Wow, what a wealth of good info! Thanks, Dave! Carl -----Original Message----- From: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]> On Behalf Of Dave Davis Sent: Sunday, March 11, 2018 8:18 PM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: Paige Typesetter 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.ht ml On Sun, Mar 11, 2018 at 7:50 PM, Carl J. Chimi <[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 >