Gold, HATCHING RUIN, p 42 quotes Kaplan quoting Paine saying Twain told him
that such a merger had been proposed, but discounts Twain's statement saying
that not a shred of evidence exists to support it. I have not checked Paine
to verify Twain's claim.

I doubt Merganthaler would have had any interest in a delicate typesetting
machine when they already had a robust typecasting machine --a very
different animal indeed. The Merganthaler technology was truly an
advancement (linotype), and produced a set of slugs that could be used over
and over, like printing plates, but more easily corrected or updated or
replaced, and it was much economical in both labor and materials. The Paige
machine just duplicated with machinery what a human typesetter could do, and
did not solve any time/labor/expense issues. Even if the Paige machine had
worked, Merganthaler still would have won out. But Paige didn't even come
close to winning.

By 1887, linotype had been used to produce THE TRIBUNE BOOK OF OPEN AIR
SPORTS, a book of about 500pp.  In the meantime Paige was tinkering with his
machine which spent more time disassembled and being "perfected" than it did
producing anything more than a few brief demonstrations.

Kevin Mac Donnell
Austin TX