Petr Kniagininskii

(according to some sources, Petr Pavlovich). Born circa 1839; died in the late 1870’s. Russian inventor.

Kniagininskii built the first automatic composing machine in 1866–67, for which he received the privilege in Russia in 1869 and patents in a number of other countries. His automatic control principle (using punched tape) was the basis for subsequent designs for composing machines.