#papermaking — Public Fediverse posts

“Invention, my dear friends, is 93% perspiration, 6% electricity, 4% evaporation, and 2% butterscotch ripple”*…

Jason Toon on a man whose applied creativity birthed not one, but two major industries…

Global canned food sales are now more than $210 billion annually. The average American eats about 200 pounds of canned food every year. Meanwhile the worldwide paper industry has seen steep falls in the production of newsprint, printing paper, and writing paper since 2010, but the rise in paper and cardboard packaging has more than made up for it. The paper industry is bigger than ever, with revenue of $485 billion in 2025.

For better or worse, our world would simply not look the same today without these two industries. And one person was the key figure in starting both of them. Bryan Donkin can legitimately claim to be the “father” of the canned-food industry and the paper industry as we know them. So who was he, besides one of the very few guys named Bryan in the 18th century?

Born in northeastern England in 1768, Bryan Donkin went into the same business as his father: real estate. But it didn’t speak to him. So in 1792, at the rather ripe age of 24, he became an apprentice to John Hall at Dartford Iron Works to pursue his true calling as an engineer.

At the time, all paper was made by hand, more or less the same way it had been done since the Middle Ages. Cotton and linen rags were soaked in water and beaten into a pulp. A shallow, rectangular mold with a screen bottom would be dipped into the liquid slurry and shaken. A thin layer of the macerated fibers would settle on the screen; when dry, you’d have yourself a single sheet of paper.

Donkin started his post-apprenticeship career making these molds. But around 1801, he got connected to the Fourdrinier brothers, who produced stationery in London. They’d made a deal with a French inventor, Louis-Nicolas Robert, to bring a new paper-making machine to Britain. At the time, between the post-revolutionary turmoil in France and England’s more advanced industrial base, the latter seemed to hold more lucrative prospects for the new invention.

Unlike the laborious single-sheet, mold-based method, this new “Fourdrinier machine” used a cylinder to continuously produce rolls of paper. A mechanism called the “shake” agitated the conveyor belt at a high speed, to spread the wet pulp fibers in an even layer. Unfortunately, this rapid movement put a lot of strain on the mostly wooden machine. One of Donkin’s improvements was to use metal parts instead, for improved stability and precision.

Another refinement of his was adjusting the rollers that squeezed the water out of the paper, to maximize contact between them and the paper, to dry the paper more quickly and thoroughly. This and other improvements turned the Fourdrinier machine from an interesting prototype to a viable technical advancement.

It quickly became the industry standard, and remains so over 200 years later. The publishing boom of the late 19th and early 20th century wouldn’t have been possible without it. Those big machines you see today producing rolls of paper are most likely Fourdrinier machines. Donkin also made some key advancements in printing technology, so the Pulitzers and Murdochs of the world owe him double gratitude.

His fortune secured, now the head of a company bearing his name that still exists (these days they make gas valves), Donkin’s restless mind turned to another puzzle: the preservation of food. Like too many technological quests, this one was spurred by military needs. Best frenemies England and France were both spreading their empires around the planet, frequently clashing, and looking for ways to keep their troops fed. In such wide-ranging conflicts as the Seven Years’ War (1756-1763), far more sailors died of malnutrition than in combat.

It seems yet another French inventor had visions of pounds sterling dancing in his eyes. Philippe de Girard had come up with a method of preserving food by putting in inside a sealed tin container, then boiling the container in water to sterilize it. Or maybe he swiped the method from another French inventor, Nicolas Appert [see here]. Or maybe they were in cahoots. What we do know is that in 1810, de Girard went to London and engaged a merchant named Peter Durand to be his frontman for getting a British patent, which de Girard would not have been eligible for since Britain and France were at war.

Durand was duly awarded the patent in his name. Ever since, he’s been often called the inventor of the tin can, despite having nothing to do with inventing it, and doing nothing with it except selling the patent for £1,000 in 1812. The buyer? Bryan Donkin’s old apprenticeship master, John Hall.

Now on equal terms as budding titans of industry, Hall put up the money and Donkin provided the brains along with a third partner, John Gamble, to bring tin canning to an industrial scale. Again, it took a couple of years, but Donkin and Gamble steadily refined the process. One of their major innovations was to use iron coated in a thin layer of tin, combining the strength of the former with the non-reactive properties of the latter for an imperturbable can that could survive the longest, roughest ocean voyages.

