2-798-615 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Eureka, 1845. '...a Machine for Composing Hexameter Latin Verses, which is now exhibited at the Egyptian Hall, in Piccadilly. It was designed and constructed at Bridgwater, in Somersetshire...The machine is described by the inventor [Quaker inventor John Clark] as neither more nor less than a practical illustration of the law of evolution...The machine contains letters in alphabetical arrangement. Out of these, through the medium of numbers, rendered tangible by being expressed by indentures on wheel-work, the instrument selects such as are requisite to form the verse conceived; the components of words suited to form hexameters being alone previously calculated, the harmonious combination of which will be found to be practically interminable...During the composition of each line, a cylinder in the interior of the machine performs the National Anthem'. From "Illustrated London News", 1845, Vol VII.