Hi Camy--

I have seen the machine, in Hartford, and have seen specimens of type it
set at Berkeley. It seems to have been more capable of setting various
fonts in various widths and doing fancy typographical tasks, e. g.
justifying, than its competitors, but it was so damn complicated and had
so many moving parts that it would have required a full-time mechanic to
keep it running, unlike the simpler Linotype machine that became the
standard for newspaper work for decades (I can even remember the heat and
smell and clatter of Linotype machines from when I was a tyro editor, and
I'm not that old).

It was like Blu-Ray vs. HD DVD, or VHS vs. Beta. The less capable but more
applicable technology won in the market. Sam, like many another venture
capitalist, just backed the wrong horse.

Gerald