The following, for example, are a few of the paper-mills in France which are mounted with the self-acting machines of Messrs. Bryan Donkin & Co.:—
- Messrs. Canson, at Annonay.
- M. de la Place, at Jean d’Heures, Bar-le-duc.
- Société anonyme, at Sainte Marie, under M. Delatouche.
- Echarcon près Mennecy, (Seine et Oise).
- Firmin Didot, Mesnil sur l’Estrée.
- M. F. M. Montgolfier, à Annonay.
- Muller, Bouchard, Ondin and Co’s., at Gueures, near Dieppe.
- MM. Richard et Comp. à Plainfoing.
- M. Callot-Bellisle; Vieuze et Chantoiseau.
- M. Bechétaile, near St. Etienne, at Bourg Argental.
It deserves particularly to be remarked, to the honour of English mechanism, that the proprietors of the first five of the above works received gold medals at the last exposition of their papers at the Louvre, and all the rest received medals either of silver or bronze.[37]
[37] Rapport de Jury Central, par M. Le Baron Charles Dupin, vol. ii. p. 278; Paris, 1836.
The following is a true narrative of the rise and progress of the paper automaton.
M. Leger Didot, accompanied by Mr. John Gamble, an Englishman who had resided for several years in Paris, obtained permission from the French government, in 1800, to carry over the small working model of Robert’s continuous machine, with the view of getting the benefit of English capital and mechanical skill to bring it into an operative state upon the great scale. Fortunately for the vigorous development of this embryo project, which had proved an abortion in France, they addressed themselves on the one hand, to a mercantile firm equally opulent and public spirited, and on the other, to engineers distinguished for persevering energy and mechanical resource. A first patent was granted to Mr. Gamble on the 20th of April 1801, and a second, for certain improvements upon the former, on the 7th of June 1803. In January 1804, Mr. Gamble, for certain considerations, assigned these two patents to Messrs. Henry and Sealy Fourdrinier, the house above alluded to, who were at that period, and for several years afterwards, the most considerable stationers and paper-makers in Great Britain. By an act of parliament passed on the 4th of August 1807, Mr. Gamble’s privilege of 14 years from April 1801, was prolonged to 15 years after the date of the act, being an extension of about 7 years upon the original patent.
The proprietors showed good reasons, in the enormous expense of their experiments, and the national importance of the object, why the patent should have been extended 14 years from the latter date, and would have obtained justice from parliament in this respect, but for an unworthy artifice of Lord Lauderdale in the House of Lords. “He, and he only, was the person who took the objection,” and, by introducing a regulation in a standing order of the House of Lords, that none but the original inventor should have an extension, though Mr. H. Fourdrinier was the inventor substantially of the operative machine, he defeated the honourable intentions of his brother peers, whose committee said, “We will give seven years, and Mr. Fourdrinier may apply again, if it should turn out that the seven years that we propose to give to Mr. Fourdrinier should not give sufficient time to afford any chance of his receiving any remuneration for the expense that he has incurred in introducing this invention.” The bill passed in the House of Commons for 14 years, but it was limited by this ruse of Lord Lauderdale to 7, “who put the standing order upon the books (of the upper house) which prevented Messrs. Fourdrinier from having any benefit from the invention.”[38]
[38] See this shabby piece of diplomacy unveiled in the Minutes of Evidence taken before the Select Committee of the House of Commons on Fourdrinier’s patent; May, 1837.
In February 1808, Mr. Gamble, after losing both his time and money savings during eight years of irksome diligence, assigned over to Messrs. Fourdrinier the whole right of his share in the patent to which he was entitled under the act of parliament.
Dartford in Kent, which had been long conspicuous as the seat of a good manufactory of paper and paper moulds, was selected by the proprietors of the patent as the fittest place for realizing their plans; and happily for them it possessed, in Mr. Hall’s engineering establishment, every tool requisite for constructing the novel automaton, and in his assistant Mr. Bryan Donkin, a young and zealous mechanist, who, combining precision of workmanship with fertility of invention, could turn his local advantages to the best account. To this gentleman, aided by the generous confidence of Messrs. Fourdrinier, the glory of rearing to a stately manhood the helpless bantling of M. L. Didot is entirely due. In 1803, after nearly three years of intense application, he produced a self-acting machine for making an endless web of paper, which was erected at St. Neot’s, under the superintendence of Mr. Gamble, and performed in such a manner as to surprise every beholder.