was associated with many other industries."  Spelled with an e. Wbm1058 (talk) 23:34, 7 September 2012 (UTC)
 * Mathushek. From Music & Drama, August 26, 1882, A factory for manufacture of Mathushek pianos was built in New Haven in 1868. Parmalee managed, by certain means, to obtain controlling interest in the business.  Hugo Mathushek says Mr. Parmalee treated his grandfather in a most unbusinesslike and shameful manner. Spelled with an a. Wbm1058 (talk) 00:08, 8 September 2012 (UTC)
 * Census data. Noting that another editor started a biography section with a reference to census data, I went to my public library to search Ancestry Library Edition from ProQuest. Cool product! The 1800's records are handwritten in cursive, so legibility is an issue.  ancestry.com has digitized it (using OCR or humans, I don't know).  I was easily able to locate the subject in three censuses.  1850 Spencer T. & Zet Parmelee have a son Henry S. age 7 (est. bithyear abt. 1843). 1870. Spencer F. & Zeriah A. Parmalee's son Henry S. is 24 (est. bithyear abt. 1846).  Occupation Piano Manufacturer.  1900. Henry S. Parmalee is 56. Birthdate Apr. 1844 (earlier censuses did not ask for birthdate, just age). Married 1871.  Occupation Pres. Electric Road. – Wbm1058 (talk) 00:54, 8 September 2012 (UTC)
 * Harry S. Parmelee. I see the NY Times punted on his birth date by not giving it: NY Times obit, Sept. 28, 1902.  And it's not uncommon for businessmen to just go by their initials (H. S.)—here's another obituary, seems he had a heart attack (paralysis of the heart) Electrical world and engineer, Oct. 4, 1902.  Now where did they get the idea his name was Harry? Maybe from this: H.S. PARMELEE STRICKEN., NY Times, Sept. 28, 1902.  Our "newspaper of record" spelled his name both ways, the day after he died, and called him Harry! (a nickname?) Would he have reason to use pseudonyms?  Search results for Harry – Wbm1058 (talk) 18:51, 8 September 2012 (UTC)
 * Parmælee? Google comes up empty. Wbm1058 (talk) 19:28, 8 September 2012 (UTC)

Cool - thanks so much for your detective work on this! I can answer the Google Patents query: "HENRY S. PAEMELBE" - is an OCR (i.e. automatic text-recognition) error. Vast numbers of old patents on Google Patents are miscataloged by Google because of OCR errors. 82.71.0.229 (talk) 17:56, 9 September 2012 (UTC)
 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page or in a move review. No further edits should be made to this section.

Disputed
We can make our best guess as to his name and birth year, but lacking more conclusive evidence, we shouldn't state a particular name or year as if it were a fact with certainty. See the above requested move discussion for details. We can make our best guess based on Google search results, but we shouldn't state facts based on them. Wbm1058 (talk) 15:02, 14 February 2013 (UTC)
 * I don't believe that we can unambiguously say that the man's name was spelled Parmelee with an "e." Multiple seemingly reliable sources spell it with an "a."
 * I don't believe that we have established his date of birth. Multiple seemingly reliable sources conflict as to the exact year of birth.

Google Ngram gives pretty inconclusive results. wbm1058 (talk) 17:32, 21 September 2019 (UTC)
 * Different English and American families spell it differently – including Parmely and Parmly in addition to the spellings here. I wouldn't be surprised if the spelling was inconsistent throughout his life. This is probably one of those things that doesn't have a "right" answer. ☆ Bri (talk) 18:23, 21 September 2019 (UTC)
 * p.s. I looked up the spellings for Guilford, Connecticut births (the American family originally settled at this town, according to some sources) and found a mix of Parmelee and Parmalee, though they all are presumably the same family. ☆ Bri (talk) 18:37, 21 September 2019 (UTC)


 * I removed the "Parmalee" references: advertisements and entries in city directories all seem to use that spelling, and an original nameboard label from a miniature piano by Henry's father uses that spelling.- Mireut (talk) 21:29, 7 September 2020 (UTC)
 * (plus you can see the spelling in his signatures on the patents) - Mireut (talk) 21:36, 7 September 2020 (UTC)