During the 18th century there
had been some concentration of craft activities in large operations, the ‘manufactories’,
which were dependent on skilled papermakers organised into craft groups. The
efforts made to step up production as much as possible and to have many of the
jobs done by machine (partly to get round the constraining rules of papermakers'
craft ‘usages’) culminated in the design and construction of paper
making machines. The initial model was the vat that was used by J.N.L. Robert,
who built the first flat-screen papermaking machine in 1798. This was further
developed in England, mostly by Donking and the Fourdrinier brothers.
Shortly afterwards other types appeared, like the Dickinson’s cylinder
machine, and machines which filled wire moulds transported on an endless chain
and couched the sheets on an continuous felt. Flat screen and cylinder machines,
which were first seen in the 19th century, were continually improved and extended
to include a dryer section. This soon led to a considerable widening of the paper
web and to an increase in production speeds.
It also heralded industrialisation. In this new era, the small operators who
were unable or unwilling to afford machines sought to survive with piece-work
or by producing special grades, but they were sooner or later compelled to discontinue
their activities. Others had to adapt their existing buildings or set up new
mills elsewhere.
