University of Virginia Library

B. LINDSTRAND COMPARATORS

1971 Gordon Lindstrand, an assistant professor of English at the University
of South Carolina, announced the first viable alternative to the Hinman
Collator (Lindstrand, "Mechanized Textual Collation") [plate 2]. He
had developed his device in the 1960s while a graduate student at the University
of Illinois, where his dissertation concerned textual matters in Conrad's
Nostromo. His invention, dubbed the Lindstrand Comparator (and
also known as the Mark I), was offered in two models—the Comparator
Criterion and the Comparator Library Custom. The Comparator Criterion,

designed to accommodate copies or original images with text pages no larger
than 8½ inches tall and 7 inches wide, was the basic model. The Comparator
Library Custom was designed for larger documents, depending on the needs
of the purchaser. Though he seems to have built a prototype of the Custom,
I do not know that he actually sold one. A third model, which apparently
never left the drawing board, was called the Comparator Portable, designed,
as the name indicates, to travel more easily than the other two versions.
Lindstrand also proposed a device for cross-edition collation—the Mark II—
though, like the portable version, it does not appear to have ever gotten
beyond the planning stages.

The Lindstrand Comparator utilizes stereoscopic principles to detect
typographical and other printed variations in nearly identical printed documents,
usually those descending from the same edition. Stereoscopes have
been utilized for everything from parlor entertainment to astronomical work
since at least the early part of the nineteenth century ("Stereoscope"). Rather
than relying on lights and shutters to present alternate images as with the
Hinman, the Lindstrand was built to take advantage of the central nervous
system's capacity to "fuse" images of two identical or nearly identical objects
together when said objects are presented in a manner conducive to such
fusion. Gordon Lindstrand's device was simply an "environmental apparatus"
designed to facilitate this process (Lindstrand, The Lindstrand Comparator
[1]). The researcher views two texts set up in separate cradles and
positioned beneath a set of binocular optics. The optics, a set of mirrors,
and a prism help overlay the texts in a kind of virtual superimposition.
When this effect is achieved, small discrepancies between the texts seem to
stand above the similarities in 3D. Big differences (for example, several reset
lines) appear as areas of "total confusion" (Lindstrand, "Mechanized" 209).
In contrast to its predecessor, however, the Lindstrand requires two good
eyes on the part of the viewer. The Hinman is the only collator that can be
used by individuals lacking good vision in one eye.

Lindstrand got the idea for the comparator from a mapmaker in Champagne,
Illinois (Roberta Lindstrand). He noted in a promotional pamphlet
that stereoscopic view "has in the past been particularly appropriate for mapmaking
from aerial photographic surveys" (The Lindstrand Comparator).
He also remarked in his 1971 Studies in Bibliography article that similar
devices had been used in the military, though "for an entirely different
purpose" from the one he was proposing (209).[5] As I have mentioned elsewhere,
Charlton Hinman apparently experimented with a stereoscope just
after WWII, and there is also evidence that before the war other bibliographers

had attempted to use the stereoscope or a similar device for textual
collation (Smith 134-135). Lindstrand does not appear to have known about
any bibliographical applications or experiments other than his own, however.

In 1976, the Comparator Criterion cost $940. The two lamps, which
again were optional features, cost an extra $48.00, and a dust cover could be
purchased for $24.00 (Lindstrand, Comparator Research Associates [1]). The
price of the Library Custom model varied upward according to the requested
specifications, though again I do not know if he ever sold one of these larger
models. At this time, the Hinman Collator was selling for around $8000.
Lindstrand built his machine under the company name Comparator Research
Associates, and over the course of about six years sold around thirty-eight
devices to people and organizations (universities, libraries, research centers,
etc.) throughout the United States and in Canada, England, South Africa,
and Australia.

Lindstrand published one location list in a bibliographical journal and
issued updates with his promotional material ("Lindstrand Comparators: A
Summary Report;" The Lindstrand Comparator).[6] These have been the primary
sources in compiling the list below, though I have also interviewed
people who knew Lindstrand and/or used his machine. Additionally, I have
recovered a few documents and letters that have also provided useful information.
These interviews and documents have led me to two machines (or,
rather, one machine and a "ghost"—more about the latter in a moment)
that were not included in the list and updates. I have confirmed at least the
original location (or lack thereof—again, more in a moment) of every Comparator
recorded by Lindstrand. Information on his invention, however, has
been generally harder to track down and verify than for the Hinman. The
arrival of a Lindstrand did not attract the same level of attention. The
comparator was much less visually striking and much more easily disassembled,
stowed away, and forgotten or lost than its predecessor. Moreover, its
inventor did not leave nearly the paper trail that Arthur Johnson did.

There is a longstanding rumor that Gordon Lindstrand reneged on the
delivery of several machines after accepting payment for them. In some
versions of the story he is said to have absconded with the funds and lived
the rest of his life on the run, more or less. In another version he did jail
time. The truth is less sensational. He was considering going out of business
as early as 1975 (Lindstrand, Letter to William L. Mitchell). In 1976 or
1977, he appears to have stopped making comparators and failed to follow
through on the delivery of at least three. These were machines promised to
Trinity College, Cambridge; the University of Leeds; and Trinity College,
Dublin. Records referring to the non-delivery of these machines are located
in the archives of the latter. They indicate that he accepted at least partial

if not complete payments on these orders.[7] A fourth may have also been
promised but never delivered to the University of Calgary. He listed a Calgary
machine in an update he distributed with other promotional material
in 1976 or 1977, just as he was shutting the business down. I have been unable
to locate anyone who remembers this device—hence the "ghost" I mentioned
earlier. Cambridge and Dublin were also listed for the first and only
time in the same update (Leeds never appears in any of his lists.) His failure
to deliver devices to Cambridge, Dublin, Leeds, and possibly Calgary coincides
with his going out of business. At the time he was suffering severely
from the effects of alcoholism. Two years earlier, in 1975, he had lost his
bid for tenure and his first marriage had ended in divorce (Roberta Lindstrand).
Despite these difficulties, however, he was never in jail, and neither
was he ever hard to find. Except for a short stay in a treatment facility in
Charleston, South Carolina, and another brief relocation to Ohio, he continued
to live in Columbia, the town from which he had always marketed
and sold the comparator, until his passing in March of 2000 (Obituary). He
was eventually able to control his drinking problem, though its effects left
him legally blind. At his death he was working on a memoir about his battle
with alcoholism.

