Louis-Nicolas Robert - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

For the pioneering 18th-century balloonist, see Nicolas-Louis Robert.
For the 17th-century French miniaturist and engraver, see Nicolas Robert
Nicolas Robert
Nicolas Robert was a French miniaturist and engraver. He was born in Langres on 18 April 1614 and died in Paris on 25 March 1685.In 1664 he was appointed as "peintre ordinaire de Sa Majesté pur la miniature" to Louis XIV....

Louis-Nicolas 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

Fourdrinier machine

This article contains a glossary section at the end.Most modern papermaking machines are based on the principles of the Fourdrinier Machine. It has been used in some variation since its inception...

.

In 1799, Robert patented the first machine to produce 'continuous paper'. After a series of legal and financial quarrels with Saint-Léger Didot, Robert lost control of his patent. The machine was then shipped out of post-revolutionary France and further developed in England. Robert's invention became the core of the Fourdrinier machine, the basis for modern papermaking

Papermaking

Papermaking is the process of making paper, a substance which is used universally today for writing and packaging.In papermaking a dilute suspension of fibres in water is drained through a screen, so that a mat of randomly interwoven fibres is laid down. Water is removed from this mat of fibres by...

. He eventually became a school-teacher and died in penury.

Early and family life

Louis-Nicolas Robert was born to aging parents on rue Neuve-Saint-Eustache, 1st arrondissement of Paris. As a child he was physically frail and self-conscious, but studious and ambitious. He received an excellent education with a strong focus on science and mathematics at the hands of the religious order of the Minimes

Minim (religious order)

The Minims are members of a Roman Catholic religious order of friars founded by Saint Francis of Paola in fifteenth-century Italy...

. He felt guilty for being a financial burden to his parents. At the age of 15, he tried to enlist in the army in order to support the American Revolution, but was rejected. He was accepted into the military four years later.

On 23 April 1780 he joined the First Battalion of the Grenoble Artillery, and was subsequently stationed in Calais

Calais

Calais is a town in Northern France in the department of Pas-de-Calais, of which it is a sub-prefecture. Although Calais is by far the largest city in Pas-de-Calais, the department's capital is its third-largest city of Arras....

. In 1781 he transferred to the Metz Artillery regiment and was sent to Saint-Domingue

Saint-Domingue

The labour for these plantations was provided by an estimated 790,000 African slaves . Between 1764 and 1771, the average annual importation of slaves varied between 10,000-15,000; by 1786 it was about 28,000, and from 1787 onward, the colony received more than 40,000 slaves a year...

, where he fought the English. He served in the military for 14 years, and rose to the rank of Sergeant Major

Sergeant Major

Sergeants major is a senior non-commissioned rank or appointment in many militaries around the world. In Commonwealth countries, Sergeants Major are usually appointments held by senior non-commissioned officers or warrant officers...

. Another account of Robert's military career suggests that he left the army aged 28, in 1790.

Robert married Charlotte Routier on 11 November, 1794, in a civil ceremony. The ceremony was civil because of the post-Revolutionary decree that marriage be a simple civil contract, certified by a municipal officer.

Paper manufacture machine

In 1790, having finished with his military career, Robert became an indentured clerk at one of the Didot family's renowned Paris publishing houses. First working under Saint-Léger Didot as a clerk, he later switched to a position as "inspector of personnel" at Pierre-François Didot's paper-making factory in Corbeil-Essonnes

Corbeil-Essonnes

Corbeil-Essonnes is a commune in the southern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the center of Paris.Although neighboring Évry is the official seat of the Arrondissement of Évry, the sub-prefecture building and administration are located inside the commune of Corbeil-Essonnes.In the 19th...

. This well-respected establishment had a history dating back to 1355 and supplied paper to the Ministry of Finance for currency manufacture. Both Robert and Didot grew impatient with the quarrelling workers, vatmen, couchers, and laymen, so Robert was spurred to look for a mechanical solution to the manual labour of the paper-making process.

In his book Papermaking: the History and Technique of an Ancient Craft, Dard Hunter reported that:
Although Didot judged Robert's first plans to be "feeble", they showed enough promise to continue research, and Didot financed a small prototype model. This was completed by 1797, but it was also deemed a failure. Robert became discouraged, so Didot appointed him "superintendant of grain grinding" at a nearby flour mill. After a few months' rest from the paper factory, Didot encouraged Robert to reprise the paper machine, and put several mechanics at his disposal. The next model showed some improvement, and Didot therefore instructed Robert to make a full-size model, scaling-up to the popular 24 inch 'Colombier' width. This machine was a success and produced two sheets of "well felted" paper.

Patent application

Following Robert's successful model, built in 1798, Saint-Léger Didot insisted that Robert apply for a patent. Prior to 1798, paper was made one sheet at a time, by dipping a rectangular frame or mould with a screen bottom into a vat of pulp. The frame was removed from the vat, and the water was pressed out of the pulp. The remaining pulp was allowed to dry; the frame could not be re-used until the previous sheet of paper was removed from it. Robert's construction had a moving screen belt that would receive a continuous flow of stock and deliver an unbroken sheet of wet paper to a pair of squeeze rolls. As the continuous strip of wet paper came off the machine it was manually hung over a series of cables or bars to dry. With Didot's urging, Robert and Didot went to François de Neufchâteau

François de Neufchâteau

Nicolas-Louis François de Neufchâteau was a French statesman, poet, and scientist.-Early years:Born at Saffais, in Meurthe-et-Moselle, the son of a schoolteacher, he studied at the Jesuit college of Neufchâteau in the Vosges, and at the age of fourteen published a volume of poetry which obtained...

