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).