 | Studies in bibliography |  |
"ARMADILLOS OF INVENTION":
A CENSUS OF MECHANICAL COLLATORS
by
Steven Escar Smith[1]
SINCE THE LATE 1940s literary scholars have developed and used optical
devices, known popularly as mechanical collators, to aid in the comparison
of printed documents from the same edition.[2]
The first and most
famous of these devices was invented by and named for the Shakespeare
scholar Charlton Joseph Kadio Hinman. Its fame and widespread use inspired
the invention of other collators over the years, the most successful
being the Lindstrand Comparator, the McLeod Portable Collator, and the
Hailey's Comet.[3]
Charlton Hinman built his machine as an aid in his landmark
Though the scholarly climate in which he labored has changed considerably,
the Hinman Collator and its successors are still enabling important work.
Noteworthy among the more recent projects is David Vander Meulen's use
of the Hinman in collating copies and examining running titles to resolve
the old question of which of the two 1728 issues of Pope's Dunciad came
first ("Printing"). He also machine-collated copies for his facsimile edition
of the 1728 Dunciad, and even more recently he used the Hinman, the Lindstrand,
and the Comet for a study of press variants in bibliographical classics
by Fredson Bowers and R. B. McKerrow ("Revision"). Another ambitious
project is currently being carried out by R. Carter Hailey, who has examined
around sixty copies of the three 1550 editions of Piers Plowman on the
Comet (Metzger [2]). Randall McLeod has conducted extensive studies of
the Holinshed Chronicle, the 1591 edition of John Harrington's translation
of Orlando Furioso, and other texts on his device ("From Tranceformations").
Conor Fahy has also used McLeod's invention for his study of Orlando
Furioso (1989). The energy and resourcefulness behind these projects
suggest that the practice of machine-aided optical collation is far from its
end. Indeed, as long as literary scholars continue to rely on the close examination
and comparison of printed materials, there will always be a place
for the Hinman or one of its offshoots, if not their computerized equivalent,
though practical electronic alternatives have only recently begun to emerge.[4]
Whether for quick checks of points between a few copies or for larger projects,
the "armadillos of invention," to quote McLeod, are still effective and
in most cases the only viable tools (Zalewski 14). And as Peter Shillingsburg
has observed: "The optical machines available to editors before the advent
of computers remain necessary and useful in order to compare multiple
copies of the same typesetting" (135).
This census seeks to document the history of these machines and is divided
into six parts—the location lists of Hinmans, Lindstrands, McLeods,
and Comets; a list of "One-off Spin-offs" (experimental devices that, for the
most part, never developed beyond the prototype stage); and a cumulative
index. I should caution that not all of the surviving machines are available
to researchers. Anyone interested in using a particular collator is encouraged
to make inquiries well in advance of traveling to one. In regard especially
to the Hinman, I should also mention that, as with any other aging population,
some of these devices have fared better through the years than others.
over half a century. As would be expected, the newer models tend to be in
better condition than the older ones.
The section on the Hinman is by far the most detailed. I have not
consciously followed Falconer Madan's degressive principle of bibliography
in constructing this census, though the Hinman is the most important and
influential collator. As I have stated elsewhere, it has assumed an almost
iconic status within bibliographical circles (Smith 2000). Because of this
status and the fact that it is a large and fairly impressive piece of equipment,
it has been easier to find people who remember it and to uncover records
relating to its acquisition. The Lindstrand Comparator has been more difficult
to follow. It is smaller, visually less impressive, and never made the
splash that the Hinman did. On the other hand, it did generate a wave or
two of its own and therefore attracted a certain amount of attention. And,
despite being about four feet shorter in height and several hundred pounds
lighter than its more famous forerunner, the comparator is not easily portable
and therefore did not change hands or homes that often. The McLeod
and the Comet are other matters altogether, however. Their affordability
and portability make them moving targets. They also have not attracted
anywhere near the publicity of their predecessors. For their locations I have
relied almost exclusively on information provided by their respective inventors,
Randall McLeod and R. Carter Hailey. I am grateful to them for
this assistance. As these machines are still available for sale there will doubtless
be additional locations in the future. The sections on the McLeod and
the Comet are probably best regarded as general indications of how many
machines have been manufactured to date and what kind of geographical
distribution they have enjoyed rather than as a road map of current locations
or a thorough historical tracing of their wanderings.
I have been unable to find and confirm some dates, prices, and other
details. I hope that the publication of this list will flush out some of the
more elusive facts. Corrections and additions are welcome.
A. HINMAN COLLATORS
The arrangement of this section is chronological by date of acquisition
as near as can be established for each machine. I have been able to date
many of them very precisely while others less so. Obviously the more imprecise
the date, the more susceptible a particular machine's place in the
chronology is to revision if more information comes to light, though I do
not believe such information will result in more than the rearrangement of
a few machines here and there.
In addition to surviving collators, the chronology also includes machines
that have been lost. Anyone who has ever laid eyes on a Hinman, which
stands nearly six feet tall and weighs over 400 pounds, knows that one
cannot easily misplace such an object [plate 1]. Yet anyone who has ever
worked in an organization of any size should also understand that such
changes, and soon no one remembers what happened to that hulking hunk
of metal that used to sit in the corner. Over the years, a few Hinmans have
also been officially de-accessioned, junked, gotten-rid-of, etc.
Charlton Hinman was involved in the business of making and selling
mechanical collators for only a few years. After he built the machine for his
use at the Folger, he sub-contracted the manufacturing to Arthur M. Johnson,
a retired Navy engineer who had been an unofficial advisor earlier in
the project. Sometime in 1955 or 1956, Hinman completely turned over the
business to Johnson. Coincidentally, both Hinman and Johnson died in
1977. In the last five years of his life, Johnson built collators in partnership
with a former employee, Robert Michel of MICO Engineering, Bladensburg,
Maryland. Michel had worked for Johnson since the 1950s. Mr. Michel
stayed in business a few years after Johnson's death, selling five machines on
his own, the last one to Penn State in 1979. He retired and closed his business
in the mid-1980s.
The sources for this section of the census are many and varied. They
include letters, invoices, newspaper notices, newsletter announcements, bibliographical
and textual studies, previous location lists, and the memories of
individuals who used or were around particular machines. Perhaps the most
important of these sources were the previous lists of Hinman locations.
During the years when the Hinman Collator was being manufactured and
widely used, three location lists were published in bibliographical journals,
the final one in 1975, four years before the last machine was sold (Johnson,
"Hinman Collators in Current Use"; "Hinman Collators: Present Locations";
"Locations of Hinman Collators"). Another list survives in typescript,
and in 1979, after building what proved to be the last Hinman, Robert
Michel compiled still another as part of an advertising flyer (Johnson, "Hinman
Collators," 19 July 1970; Michel, Hinman Collator). Taken together,
these documents provide a nearly complete record of the original purchasers.
They do not, however, include dates of acquisition, sales prices, and other
details, and they also contain a few errors that are corrected here. Some of
the machines have also changed locations since the appearance of these lists.
No complete or even reasonably comprehenseive archive of records relating
to the buying and selling of collators resides in one location. Instead,
papers and letters by and relating to Charlton Hinman and Arthur M.
Johnson are located in the files of libraries, individuals, and the organizations
with whom they dealt. These have also been important sources. Johnson
especially was a prolific and chatty letter writer, and usually in the
course of his correspondence with one customer he would mention others
who had recently bought or ordered machines. Often, I was also able to obtain
invoices, purchase orders, and other administrative documents. These
were useful for dating machines and establishing details such as sales price.
I am extremely grateful to those individuals who have made letters and
other materials available to me.
In my search I also examined the published results of every research
PLATE 1. Charlton Hinman at the Hinman Collator. Courtesy of the Spencer Research
Library, University of Kansas.
PLATE 2. The Lindstrand Comparator.
PLATE 3. Randall McLeod and the McLeod Portable Collator. Photograph by Pamela
Harris.
PLATE 4. R. Carter Hailey and the Hailey's Comet. Photograph by Willis Turner.
PLATE 5. Design for Vinton Dearing's "Poor Man's Mark IV." Courtesy of the Papers
of the Bibliographical Society of America.
PLATE 6. Design for Gerald Smith's "Poor Man's Mark VII." Courtesy of the Papers
of the Bibliographical Society of America.
PLATE 7. Irving Rothman at the Houston Editing Desk working on octavo sheets with
octavo frames. A frame for folio sheets is in the rack. Photograph by Ann Casperson.
PLATE 8. William P. Williams' "Bibliographical Twirlers." One twirler is set up on
each side of his computer. Photograph by Professor Antonia Forster, English Department,
University of Akron.
machines and help in establishing dates on others. These research
projects included most of the volumes published under the direction of the
Center for Editions of American Authors (CEAA), many of those associated
with the Center for Scholarly Editions and its successor the Committee on
Scholarly Editions (CSE), and shorter projects published in bibliographical
journals. A good deal of the history of the collator survives only as oral
tradition. So, as an extra additional measure, I also sought out individuals
who own, have used, work or worked at institutions that possess (or previously
possessed) Hinmans or who were in some way otherwise associated
with the machine. These individuals patiently answered my queries, and a
few also sought me out to provide information that I would have otherwise
missed.
I have not been able to inspect every machine personally. Traveling
throughout the United States, Canada, England, Germany, and elsewhere to
visit each one would be ideal but has not proven practical. I have, however,
confirmed the presence (or absence) of machines and gathered details about
them by corresponding with individuals at their various locations. I sent
out a standard letter by e-mail or U.S. mail to institutions and individuals
that I had reason to believe (because of a mention in a previous list or in
the archival material, a reference in a published research project, a tip by
someone who knew of the machine, or from another source) possessed a
Hinman. This letter contained questions about the age, provenance, and
certain physical features of the collator. I also asked about projects in which
the collator in question may have been used. Answers to this letter frequently
provoked more particular questions. I am grateful to all those who patiently
answered my many queries, some of whom also graciously supplied me with
photographs of their collators.
