science · 22 June 1841 · 183 years ago
In 1841, the first U.S. patent for a typesetting machine was issued to Frenchman Adrien Delcambre and Englishman James Hadden Young, both residing in Lisle, France (No.2,139). Their "Pianotyp" placed letters side by side in their proper places "by means of ... inclined planes upon which the types are thrown and allowed to descend by various channels meeting at one point to what we call the composing box." The machine was operated using "a number of keys similar to those of a pianoforte which act as levers which push the types [which fall] by their own gravity to the said box whenever the keys are depressed." It was patented in England* on 13 Mar 1840, and used in London (1841) to set The Phalanx weekly magazine*.
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