setting default font name

[Haines Brown]

I have several different ways to start emacs 24 according to different
functions. They are started with scripts that point to different init
files. For example, in one script I have:

           emacs -q -l ~/.emacsUtil $1

I want to define the default font for this instance of emacs, and so try
the lines taken from EmacsWiki:

  (add-to-list 'default-frame-alist 'font . '-bitstream-Courier 10 
    Pitch-normal-normal-normal-*-16-*-*-*-m-0-iso10646-1 ))
  (set-face-attribute 'default t :font 
    -bitstream-Courier 10 
    Pitch-normal-normal-normal-*-16-*-*-*-m-0-iso10646-1 ))

  But this produces error: "Invalid read syntax: ". in wrong context"

I try:

  (set default-font "-bitstream-Courier 10 
    Pitch-normal-normal-normal-*-16-*-*-*-m-0-iso10646-1")

and get eror Symbol's value as variable is void: default-font.

Haines Brown