if I had his nuts in a steel-trap I would...watch that trap till he died
January 3, 2018 8:33 AM Subscribe
The Paige Compositor: The story of Mark Twain, James William Paige, and the fever-dream type-setting machine that ruined them both. Drawings from the (enormous) patent, and text, both courtesy this roundup on Circuitous Root.
- Twain eventually recovered, by writing more books.
- Paige never did, and died penniless despite having rather a lot of money at one point.
- The Compositor's cheaper, less elegant competitor, the Mergenthaler Linotype, went on to change the goddam world. Of which more previously circa 1906 and 1978.
- Twain eventually recovered, by writing more books.
- Paige never did, and died penniless despite having rather a lot of money at one point.
- The Compositor's cheaper, less elegant competitor, the Mergenthaler Linotype, went on to change the goddam world. Of which more previously circa 1906 and 1978.
I saw the Compositor at the Mark Twain House in Hartford several years ago. It's a beautiful machine in person, but I wondered how he would have felt about it being there.
posted by chimpsonfilm at 9:13 AM on January 3, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by chimpsonfilm at 9:13 AM on January 3, 2018 [1 favorite]
The draftsmanship in those drawings is amazing. Does anyone still work this way or is it all CAD now?
It's mostly CAD or otherwise software-based now. Or hilariously bad line art, even from some of the world's biggest companies.
There's a big push to drive down the legal costs associated with applying for patents, including offshoring a lot of the initial prior art search and application preparation work. Figure quality has declined a lot as applicants don't want to pay for more than the bare minimum.
I would happily have it framed on my wall.
Good news!
posted by jedicus at 9:19 AM on January 3, 2018 [3 favorites]
It's mostly CAD or otherwise software-based now. Or hilariously bad line art, even from some of the world's biggest companies.
There's a big push to drive down the legal costs associated with applying for patents, including offshoring a lot of the initial prior art search and application preparation work. Figure quality has declined a lot as applicants don't want to pay for more than the bare minimum.
I would happily have it framed on my wall.
Good news!
posted by jedicus at 9:19 AM on January 3, 2018 [3 favorites]
Twain eventually recovered, by writing more books.
He also had to hit the road, doing the comic-lecture circuit, with which he had a love/hate relationship.
posted by Miko at 9:24 AM on January 3, 2018
He also had to hit the road, doing the comic-lecture circuit, with which he had a love/hate relationship.
posted by Miko at 9:24 AM on January 3, 2018
Poor old Paige: rather than identifying what printers needed (a good-enough, quick-enough, cheap-enough way of setting type, three things the Linotype delivered adequately) he tried to replicate all the nuances of hand composition. He aimed for TEX when the world wanted dot-matrix printers.
Twain I have a bunch less sympathy for, though. He was always out to make a quick buck. I'm sure that, had the Paige compositor actually worked, he'd have used his connected friends and bully pulpit to suppress competition.
posted by scruss at 9:26 AM on January 3, 2018 [1 favorite]
Twain I have a bunch less sympathy for, though. He was always out to make a quick buck. I'm sure that, had the Paige compositor actually worked, he'd have used his connected friends and bully pulpit to suppress competition.
posted by scruss at 9:26 AM on January 3, 2018 [1 favorite]
Twain I have a bunch less sympathy for, though. He was always out to make a quick buck.
Careful, son, that's Mr. Twain you're talking about. And the article itself describes a decades-long ordeal that hardly fits the bill of chasing a quick buck.
Your claim reminds me of this line, courtesy of the master:
He told me such a monstrous lie once that it swelled my left ear up, and spread it so that I was actually not able to see out around it; it remained so for months, and people came miles to see me fan myself with it.
posted by ecourbanist at 1:08 PM on January 4, 2018 [1 favorite]
Careful, son, that's Mr. Twain you're talking about. And the article itself describes a decades-long ordeal that hardly fits the bill of chasing a quick buck.
Your claim reminds me of this line, courtesy of the master:
He told me such a monstrous lie once that it swelled my left ear up, and spread it so that I was actually not able to see out around it; it remained so for months, and people came miles to see me fan myself with it.
posted by ecourbanist at 1:08 PM on January 4, 2018 [1 favorite]
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posted by adept256 at 8:54 AM on January 3, 2018