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The patent they called The Whale
A patent called The Whale
Twain called the Paige Compositor an awful mechanical miracle, and next to it every other invention of the human brain sank into commonplace. It was among the most complex machines built up to that point in history. Examiners at the Patent Office needed a full 30 days just to read the initial application.
The patent attorney who worked on it described Paige as lost in a wilderness of appalling details. When the examiners finally asked for a working machine, none could be found.
The rival and the remains
On paper, the compositor beat its cheaper rival, the Linotype. The Linotype was far easier to mass produce and repair.
Only one Paige machine survives today. A second model was donated to Cornell University, and was later donated to a scrap metal drive during World War II.
Why would the Patent Office demand a working machine?
For much of the nineteenth century, the US Patent Office asked applicants to submit a physical model along with their paperwork. That blanket requirement later ended, but examiners kept the power to ask for a model when text and drawings could not show that an invention worked. A device with thousands of interacting parts is the kind of case where a description can be accurate on paper and still fail in practice. A working machine settles that question in a way no drawing can.
Why were scrap metal drives held in World War II?
Steel for ships, tanks, and shells was made in furnaces that melted scrap metal together with fresh pig iron. In 1942 the United States ran national scrap drives to feed those furnaces, and schools, civic groups, and families gathered old metal from homes and farms. Collection piles included old machinery, tools, and household goods. Any metal object that was no longer in use could end up in a pile bound for a steel mill.
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