AN INGENIOUS AND EXPENSIVE MACHINE.
Prof. Robert H. Thurston, of Cornell University, announces that Mr. P. T. Dodge, of New York, has presented to the museum of the Sibley College of Engineering what is probably, for its size, the costliest piece of machinery ever constructed. This is the Paige typesetting machine, the one in which Mark Twain sunk a lot of money. It consists of 19,000 pieces, controlled by a keyboard, and handles ordinary type, setting, justifying, and distributing the matter, and leading it also, when required. It is believed to be one of the most beautifully ingenious pieces of mechanism as well as the costliest. The trouble with it commercially is that it is too ingenious, and, altho perfect in the operation, can not be built for sale. Of course most of the two millions of dollars this, the original machine, is estimated to have cost, was used in the incessant changing and remaking, in which years were spent. The machine occupies a floor space of 11½ x 3½ feet, and its highest point is 6½ feet from the floor. The weight is a little less than 5,500 pounds, and it runs without a perceptible vibration. Mr. Dodge says: “I consider this machine, altho valueless from a commercial standpoint because of its great expense, one of the most remarkable of all mechanical productions. Considering its great complexity, its perfection of design and workmanship, the many novel mechanical movements contained in it, and the precision with which it runs, I think it has no equal.”