For the second time, a French invention plus Donkin’s enhancements equaled le jackpot. After getting the likes of Queen Charlotte and the Duke of Wellington hooked with some free samples of canned beef, the firm of Donkin, Hall and Gamble received an order for 156 pounds of canned food from the Admiralty in 1813. That grew to 2,939 pounds the following year, increasing annually to 9,000 pounds by 1821.

Having bested the canning challenge, Donkin again wandered off in search of other worlds to conquer: helping Charles Babbage with the “difference engine” that would eventually become the computer, consulting on bridge and canal projects, inventing the first metal pen and a screw-cutting machine, being a founding member of both the Institution of Civil Engineers and the Royal Astronomical Society.

He died in 1855, an esteemed eminence in Victorian scientific and engineering circles. Today Bryan Donkin’s impact is out of all proportion to his memory. On a visit to his grave in London, the BBC found, [there was] no mention of his achievements. Cemetery staff didn’t know who he was.

I can sense the question from some quarters of the audience: are Bryan Donkin’s achievements worth celebrating? Not only did canned food help enable imperial conquest and war, it also led eventually to the mass industrialization of food production, with its attendant crises of public health and monocultural farming, and our psychological distance from our food supply. And one look at any municipal dump will show you how much paper and cardboard waste still goes into landfill, even in a supposedly “paperless world”.

Those points are well taken. But it’s easier to dismiss these advancements when you live in a world that’s always known them. Over the last century or two, large-scale paper production enabled the rise of mass literacy, from only 10% of the world’s population being literate in 1820 to 90% today.

And it’s not just British seamen who eat better because of canned food. A 2011-2013 National Institutes of Health study found that people who eat six or more canned items a week “consume more nutrient-dense food groups such as fruits, vegetables, dairy products, and protein-rich foods, and also have higher intakes of 17 essential nutrients” including potassium, calcium, and fiber. Canned food has helped overcome the tyrannies of distance and time to get more nutrition to more people.

From the perspective of people in 1810, both food canning and mass paper production were immense steps forward. We can’t lay our subsequent inability to maintain some equilibrium at their feet. It’s true that Bryan Donkin didn’t invent the machines he perfected. Both industries probably would have happened, in some form, eventually, without him. But in being the first to perfect them for large-scale use, and granting all the downsides they’ve brought along with them, he hastened the coming of a less hungry, more educated world. Not bad for a guy named Bryan…

How one genius fathered both the canning and paper industries: “The Lives of Bryan,” from @jasontoon.bsky.social.

* Willy Wonka (in Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory)

###

As we devise, we might send carefully-calculated birthday greetings to Dan Bricklin; he was born on this date in 1951. An engineer, he was the co-creator, with Bob Frankston, of VisiCalc, the first spreadsheet program. Known as “the father of the Spreadsheet,” he was awarded the Grace Murray Hopper Award in 1981 for VisiCalc and was one of six people spotlighted when “the Computer” was named “Machine of the Year” by Time magazine in 1982.

Neither Bricklin nor Frankston reaped huge financial profits from their spreadsheet program, though it sold over a half-million copies by 1983. At the time, copyright protection was not generally sought for software; their company was subsequently acquired by Lotus 1-2-3, which became the new spreadsheet standard (until, of course, Excel).

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nice article...Chicago Pulp Brings Handmade Papermaking to the Public HT Helen Hiebert's Sunday Paper
#chicago #papermaking
https://craftindustryalliance.org/chicago-pulp-brings-handmade-papermaking-to-the-public

....Collections feature various techniques – #apparel design, #weaving, #papermaking, and more – and investigate themes of #storytelling, identity, and #memory." 2/2

#materialculture #makermonday

Han Hui Tang Xuan Paper is a Chinese studio devoted to preserving the traditional craft of handmade Xuan paper. The method begins with a pulp made from tree bark and rice straw, soaked and pounded into a fine mixture. A bamboo screen is carefully dipped into the vat and lifted, allowing a thin sheet to settle evenly across its surface. The sheet is then transferred onto a heated wall to dry slowly, forming light, flexible paper. #globalmuseum #papermaking

Payment for a #papermaking gig I did 2 months ago finally dropped 🙏🏽
This time I didn't waste time emailing them, I know this organization just likes to keep freelancers anxious and hungry. Maybe 2026 will be the year I stop working with them.

