Fountain
Pens > Papers & Inks > Stationery
and Papers
The
Papermaking Machines
Prior to 1850, papers were produced from linen and cotton rags.
High rag content papers are relatively stable and, when properly
stored and handled, and much more durable than wood-based papers.
By 1850, the demand for papers and their increasing uses demanded
alternatives to linen and cotton rags be used in paper manufacture.
From about 1860 on, chemical wood pulp became more and more
the standard until today the vast majority of modern papers
are made from chemically treated wood pulp. Chemical treatment
reduces the lignin content, and synthetic sizing agents are
added, and it is the decomposition of residual lignin in paper
which, in the presence of heat and light, presents the major
problem to individuals wishing to preserve the papers.
In 1798, the Frenchman Nicholas-Louis Robert (1761-1828)
invented a prototype of a machine on which paper was formed
on a continuous sheet of wire cloth. The invention was patented
on January 18, 1799. After Robert left the French army he worked
as a proofreader for the noted printer Pierre-Francois Didot
and was subsequently placed in charge of the accounting department
at son St. Leger Didot's mill in Essones, France. Robert conceived
the idea of a machine to produce a continuous roll of paper
to fill the urgent need for banknotes after the French Revolution.
St. Leger Didot encouraged Robert to use the mill's
workshop and materials in the development of the paper machine.
After five years of work, Robert completed the design and sold
his patent rights to St. Leger Didot for the sum of 27,400
francs. Financial difficulties at the mill, however, prevented
Didot from paying Robert for the patent, and although Robert
eventually recovered ownership, he was never able to realize
any money for his invention.
Didot ultimately took the models created by Robert
to his English brother-in-law, John Gamble. Gamble
secured English patent 2487 for an improved version of the
machine
in April 1801. The improved machine came to the
attention of brothers Henry and Sealy Fourdrinier, who engaged
engineer
Bryan Donkin and by 1807 had built a new and further
improved machine. The Fourdriniers received no royalties from
their
efforts, but they did gain some recognition. Most
modern paper machines are referred to as "fourdrinier" machines.
Bryan Donkin was the only person who gained financial
security from his work on the paper machine. By 1851, he had
designed
a total of 191 machines, including 83 for British
mills, 105 for Europe, one for India, and two for the United
States.
The first fourdrinier machine in the US was imported
from England and erected in Saugerties, New York, in 1827.
The second was built in Connecticut by mechanic George Spafford.
He and his partner, James Phelps, completed the first American-built
fourdrinier in May 1829 and sold it to Amos Hubbard. In 1809,
a cylinder-type paper machine was introduced by John Dickinson
of Hertfordshire, England. Amid great secrecy, Thomas Gilpin
built the first cylinder machine in America at Brandywine Creek,
Pennsylvania. It produced a sheet 30 feet wide at a rate of
60 feet per minute.
