Figure 44. — Dickinson cylinder paper 

 machine. The cylinder was immersed in 

 dilute pulp to the level Q-r. The sheet 

 formed on the cylinder's surface was transferred 

 at s to the continuous felted belt (m). From 

 Repertory of Arts, Manufactures, and Agriculture 

 (December 1817), ser. 2, vol. 32. 







*<</ ' 



—1- 



1_ he machine i referred to, 1 - 8 believing it to have 

 been the first machine on this Continent to make 

 continuous paper, and that I had a perfect recollection 

 of, was in the paper mill of Mr. Thomas Gilpin 

 on the Brandywine Creek a few miles from Wilming- 

 ton, Del., but I cannot with certainty fix the date 

 that I first saw it in operation; but from other cir- 

 cumstances connected with the visit to the mill with 

 my father I do not think it was earlier than 181 7 or 

 later than 181 8, and then the machine had been in 

 operation for a considerable time. 



125 Harold B. Hancock and Norman B. Wii ki\s< in, "Joshua 

 Gilpin: An American Manufacturer in England and Wales, 

 1795-1801 — Part I." Tiansactions of the Newcomen Society (1959- 

 1960), vol. 32. pp. 15-28; "Part II," (1960-1961 ), vol. 33, pp. 

 57-66. This paper summarizes the Gilpin journals, some 62 

 small volumes, in Pennsylvania State Archives. 1 larrisburg- 

 These journals show Gilpin's method of working, but are for 

 his earlier sojourn. He was in Europe again from 181 1 to 

 1814. 



]2,i Lawrence Greatrake is known to me only through these 

 pages and a scries of his letters in the Gilpin papers in Historical 

 Society of Pennsylvania (kindly pointed out to me by Norman 

 B. Wilkinson). Bound in a volume entitled "Paper M, iking 

 Machinery — 1816 — Property of Richard Gilpin" there are 

 several of Greatrake's letters to Thomas Gilpin between 

 September 181 5 and April 1816. The date of Greatrake's 

 first coming to the United States is uncertain. He mentioned, 

 however, that "had I staid another year in England, I had 

 been a partner in the immense concern at Apslcy . . . ." 



I have no distinct recollection of the special object 

 of my father's visit to the mill at that time. But I do 

 remember that he and Mr. Gilpin and his manager, 

 Mr. Greatrake, spent much time in the machine 

 room watching the operation, sketching and discuss- 

 ing points in connection with the forming cylinder 

 and the exhaust pumps. The millwright had been 



Dickinson purchased the Apsley mill in 1809 (Anon., The 

 Firm of John Dickinson and Company Limited, London. 1896. 

 p. "), about the time his paper machine patent was issued. 

 Thus Greatrake may well have been Dickinson's right-hand 

 man. as related by Sellers; but his letters do not suggest an 

 earlier familiarity with the development of the Dickinson 

 machine. Greatrake said only that Dickinson "was an appren- 

 tice with Richardson and Harrison when I used to do business 

 at their house . . ." and did not mention his having been 

 employed by Dickinson. Greatrake had some financial 

 interest in the Gilpin mills when he returned to England in 

 1 81 5 to wind up the affairs of his deceased father, and he spent 

 much time and energy in obtaining information on both 

 Eourdrinier and Dickinson machines. Greatrake's letters 

 indicate that he could not obtain a cylinder to take to the 

 Gilpins, as he had hoped to do. (In 1815 Franklin Peak 

 married Eliza Greatrake, daughter of Lawrence. The marriage 

 was a tragic one. for within a year or two Eliza became hope- 

 lessly insane. ) 



'"Journal oj the Franklin Institute (April 1833), vol. 1 5, pp. 

 225-226. The pat'-nt was dated May 14. 1822, and was 

 reissued on October 25, 1832. 



12s Reference is to the Gilpin machine, in a summary article 

 in American Machinist (December 4, 1886), vol. 0, pp. 4-5. 

 omitted by the present editor. 



97 