Over the years press releases and newspaper articles would sometimes
claim that this or that machine was the fifth, thirty-first, fortieth, or some
other number. This information undoubtedly originated from Johnson, for
he sometimes made such statements in letters to customers. These numbers,
however, do not necessarily coincide with the entry numbers in this list.
This disparity stems mainly from the fact that I count machines that Johnson
did not. For instance, the prototype, built more or less by Hinman, is
A1 in this list whereas Johnson probably never thought of it as the first
machine. It was neither designed nor built by him, and it was only the
prototype after all. My interests are historical; Johnson's were commercial.
When asked how many collators he had built, he would have had no reason
to include an experimental model that was never put into operation.
Johnson's numbers are also inconsistent, or at least they appear so.
When Johnson went into partnership with Robert Michel in 1972 he began
putting a four-digit serial number on the front of each machine. These numbers
begin with "10" followed by two numbers that indicate the particular
machine's place in the manufacturing line, "45," "46," "47," etc. While these
numbers are accurate indicators of sequence ("1046" came after "1045" and
the collator at the American Antiquarian Society, purchased in the summer
of 1972, was the first to carry a serial number—"1045." The next machine,
the University of Houston collator, is numbered "1046," and so on until the
Wolfenbüttel collator, "1054." Without more information, however, I cannot
say for sure whether the AAS machine was, as was assumed at the time
of its purchase and is suggested by its serial number, the "45th edition"
(McCorison, Letter). My suspicion is that it was not, as the numbers that
other institutions reported as well as many statements made by Johnson do
not square with it, or even with one another. The New Brunswick collator,
acquired in September of 1971, was announced as the "36th" Hinman ("A
First at a Canadian University"). The Florida machine, which showed up
over a year earlier in June of 1970, was described as "one of only 40" ("University
Libraries Get Hinman Collator"). If the AAS machine was really the
45th edition, then why are there at least seven machines between it and
Florida's, supposedly the latest? Given these discrepancies, it seems wiser to
admit uncertainty and to caution against being too literal about the serial
numbers as well as about the numbers that turn up in newspapers and elsewhere.
The machines sold by Michel after Johnson's death did not carry
numbers.
I have been unable to account for two machines that should have been
produced within the sequence—machines that should carry the numbers
"1048" and "1050." I believe that these machines were sold to pharmaceutical
companies, as the timing of their production coincides with the period
when these companies were acquiring Hinmans. In 1971 Bristol-Myers purchased
a machine to proofread prescription labels. Seven additional machines
were sold to other pharmaceutical companies, though the Bristol-Myers collator
(A36) is the only one I have been able to date or to trace to a current
location. Despite the fact that I have not been able to precisely date the other
machines, I have chosen to list them after the Bristol-Myers collator, alphabetically
by location, each with its own entry number. They were probably
all built fairly close together, and so listing them this way seems the best
way to document and facilitate access to them within the list.
I have also been unable to locate up to three other machines that may
have been produced. I have it from two sources that the Treasury Department
used a collator. It is well known that the CIA owned a Hinman. If the
Treasury Department had one, they could have borrowed or inherited it
from the CIA. On the other hand, they could have owned an entirely separate
machine. I do not have enough information to say if either, or neither,
of these scenarios is true, or which is more likely. So for now rather than
give the Treasury Department a separate listing, I discuss the sources and
everything else I know about it in the entry for the CIA machine (A11). As
for the other two mystery collators, Johnson stated in his first location list,
published in 1963, that two "modified machines" were in "industrial use."
I have no other references to these but suspect they may be the table model
and a twin. I discuss this possibility in A6.
Each entry is also annotated with information such as sales price, some
of the projects the particular machine has been used for, why it was purchased
in the first place, previous locations for those few machines that have
had multiple owners or have been used at different institutions, current disposition,
and other matters of interest. However, I have not been able to
establish all of these details in every case. Furthermore, the annotations
make no pretense toward completeness in regard to projects associated with
particular machines. Most institutions have not kept records of how their
collator has been used, and many projects that did utilize the machine do
not announce that fact in their published prefaces and introductions. It
should be remembered, though, that for many collators their most frequent
usage was not for long-term editorial projects but for quick checks to confirm
points between copies. This kind of traffic is very difficult to quantify,
save to say that it has been substantial. My purpose for including details
about projects is not to provide a complete catalog but merely to give a
sense of how particular machines have been employed and what kind of
lives they have led. Moreover, some collators have done double (and in a
few cases their only) duty as demonstration pieces, mostly in introductory
research classes for graduate students in English but in other venues as well.
Since the early 1990s, Rare Book School at the University of Virginia, for
example, has regularly conducted a lunchtime collator demonstration as
part of its summer workshop in descriptive bibliography. Arthur Johnson
gave a public lecture on the device as part of his standard delivery package.
Some institutions, especially in the early days, used their machines for publicity
purposes (see my aforementioned article on the invention of the Hinman
for examples). Generations of English professors, librarians, curators,
and others, most of who never went on to machine-collate a book or even a
single page, have been introduced to the field of bibliographical and textual
studies via the Hinman. This is another kind of usage that though impossible
to quantify has been substantial.
So how many Hinmans were produced? Given the scattered and incomplete
nature of the records, I cannot say with absolute certainty. I can, however,
offer an estimate that I believe is accurate within a machine or two.
By my count, which as will be remembered includes machines that Johnson
probably never counted or counted inconsistently, there were around fiftyeight.
This estimate includes the fifty-seven machines given separate entries
here, plus an additional table model. It also assumes that serial numbers
1048 and 1050 are among the seven undated pharmaceutical machines. If
the Treasury Department did own a machine, and if it was not the same
machine as the CIA collator, then the number would rise to fifty-nine.
For anyone engaged in editorial or bibliographical work, however, the
number of surviving machines is probably far more important than how
many were ultimately manufactured. The census locates forty-one survivors,
all but two of which appear to be in reasonably good condition. The two
inoperable machines (Iowa, A14, and Colorado, A56) no longer possess their
optics. As for the few lost collators—though in most cases I suspect these
perhaps as the result of the publication of this list.
A1. Folger Shakespeare Library
Built sometime in 1946 or 1947, this is the prototype that Hinman demonstrated
to the Modern Language Association and the Bibliographical Society
of America in 1947. Its primary components were a "pair of ordinary microfilm
projectors (borrowed from the Navy), some pieces of wooden apple box
(abstracted from a trash pile), some heavy cardboard (begged from the Folger
bindery), and parts of a rusty Erector set (more or less hi-jacked from the
small son of a close personal friend)" (Hinman, "Mechanized Collation: A
Preliminary Report" 102). The editor of PBSA was careful to put the word
"machine" in quotation marks when referring to this device, perhaps underscoring
its provisional state and still imprecise performance. This device
was probably cannibalized and scrapped in the process of building the next
machine.A2. Folger Shakespeare Library
Built by Charlton Hinman with assistance primarily from the Institute for
Co-operative Research at Johns Hopkins University (Johnson, Letter to
William P. Barlow; Rich). It was at the Folger as early as July 1949. Hinman
declared it more or less "perfected" in late 1951 (Altick 188; Hinman,
"Mark III" 150). This machine was traded back to Arthur Johnson in 1973
when the Folger purchased a new collator. Currently owned by William P.
Barlow, the machine was repaired and slightly renovated before Johnson
sold it to him in October of 1973 (Johnson, Letter to William P. Barlow).A3. James Ford Bell, Minneapolis, Minnesota
Purchased around 1953 for the private library of James Ford Bell, founder
of General Mills and namesake of the James Ford Bell Special Collections
at Minnesota (Johnson, Letter to Joseph Rubinstein, 23 Feb. 1957). Part of
Bell's library consisted of a collection of books on the Jesuit Relations of
New France. There was some thought of using the machine to examine
these books but the project never developed (Parker). Johnson's 1963 PBSA
list incorrectly locates this machine at the University of Minnesota. He may
have assumed that this machine was given to Minnesota in 1953 when Bell
donated his library to the University. The machine was never at Minnesota
and its current location is unknown.A4. Harvard University
Purchased by the Houghton Library in 1954 (Hinman, "Mechanized Collation
at the Houghton Library" 132; and Johnson, Letter to Joseph
Rubinstein, 23 Feb. 1957). It was first used by W. H. Bond for a study of the
illustrations in the 1865 and 1866 editions of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
(Bond, "Publication"). Jacob Blanck and William Jackson also tried
the machine but never used it for any project (Bond, Letter to the author).
The collator was transferred to Harvard's Collections of Historical Scientific
Instruments in early 1986 (Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments).A5. Lessing J. Rosenwald, Jenkintown, Pennsylvania
Purchased by Lessing J. Rosenwald around 1954 or 1955 (Johnson, Letter to
Joseph Rubinstein, 23 Feb. 1957), loaned for some time to the University
of Pennsylvania, and located at the Library of Congress by the early 1980s.
William Proctor Williams remembers repairing it at the Library around
1411982 or 1983 (E-mail to the author). In 1969 it was "on loan at the University
of Pennsylvania" (Johnson, "Hinman Collators: Present Locations"),
and according to the last list Johnson published it was still there in 1975.
It was not at the Library of Congress in the mid-1970s. When Frederick R.
