Basil Kahan. Ottmar Mergenthaler: The Man and his Machine. New Castle, Del.: Oak Knoll, 2000. 224 pp.; $55.00 US. (hardcover). ISBN 1-58456-007-X.
After the introduction of high speed steam presses in the mid-19th century, the hand composition of type remained a major impediment to rapid, mechanized production of printed matter. Composition became, in the words of Thomas Hughes, historian of technology, a "reverse salient," the trailing edge of advancing technique. Printing ...