Carl—
I recommend Bruce Michelson’s _Printer’s Devil_.  It doesn’t go into the level of engineering detail that perhaps you’re looking for, but it’s a brilliant analysis of the powerful lure of technology and of Clemens’s experience and understanding of the printing industry.

—Larry Howe

Sent using OWA for iPhone
________________________________________
From: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]> on behalf of Carl J. Chimi <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Sunday, March 11, 2018 6:50:50 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Paige Typesetter

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