Goff, who at the time was Honorary Consultant in Early Printed Books at
the Library, undertook his study of the Declaration of Independence in
the summer of 1975, he had copies of the Declaration that were loaned to
him deposited at the Folger for examination on its machine (Goff 7). It
seems likely that the machine came to the Library with Rosenwald's book
collection in 1979, but according to records and the memories of those
associated with the transfer this was not the case (Fine; Rare Book and
Special Collections Division, Library of Congress). Again, however, the collator
was there in 1983 when Williams repaired it. Its current location is
unknown.A6. Arthur M. Johnson, Silver Spring, Maryland
Built by Johnson in 1955, probably early in the year, to work with small,
unbound items such as checks, small photographs, stamps, etc. Johnson
called it the table model and built it in an effort to find applications other
than the field of bibliography and textual studies. It measured 20 inches
high, 23 inches long, and seven inches wide. It had a single eyepiece instead
of a binocular set of optics. The blinking mechanism was provided by a
button that the operator pushed up and down with his finger, rather than
by the knee switch on the large machines (Johnson, Letter to Joseph Rubinstein,
26 Dec. 1957). Johnson demonstrated it to a group of Wall Street
bankers, and he also loaned it for a short time to the Aeronautical and
Information Center, United States Air Force, St. Louis, Missouri (Johnson,
Letter to Ross J. Foster). Neither group purchased the machine. It was on
loan for a brief period to the Spencer Research Library, University of
Kansas, while they awaited delivery of their full-size Hinman (Johnson,
Letter to Joseph Rubinstein, 27 Jan. 1958). The current location of this
machine is unknown.In the 1963 location list, Johnson stated the two "modified machines"
were in "industrial use." I have found no other reference to these machines,
which is strange given Johnson's eagerness to expand his market and his
penchant for chatting up the fact when he did. The only modified machine
that I know of prior to 1963 is the table model, and the last mention I have
of it occurs in 1958, in a letter to Joseph Rubinstein at the University of
Kansas (11 Aug. 1958). That correspondence leaves the clear impression that
of those to whom he had shown the machine, no one was interested. Nevertheless,
if there were modified machines in industrial use prior to 1963, the
table model and perhaps a twin seem the most likely candidates.A7. British Museum
Purchased sometime in late 1955. In announcing the acquisition, the British
Museum Quarterly stated that this was the "fifth such instrument to be
produced and the first to come into operation outside America" ("Collating
Machine," British Museum Quarterly). The announcement in the Times
Literary Supplement repeats this claim and also adds that its purchase was
made possible with funds from the bequest of the late Dr. Arthur Watson
("Mechanized Collation"). The machine passed to the British Library in
1973 and was disposed of around 1985 (Williams, "Smith"). In the mid1970s,
the Library developed a hybrid machine that combined features of
the Hinman Collator and the Lindstrand Comparator (E6).A8. University of Virginia
Purchased in January or February of 1956 for $1500. The Charlottesville
Daily Progress and the Richmond Times-Dispatch both covered the arrival
of the Hinman, and a special demonstration was offered for members of
the Bibliographical Society (Vander Meulen, Bibliographical Society 23-25).
John Cook Wyllie was the driving force behind the acquisition of the machine.
He had shown an interest in Hinman's experiements as early as 1946
(Wyllie) and played an important role in encouraging its use. Matthew J.
Bruccoli credited Wyllie with suggesting his collation projects on F. Scott
Fitzgerald and Sinclair Lewis ("A Collation This Side of Paradise" 263;
"Textual Variants" 264). The collator has also been used by David Vander
Meulen for work on Pope, by David Gants on the Workes of Ben Jonson,
and for many of the numerous editorial projects undertaken by Fredson
Bowers. The machine is currently located in the Department of Special
Collections, Alderman Library.A9. University of Kansas
Purchased and delivered in July 1958 for about $5000 (Johnson, letters to
Joseph Rubinstein, 11 Aug. 1958 and 23 Apr. 1957). Johnson later visited
the University to demonstrate the machine (Johnson, Letter to Joseph
Rubinstein, 22 Sept. 1958). Charlton Hinman himself used it to collate
photocopies of Shakespeare quartos. It has also been used for work on
William Dean Howells. Almost annually for the last forty years the staff of
the Spencer Library have given demonstrations on it using their variant
Jonson folios. In the 1960s a graduate student used it for a complete collation
of the Jonson folios (Mason). This was the first machine to feature a
gray rather than a black exterior and cabinets beneath the bookstands
(Johnson, letters to Joseph Rubinstein, 10 Mar. and 9 June 1958). It is
currently located in the Spencer Research Library.A10. University of Illnois
Purchased in November 1959 for around $5000 at the recommendation of
Bruce Harkness and G. Blakemore Evans, both of the English faculty, and
Robert B. Downs, Dean of Library Administration. Johnson delivered this
machine himself ("Hinman Collating Machine Installed in Rare Book
Library"). It is currently located in the Rare Books and Special Collections
Library of the University Library.A11. Central Intelligence Agency
Probably purchased in 1959 or 1960. It was almost certainly in place before
1963. In the PBSA list that Johnson published that year, he describes a
collator as being owned by an "agency of the Federal Government." Despite
numerous attempts, I have been unable to extract any information, or even
a response, from the CIA. Perhaps such matters are classified. There is a
possibility that this machine was inherited or that an additional one was
purchased by another U.S. government agency. John F. Andrews, in his
obituary of Hinman in the Shakespeare Quarterly, stated that among the
"non-bibliographical uses to which the Hinman Collator has been applied
. . . is the detection of counterfeit currency by the United States Treasury
Department" (Andrews 275-276). Hinman's daughter, Barbara Hinman,
has told me that at the time of her father's death "the Treasury people
were still using the collator or some variation in their day-to-day efforts to
spot bogus bills" (Barbara Hinman). Neither source remembers where this
information came from, and despite numerous queries I have been unable
to confirm their reports with the Treasury Department. Johnson never
143mentioned the Treasury Department in any of the letters or his lists. Nevertheless,
given independent reports from two witnesses, I am reluctant to dismiss
the possibility that the Treasury Department either bought a machine
of its own or borrowed the one from the CIA.There is an interesting story regarding the delivery of this machine.
Apparently the CIA instructed Johnson to deliver it to an inconspicuous
loading dock where an anonymous individual paid him in cash. He was also
instructed to detach and leave the U-haul trailer on which the machine
was still loaded. U-haul never asked Johnson to return the trailer or settle
the bill (Michel, Telephone interview, 28 Sept. 2000). According to Johnson's
relatives, a few years later he heard from the CIA again. As Johnson
told the story, they were inquiring about the purchase of a new machine
because the first one had been stored in a location so secret that even the
CIA could not find it. Perhaps they had lent it to the Treasury Department
and forgotten (Arthur Juniewicz).A12. Ohio State University
Purchased in August of 1961 for $5000 and delivered by Johnson (Charvat).
The funding was provided by the Council on Research, Department of
English, and the University Libraries. The machine was purchased for use
on the Ohio State Centenary Edition of Nathaniel Hawthorne (Hecht 1). It
is currently located in the Rare Books and Manuscripts Department of the
Ohio State University Libraries.A.13 Yale University
Delivered by Johnson in June 1962, this machine was purchased with funding
from the Old Dominion Foundation (Brooks). Library officials had
intended to purchase the machine after the opening of the Beinecke Library
in 1963. However, in early 1962, Herman Liebert, Curator of Rare
Books, advised James Babb, University Librarian, to go ahead with the
purchase as several people were already anxious to use it (Liebert). One
faculty member was making weekly trips to Harvard for the Houghton
machine (Ottemiller). The Yale collator was disposed of sometime in the
late 1890s during renovations of the room where it resided.A14. University of Iowa
Purchased in 1963 prior to October for work on the Berkeley Twain edition
(Johnson, Letter to William B. Todd, 18 Oct. 1963). Warner Barnes found
upwards of five thousand variants in the so-called "Royal Edition" of
Twain's works on this collator, a number far in excess of anything ever
uncovered in any other editorial project (Barnes, Personal interview; Todd,
203). Sidney Berger, who was a graduate student at Iowa and later on the
faculty of the English Department at the University of California, Davis,
worked as a research assistant on many editorial projects, among them
Smollett, Twain, and Shaw, and he used this machine as well as the one at
Davis (A46) on them (Berger). At some point the optics on this machine
went missing, and it is now effectively inoperable.A15. University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee
Purchased sometime prior to October of 1964 (Johnson, Letter to Dorothy
M. Lawrence). It has been used by Robert K. Turner for research on Fletcher
and Beaumont and is currently located in the Shakespeare Research Collection,
Golda Meir Library. Johnson may have delivered this machine. He
visited later to make minor adjustments (Turner, Telephone interview, 13
June 2000).A.16. University of Texas, Austin
Purchased in mid-January, 1965, and originally installed by Johnson in the
Miriam Lutcher Stark Library (Brewer). It is currently located in the Harry
Ransom Humanities Research Center. The price, including delivery, was
$6205. William B. Todd played a leading role in its acquisition (Johnson,
letters to William B. Todd, 13 Sept. 1962 and 18 Oct. 1963). Warner Barnes
used it for his bibliography of Elizabeth Barrett Browning. It was also used
for various projects by Todd and more recently by Joseph J. Moldenhauer
on the Riverside edition of Thoreau. The 1969 census lists a second machine
as being on order, but the University of Texas at Austin never acquired
a second one (Barnes, Letter to the author). Johnson probably confused this
location with the University of Texas at Arlington, for which he was building
a machine at the time of the 1969 census.A17. Southern Illinois University
Probably purchased in 1965 for the Southern Illinois Dewey edition. In
1964, Jo Ann Boydston, textual editor for the Dewey project, began working
with Fredson Bowers, who probably first told her about the Hinman.
