Paige Compositor

It was designed to replace the human typesetter of a lead type-composed printing form with a mechanical arm.

[1][2] In the early 1890s, a group of inventors signed a contract with Towner K. Webster in Chicago to produce 3,000 compositors.

[3] However, the machine was not nearly as precise as it should have been and never turned a profit because of its complexity and continual need for adjustment based upon trial and error.

Twain, a former printer, invested not only the bulk of his book profits but also a large portion of the inheritance of Olivia Clemens, his wife.

[7] Webster Manufacturing made fewer than six machines costing $15,000 apiece, over three times as much as the initial production estimates.