Paige Compositor

The Paige Compositor was an invention developed by James W. Paige (1842–1917) between 1872 and 1888. It was designed to replace the human typesetter of a lead type-composed printing form with a mechanical arm.[1][2] In the early 1890s, a group of inventors signed a contract with Towner K. Webster in Chicago to produce 3000 compositors.[3] However, the machine was not nearly as precise as it should have been and never turned a profit because of its complexity and continual need for adjustment based upon trial and error.[4][5] As a result, it was the linotype, which composed in a hot metal typesetting process, that became the new popular printing machine.[6]

The Paige Compositor

The Paige typesetting machine is notable for substantial investment that the prominent writer Mark Twain made into the failed endeavor: $300,000 ($6,000,000 today). Twain, a former printer, invested not only the bulk of his book profits but also a large portion of the inheritance of Olivia Clemens, his wife.[5] Many point to his over-investment in the Paige typesetting machine and other inventions as the cause of not only his family's financial decline but also the decline of his wit and humor.[7]

Webster Manufacturing made fewer than six machines costing $15,000 apiece, over three times as much as the initial production estimates. One was donated by Cornell University for a scrap metal drive during World War II. The only surviving machine is displayed at the Mark Twain House in Hartford, Connecticut.[8]

References
  1. Lundin, Leigh (2011-05-22). "Tom Sawyer and the Diabolus Ex Machina". Redding: Criminal Brief.
  2. Lienhard, John (2000). "The Paige Compositor". Engines of Our Ingenuity. Houston: University of Houston (1372). ISBN 978-0-19-516731-3. Archived from the original on 1998.
  3. Webster, H.K. (1930). A Memoir of Towner Keeney Webster. Chicago: Walter Strong.
  4. Lienhard, John (1988). "The Paige Compositor". Engines of Our Ingenuity. Houston: University of Houston (0050). ISBN 978-0-19-513583-1.
  5. Kirk, Connie Ann. Mark Twain, a Biography. Connecticut: Greenwood Printing, 2004. PS1331.K57.
  6. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED265544
  7. "Mark Twain, a Life" Ron Powers
  8. "Our Collection". Mark Twain House and Museum. Archived from the original on 27 July 2013. Retrieved 28 July 2013.


This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.