On learning of it, she "pushed the administration very hard to purchase
one" (Boydston). The collator has been used extensively, and perhaps exclusively,
for the Dewey edition. It is currently located in the Special Collections
Department of the Morris Library.A18. Northwestern University
Purchased by Northwestern in the summer of 1965 for the Newberry/Northwestern
edition of Melville (Hayford, Letter to G. Thomas Tanselle; Newberry
Library, E-mail to the author). Originally located in the Deering
Library, it was moved to the Newberry as early as May, 1966, but may have
been moved back to Northwestern temporarily (Hayford, Letter to Jens
Nyholm). The collator was again at the Newberry by the spring of 1969
(Johnson, Letter to Virginia Heiseman).At the Newberry, the machine was placed in a glass-fronted room near
the main entrance and was thus one of the first things visitors saw on entering
the Library. The spectacle of the machine in operation was frequently
made all the more interesting by one of the editorial assistants who used
it—a nun in full habit (Farren; Krummel).A19. Miami University, Oxford, Ohio
Purchased in January of 1966 for $5,997.86. David Vander Meulen of Charlottesville,
Virginia, acquired it from Miami in early 1993 (Special Collections,
Miami University Library).A20. Kent State University
Probably purchased in February 1966 (Krause) for the Kent State edition
of Charles Brockden Brown and later used on the Cambridge Joseph Conrad
and the Ohio University edition of Robert Browning (Reid). This machine
is currently located in the Institute for Bibliography and Editing at Kent
State.A21. University of California, Los Angeles
Purchased by the Clark Library in June of 1966 and used primarily for the
Dryden edition (Guffey, "Hinman Collator Acquired by the Clark Library").
It was the first machine on the West Coast and was personally delivered by
Johnson (Johnson, Letter to Paul M. Miles). In justifying its purchase, Robert
145Vosper, University Librarian, stated that in addition to work on Dryden
the collator would also be used to train "graduate students in bibliography"
(Vosper). It is still located in the Clark Library.A22. Indiana University
Purchased in the summer or early fall of 1966. The English Department
announced its availability in November ("Howells Edition Center"). Originally
located in the Lilly Library and later moved to the English Department,
the machine was purchased for the William Dean Howells edition (Nordloh).
It is currently located in its original home, the Lilly Library.A23. University of Wisconsin, Madison
Purchased around December 1966 for about $6000 by the Graduate School
for the University of Wisconsin edition of Washington Irving (Pochmann).
Also used by Standish Henning for work on Thomas Middleton's A Mad
World, My Masters and for several other projects carried out under Henning's
direction (Special Collections, Memorial Library, University of Wisconsin,
Madison). It is currently housed in the Department of Special
Collections, Memorial Library.A24. University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
Purchased around 1966 or 1967 at the behest of Dennis Donovan, assistant
chairman of English, with National Defense Education Act funds (Rust).
It was moved from the English Department to the Rare Book Collection
of the Wilson Library in 1986 (Rare Books, Wilson Library, University of
North Carolina). The collator also spent some time in the Microform
Reading Room of the Library before reaching its current destination
(Boone). It was utilized primarily on the University of Wisconsin edition
of Washington Irving.A25. University of South Carolina
Purchased in 1966 or 1967 for work on the South Carolina William Gilmore
Simms project. It was originally located in the McKissick Library,
then moved to the English Department, and finally to the Thomas Cooper
Library. The machine was also used on various projects directed by Matthew
J. Bruccoli (Special Collections, Thomas Cooper Library). It was sold to
McMaster University, Ontario, Canada, in September 1981 for $2100 for work
on the McMaster University edition of Bertrand Russell. It was never used for
this project, however, as the editors found it "was simply not applicable to
their work" (Research Collections, Mills Memorial Library). David Gants
acquired the machine in 1992 or 1993 while he was a graduate student at the
University of Virginia. He later took it with him when he joined the faculty
of the English Department at the University of Georgia. The collator is now
at the University of New Brunswick, where Gants holds a joint appointment
with the Department of English and the Etext Centre. He has used it
extensively for his study of Ben Jonson's Workes and other projects (Gants,
E-mail to the author, 9 Feb. 1999). The University of South Carolina purchased
another machine in 1973 (see entry A50).A26. Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität, Münster, Germany
Purchased under the direction of Dieter Kranz and installed in 1967 by
Johnson. In the 1970s a team of scholars from Hamburg editing Klopstock's
dramas also made use of it (Kranz). The machine has also been used for
demonstration purposes for classes in analytical bibliography. It is currently
located in the Forschungsinstitut für Buchwissenschaft und Bibliographie.A27. University of Edinburgh
Purchased in 1967 or 1968. It seems to have been little used and now resides
"gathering dust and unloved outside the Strong Room in the Main Library
basement" (Special Collections, Edinburgh University Library).A28. Oxford University
Purchased sometime in late 1969 or early 1970. The 1969 PBSA census lists
this machine as being "on order." It is listed without qualification on the
July 1970 typescript Folger list. According to the Bodleian Library Record
it was purchased with a grant from the Higher Studies Fund ("The Hinman
Collator"). The collator is currently located in the Johnson Reading Room,
Department of Western Manuscripts, Bodleian Library.A29. Trinity University, San Antonio, Texas
Purchased in late 1968 or early 1969 (Johnson, Letter to Charlton Hinman,
19 Feb. 1970). Kenneth W. Staggs used it on the James Fenimore Cooper
edition (Baird). The current location of this machine is unknown.A30. Northern Illinois University
Purchased in 1969. It is currently located in the Department of Special
Collections, University Library.A31. Syracuse University
Purchased in late 1969 (Johnson, Letter to Charlton Hinman, 19 Feb. 1970).
Cornell purchased it from Syracuse in the mid-1970s for around $5000 (Eddy).
Currently located in the Division of Rare Books and Manuscript Collections,
Kroch Library, Cornell University.A32. University of Florida
Purchased in June of 1970 with funds provided by the Vice President for
Academic Affairs ("University Libraries Get Hinman Collator"). The machine
was delivered by Johnson and probably cost around $6000 or $7000
(New). It was acquired for Melvyn New's work on the Florida edition of
Tristram Shandy and used extensively for this project. The collator is currently
located in the Rare Books and Special Collections Department,
Smathers Library East.A33. University of Texas, Arlington
Purchased in August or September of 1970. The first listing of this machine
is on the 1970 unpublished list, where Johnson notes it will be delivered
"in 30 days." The 1969 PBSA census lists a machine for Brown University
as being "on order." In setting up for a definitive edition of the novels of
Harold Frederic, Stanton Garner, who was on the Brown faculty at the
time, apparently ordered a collator. Before the order was filled, he moved
to the University of Texas, Arlington, where the project and eventually the
collator followed him (Shroeder). In 1982, the Frederic project moved to
the University of Nebraska, and with it went the machine. Since that time
the machine has also been used for the Nebraska Willa Cather edition. It
is currently located in the offices of the Willa Cather edition, 215 Andrews
Hall, University of Nebraska, Lincoln (Mignon).A34. New York Public Library
Purchased in August or September of 1970 with support from the Carl and
Lily Pforzheimer Foundation (Ames; "Hinman Collator," Bulletin of the
147New York Public Library). The machine was disposed of sometime in 1996.
Apparently the optics had gone missing before then (Rare Books Division,
New York Public Library).A35. Texas Tech University
Evidence for dating this machine is contradictory. An inventory tag on the
machine reads "Texas Tech College," which would indicate that it showed
up before September 1969 as that is the date the school's name was changed
to Texas Tech University. However, neither the 1969 PBSA list nor the
July, 1970, unpublished list mentions this machine. It is possible that the
old nametags were used for a time after the name change. It was there at
the time of David Leon Higdon's arrival in August, 1971. Higdon used the
collator extensively for the Joseph Conrad edition, especially for work on
Almayer's Folly and Under Western Eyes (Higdon). Donald Rude also used
it for work on Conrad and asked graduate students to use it for projects in
his introductory bibliography course (Rude). The collator is currently located
in the Southwest Collection/Special Collections Library.A36. Bristol-Myers Laboratories, Syracuse, New York
Purchased sometme before September of 1971 ("A First at Canadian University").
Bristol-Myers learned of the machine when Syracuse University
purchased one (A31) in late 1969 or early 1970. Bristol-Myers used the
machine to proofread labels. The company had had a scare when the hyphen
was inadvertently dropped from a prescription label, so that the instructions
directed patients to take "12" rather than "1-2" tablets. The machine was
also used on packing inserts and carton instructions. It was not fitted with
book cradles since the various texts compared on it were unbound or easily
flattened. Ted Bertella used this machine almost every day from 1973 until
his retirement in 1992 (Joann Bertella). He believes that the Bristol-Myers
collator was probably the first sold for this application, as he remembers
giving demonstrations to several other pharmaceutical firms and none of
them ever indicated seeing one before. After Mr. Bertella's retirement the
machine was not used so he offered to find a new home for it. The company
agreed, and in 1993 Bertella placed it at Scheuler Communications (now
Liberty Business Development), a printing company in Syracuse, where it
is used to run final quality checks on printed documents (Ted Bertella).In the 1975 list, Johnson stated that he had placed collators at "seven
pharmaceutical firms," though he did not name the firms. As mentioned in
the introduction, the machines carrying serial numbers 1048 and 1050 have
not been located. It seems likely that these were pharmaceutical collators
as the serial numbers coincide with the time when these companies were
buying Hinmans. The collators bearing these numbers should have been
produced by 1975.Robert Michel listed eight pharmaceutical machines in his 1979 flyer.
