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 3,000 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 typesetting machine, which composed in a hot metal typesetting process, that became the new popular typesetting machine.[6]
Writer Mark Twain made a substantial investment into the failed endeavor: $300,000 (~$Expression error: Unrecognized punctuation character "[". 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
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- ↑ a b Kirk, Connie Ann. Mark Twain, a Biography. Connecticut: Greenwood Printing, 2004. PS1331.K57.
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- ↑ "Mark Twain, a Life" Ron Powers
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External links
- Page at ERIC
- U.S. patent 157694 Precursor by Paige (patent application filed 1872)
- U.S. patent 547859 Paige Compositor patent (application filed 1882)