+---------------------+-------+----------+-----------+-------------+
| | Day. | Week. | Month. | Year. |
| +-------+----------+-----------+-------------+
| |_s. d._|_£ s. d._ | _£ s. d._ | _£ s. d._|
|7 Vatmen, at | 3 3 | 6 16 6 | 27 6 0 | 354 18 0 |
|7 Couchers | 3 1 | 6 9 6 | 25 18 0 | 336 14 0 |
|7 Layers | 3 1 | 6 9 6 | 25 18 0 | 336 14 0 |
|3 Finishers | 4 0 | 3 12 0 | 14 8 0 | 187 4 0 |
|6 Dry-workers | 3 1 | 5 11 0 | 22 4 0 | 288 12 0 |
|3 Men to go to press,| | | | |
| &c. | 2 6 | 2 5 0 | 9 0 0 | 117 0 0 |
|7 Parters (women) | 1 4 | 2 16 0 | 11 4 0 | 145 12 0 |
| Fire | | 7 0 0 | 28 0 0 | 364 0 0 |
| Felting | | | | 140 0 0 |
| Washing ditto, oil,| | | | |
| soap, fire, &c. | | 1 11 6 | 6 6 0 | 81 18 0 |
| Moulds | | | | 140 0 0 |
|1 Man, and expenses }| | | | |
| of repairing, in }| | | | |
| keeping in order 7}| | | | |
| vats, vat-presses,}| | | | |
| &c. }| | | | 112 0 0 |
| | +----------+-----------+-------------+
|Total 41 persons. | |42 11 0 |170 4 0 |2,604 0 0 |
+---------------------+-------+----------+-----------+-------------+
In the same statement, it was shown that the expense of making paper by
hand is 16_s._ per cwt., whereas by their machine it is only 3_s._
9_d._; so that upon 432,000 cwts. the quantity annually made in Great
Britain and Ireland (as founded upon the fact that one vat can make 480
cwts. of paper, and that there were 900 vats in the kingdom), the annual
saving by the machine would be 264,600_l._, or 345,600_l._ - 81,000_l._
In a second statement laid before the public in 1807, the patentees
observe that their recently improved machine, from its greater
simplicity, may be erected at a considerably reduced expense. “Mr.
Donkin, the engineer, will engage to furnish machines of the dimensions
specified below, with all the present improvements, at the prices
specified below.
+------------+-------+---------------------+-----+
| |Inches.|If driven by straps. | _£_ |
| +-------+---------------------+-----+
|3 or 4 vats | 30 |between the deckles | 715|
| 6 ditto| 40 | ditto ditto | 845|
| 8 ditto| 44 | ditto ditto | 940|
| 12 ditto| 54 | ditto ditto | 995|
| | | | |
| | |If driven by wheels. | |
| | | | |
|3 or 4 vats | 30 |between the deckles | 750|
| 6 ditto| 40 | ditto ditto | 880|
| 8 ditto| 44 | ditto ditto | 980|
| 12 ditto| 54 | ditto ditto |1,040|
+------------+-------+---------------------+-----+
“Instead of 5 men, formerly employed upon 1 machine, 3 are now (in 1813)
fully sufficient, without requiring that degree of attention and skill
which were formerly indispensable.
“In 1806 the machine was capable of doing the work of 6 vats in twelve
hours; it is, however, now capable of doing double that quantity, at
one-fourth of the expense. For by the various improvements enumerated
above, the consumption of wire is reduced nearly one-half, and lasts
above double the time; the quantity of paper produced is doubled; and,
taking into consideration the work which is now performed by the men
over and above their immediate attendance upon the machine, it may be
fairly stated, that the number of men is reduced to one-half;
consequently the expense of wire and labour is reduced to one-fourth of
what it was.
“The other advantages incidental to the nature of the process of making
paper by this machine, may be classed in the following order:--
“1st. That the paper is much superior in strength, firmness, and
appearance, to any which can be made by hand of the same material.
“2d. It requires less drying, less pressing and parting, and
consequently comes sooner to market; for it receives a much harder
pressure from the machine than can possibly be given by any vat press,
and is therefore not only drier, but, on account of the closeness and
firmness of texture, even the moisture which remains is far sooner
evaporated, on exposure to the air, than it would be from the more
spungy or bibulous paper made by hand.
“The superior pressure, and the circumstance of one side of the paper
passing under the polished surface of one of the pressing rollers,
contribute to that smoothness which in hand-made papers can only be
obtained by repeated parting and pressing; consequently a great part of
the time necessarily spent in these operations is saved, and the paper
sooner finished and ready for market.
“3dly. The quantity of broken paper and retree is almost nothing
compared with what is made at the vats.
“4th. The machine makes paper with cold water.
“5th. It is durable, and little subject to be out of repair. The machine
at Two Waters, in Hertfordshire, for the last three years, has not cost
10_l._ a year in repairs.
“6th. As paper mills are almost universally wrought by streams, which
vary considerably in their power from time to time, there will result
from this circumstance a very important advantage in the adoption of the
machine. The common paper mill being limited by its number of vats, no
advantage can be taken of the frequent accessions of power which
generally happen in the course of the year, but, on the contrary, as
scarcely any mills are capable of preparing stuff for twelve vats, every
accession of power to the mill, where a machine is employed, will
increase its produce without any additional expense.
“7th. The manufacturer can suspend or resume his work at pleasure; and
he is besides effectually relieved from the perplexing difficulties and
loss consequent upon the perpetual combinations for the increase of
wages.”