Again, the Bristol-Myers machine is the only one I have been able to track
down. The others are listed alphabetically by location with individual entry
numbers below. My search has been complicated by the fact that each of
the companies in question has been bought, sold, merged, expanded, contracted,
or relocated at least once since 1979.A37. Abbott Labs, Illinois
A38. Mile Laboratories, Indiana
A39. Elonco Corporation, Minnesota
A40. Hoffman-LaRoche, New Jersey
A41. Ortho Pharmaceuticals, New Jersey
A42. Burroughs and Wellcome, North Carolina
A43. William H. Rohrer, Inc., Pennsylvania
A44. University of New Brunswick
Purchased in late September of 1971 ("A First at a Canadian University")
at the urging of Reavley Gair, who used it for work on Marston's Antonio's
Revenge. The machine proved something of a disappointment to Gair, however.
He had expected it to work equally well with microfilm and photocopy
reproductions. While photocopies worked fine, the microfilm reproductions
never registered well enough to be useful. The machine was personally delivered
by Johnson and his wife, who were accommodated in a local hotel,
taken out to dinner by Gair and a small committee, and generally "given a
holiday in eastern Canada" (Gair). Gair trained graduate students on the
machine, and on a few occasions scholars from other universities used the
collator. Gair also had hopes of using it on a more substantial project in
seventeenth-century editing, but the funding never materialized. The Royal
Canadian Mounted Police used the machine and found it "very helpful in
detecting forged banknotes" (Gair). In March of 1994, the machine was
given to the National Library of Canada in Ottawa, where it is currently
housed in the Rare Book Division ("Hinman Collator," Bulletin of the
National Library of Canada; University Archives, University of New Brunswick).
Ironically, another Hinman has made its way to New Brunswick.
David Gants, who owns one of the two South Carolina machines (A25), is
on the faculty of the Department of English and the Etext Centre at the
University of New Brunswick.A45. Cambridge University
Purchased in late 1971 or very early 1972, as the first recorded use of the
machine was on January 26, 1972 ("Hinman Collator Log"). It has been
used for many projects over the years, including work on the Brontës,
eighteenth-century periodicals, Shakespeare quartos, and Orlando Furioso.
It is currently housed in the Rare Books Department of the University
Library.A46. University of California, Davis
Purchased at the recommendation of Sid Berger through the English Department
in 1972 and delivered by Johnson. Berger, who was on the English
faculty, got to work on it immediately and "didn't stop for years" (Berger).
As a graduate student he had also used the machine at Iowa (A14). For a
time in the 1980s, the machine was on loan to the University of California,
Santa Cruz, for work on Thomas Carlyle (Baumgarten). It is currently housed
in the Special Collections Department of the University Library.A47. American Antiquarian Society
Purchased in the late summer of 1972. Serial number 1045. The machine
was delivered by Johnson and his wife and probably cost around $7,500
(McCorison, "Re: Hinman"). It has been used recently for work on the
Colonial Williamsburg Imprints Project (Charbeneau). The editors of the
Cooper edition also used the machine extensively (McCorison, "Re:
Hinman").A48. University of Houston
Purchased at the behest of Irving Rothman, a faculty member in the English
Department, probably very early in 1973 (Rothman). Serial number 1046.
Funding was partially provided by the Biology Department, where there
was some thought of using it to compare before and after shots of sediment
and plants, but these plans never materialized. Rothman used the collator
on several of his eighteenth-century projects as well as for demonstration
purposes in the graduate bibliography course. In 1972, Kevin Mac Donnell
used the machine for a study of Sinclair Lewis' The Jungle. Mac Donnell
collated some 40 copies of the Doubleday, Page edition. The results of his
research have never been published, however. Mac Donnell also used it for
an unpublished study of the 1967 Doubleday revised edition of John Barth's
Sot Weed Factor (Mac Donnell). The machine is housed in the Department
of Special Collections, M. D. Anderson Library, University of Houston.A49. Folger Shakespeare Library
Purchased with funds from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation in the spring
of 1973 as a replacement for the machine Hinman built and used. Serial
number 1047. The editors of the Variorum Edition of Shakespeare have used
it to collate quarto texts of Shakespeare plays (Folger Shakespeare Library).
Frederick R. Goff used this machine for his study of the Declaration of
Independence (Goff 7). More recent users include David Gants and Peter
Blayney (Folger Shakespeare Library).A50. University of South Carolina
Purchased in the summer of 1973 (Johnson, Letter to Don Kunitz). Serial
number 1049. This is the second machine owned by the University (see A25).
According to the 1975 list, it was located in the editorial office of the journal
Proof (Johnson, "Locations"). In addition to publishing the journal, the
Proof offices served as a "facility for teaching, research, and public service
in bibliographical and textual studies" (English at South Carolina, 19741975
[11-12]). The Proof offices also hosted the graduate course in bibliography.
The machine is currently located in the Department of Special Collections,
Thomas Cooper Library.A51. Baylor University
Purchased in April of 1974 for work on the Ohio University edition of
Robert Browning ("Hinman Collator," The Armstrong Browning Library
Newsletter). Serial number 1051. The price of the machine, including delivery,
was $7565 (Johnson, Letter to Jack Herring, 23 Nov. 1973). Johnson
and his wife personally delivered this collator, and Johnson also gave a
brief lecture on the "history of the machine, how it came into being" and
"what makes it do what it does" (Johnson, Letter to Jack Herring, 20 Mar.
1974). Jack Herring, who was then Director of the Armstrong Browning
Library, was a member of the Browning variorum editorial board. Warner
Barnes also used it on his bibliography of Elizabeth Barrett Browning. This
machine is currently in storage.A52. Stirling University
Purchased in October or November of 1974. Serial number 1052. Johnson
did not personally deliver this machine, though he sent extensive instructions
for unpacking and assembling along with it (Johnson, Letter to P. G.
Peacock, 21 Oct. 1974). The Library was new at the time, and its basement
hosted a center for bibliographical study, equipped with a printing and
papermaking lab (Stirling University Library). The collator was purchased
150as part of the equipment for this center and is currently located in the University
Library.A53. Texas A&M University
Purchased in 1975 by the English Department and shortly thereafter transferred
to the Department of Special Collections, Sterling C. Evans Library
(King). Serial number 1053. It is currently located in the Cushing Memorial
Library and Archives.A54. Herzog August Bibliothek. Wolfenbüttel, Germany
Purchased in July of 1977. Serial number 1054. The cost, including shipping,
was $8265 (Invoice Number 6570). Martin Boghardt was the force behind its
acquisition (Herzog August Bibliothek). Boghardt and others used the machine
extensively for work on the Klopstock dramas as well as on editorial
projects such as the work of Philipp Melanchthon, Martin Luther, Giordano
Bruno, and Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling (Needham; Boghardt).
This machine has been kept one of the busiest in the history of
mechanical collation and is still located at the Herzog August Bibliothek.A55. University of Kentucky
Purchased in late August or early September of 1978 for work on Cooper's
Lionel Lincoln by Donald A. and Lucy B. Ringe (Alexander Juniewicz;
Special Collections, University of Kentucky). No serial number. It is currently
located in the Department of Special Collections and Archives,
Margaret I. King Library, University of Kentucky.A56. University of Colorado, Boulder
Purchased in September 1978 for $10,107 (Purchase Order). No serial number.
The machine was purchased with funds provided by Milt Lipetz, then
Vice Chancellor for Faculty Affairs, for work on a project by Michael Preston
involving traditional British folk plays in chapbooks and broadsides. The
optics disapeared before Preston could begin his study, however (Preston;
Special Collections, University of Colorado Library). The machine is currently
located in the Special Collections Department of the main library.A57. Penn State University
Purchased in March 1979 by the Institute for Arts and Humanistic Study
at Penn State for around $7500. No serial number. It has been used for
work on W. B. Yeats and the eighteenth-century author Edward Young
(Special Collections, Penn State University). R. Carter Hailey, who now
teaches at the College of William and Mary, acquired the machine from
Penn State in July of 1999.
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,
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
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
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.
B1. Arizona State University, University Library, Department of Special Collections
ARIZONA
B2. Florida State University, English Department
FLORIDA
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.
ILLINOIS
B5. Ball State University, English Department
Surplused around 1960.
INDIANA
B6. Kansas State University, English Department
Current disposition unknown.
KANSAS
B7. Eastern Kentucky University, John Crabbe Grant Library
KENTUCKY
B8. Harvard University, Houghton Library
B9. University of Massachusetts at Boston, University Library
Current disposition unknown.
MASSACHUSETTS
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.
MISSISSIPPI
B12. University of Nebraska, Willa Cather edition
Originally purchased for the Harold Frederic edition at the University
of Texas, Arlington.
NEBRASKA
B13. Princeton University, Firestone Library
Originally purchased for the Henry David Thoreau edition.
NEW JERSEY
B14. Cornell University, Kroch Library
B15. State University of New York at Fredonia, University Library
NEW YORK
B16. Bowling Green University, University Library, Rare Books and Special
Collections DepartmentOriginally purchased for the George Washington Cable edition.
B17. Kent State University, University Library, Institute for Bibliography and
EditingB18. Ohio University
Current disposition unknown. Originally purchased for the Robert
Browning edition.
OHIO
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
PENNSYLVANIA
B21. Brown University, John Hay Library
RHODE ISLAND
B22. University of South Carolina, Thomas Cooper Library, Special Collections
DepartmentOriginally purchased by and located in the office of the Center for
Editions of American Authors.
