Norwich bulletin., 1922-07-25
EDWINll'EN. FORlA..ft..y OF NORWICH, WAS
 WOOD TYPE CUTTING MACHINE INVENTOR

A native of windham and a resident of Norwich in the early part of the 18th century, Edwin Allen, is given extended notice as the inventor of machinery for cutting wood type in The Red Envelope, where James Logan, general manager of the United States Envelope Co. of Wor- cester, Mass, has a sketch of the be- ginning of the envelope industry in New York city by George F. Nesbit & Co.
 About the year 1885 or 1836, Mr Nes- btt became interested in the manufac- ture of wood block type by machinery. The machine which he used was in vented by Edwin Allen of Norwich and this was supposed to be MT. Allen largest single contribution to the me- chanic arts.
 The following from an article in Typ ographic Art gives an interesting sketch of Edwin Allen and the development of his invention in Norwich.
 MT. Allen was born on the 27th of March. 1911. in the town of Windham, Conn.,. then place of some importance, and with a twin brother was the young est of a family of nine children. His father had established himself there as q CdDllEl HldhcI III luo yGdA 1obD dIlu with that business also cultivated 9 farm lying on the west bank of the She tucket Young Allen was made a tiller of the ground" until he reached an age proper for commencing a trade, when he was placed in the shop as an apprentice to his fathers occupation. This was a calling not in consonance with his taste. His mind ran on machin- cry and he desired to study the prin- eiples of mechanical science which there was opportunity to do with an experi- enced millwright living near. But his fathers choice was law and he faithful ly worked in the shop until twenty-one when he had acquired a thorough knowl- edge of the cabinet-making art. He also found that the time had not been lost to his ruling purpose.
 Enterprising and thrifty. his father had neglected no improvement whicf could at that time be introduced into his business He procured new and valuable machinery, so far as 1t was to be hat and young Allen found in this frequent i qualification of his passion. each new
 machine being a means of instruction 1T 1 his favorite study It must suffice tt i add that during his apprenticeship h' ! had himself invented various machines 1 for doing work which had before beeI
 done by hand.
 1 In the year 1895, he left the OH
 homestead and engaged with an eide | brother. who was also a cabinet maker 1 at Norwich, Conn, and here he invente'
 and put in successful operation othe
 machines, useful in t,slt branch of in dustry The connection, however, wa ] brief. In the fall of 1s36 his brother
 factory was destroyed by fire and hi ! employment there came to an end. Strolling about the city Af Norwich
 Conn, in the fall of 1886, he having bee
 thrown out of work by the destruction b fire of his brothers factory, partly i search of work and partly, 1t may b.
 "to see what he might see,' he came t
 the office of The Norwich Courier. the
 owned by Mir. John Dunham He ha never witnenssed the operation of print ing and curiosity led him in. Mir. Dur ham politely received and showing hir over the premises, explained the variou processes connected with the art. Pass ing from stand to stand. they came to font of wood type which arrested his al tention. It was nine-line pica antique coarsely cut, and of various imported tions. How are wood type made:
 eagerly inquired our friend Are the in general user" What do they cost
 etc, etc. MT. Dunham gave informatio to every inquiry, never dreaming, W suspect. that 1t might be followed by a } invention scarcely inferior to any evt ) made in the printing business. Returning home. MT. Allen, being . cabinet maker. and used to wood worl , was impressed that machinery migf
 be brought to the manufacture of woo , type His whole soul was absorbed f it and at the end of three days his idle , had been worked out. A frail machir 9 had been improvised and specimens . type far excelling anything ever befol ? seen, brought to Mir. Durham for il