John Clark

John Clark was a printer and inventor from Bridgwater in Somerset. He invented the airbed and, notably for electronic literature, a Latin Verse Machine (also called the Eureka) that was the first known automated poetry generator.

John Clark was a cousin of the Clarks who started Clarks shoes, and fortunately his papers and the Latin Verse Machine have been preserved by the Alfred Gillett Trust, which primarily holds the archives of the shoe company.