SOUTH CAROLINA
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
CollectionsB27. University of Texas at Austin, Humanities Research Center
TEXAS
B28. Nellysford, Catherine Rodriguez
Originally purchased by Matthew Bruccoli, Columbia, South Carolina.
B29. University of Virginia, Alderman Library, Department of Special Collections
VIRGINIA
B30. Monash University, University Library
AUSTRALIA
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
CANADA
B34. Cambridge University, Trinity Library
This machine was ordered and paid for in part or whole but never
delivered.B35. Oxford University, Bodleian Library, Department of Western Manuscripts,
Johnson Reading RoomB36. University of Leeds
This machine was ordered and paid for in part or whole but never delivered.
ENGLAND
B37. University of Dublin, Trinity College Library
This machine was ordered and paid for in part or whole but never delivered.
IRELAND
B38. Rhodes University, Institute for the Study of English in Africa
Current disposition unknown.
SOUTH AFRICA
Stereoscopes have indeed been used in the interpretation of aerial photographs,
which, when taken from directly overhead, present a very unnatural view—because the
objects pictured appear flat they are difficult for a viewer to recognize. Military photoanalysts
and mapmakers use the stereoscope to view two photographs, slightly offset from
one another, taken consecutively along the line of flight or simultaneously from different
cameras in the same plane. This creates a 3-D effect that gives the images contour and thus
makes them easier to interpret (Stanley 265-270).
Announcements and descriptions of the machine were also published in PMLA 89
(1974): 1338, and BiN: Bibliography Newsletter 2.6 (June 1974): 2.
Unfortunately I have not been able to examine these records, though their contents
have been summarized for me. They date from 1975 to 1982 and range from internal discussion
before ordering to Lindstrand's acknowledgement of money to correspondence
with Leeds and Cambridge, who also ordered but never received machines. I am grateful
to Charles Benson, Keeper of Early Printed Books, for providing me this information. By
library policy the file will remain closed until 2012, thirty years from the date of the
creation of the last item in the file.
C. THE McLEOD PORTABLE COLLATOR
About 1983, Randall McLeod (a.k.a. Random Cloud, Random Clod,
Randalino, Sir Greg Walters, etc.) began devloping the device now known
as the McLeod Portable Collator (Belanger) or the "McPortable Collator"
(McLeod, E-mail to the author, 5 Feb. 2002) [plate 3]. Like the Lindstrand,
this collator is based on stereoscopy. However, McLeod "has eliminated one
of the symmetrical optical trains typical of stereo instruments: thus one eye
looks directly at the farther book, and the other looks through two mirrors
at the closer. Because the books are displayed in different depths, one can
slide the more remote one part-way behind the front one on a two-tiered
reading stand, so that just the two pages being compared appear adjacent
directly in front of the viewer and, because of the reduction of size of the
front image, as it passes through the mirror train, they appear at the same
angular height and width, and they are readily accessible there for comparison
and manipulation" (E-mail to the author, 5 Feb. 2002). Variants
between the two books can display themselves "by one or more of four
effects: 1) variantly spaced parts of otherwise identical settings of type appear
in relative depth (that is, in 3D); 2) different settings in the same place (for
example, `dog' in one copy and `cat' in the other) shimmer or alternate; 3)
an image in one copy matched by blankness in the other appears `hollow'
or insubstantial relative to the solid image formed by the combined stimulae
of the invariant parts of the two copies; and 4) non-register of part of the
superimposed image" (McLeod, The McLeod Portable Collator 2, and E-mail
to the author, 9 Mar. 2002). As with the Lindstrand, the McLeod requires
two good eyes on the part of the viewer.
The McLeod, unlike either of its predecessors, has the virtue of portability.
In fact, it is the first collator really capable of being easily transported
—when disassembled, the device weighs about thirty pounds and can fit in a
carry-on bag. Randall McLeod has used it "in over a score of major university
and research libraries in Great Britain, Canada and the United States"
(The McLeod Portable Collator 5). His first customer was a Philosophy professor
anecdote: "I showed him how the collator worked, and offered to set
up his own copy of Hume (which he was editing) with the University of
Toronto's Fisher Library copy, but he was adamant that he do it himself,
and proceeded to set up for a comparison of the titles pages. He struggled
to get the adjustments right, but finally gave up and asked me to do it for
him. Well, I realized right away that I couldn't get it adjusted right either:
it was impossible to get everything aligned, since the two copies were different
states of the same setting. So, in his first go he had hit the jackpot!" (E-mail
to the author, 5 Feb. 2002).
Though adjustable, the collator has no parts that move in the performance
of collation. It requires no lights or electricity and generates no noise.
The price is around $2500 US, not including shipping. I am grateful to
McLeod for generously contributing to the foregoing description and providing
the location information given below.
C1. Baton Rouge, private scholar
LOUISIANA
C2. New York Public Library
C3. Pierpont Morgan Library
NEW YORK
C4. Lafayette College, Skillman Library
C5. Philadelphia, private scholar
PENNSYLVANIA
C6. Monash University, Department of English
C7. University of New South Wales, School of Language, Literature, and
Communication
AUSTRALIA
C8. New Brunswick, David Gants
C9. Toronto, Randall McLeod
C10. Victoria, British Columbia, David Fate Norton
Originally purchased when Norton was on the faculty at McGill University.
C11. University of Guelph, University Library, Department of Archives and
Special Collections
CANADA
C12. Cambridge University, University Library
C13. University of London, School of English and Drama.
Originally purchased by Graham Rees when he was on the faculty of the
Department of English at the University of Wolverhampton.
ENGLAND
C14. Universita di Udine, Dipartimento di Scienze Storiche e Documentaire
ITALY
C15. National Library of Wales
WALES
D. THE HAILEY'S COMET
R. Carter Hailey has built the simplest and most portable collator yet,
the Hailey's Comet (Vander Meulen, "Revision" 223) [plate 4]. His device is
available with bookstands in two sizes—14″ × 10″ for $750, 19″ × 10″ for
$825, and both for $975. He has replaced the frame of the McLeod with two
freestanding arms to hold the mirrors. The Comet weighs about fifteen
pounds and packs easily in a small gym bag. Like McLeod, Hailey has eliminated
one of the symmetrical optical trains—one eye looks directly at the
farther book while the other looks through two mirrors at the nearer book.
The absence of the frame accounts for the reduction in weight. As with the
Lindstrand and the McLeod, the Comet requires two good eyes on the part
of the viewer.
Another bibliographer, David Gants, has given new meaning to the
phrase "machine-aided collation" via the Comet. He has developed a method
of collating an actual copy of a book on the Comet with a computer-generated
image of another copy of the same book. Gants positions the physical book
in relation to a digitized version of another copy on a laptop screen so that
their images, after adjusting the freestanding mirrors, appear to superimpose
in the eyes of the viewer. Since the dignitized image serves as his control
copy, Gants does not need to carry a potentially valuable and bulky book
with him when he travels to a distant library. The ever-increasing number
of books available in this format greatly expands the number of texts now
available for collation. A single CD can hold hundreds of volumes—a virtual
portable library ready to collate at the press of a button. Since the size of the
digitized image on the laptop screen is adjustable, the problem of controlling
the standards under which the original book was scanned is not as acute as
it has been for scholars who have attempted to collate from microfilm-based
images in the past.[8]
Gants further reports that since "the laptop display can
move along all three axes," it is very easy "to adjust yaw-pitch-roll image
alignment as well as relative size" (E-mail to the author). This method also
has the advantage of dispensing with the bookstands. The computer cannot
fit in a stand, obviously. The book is carefully propped open against a soft,
felt-covered support of the kind typically found in special collections libraries.
Not having to strap a book into a stand or cradle also tends to calm the nerves
of wary rare book custodians.
Hailey built the device for his study of the three editions of Piers Plowman
printed by Robert Crowley in 1550. He has used the Comet to collate
over sixty copies at libraries in the United States and Great Britain (Metzger).
I am grateful to him for generously providing the location information given
below.
D1. Los Angeles, Joseph Dane
CALIFORNIA
D2. Lexington, David Miller
KENTUCKY
D3. Pierpont Morgan Library
NEW YORK
D4. Washington University, Olin Library, Department of Special Collections
D5. St. Louis, Joseph Lowenstein
MISSOURI
D6. State College, Patrick Cheyney
PENNSYLVANIA
D7. University of Virginia, English Department
D8. Charlottesville, David Vander Meulen
D9. Williamsburg, Brett Charboneau
D10. Williamsburg, R. Carter Hailey
VIRGINIA
D11. New Brunswick, David Gants
Purchased while Gants was on the faculty at the University of Georgia.
It now resides with him at the University of New Brunswick, where he
holds a joint appointment in the English Department and the Etext
Centre.
CANADA
D12. Oslo, Jon Gunnar Jorgensen
NORWAY
George Guffey first addressed this problem in 1968. He also suggested a set of
standards for the reproduction of texts on microfilm (Guffey, "Standardization").
E. ONE-OFF SPIN-OFFS
Gordon Lindstrand, Randall McLeod, and R. Carter Hailey are not the
only individuals to have followed Hinman's lead. Over the years other scholars
and bibliographers have tried to improve upon, replace, or supplement
his invention. This section documents these efforts, which largely resulted
in one-offs—that is, experimental devices that were never developed beyond
the prototype and for the most part were never used on projects beyond those
associated with their own inventors. I have not listed efforts to use the computer
for collation purposes. Such attempts began very early (in 1962 Vinton
Dearing introduced a program that ran on the IBM 7090) and continue to
the present (as mentioned in note 3). Various applications (Peter Shillingsburg's
CASE program, for example) have achieved some currency, but no
effective system has yet been produced to compare efficiently a large number
of original images (as the Hinman does) instead of comparing texts that
must first be converted to digital text files. Readers who wish to know more
about computer-assisted collation should consult Shillingsburg's Scholarly
Editing in the Computer Age (3rd ed., 1996). The arrangement of this section
determined.
