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 Donkin was involved with Thomas Telford's Caledonian Canal, Marc and Isambard Brunel's Thames Tunnel, and Charles Babbage's computer. He was an advisor to the government and held in high esteem by his peers.
Early life
Raised in Sandhoe, Northumberland, his father was a surveyor and land agent. Donkin initially began work in the same business, and worked from September 1789 to February 1791 as bailiff at Knole House and estate for the Duke of Dorset.
Career
While working for the Duke of Dorset, Donkin consulted the engineer John Smeaton, an acquaintance of his father, as to how he could become an engineer. At Smeaton's advice in 1792 he apprenticed himself to John Hall in Dartford, Kent, who had founded the Dartford Iron Works (later J & E Hall) in 1785. Shortly after completing his apprenticeship, he set himself up in Dartford, with the support of John Hall, making moulds for paper works, for at that time all paper making was done by hand. In 1798 he married Mary Brames, daughter of Peter Brames, a neighbouring land owner and market gardener, and a prominent supporter of the Methodist movement. By doing so Donkin became brother in law to John Hall, who had married Mary's elder sister Sarah in 1791.
Fourdrinier machine
In 1801–2 Donkin took a prototype of a continuous paper-making machine, and started its transformation into the famous Fourdrinier machine which is the basis of modern paper-making. Donkin took premises at Bermondsey, London in 1802, thus starting the enterprise that became the Bryan Donkin Company, which still continues in business in the early 21st century. In 1804 he succeeded in producing a working machine. A second, improved one, was made the following year and in 1810 eighteen of the complex machines had been erected at various mills. Although the original design was not Donkin's, he received the credit for having perfected them and brought them into use. His company continued to make such machines, and by 1851 had produced nearly 200 machines for use across the world.
Printing machinery
Donkin also worked with printing machinery. In 1813 he and a printer, Richard Mackenzie Bacon of Norwich, obtained a patent for a "Polygonal printing machine"; this used types placed on a rotating square or hexagonal roller or "geometric prism". Ink was applied by a roller which rose and fell with the irregularities of the prism. One of these machines was set up for Cambridge University. It however proved too complicated and suffered from poor inking, which prevented its success. However, it was the first machine to introduce composition ink rollers which were considered better than the existing leather-covered rollers. Donkin's inking roller quickly became the industry standard.
Tinned food
Donkin became interested in canning food in metal containers. John Hall acquired Peter Durand's patent in 1812 for the sum of £1000 and after various experiments, and in association with Hall and Gamble, Donkin set up a canning factory in Bermondsey, the first cannery to use tinned iron containers. By late spring 1813 they were appointing agents on the south coast to sell preserved food to outbound ships. Soon the British Admiralty were placing sizeable orders with the firm of Donkin, Hall and Gamble for meat preserved in tinned iron canisters. The firm of Donkin, Hall and Gamble was later merged into Crosse & Blackwells. London's Science Museum has an early Donkin tin can.
Difference engine
During the 1820s and 1830s, Charles Babbage requested Donkin's assistance in resolving continuing disputes between Babbage and Joseph Clement who had been commissioned by Babbage to manufacture the difference engine. This included investigating the ownership of intellectual property, tooling and piece-parts of the difference engine.
Bryan Donkin retired from an active role in the business in 1846 at the age of 78. His sons John, Bryan and Thomas continued the business.
In 1857 the British government authorised the sum of £1200 (2015: £) for a full-scale difference engine with attached printing apparatus based on the design of Per Georg Scheutz and his son Edvard to be constructed by Donkin's company, which had acquired a reputation for building machines for the colour printing of banknotes and stamps. Costs overran and the company delivered the machine in July 1859, several weeks past the deadline, incurring a loss of £615.