When #fairytales introduced a country to the world -

‘Textured Stories’: The crêpe-paper books that brought #Japanese culture to Western readers
https://news.yale.edu/2025/11/06/textured-stories-crepe-paper-books-brought-japanese-culture-western-readers

#Japan #history #publishing #printing #chirimen #art #illustration #papermaking #woodplockprinting #manga

People often send me links to beautiful posts about #papermaking. This isn't one of them 😄 https://www.instagram.com/reel/DQCOYQ0jHh4/?igsh=cTlzY204cHBkNmd2

A local non profit asked me to do a #papermaking activity for their members, where we'll recycle their outdated flyers and postcards. Great idea, right?
Well I'm pre making some paper so we'll have dry samples available at the event and friends, I finally found a paper that's not worth recycling. The card stock is so brittle that its making paper that's too weak to handle. I had to mix in a lot of shredded mixed office paper to rescue the project.
Luckily the final product looks nice!

I got completely sidetracked by client work for the past week but I did finish my last batch of hand made recycled paper.

#diy #maker #paper #paperMaking

Exhausted but happy after the #cyanotype workshop today. Lots of great conversations and we ran through all 20 of the pages I had prepared! Now on the train back with a backpack full of slightly-damp prints.
#GalwayClimateFestival #papermaking

Half the paper is dried and being pressed flat and the rest needs another day to dry. I was hoping to get another batch done but work keeps getting in the way. 🙄

#diy #maker #paper #paperMaking

Started making paper again because I’m making more prints. Time to test the idea that really old pulp that stinks will *not* result in paper that stinks.

#diy #maker #paper #paperMaking

Cleaning out my main email account, spotting a sakes push for #irises.. I'm looking in part for good #pollinators to add to my gardens, and want plants I can use to make paper. Apparently 3 irises are native to my state & irises can be used to make good rope.... so I think I will see if this fall I can get some to indeed add them to my gardens, in the hope these rhizomes can be coaxed into spreading. #PaperMaking #Art #GrowYourOwn #Gardening

How the University of Iowa's Center for the Book played a major hand in protecting the United States' founding documents. (Iowa) #TimBarrett #Papermaking #archives
https://www.press-citizen.com/story/entertainment/2025/07/08/university-of-iowa-center-for-the-book-us-constitution-charters-of-freedom/84495167007/

The relief that I cast from the old oak tree a few weeks ago needed a lot of curation and reinforcement (thanks gale force winds! 💨🥲)
#handmadepaper
#contemporaryart
#papermaking

Setting up to do some #papermaking under an oak tree, and here is my first participant. (I did say I would bring snacks but I haven't set them out yet!)

A friend introduced me to her contacts at a local environmental education center who were very interested in having me do a #papermaking activity at their Earth Day event. After I replied to their email with info about the activity and my $ rate, they didn't even bother to respond 🤨🤷🏾‍♀️

I love what I do, but it's not a freebie. I have to be able to put food on my family 😀

Something I've been getting into this year is paper making. These are all made by me from hemp, recycled textiles and paper scraps. Paper is cool.
#handmade #paper #bookbinding #papermaking #käsintehty #paperi #mastoart

Had a great turn out for today's event at CUNY York College. Hoping someone shares pictures of participants in action with me because I can never take photos while making paper with people.
We made casts from 2 sections of the sculpture. I think people enjoyed it and appreciated the sculpture in a new way!
#PublicArt #papermaking #NYC #Queens

Some process shots of my friend Lily making the grass and linen paper with me. #papermaking

First finished (??!) print!! Paper made from linen and ryegrass with some sphagnum inclusions. Cyanotype print is made from historical pamphlets, maps and images concerning postwar Irish agriculture. The print was then toned by soaking in water from a bog in Lixnaw in North Kerry. Finally, a clover is embroidered along the line of a gas pipeline map on the print with conductive thread, allowing the print to be a touch sensor for electronics. #papermaking #cyanotype #electronics #EnvHist

Some of the prints from this weekend on the white linen rag paper. I underexposed a couple of them, but otherwise I'm quite happy with how the process is coming along. #papermaking #cyanotype #ArtisticResearch

Updates on this weekend's crafty work! Despite the paper being blue, my linen paper from last week held up really well to the cyanotypes. Was able to test the little clover embroidery I plan to do with conductive thread and it works super great!!!
Also found a linen coat at a charity shop for €20, and though I was a shape to take the seam ripper to it it's making some gorgeous paper. Did some more clover inclusions with these as well. #papermaking #cyanotype #crafts #embroidery

Testing out making honest to goodness rag paper with some scraps of blue linen left over from a sewing project. Still need to work on breaking down the fibers further but these feel very strong for how thin they are! Will test how well they hold up to cyanotyping next weekend. #papermaking #crafts