E1. The Poor Man's Mark IV
In 1966, Vinton Dearing introduced the first second-generation mechanical
collator (Dearing, "Poor Man's"). The "Poor Man's Mark IV" [plate 5] was
created as a less expensive alternative to the Hinman. From 1953 to 1957,
the price of a Hinman rose from $1500 to $5000. The very last machines sold
for $8000 to $10,000. These were not inconsequential sums of money for
scholars working in the humanities. Most Hinmans were bought with grants
from public and private sources. If a researcher did not have access to such
funds, chances were unlikely he or she could afford one. Dearing estimated
his machine cost $100 in materials. There were no labor costs because he
envisioned it as a do-it-yourself project, his intent being not to go into business
but to show other researchers how to build a machine. This was not a
new idea. Early in his work Charlton Hinman considered making mechanical
drawings available for non-commercial projects. Any bibliographer or editor
with access to a "standard machine shop," so the idea went, could build his
or her own device ("Variant Readings" 281). The Hinman, however, was
simply too complicated to construct for all but the most mechanically adept
bibliographers, witness the professionally produced set of specifications required
to build one. And even if one were able, the collator would still have
been a significant investment. In 1953, Hinman estimated the cost of materials
at $1000 (281).Dearing's inspiration was Hinman's prototype (A1), which was a much
simpler and less expensive device to construct than its later incarnation
(Dearing, Methods 20). Like the Hinman prototype, the Mark IV was designed
to work with microfilm reproductions rather than the original documents.
Dearing positioned two microfilm projectors side by side inside a box. The
images were projected through an occulting disc onto a mirror in the far end
of the box. The mirror then reflected the images back onto a ground glass
screen above the projectors. The projectors, microfilm, mirror, and screen,
along with the light and noise, were all contained within the box. This set
up gave the Mark IV an advantage or two over Hinman's prototype. First, it
could be used in a lighted rather than a darkened room. Second, any noise
generated by the projectors or the motor turning the disc was somewhat insulated
from the outside by the walls of the box. The disadvantage was that
one had to rely on microfilm reproductions, and so one also had to deal with
all the problems inherent in working from copies, not to mention the cost
and trouble of making the microfilm. Dearing and a few of his fellow editors
at the University of California used his device for work on their edition of
Dryden, but it did not catch on elsewhere.Dearing also proposed another means of collation, one that was completely
non-mechanical. This technique, dubbed the "poor, poor man's
collator," was really just a variation on the old Wimblelon method with
help from a photocopy machine. In the old-fashioned, unassisted manner, one
opens two copies of the same book and proceeds to read from each. Using the
"poor, poor" method, one first photocopies the pages in question and then, in
Dearing's words, rolls a "Xerox copy of the pages . . . over the fingers so as to
bring line after line to the top edge of the visible surface and just under the
corresponding line in another copy (if one eye is closed, both lines will appear
to be equidistant and so will be easier to read simultaneously, which is the
whole purpose of the method)." Dearing earlier proposed a wooden frame
with a system of rotating, "closely set rods" to accomplish the same thing but
161with practice evidently found his fingers and thumbs more portable and less
cumbersome (Methods 15).E2. Another Poor Man's Collating Machine
Richard Levin proposed a photocopy-assisted method in 1966. His idea was
simply to photocopy the pages in question and overlay them on a light table
or, in the absence of a table, merely hold them up to the light. As he admitted,
this procedure was so simple he could hardly have been the first to
think of it. And, he further suggested, it was easier on "one's purse, eyesight,
and patience" than the Hinman (Levin 25-26). Levin did mention one drawback,
however. If one page has a character placed where the other has a
blank space, or if on one page there is a character that completely covers a
character on the other (like for example a comma over a period), these variations
will not show up. To avoid this problem, he recommended going
through the process a second time, only with the pages in the reverse position.E3. The Poor Man's Mark VII
In 1967, Gerald A. Smith, a former graduate student of Hinman's, proposed
the next mechanical device—the "Poor Man's Mark VII," another machine in
the poverty-stricken tradition (Smith 1967) [plate 6]. He utilized two Dagmar
Super microfilm readers placed on their backs so that the mirrors faced one
another. A screen was erected where the images were superimposed. Each
reader contained its own shutter, operated either by a motor or a hand crank
to create the alternate flashing effect. An advantage of this adaptation was
that it required a minimum of assembly from non-readymade components.
One merely turned the microfilm readers on their backs and erected a screen.
The only materials that had to be fashioned from scratch were the alternating
shutters. Another advantage of this device was that the viewers, because they
were designed to zoom in and out, could in theory be adjusted to compensate
for images photographed at different magnifications. In practice Smith indicated
this was somewhat difficult to achieve. Nevertheless, the feature was
a novel proposal for a common collation problem. The disadvantage with
Smith's collator was that it worked only with copies. Smith also indicated
that exact register was often difficult, even with the help of the zoom feature.
At the time of his description, the machine was still in development.54. A Portable, Cheaper Collator
In 1968, Johan Gerritsen announced a technique that utilized one portable
tabletop projector, one negative microfilm of the book to be collated, and
one original copy of the book. Gerritsen arranged the projector so as to cast
the negative microfilm image on to the actual book itself. When the white
or negative image was brought into exact superimposition with the black
print of the page, variants were revealed by white spots where there was an
impression of type in the filmed copy, dark spots in the opposite instance, or
a combination of the two. As Gerritsen wrote, "If one can beg, borrow, or
steal one physical copy, the method enables one to collect microfiches from
all over the world and do one's collating at home. If one cannot, once one
is the proud possessor of a single film, one can travel to the copies" (Gerritsen
29-30). Gerritsen stated that he had never tried this method with
photographs in place of the original but imagined it would have worked well
enough to have at least identified which formes needed closer examination.E5. The Televised Collator
In 1972, John Horden described an application using two small industrial television
cameras synchronized to feed to a single television monitor (Horden).
162The cameras broadcast images of two books from the same edition, and an
automatic changeover switch alternated the images on the screen. At high
speed any differences between the two texts appeared as a blur. Slowed down,
the operator could more closely examine any discrepancies. The potential
advantages of this system were significant. First, the actual collation process
could be recorded on tape, allowing the act of collation itself to be preserved
and stored for review at a later date, thereby avoiding the trouble and wear
of consulting the original texts. The recorded collation could also be sent for
examination to researchers at other locations. Second, the cameras could
each conceivably be set up at separate libraries, alleviating the need and
avoiding the risk of bringing the books together from distant locations.
Horden also claimed this method was cheaper than other techniques (by which
he presumably meant the Hinman, for at this time all the other methods,
though ineffective except for the Lindstrand, were far cheaper than their
more famous predecessor) as well as easier to operate and less tiring to use.
Like most of the other methods and machines, the television collator was
never used for projects other than those associated with its own development.
Robin Alston, who worked with Horden at the time, states that the collator
was "never more than an idea," though he was convinced "that it could be
made to work" (Alston).E6. The British Library's Homemade Hybrid
This machine was built sometime in the mid to late 1970s. Library staff members
first tried to buy a Lindstrand Comparator and when that effort proved
unsuccessful (Lindstrand had either gone out of business or proven himself
unreliable) decided to build a machine of their own which combined features
of the Lindstrand and the Hinman. They gathered specifications for the
Lindstrand-like features from known users of the Comparator. They presumably
based the Hinman features on their own machine (A7). William
Proctor Williams was one of the individuals asked for advice on the Lindstrand
(E-mail). He collated extensively with this hybrid machine in 1983 and
found it a satisfactory, if uncomfortable, device. Its optics were on par with
the Lindstrand. The blinking effect of the Hinman was created by a central
rotating plate that alternately obstructed the right and left image. The collator
moved with the rest of the British Library from Bloomsbury to Euston
Road in 1998, and shortly thereafter technicians disabled the power cords
because they felt the machine's electrical system was unsafe. Since that time
Williams has tried to repair it twice. As of 2002, it was located in the Humanities
2 (Rare Books) reading room behind the Enquiries Desk. The stereoscopic
effect of the Lindstrand can still be achieved, but without electrical power
the blinking effect of the Hinman is not possible (Williams, E-mail and
"Smith").E7. The Houston Editing Desk and the Editing Frame
In 1978, Irving Rothman introduced a device that occupied a middle ground
between the replacement or alternative collators and the old-fashioned methods
of collation by "eye-and-hand" (Rothman 130). Rothman felt that despite
the successes of the Hinman and a few of its descendants, collation by sight
was still by far the most common method of comparing texts. The chief impediment
to mechanical collation, according to Rothman, was simply that
there were very few places where one could find multiple copies of any text
from the same edition. Most editors were therefore forced to work primarily
from copies, and Rothman felt that when copies were involved sight collation
was more effective. He built two devices designed to work in concert that
accommodated and facilitated the old-fashioned method rather than replaced
it. He named these devices the Houston Editing Desk (HED) and the Editing
163Frame (EDFRAME) [plate 7]. The HED was a portable, multi-layered Plexiglas
box that allowed the bibliographer to organize more effectively the work
of textual collation and editing. The HED was fitted with various compartments
for the storage of copies as well as paper, pens, rulers, erasers, and
other paraphernalia. The EDFRAME was a frame constructed to the precise
dimensions of the type page in question, including head and direction lines.