Were there more machines, either built and sold or sold and never delivered?
I do not think so, though all I can say with certainty is that I have
not found evidence of others. Despite my doubts as to its existence, I have
chosen to give the Calgary machine a separate entry below, as I have for the
devices I know Lindstrand did not deliver. Except for Leeds, these were all
claimed by Lindstrand in print and so listing them with an appropriate note
not only makes them easier to index but also facilitates correcting the record.
The machines in this section are listed alphabetically by the last known location.
As mentioned above, the machines that were never delivered are
listed where they were supposed to have gone. A chronological arrangement
is not possible because of the lack of records. Furthermore, since the Lindstrand
was sold over a much shorter time period than the Hinman (five or
six years as opposed to nearly thirty), sorting out the dates would not only
be more difficult but probably less valuable. When the original location is
known and differs from the current, that fact is noted in parentheses along
with other potentially useful information.

ARIZONA

• B1. Arizona State University, University Library, Department of Special Collections

FLORIDA

• B2. Florida State University, English Department

ILLINOIS

• B3. Northern Illinois University, English Department

• B4. Southern Illinois University

  Purchased for work on the Dewey edition and originally located in the
  John Dewey Studies Center. According to Jo Ann Boydston, editor of the
  Dewey edition, it was passed on to the Morris Library fairly soon after its
  arrival because the editors of the edition found the Hinman much easier
  and more efficient to use. It is currently located in the Special Collections
  Department of the Morris Library.

INDIANA

• B5. Ball State University, English Department
  Surplused around 1960.

KANSAS

• B6. Kansas State University, English Department
  Current disposition unknown.

KENTUCKY

• B7. Eastern Kentucky University, John Crabbe Grant Library

MASSACHUSETTS

• B8. Harvard University, Houghton Library

• B9. University of Massachusetts at Boston, University Library
  Current disposition unknown.

MISSISSIPPI

• B10. Mississippi State University, English Department

• B11. University of Southern Mississippi, English Department
  Purchased in 1977. Lindstrand told Noel Polk that this was his last
  machine.

NEBRASKA

• B12. University of Nebraska, Willa Cather edition
  Originally purchased for the Harold Frederic edition at the University
  of Texas, Arlington.

NEW JERSEY

• B13. Princeton University, Firestone Library
  Originally purchased for the Henry David Thoreau edition.

NEW YORK

• B14. Cornell University, Kroch Library

• B15. State University of New York at Fredonia, University Library

OHIO

• B16. Bowling Green University, University Library, Rare Books and Special
  Collections Department

  Originally purchased for the George Washington Cable edition.

• B17. Kent State University, University Library, Institute for Bibliography and
  Editing

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• B18. Ohio University

  Current disposition unknown. Originally purchased for the Robert
  Browning edition.

PENNSYLVANIA

• B19. State College, James L. W. West

  West purchased this machine when he was on the faculty at Virginia
  Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia, and moved it with him when he joined
  the faculty of Penn State University.

• B20. University of Pennsylvania, Van Pelt Library

RHODE ISLAND

• B21. Brown University, John Hay Library

SOUTH CAROLINA

• B22. University of South Carolina, Thomas Cooper Library, Special Collections
  Department

  Originally purchased by and located in the office of the Center for
  Editions of American Authors.

TEXAS

• B23. Texas A&M University, Cushing Memorial Library and Archives
  Originally purchased by the Department of English and later transferred
  to the Library. Surplused around 1992.

• B24. Texas A&M University, Cushing Memorial Library and Archives
  Originally purchased by Joseph Katz, Columbia, South Carolina. Acquired
  by Texas A&M in 2003.

• B25. Texas Tech University, Southwest Collection/Special Collections
  Originally purchased for the Joseph Conrad edition.

• B26. University of Houston, M. D. Anderson Library, Department of Special
  Collections

• B27. University of Texas at Austin, Humanities Research Center

VIRGINIA

• B28. Nellysford, Catherine Rodriguez

  Originally purchased by Matthew Bruccoli, Columbia, South Carolina.

• B29. University of Virginia, Alderman Library, Department of Special Collections

AUSTRALIA

• B30. Monash University, University Library

CANADA

• B31. Simon Fraser University

  Current disposition unknown.

• B32. University of Calgary

  I have been unable to confirm whether this device was ever delivered.

• B33. University of Toronto, Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library

ENGLAND

• B34. Cambridge University, Trinity Library

  This machine was ordered and paid for in part or whole but never
  delivered.

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• B35. Oxford University, Bodleian Library, Department of Western Manuscripts,
  Johnson Reading Room

• B36. University of Leeds

  This machine was ordered and paid for in part or whole but never delivered.

IRELAND

• B37. University of Dublin, Trinity College Library

  This machine was ordered and paid for in part or whole but never delivered.

SOUTH AFRICA

• B38. Rhodes University, Institute for the Study of English in Africa

  Current disposition unknown.