Fourdrinier, Henry
Fourdrinier's grandfather, Pierre, went to England from Holland in 1719 and set up an engraving and stationery business, which developed into the firm of Bloxham and Fourdrinier. The business prospered and grew to include mills where handmade paper was produced. Gradually, the company was passed down through the family. Henry took over from his father as a papermaker and, along with his brother Sealy, devoted himself to improving the business. Over many years, he invented and developed papermaking machinery. In 1801 he was approached at his business headquarters in the City of London, by Gamble. Gamble had a British patent, drawings and a working model for a continuous paper-making machine invented three years before by his French brother-in-law, Robert. Henry immediately saw the potential of Robert's idea and agreed to invest time and money to develop the model into a machine that was commercially viable. John Hall's factory at Dartford was already providing equipment and service to the Fourdriniers and was a natural decision to send Robert's model there for development. Hall put one of his best engineers, Donkin, to work on the project, but it soon became clear that the machine needed a great deal more work than originally thought. Henry decided to find a permanent place for the development of the machine and Donkin set up his own engineering works at Fort Place in Bermondsey, South London. Over the next two years Gamble, Donkin and the Fourdriniers dedicated themselves totally to the project, with the Fourdriniers supplying most of the finance. Finally, by 1804, Donkin had developed a papermaking machine that could produce a continuous sheet of paper 27 feet long and 4 feet wide. This was installed at Frogmore Mill, just outside London. Gamble then made improvements and submitted an amended patent application in December 1803. By 1805, a wider and far more reliable machine was installed (at Two Waters Mill, a few hundred yards up the river in Frogmore) for which a further patent was obtained in 1807. With this design (which, with some improvements, is still in use today) the liquid pulp was fed on to a wire mesh belt, which allowed the water to drain away. The remaining paper was heated and passed between heavy rollers, giving it the required smooth finish. Although the machine was from the start a practical success, the lengthy trials and adjustments were very expensive, as well as the litigation needed to protect the patent. When the invention was finally perfected, the Fourdrinier brothers had spent �60,000 and by 1809, with little return from royalties coming in, they were broke. Donkin continued to build the machines at the Fort Place factory, which he had bought from the Fourdriniers earlier. Eventually, papermakers realised that the machines were the future of the industry so, gradually, they began to buy them. Unfortunately, many of the buyers were not particularly honest and, realizing that the Fourdrinier's had no money to fight them, few paid any royalties or patent dues. The brothers took many of their customers to court, but in the end, the cost of litigation was too high to continue. So had, to their cost, greatly improved the papermaking industry with their machine. Henry had also been the man responsible for bringing together thegroup that included Leger Didot, Bryan Donkin and John Gamble. These men, within the space of ten years, were responsible for huge advances in the paper and printing industry throughout Europe and most of the developed world, but Fourdrinier remained poor. The British government agreed to extend the patent for another fourteen years and the new system of papermaking was widely adopted. Even so, it was still difficult to enforce the payment of patent dues by law. In 1814 Tsar Alexander I came to an agreement with the Fourdriniers that they should rent him two machines for ten years, at �700 per year. Henry's son Henry installed the machines in Peterhoff, but none of the payments were ever made. Fourdrinier repeatedly asked for his money and, in 1838, he and one of his daughters travelled to St. Petersburg to place a petition personally in the hands of Tsar Nicholas. They still didn't get their hands on any money until May 1840, when the British government voted the Fourdinier's a small amount in compensation.
Extra connections
He was related to Newman.
Bibliography
- Pilkington, Austin, Frogmore and the First Fourdrinier, The British Paper Company, 1990.