The text under investigation was placed on the top of the HED and then the
EDFRAME over the text. A transparent rule was fitted to the width of the
frame to assist in line-by-line referral. If an editor was performing collation
within the same edition, two frames of the same dimension, each with its
own independent rule, were used. If one was performing collation across
editions, the frames could be manufactured to different sizes, say the left frame
for a large folio page and the right for a smaller one, or even for different
formats. Rothman also suggested various means by which the desk and frame
could be customized to meet the needs of a particular project. Rothman's
devices grew out of his research as a textual editor on The Stoke Newington
Daniel Defoe Edition, currently being published by the AMS Press, Inc.
Though he patented these two devices for commercial production, he never
sold them or built any beyond the ones used in his own research.E8. Rotating Vertical Collation Aids, or Twirler
Developed by William Proctor Williams around 1998, this device [plate 8]
was built specifically for "vertical" or cross-edition collation. Williams has
kindly provided the following information on the origin and operation of
his device:While working on the New Variorum Shakespeare edition of Titus Andronicus
I have devised a collating tool that, although it does not do away
with the old Wimbledon method of collation, does improve its efficiency.
Tit Q1 (1594, the copy-text) exists in only one copy. Of Q2 (1600) there
are only two copies; Q3 (1611) exists in 17 copies. These were all
collated (Q3 regularly using optical collation) several years ago. However,
now I was faced with the daunting task of the vertical collation
of all those editions from F1 (1623) on. I had seen illuminations
and woodcuts of various sorts of book wheels and dimly wondered how
they would work. Slowly this drifted around in my mind until one day in
a DIY shop (I believe it was Home Depot, but any such shop can supply
these things) I saw those pre-cut round wooden items sold as small table
tops . . . and the light dawned. I first built one and then a second one
(one for each side of the centrally located computer).Now when collating by the Wimbledon method using two Twirlers
(Williams, Letter)
. . . I have 8 copies in front of me, plus the copy-text on paper and the
historical collation on the computer screen, instead of just one or two
other texts. I use the larger size of rectangular post-its as line holders.
Although the collation takes slightly longer per line this way, when I am
finished I have done 8 texts not just one. I have also found in practice
that the accuracy of all the collations is improved because of the ability
to spin back and forth between copies on the Twirlers and, since all
previously completed copies are kept on shelves to the side of the work
table, it has also been the case that some errors and omissions from previous
collations are also corrected in this manner.So essentially what Williams has constructed are two revolving bookstands,
each capable of holding multiple texts. With his computer between the stands,
he can look across several editions of the same text, checking and recording
differences between them, spinning each twirler as he moves from edition to
edition.
INDEX OF PAST, PRESENT, AND "GHOST" OWNERS
OR LOCATIONS
The index identifies all former and current owners of the four collators.
In two cases (C1 and C5) I have been unable to obtain permission from the
owners to list them in the census. In these two cases the city where the
machine is located has been indexed instead. The index also includes "ghosts"
—machines that have been mistakenly attributed or that were ordered but
never delivered.
Abbott Labs, A37
American Antiquarian Society, A47
Arizona State University, B1
Ball State University, B5
Barlow, William P., A2
Baton Rouge, C1
Baylor University, A51
Bell, James Ford, A3
Bowling Green University, B16
British Museum/Library, A7, E6
Bristol-Myers, A36
Brown University, A33, B21
Bruccoli, Matthew, B28
Burroughs and Wellcome, A42
Cambridge University, A45, B34, C12
Central Intelligence Agency, A11
Charboneau, Brett, D9
Cheyney, Patrick, D6
Cornell University, A31, B14
Dane, Joseph, D1
Dearing, Vinton, E1
Eastern Kentucky University, B7
Elconco Corporation, A39
Florida State University, B2
Folger Shakespeare Library, A1, A2, A49
Gants, David, A25, C8, D11
Gerritsen, John, E4
Hailey, R. Carter, A49, D10
Harvard University, A4, B8
Herzog August Bibliothek, A54
Hoffman-LaRoche, A40
Horden, John, E5
Indiana University, A22
Johnson, Arthur M., A6
Jorgensen, Jon Gunnar, D12
Kansas State University, B6
Katz, Joseph, B24
Kent State University, A20, B17
Lafayette College, C4
Levin, Richard, E2
Liberty Business Development, A36
Library of Congress, A5
Louisiana State University, C2
Lowenstein, Joseph, D5
McLeod, Randall, C9
McGill University, C10
McMaster University, A26
Miami University, A19
Miles Laboratories, A38
Miller, David, D2
Mississippi State University, B10
Monash University, B30, C6
National Library of Canada, A44
National Library of Wales, C15
Newberry Library, A18
New York Public Library, A34, C2
Northern Illinois University, A30, B3
Northwestern University, A18
Norton, David Fate, C10
Ohio State University, A12
Ohio University, B18
Ortho Pharmaceuticals, A41
Oxford University, A28, B35
Penn State University, A57
Pierpont Morgan Library, C3, D3
Philadelphia, C5
Princeton University, B13
Rhodes University, B38
Rodriguez, Catherine, B28
Rosenwald, Lessing J., A5
Rothman, Irving, E7
Scheuler Communications, A36
Simon Fraser University, B31
Smith, Gerald A., E3
Southern Illinois University, A17, B4
State University of New York at
Fredonia, B15Stirling University, A52
Syracuse University, A31
Texas A&M University, A53, B23, B24
Texas Tech University, A35, B25
Trinity University, A29
United States Air Force, A6
United States Treasury Department, A11
Univerista di Udine, C14
University of Calgary, B32
University of California, Davis, A46
University of California,
Los Angeles, A21University of California, Santa Cruz, A39
University of Colorado, Boulder, A56
University of Dublin, B37
University of Edinburgh, A27
University of Florida, A32
University of Guelph, C9
University of Houston, A41, B26
University of Illinois, A10
University of Iowa, A14
University of Kansas, A9
University of Kentucky, A48
University of Leeds, B36
University of London, C13
University of Massachusetts at Boston, B8
University of Minnesota, A3
University of Nebraska, A33, B12
University of New Brunswick, A25
University of New South Wales, C7
University of North Carolina, A24
University of Pennsylvania, A5, B20
University of South Carolina, A25, A44,
A50, B22University of Southern Mississippi, B11
University of Texas, Arlington, A33, B12
University of Texas, Austin, A16, B27
University of Toronto, B33
University of Wolverhampton, C11
University of Virginia, A8, B29, D7
University of Wisconsin, Madison, A23
University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, A15
Vander Meulen, David, A19, D8
Washington University, D4
West, James L. W., B19
Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität, A26
William H. Rohrer, Inc., A43
Williams, William Proctor, E8
Yale University, A13
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I am grateful to Larry Mitchell, James Harner, Mauri Ives, Douglas Brooks, David
Vander Meulen, William Proctor Williams, and others for their encouragement, guidance,
and advice throughout this project. I was fortunate to have the support of a Big XII
Faculty Fellowship from Texas A&M University for early and critical research at the
Kenneth Spencer Research Library at the University of Kansas. I am grateful to Bill
Crowe, Alexandra Mason, Richard Clements, and the rest of the staff of the Spencer Library
for their highly professional and always courteous assistance during the term of my Fellowship.
My research on the Hinman, and to a much lesser extent the other devices as
well, has depended heavily on correspondence and other records relating to the sale,
purchase, and manufacture of collators. For the most part I found these items in the administrative
files of libraries and other institutions but many private individuals have
also been generous in this regard. Chief among them is William P. Barlow, owner of the
first Folger Hinman (A2 below). Very early on in my research he provided me with copies
of letters from Arthur M. Johnson, manufacturer of the Hinman Collator, that were written
to him when he acquired his machine. It was this act of generosity that inspired me
to look elsewhere for like material, and though I am grateful to all those who provided
access to such records I am especially indebted to Mr. Barlow. Many others have also given
invaluable assistance, as the footnotes and the list of works cited amply attest. Responsibility
for any mistakes, however, rests solely with me. And finally, I owe a special debt to
Robert Michel, who supplied invaluable information on the last few Hinmans to be
manufactured as well as his memories of and insights into the building of these machines
back to the 1950s. Mr. Michel passed away in late 2002. This article is dedicated to his
memory.
The use of the term "machine collation," and hence "mechanical collator," is a
bit of a misnomer as the principles behind this activity and the devices that carry it out
are more optical than mechanical in nature. The Hinman is the most machine-like of the
four main devices treated here as it requires an independent power source and has both
electronic and mechanical components. The others require no electricity and have no
mechanically driven moving parts. Nevertheless, "machine collation" is the most popular
term, and herein I use it interchangeably with "optical collation."
For a more detailed account of the invention and manufacturing of the Hinman,
see my article " `The Eternal Verities Verified': Charlton Hinman and the Roots of Mechanical
Collation," Studies in Bibliography 53 (2000): 129-161.
For an example of a recent and fruitful computer application, see Mari Agata,
"Stop-press Variants in the Gutenberg Bible: The First Report of the Collation." Another
example of the use of digital technology is described by Blaise Agüera y Arcas in "Temporary
Matrices and Elemental Punches in Gutenberg's DK Type." In contrast to Agata,
who is using digital technology for the same purpose as Hinman (i.e. the identification of
stop press variants as a means of understanding the printing process), Agüera y Arcas uses
digital technology to analyze and discover differences in letterforms as a means of illuminating
the typefounding process. (Full publication details for these items appear in the list
of Works Cited, below.)
| Studies in bibliography | |