Get the latest tech news
The Paige Compositor: First US Typography Machine
The Paige Compositor is an ASME landmark. First US typography machine to set, justify, and distribute foundry type from a common case using one operator.
The machine was the first to simultaneously set, justify, and distribute foundry type from a common case using only one operator. Working out of a shop in Colt's Armory, James W. Paige invented his compositor in 1877 by combining his gravity typesetter with a Thompson distributor. The second machine, completed in 1894, successfully participated that year in a sixty-day trial at the Chicago Herald -- its only commercial application.
Or read this on Hacker News