The Cleveland leader. [volume] (Cleveland [Ohio]) 1865-1865, 1865-08-29

ly and accurately th6n could 8 practical
printer of the present day merely working
with his fingers.
"These machines, too-elaborate as they
are, and having cost the life of their hrst
inventor, Timothy Alden, and more than
two hundred thousand dollars, since g
pededin bringingthem TO their present per-
tection-sre 30 cheap and durable that we
prophecy, ere many years, they will find 8
place in every con mercial or other business
house having an extensive correspondence;
and even in the private residences of gen.
tlemen who may be amateur wooers of the
MUSES. or the Bellies LettreS, or who, from
any cause, shall desire 70 have ready means
within their reach for multiplying copies of
sny letter, pssquinsde, invitation, business
document, circular or other issue of writ
ten thought. In g word, this mAchine-its
total costonly S 2,0O0,its material parts last
ing for fifty years,and its most delicate pro-
portions aver with the hardest work of q
great daily, good for 6 fourth or fifth of
that time, and instantsneously renewable
at the trifing cost of some few dollars
this machine, we say, impresses US as an in
auguration of every man as his own prin-
ter and publisher ; ) and before many years
we expect they will be IS common an in
stitutiOn in first c~lasshoUses as steamheaters,
iron safes, 9 billiard tsbleOr 9 refrigersting
meat safe
"But it wss not the setting up of the
type thst struck US IS the most wonderful
development of this really amazing piece
of mechanism. In that operation, human
intellig eDce, though only working lightly
with the point OF q single finger, selected
every type, attended to the sense and
spelling, comprehended the difference be.
tween nonpAreil, BREWER, bourgeois, SMALL
cAPs and agate; and in a word, presided
over the machine as its intellectual control
Ter. What is to be thought however, Of
the operation of e~-distributing the types
sitter they have been used-Plscing each
letter, point and space back into its proper
and appointed place, ready for future use
an operation in which the machine needs
no human interference of any kind-the
steam, or caloric engine, o. any other ami
mate or inanimste motive power suficing
to work it, while its own brains and eyes Of
steel and brass spell out every word, give
due Difference to each punctuation mark
and character of type, and send back every
single letter with q flip to the receptacle
of It's proper kin, there to await further
calls Of duty.
%Timothy Alden, q practical printer by
trade and 8 born genius in mechanics, de-
voted over twenty years of his life to the
construction Of this wonder Of Ingenuity;
and died-snother Moses, seeing but not
entering this promised lEnd-just as the
frst rude model was completed and IN
working order. To him succeeds his cousin,
Henry w. Alden, who had spent over
$40 600, accumulated by hard labor in the
gold mines of California, IS pabulum TO-
ward feeding the infant days Of this vora-
cious ~dicovery; and last sssoeiating him
self with this surviving cousin, organizing
company composed Of the most respon-
sible and leading citizens Of the metropolis
and evoking the capital to make the Wofk
OF Timothy Alden's life bloom 70 profit
as q Thru Of worldwide and eternal value
for all generations of men-csme Charles
@. Yeaton, now of Brooklyn, whose char
acter presents 8 rare blending of qualities
! embracing the skill, e1sctitude and tireiesi
patience Of the mechanic the fiery zeal
and sanguine faith of the discoverer, and
those more commonplace, but not less val
usble attributes which win commercial
| confidence, and go to form what is called
the tperfect business man. If it bethoughi
we speak warmly of Mr.. Yeston, it is be
cause he has impressed Us much, and mad
ms so feel, after unusual facilities for study
ing both his work and his character.
Still a young man, and with rather tn
air of a handsome fashionable than q SGUan
the factory he has organized IL, ! 1tseI,
machine almost as wonderful and perfec
as the machines it makes. How man.
hundred or thousand parts there are Il
each separate Alden type.setter and dis
tributor we do not know; but we do knoV
that, if itmade q million Of these machines
every screw, spring, pin or other part Q
each would be transferable or interchange
able with the similar fragment Of ever,
other machine so mAde-esch atom Of eac
sutomston bearing 8 similar number, an
Mr.. Yeaton having specially deviSed an
crestedf for the manufacture and numbetin
of each part peculiar tools and mschiner!
producing In every case q precisely simlls
result. Thus, if by carelessness or sec
dent any pin, or screw, or spring OF otne
Iimb-mlnor or msjor-of any OF thes
machines away out st San Francisco, {
Hong Kong, HAkOdahi, should be broke
or lost the proprietor would only have I
consult the copiOusly illustrated e1planI
tion-book prepared by Mr.. Yeaton an
sent to every purchaser, ind out the nun
Der of the missing part n write 70 Il
nearest agency or the New YORK factoi
for "Number $50" or whatever else migl
be its number. But few parts of the m
chine, however, are liable to any oc1inAl
accident all the work being carefully 81
strongly protected while all such mo
delicate parts as are most likely to gi'
way are sent in duplicate Of triplicate
: the time Of original purchase.