The Biographical Dictionary of America/Alden, Timothy (inventor)

ALDEN, Timothy, inventor, was born at Barnstable, Mass., Feb. 3, 1823, sixth in descent from John Alden, the Puritan. When very young he was apprenticed to his brother, who was a printer, and at the age of seventeen began to plan a machine for setting and distributing type. It took five years for his crude idea to develop into a practical reality, and then he produced a composing and distributing machine, the type arranged in cells around the circumference of a horizontal wheel. As the wheel revolves the receivers pick up the type as directed by the operator. This machine was improved by his brother Henry, after the death of Timothy, and was the pioneer in type-setting machines in the United States, although it did not come into extensive practical use. He died in New York city, Dec. 4, 1858.