484 PAPER, MANUFACTURE OF 



the strong point of view in -which it places the merits of this invention, that an art of 

 such great importance to society as that of the manufacture of paper, should have 

 remained for at least eight centuries since paper is first believed to have been in use, 

 and that upwards of 200 of those years should have elapsed since its first introduction 

 into England, without any mechanical improvement -whatever as regards the pro- 

 cesses which were then employed. It is true, that various attempts from time to 

 time were made, but in every instance they appear to have met with very little 

 success. In France, an ingenious artist (Monsieur Montgolfier) contrived three 

 figures in wood to do the work of the vatman, the coucher, and the layer ; but, after 

 persevering for six months, and incurring considerable expense, he was at length 

 compelled to abandon his scheme. And although paper was previously manufactured 

 in China, in Persia, and indeed throughout all Asia, sometimes of considerable 

 length, it was so, not by machinery, but by moans of a mould of the size of the 

 paper intended to be made, suspended like a swing, and having men placed at 

 the distance of about every four feet, for the purpose of producing an uniform 

 shaking motion, after the mould had been immersed in the vat, in order to compact 

 the pulp. 



Such, then, was the rude state of this important manufacture, even up to the com- 

 mencement of the present century, when a small working model of a continuous 

 machine was introduced into this country from France by Mr. John Gamble, a 

 brother-in-law to Monsieur Leger Didot, the proprietor at that time of the paper 

 manufactory at Essonne. 



The individual to -whose genius we owe that beautiful contrivance, which has since 

 been adopted -wherever the want which it was designed to remedy has been truly 

 felt, and which has contributed in an eminent degree to the advancement of civili- 

 sation, was an unassuming "clerk in the establishment of Monsieur Didot, named 

 Louis Eobert, who following his favourite pursuit of inventing and improving, not un- 

 frequently had to bear the reproach of wasting time on an invention that could never 

 be brought to perfection. Fortunately, however, the patience and attention of this 

 persevering man were at length sufficiently re-warded by the completion of a small 

 model not larger than a bird organ, which enabled him to produce paper of a con- 

 tinuous length although but the width of a piece of tape. So successful was this 

 performance that his employer, instead of continuing to thwart his progress, was now 

 induced to afford him the means of making a model upon a larger scale, and in a few 

 months a machine was completed capable of making paper the width of Colombier 

 (24 inches), for which the consumption in France was very great. After a series of 

 experiments and improvements, Louis Eobert applied to the French Government for 

 a patent or brevet d' invention, which he obtained in 1799 for a term of fifteen years, 

 and was awarded the sum of 8,000 francs as a reward for his ingenuity. The Specifi- 

 cation of this patent is published in the second volume of the ' Brevets d'Inventions 

 Expires.' Shortly afterwards, M. Didot purchased Louis Robert's patent and paper- 

 machine for 25,000 francs, to be paid by instalments ; but not fulfilling his engage- 

 ments, the latter commenced legal proceedings, and recovered possession of his 

 patent, by a decision dated June 23rd, 1801. Towards the close of the year 1800 

 M. Didot proposed to his brother-in-law, Mr. Gamble, that patents should be taken out 

 in England, and suggested that he being an Englishman, and holding a situation 

 under the British Government, would in all probability accomplish it without much 

 difficulty. To this proposition Mr. Gamble assented, and in the month of March 

 1801, he left Paris for London, where, happily for the vigorous development of this 

 project, he obtained an introduction immediately upon his arrival to one of the prin- 

 cipal wholesale stationery houses in Great Britain a firm of considerable opulence 

 and to those gentlemen ho mentioned the nature and circumstances of his visit, at the 

 same time showing them several rolls of the paper of great length, which had been 

 made at Essonne by Louis Robert's machine, and which induced them to take a share 

 in the patent. 



The firm alluded to was that ot the Messrs. Fourdrinicr a name which has indeed 

 become alike famous and unfortunate and this transaction it was which first con- 

 uected them with the paper-machine. In the year 1801, Mr. Gamble returned to 

 Paris, and concerted measures with Monsieur Leger Didot and Louis Robert, to have- 

 the working model, which was then at Essonno, sent over tn England to assist in the 

 construction of other machines ; and the following year M. Didot arriving in London, 

 was introduced by Mr. Gamble to the Messrs. Fourdrinier, when a series of experi- 

 ments for improving the machine was considered desirable and at once commenced. 

 .But in order to accomplish the arduous object which those gentlemen then had in 

 view, they laboured without intermission for nearly six year?, when, after incurring 

 an expense of 60,0001., which was borne exclusively by the Messrs. Fourdrinier, they 

 at length succeeded in giving some further organisation and connection to the 