, the Minister of the Interior

Minister of the Interior (France)

The Minister of the Interior in France is one of the most important governmental cabinet positions, responsible for the following:* The general interior security of the country, with respect to criminal acts or natural catastrophes...

and applied for a patent. In 1799, the patent (brevet d'invention) was granted by the French Government, for which Robert paid 8,000 francs.

The patent specification and application for the continuous paper-making machine is published in the second volume of the Brevets d'Inventions Expirés.

On 9 September 1798 (23 Fructidor

Fructidor

Fructidor is the twelfth month in the French Republican Calendar. The month was named after the Latin word fructus, which means "fruit".Fructidor is the third month of the summer quarter . By the Gregorian calendar, Fructidor starts on either August 18 or August 19 and ends exactly thirty days...

Year VI) Robert wrote a letter applying for a patent:
De Neufchâteau authorised the Bureau of Arts and Trades (Bureau des Arts et Métiers) to send a draughtsman, Monsieur Beauvelot, to Essonnes to document and build an improved model. The minister also authorised a member of the Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers
Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers
The Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers , or National Conservatory of Arts and Crafts, is a doctoral degree-granting higher education establishment operated by the French government, dedicated to providing education and conducting research for the promotion of science and industry...

to accompany him. The Bureau des Arts et Métiers then declared:
The Conservatoire des Arts et Métiers paid Robert three thousand francs to build another model for permanent display at the Musée des Arts et Métiers

Musée des Arts et Métiers

The Musée des Arts et Métiers is a museum in Paris that houses the collection of the Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers , which was founded in 1794 as a repository for the preservation of scientific instruments and inventions.-History:Since its foundation, the museum has been housed in the...

.

In 1785, Christophe-Philippe Oberkampf

Christophe-Philippe Oberkampf

Christophe-Philippe Oberkampf was a French naturalized German industrialist. He became famous for founding the royal manufacture of printed cottons of Jouy-en-Josas where the toile de Jouy was manufactured....

invented the first machine for printing dyes on squares of wallpaper

Wallpaper

Wallpaper is a kind of material used to cover and decorate the interior walls of homes, offices, and other buildings; it is one aspect of interior decoration. It is usually sold in rolls and is put onto a wall using wallpaper paste...

. The significance of Robert's invention was for more than mechanising a labour-intensive process, in also allowing continuous lengths of patterned and coloured paper to be produced for hanging. This offered the prospect of novel designs and nice tints to be printed and displayed in drawing rooms across Europe.

Development in England

Robert and Didot quarrelled over the ownership of the invention. Robert eventually sold both the patent and the prototype machine to Didot for 25,000 francs. Didot defaulted on the payments to Robert, however, and he was forced to recover legal ownership of the patent on 23 June 1801. Didot wanted to develop and patent the machine in England, away from the distractions of the French Revolution

French Revolution

The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...

, so he sent his English brother-in-law, John Gamble, to London.

In March 1801, after demonstrating continuous rolls of paper from Essonne, John Gamble agreed to share the London patent application with brothers Sealy and Henry Fourdrinier

Henry Fourdrinier

Henry Fourdrinier was a British inventor.He was born in 1766, the son of a paper maker and stationer. With his brother, Sealy, he invented and improved the Fourdrinier machine, a papermaking machine that could make continuous paper...

, who ran a leading stationery house. Gamble was granted British patent 2487 on 20 October 1801 for an improved version of Robert's original machine. Thus the next development was financed by the London stationers. Gamble and Didot shipped the machine to London, and after 6 years and approximately £60,000 of development costs, the Fourdriniers were awarded new patents. An example of the Fourdrinier machine

Fourdrinier machine

This article contains a glossary section at the end.Most modern papermaking machines are based on the principles of the Fourdrinier Machine. It has been used in some variation since its inception...

was installed at Frogmore, Hertfordshire.

Death and commemoration

In 1812, in poor health, having both sold and lost control of his invention and the patent, with further exploitation being concentrated in England, Robert retired from paper-making and left Corbeil-Essonnes

Corbeil-Essonnes

. He moved to Vernouillet, Eure-et-Loir

Vernouillet, Eure-et-Loir

Vernouillet is a commune in the Eure-et-Loir department in northern France.It lies adjacent to the south side of the town of Dreux.-Population:-International relations:It is twinned with Cheddar in the United Kingdom as well as Felsberg in Germany....

and opened a small school, Faubourg St Thibault. The French economy was very depressed after Napoleon's defeats, and Robert was very poorly paid. He continued teaching until his death on 8 August 1828. A statue of him stands in front of the church in Vernouillet, and the "Collège de Louis-Nicolas Robert" in the quartier des Grandes Vauvettes is named in his honour.

In 1976, Leonard Schlosser discovered Robert's original drawings at auction and made facsimiles for scholars and friends. It is not now known where the original drawings can be seen.

External links