Sealy Fourdrinier (9 October 1773 – 1847) was an English paper-making entrepreneur. He was born the son of paper maker and stationer Henry Fourdrinier and grandson of the engraver

Paul Fourdrinier Paul Fourdrinier (20 December 1698 – 18 February 1758), sometimes referred to as Peter or Pierre Fourdrinier,Chatterton 1967, p.85 was an 18th-century engraver in England. Biography Paul Fourdrinier, engraver and printseller, was born on 20 Dec ...

(1698-1758), who were of Huguenot descent. His brother was

Henry Fourdrinier Henry Fourdrinier (11 February 1766 – 3 September 1854) was a British paper-making entrepreneur. He was born in 1766, the son of paper maker and stationer Henry Fourdrinier, and grandson of the engraver Paul Fourdrinier, 1698–1758, sometimes ...

, his later partner in business. Around the end of the 18th century Sealy and his brother were approached by John Gamble and Leger Didot, who were seeking financial support to develop an automatic paper making machine developed in Paris by

Louis-Nicolas Robert Nicolas Louis Robert (2 December 1761 – 8 August 1828) was a French soldier and mechanical engineer, who is credited with a paper-making invention that became the blueprint of the Fourdrinier machine. In 1799, Robert patented the first machine ...

, an employee of Didot. In 1801–02 the Fourdriniers entrusted engineer

Bryan Donkin Bryan Donkin FRS FRAS (22 March 1768 – 27 February 1855) developed the first paper making machine and created the world's first commercial canning factory. These were the basis for large industries that continue to flourish today. Bryan D ...

(then working with

John Hall John Hall may refer to: Academics * John Hall (NYU President) (fl. c. 1890), American academic * John A. Hall (born 1949), sociology professor at McGill University, Montreal * John F. Hall (born 1951), professor of classics at Brigham Young Unive ...

) with the development of Robert's model into a prototype continuous paper-making machine. The world's first production machine was installed at

Frogmore Paper Mill Frogmore Paper Mill is a working paper mill situated in Apsley, Hertfordshire, near Hemel Hempstead. The mill is on an island in the River Gade, which forms part of the Grand Union Canal. It is the oldest mechanical paper mill in the world. Hist ...

Apsley, Hertfordshire Apsley was a 19th-century mill village in the county of Hertfordshire, England. It is a historic industrial site situated in a valley of the Chiltern Hills. It is positioned below the confluence of two permanent rivers, the Gade and Bulbourne ...

in 1803 and a second, much improved and larger machine installed the following year. By 1810 eighteen machines had been installed at various mills. The cost of developing and improving the machines was of the order of £60,000 and although the inventions were covered by various patents taken out by the Fourdrinier brothers, the costs of manufacture, installation and maintenance and the difficulty of collecting royalties forced the Sealy brothers to declare themselves bankrupt in 1810. The machines themselves, known as

Fourdrinier machine A paper machine (or paper-making machine) is an industrial machine which is used in the pulp and paper industry to create paper in large quantities at high speed. Modern paper-making machines are based on the principles of the Fourdrinier Mach ...

s, were very successful and continued to be made in considerable numbers by Donkins. In 1837 a Parliamentary Select Committee acknowledged the importance of the Fourdriniers’ contribution to the paper industry and voted them £7000 compensation. Sealy Fourdrinier died at Southwark in 1847. He had married Harriet Pownall at St Mary Wolnoth, London and had children James Sealy (1805-1870), Harriet (1806-1863), and Louisa Elizabeth (1813-1892). Louisa Elizabeth married the clergyman

John Bathurst Deane John Bathurst Deane (27 August 1797 – 12 July 1887) was a South African-born English clergyman, schoolmaster, antiquary, and author. Early life and education Born at the Cape of Good Hope in 1797, Deane was the second son of Captain Charles M ...

and became the mother of thirteen children, including

Mary Bathurst Deane Mary Bathurst Deane (1843 – 13 April 1940) was an English novelist. Life The daughter of John Bathurst Deane, Deane was a Victorian gentlewoman of many accomplishments. She published fourteen books, mostly novels, was a good amateur artist, a ...

. Another of her daughters, Eleanor Deane (1861–1941), married Henry Ernest Wodehouse and was the mother of the writer

P. G. Wodehouse Sir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, ( ; 15 October 188114 February 1975) was an English author and one of the most widely read humorists of the 20th century. His creations include the feather-brained Bertie Wooster and his sagacious valet, Jeeve ...

.''

Burke's Peerage Burke's Peerage Limited is a British genealogical publisher founded in 1826, when the Irish genealogist John Burke began releasing books devoted to the ancestry and heraldry of the peerage, baronetage, knightage and landed gentry of Great Br ...

'', volume 2 (2003), page 2,164

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fourdrinier, Sealy 1773 births 1847 deaths Businesspeople from London Pulp and paper industry Papermaking