I am the author of that second citation and am happy to share a pdf with interested folks.


Judith Yaross Lee, Ph.D.
Distinguished Professor of Communication Studies

Charles E. Zumkehr Professor of Rhetoric & Culture
Director, Central Region Humanities Center
School of Communication Studies
Ohio University
Schoonover Center 439
Athens, Ohio 45701
T: 740-593-4888
F: 740-593-4810

My newest book: Twain's Brand:  Humor in Contemporary American Culture <http://www.ohio.edu/people/leej/Twains_Brand.html>

On Mar 11, 2018, at 8:21 PM, Dave Davis <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>> wrote:

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.html



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