Before the Fourdrinier machine, paper was made one sheet at a time using a screen-bottomed frame and a mold, or vat, of wet pulp. Lifting the frame through the pulp allowed the water to drain, leaving pulp on the screen. The pulp layer was then pressed and dried. The size of a single shaet was restricted to how large a frame could be handled manually.
Paper production was a skilled affair undertaken by craftsmen, often working in guilds. But by the eighteenth century, an increased demand for paper, and a desire to circumvent the paper makers' guild, prompted Frenchman Nicholas-Louis Robert (1761- 1828) to design a machine that would automate the process and produce a seamless length of paper, via a continuous belt of cloth-covered, wire-mesh screen.
After much experimentation and testing, Robert's machine received a French patent in January 1799, but the design still needed development. The political situation in France, and disagreements with Robert's original sponsors, led, in 1801, to Robert and his brother-in-law, John Gamble, obtaining a patent for the machine in England, the rights being shared with their new financial backers, Henry and Sealy Fourdrinier. Ultimately, the Fourdriniers' engineer, Bryan Donkin, would construct an improved machine—the "Fourdrinier." It produced high-quality paper and, following yet more improvements, was marketed in 1807. By 1812 such machines were operating commercially. Fearful that automation would cost them their jobs, handmade-paper workers rioted and, ignoring posted-up warning notices, attempted to destroy such equipment.
