{{short description, Laundry Machine Firm
General Laundry Machine was a
Troy, New York
Troy is a city in the U.S. state of New York and the county seat of Rensselaer County. The city is located on the western edge of Rensselaer County and on the eastern bank of the Hudson River. Troy has close ties to the nearby cities of Albany a ...
firm which became a casualty of the financial collapse during the
Great Depression
The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...
. It failed as a result of the impact of the nationwide economic decline in the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
, in the 1930s.
Company history
The company was formed in June 1927 from a merger of the Tolhurst Machine Works and the Wiley-Ellis Company. Tolhurst
corporation was started in 1852 and was based in Troy and
Green Island, New York
Green Island is a coterminous town-village in Albany County, New York, United States, some north of Albany. Green Island is one of only five such town-village amalgamations in New York. The population was 2,620 at the 2010 census, and the ZIP ...
. Wiley-Ellis was founded in 1889 and maintained properties in
Chicago, Illinois
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
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and Columbia, Pennsylvania.
General Laundry Machine acquired the primary assets of the Paramount Laundry Machine Company of
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
in December 1929. The takeover was made possible by an exchange of stock. It brought about satisfactory ''economies of operations'' through the combination of the sales forces of the two companies.''Gen. Laundry Machine'', Wall Street Journal, December 20, 1929, pg. 6.
In May 1931 the corporation's assets exceeded its liabilities, yet it became insolvent because it was unable to pay its debts as they came due.''General Laundry Machine'',
Wall Street Journal
''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...