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Michael Fanning <[log in to unmask]>
Thu, 28 May 1992 12:02:41 EDT
text/plain (32 lines)
Thought you might be interested in an append from a different list that
discusses Twain's unfortunate investment in an early typesetting machine.

  A quick reply to Jim Downey, re his reply to Mike Mahoney--your comments
on
  the technology having an effect (or not) on the quality of writing
immediately
  brings to mind Mel Kranzberg's First Law of Technology: "Technology is
neither
  good nor bad--nor is it neutral." (quoted from Stephen Cutcliffe & Robert
  Post, eds, In Context: Eaasys in honor of Mel Kranzberg, Lehigh U.P. 1989;
p.
  247). I would say this law applies pretty well to desktop publishing and
its
  antecedents.

  Which reminds me...Samuel Clemens (a.k.a Mark Twain) lost most of his
personal
  fortune backing an automatic typesetting machine (the Paige Compositor),
which
  never was made to work reliably and was pushed out by the Mergenthaler
  Linotype. Seems that Twain was infatuated with the wonders of this
machine;
  when you examine the reason more closely, you find that it had one feature
  that he was most impressed by--it could right justify text automatically.
He
  thought the machine was being run by the Devil himself! (As a youth Twain
had
  worked as a printer, before he became a riverboat pilot, so he knew
something
  about setting type by hand).

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