John Dickinson (inventor)

At the age of fifteen, Dickinson started a seven-year apprenticeship as a stationer with Messrs Harrison and Richardson in London.

Until his time, paper was produced using rag and esparto, instead of the conventional wood pulp[2] Dickinson patented his invention, and it was taken up by the army.

[3] Attempts had already been made to build a machine capable of the continuous manufacture of paper to replace the handmade techniques then used, notably by the Frenchman Henry Fourdriner.

[11] The process consisted of a perforated cylinder of metal, with a closely fitting cover of finely woven wire, which revolved in a vat of wood pulp.

The water from the vat was carried off through the axis of the cylinder, leaving the fibres of the wood pulp clinging to the surface of the wire.

An endless web of felt passed through what was known as a 'couching roller' lying upon the cylinder drew off the layer of pulp which when dried became paper.

John Evans, Dickinson's nephew and son-in-law, took over the business, and also achieved eminence in several scholarly fields.

Their half-sister was Dame Joan Evans (1893–1977), a British historian of French and English mediaeval art, who was a great-niece of John Dickinson.