Wow, what a wealth of good info!

Thanks, Dave!

Carl

-----Original Message-----
From: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]> On Behalf Of Dave Davis
Sent: Sunday, March 11, 2018 8:18 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Paige Typesetter

A 1985 conference paper about  the Paige machine , available through ERIC.
I also vaguely remember some discussion of it , perhaps in a publication at
Cornell. I will look.

https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED265544

Another citation (I haven't tracked this one down)

Lee, J. Y., Anatomy of a Fascinating Failure. American Heritage of Invention
and Technology, Summer 1987, pp. 55-60.

More about that --

https://circuitousroot.com/artifice/letters/press/noncastcomp/paige/index.ht
ml



On Sun, Mar 11, 2018 at 7:50 PM, Carl J. Chimi <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> I'm just reading the section of the recent edition of the 
> Autobiography in which Clemens discusses to some extent his perception 
> of how the typesetter worked.  His description is valuable, not only 
> because he had considerable experience as a compositor, but also to 
> show how he could have been so taken by the machine as to invest so 
> heavily in it.
>
> I've read descriptions of the machine that range from roughly 
> "hopelessly incapable of the task" to "hopelessly complex given the 
> task".  I've seen it depicted in the 1940s biopic as a truly silly and 
> ridiculous device.  I believe I even saw some version of the actual 
> machine in the basement of the Hartford house the first time I visited 
> back in late 1972.  Nothing like the Rube Goldberg thing in the movie.  
> Not being an expert, but being mechanically inclined, I remember the 
> machine I saw as "plausible".
>
> All this has me wondering if anyone has ever written a study of the 
> technical aspects of the machine.  How it worked.  How it perhaps drew 
> on and related to other technology of that period.  That Clemens said 
> such a machine would have to "think" is fascinating, and makes me 
> wonder how Paige created something that did apparently work and did, 
> apparently, give the illusion of "thinking".
>
> I figure if anyone has written on this topic, this is the forum that 
> would know about it.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Carl
> Grandfather of Olivia
>