John Clark (1785-1853) was a British printer and inventor who created the first automated text generator, the Latin Verse Machine (also known as the Eureka) between 1830 and 1843.
[1] In an article for the Furniture History Society, Edward Joy wrote that this was the first such patent, and that Clark used "unvulcanized rubber filled by means of an air pump.
"[3] Clark's patent describes various uses for the new technique, including for beds, which would not require stuffing materials other than air.
For medical uses, the bed could also be filled with hot steam or cold water, allowing for a variety of temperatures.
[4] Between 1830 and 1843 Clark constructed a machine that could generate a new line of Latin hexameter verse every minute.