Henry Fourdrinier (11 February 1766 – 3 September 1854) was aBritish paper-making entrepreneur.
He was born in 1766, the son of paper maker and stationer Henry Fourdrinier, and grandson of the engraverPaul Fourdrinier, 1698–1758, sometimes mistakenly calledPierre Fourdrinier. With his brother,Sealy, he commissioned the development of theFourdrinier machine, apapermaking machine that produced continuous rolls of paper. The machine is an industrialised version of the historical hand paper-making method, which could not satisfy the demands of developing modern society for large quantities of printing and writing materials.
Apatent was granted on 24 July 1806,[1] for a machine that could make a long continuous web of paper and was based on the machine developed by Frenchman Louis-Nicolas Robert. This had the dual advantage of considerably higher productivity plus production in roll form, for applications such as wallpaper printing. The range of cut paper sizes was also extended as it was not limited by the frame ordeckle size of hand made paper.
The invention cost £60000, and caused the brothers to go bankrupt. Due to various laws, it was difficult to protect the patent on the machine, and the new system was widely adopted but with no benefit to the inventors.
In 1814, two machines were made inPeterhof, Russia, by order of the Russian emperor on the condition £700 would be paid to Fourdrinier every year for ten years — but, despite petitioningTsar Nicholas, no money was ever paid. In 1839, a petition was brought before parliament, and in 1840, £7000 was paid to Fourdrinier and his family.[2]
Fourdrinier died in 1854, at the age of 88.
His sister, Jemima, was the mother of thetheologianJohn Henry Newman.[3]
| History |
| ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Types of paper |
| ||||||||
| Materials | |||||||||
| Specifications | |||||||||
| Manufacture and process | |||||||||
| Paper industry | |||||||||
| Uses | |||||||||
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Other | |
 | This article about an engineer, inventor or industrial designer from the United Kingdom or its predecessor states is astub. You can help Wikipedia byadding missing information. |