It is a lamentable fact, that the attention required to mature this
valuable invention, and the large capital which it absorbed, led
ultimately to the bankruptcy of this opulent and public-spirited
company; after which disaster no patent dues were collected, though
twelve suits in Chancery were instituted; these being mostly
unsuccessful, on account of some paltry technical objections made to
their well-specified patent, by that unscientific judge Lord Tenterden.
The piratical tricks practised by many considerable paper-makers against
the patentees are humiliating to human nature in a civilized and _soi
disant_ Christian community. Many of them have owned, since the
bankruptcy of the house removed the fear of prosecution, that they owed
them from 2000_l._ to 3000_l._ apiece.
Nothing can place the advantage of the Fourdrinier machine in a stronger
point of view, than the fact of there being 280 of them now at work in
the United Kingdom, making collectively 1600 miles of paper, of from 4
to 5 feet broad, every day; that they have lowered the price of paper 50
per cent., and that they have increased the revenue, directly and
indirectly, by a sum of probably 400,000_l._ per annum. The tissue paper
made by the machine is particularly useful for communicating engraved
impressions to pottery ware; before the introduction of which there was
but a miserable substitute. Messrs. R. and J. Clewes, of Cobridge
potteries, in a letter to Messrs. Fourdrinier, state, “that had not an
improvement taken place in the manufacture of paper, the new style of
engraving would have been of no use, as the paper previously used was of
too coarse a nature to draw from the fair engravings any thing like a
clear or perfect impression; and the Staffordshire potteries, in our
opinion, as well as the public at large, are deeply indebted to you for
the astonishing improvement that has recently taken place, both as
regards china and earthenware, more particularly the latter.” The
following rates of prices justify the above statement:--
1814. 1822. 1833.
_s. d._ _s. d._ _s. d._
Demy pottery tissue 12 0 9 6 7 0
Royal 16 3 12 0 8 9
“We have adopted a new mode of printing on china and earthenware, which,
but for your improved system of making tissue paper, must have utterly
failed; our patent machine requiring the paper in such lengths as were
impossible to make on the old plan. On referring to our present stock,
we find we have one sheet of your paper more than 1200 yards long.
Signed, Machin and Potts; Burslem, February 25th, 1834.”
I have had the pleasure of visiting more than once the mechanical
workshops of Messrs. Bryan Donkin and Co. in Bermondsey, and have never
witnessed a more admirable assortment of exquisite and expensive tools,
each adapted to perform its part with despatch and mathematical
exactness, though I have seen probably the best machine factories of
this country and the Continent. The man of science will appreciate this
statement, and may perhaps be surprised to learn that the grand mural
circle of 7 feet diameter, made by Troughton, for the Royal Observatory
of Greenwich, was turned with final truth upon a noble lathe in the said
establishment. It has supplied no fewer than 133 complete automatic
paper machines, each of a value of from 1200_l._ to 2000_l._, to
different manufactories, not only in the United Kingdom, but in all
parts of the civilized world; as mentioned in the second paragraph of
the present article. Each machine is capable of making, under the
impulsion of any prime mover, all unmatched by a human eye, and unguided
by a human hand, from 20 to 50 feet in length, by 5 feet broad, of most
equable paper in one minute. Of paper of average thickness, it turns off
30 feet.
[Illustration: 788]
_Fig._ 788. is an upright longitudinal section, representing the machine
in its most complete state, including the drying steam cylinders, and
the compound channelled rollers of Mr. Wilks, subsequently to be
described in detail. The figure in the upper line shows it all in train,
when the paper is to be wound up wet upon the reels E, E, which being
movable round the centre _l_ of a swing-bar, are presented empty, time
about, to receive the tender web. The figure in the under line contains
the steam or drying cylinders; the points O, O, of whose frame, replace,
at the points P, P, the wet-reel frame, F, F, P.
A is the vat, or receiver of pulp from the stuff-chest.
B is the knot strainer of Ibotson (p. 936.), to clear the pulp before
passing on to the wire.
G is the hog, or agitator in the vat. The arrows show the course of the
currents of the pulp in the vat.
I is the apron, or receiver of the water and pulp which escape through
the endless wire, and which are returned by a scoop-wheel into the vat.
_b_ is the copper lip of the vat, over which the pulp flows to the
endless wire, on a leathern apron extending from this lip to about 9
inches over the wire, to support the pulp and prevent its escaping.
_c_, _c_ are the bars which bear up the small tube rollers that support
the wire.
_d_, _d_ are ruler bars, to support the copper rollers over which the
wire revolves.
K is the breast roller, round which the endless wire turns.
N is the point where the shaking motion is given to the machine.
M is the guide roller, having its pivots movable laterally to adjust the
wire and keep it parallel.
L is the pulp roller, or “dandy,” to press out water, and to set the
paper. _r_, is the place of the second, when it is used.
H is the first or wet press, or couching rollers; the wire leaves the
paper here, which latter is couched upon the endless felt _p_; and the
endless wire _o_ returns, passing round the lower couch roller. By Mr.
Donkin’s happy invention of placing these rollers obliquely, the water
runs freely away, which it did not do when their axes were in a vertical
line.
_e_, _e_ are the deckles, which form the edges of the sheet of paper,
and prevent the pulp passing away laterally. They regulate the width of
the endless sheet.
_f_, _f_ are the revolving deckle straps.
R is the deckle guide, or driving-pulley.
_g_, _g_ are tube rollers, over which the wire passes, which do not
partake of the shaking motion; and,
_h_, _h_ are movable rollers for stretching the wire, or brass carriages
for keeping the rollers _g_, _g_ in a proper position.