Wrights' airplane and the Mergenthaler's line caster

[Mechanic]

The Linotype and the Airplane

http://futureofthebook.com/linotype-interview/
 
An interesting comparison of Wrights' airplane and the Mergenthaler's line caster.
 
 

The turn of the twentieth century was moment of amazing technological advance that saw the advent of airborne transportation and the production means for mass media. Wrights' airplane and the Mergenthaler's line caster both have traits of insight, logic and determined development that have always enabled fundamental technological advance. Many bizarre and misguided attempts to mechanize flight and type composition were attempted at the end of the 19th century. They lacked disciplined application of science and engineering principles but equally they lacked an ingenious logic of real invention. Such a logic frequently departed from established approaches and could appear bizarre but after successful realization that same logic seemed inevitable.