Donkin, Bryan I

SUBJECT AREA: Mechanical, pneumatic and hydraulic engineering, Paper and printing

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b. 22 March 1768 Sandoe, Northumberland, England

d. 27 February 1855 London, England

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English mechanical engineer and inventor.

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It was intended that Bryan Donkin should follow his father's profession of surveyor and land agent, so he spent a year or so in that occupation before he was apprenticed to John Hall, millwright of Dartford, Kent. Donkin remained with the firm after completing his apprenticeship, and when the Fourdrinier brothers in 1802 introduced from France an invention for making paper in continuous lengths they turned to John Hall for help in developing the machine: Donkin was chosen to undertake the work. In 1803 the Fourdriniers established their own works in Bermondsey, with Bryan Donkin in charge. By 1808 Donkin had acquired the works, but he continued to manufacture paper-making machines, paying a royalty to the patentees. He also undertook other engineering work including water-wheels for driving paper and other mills. He was also involved in the development of printing machinery and the preservation of food in airtight containers. Some of these improvements were patented, and he also obtained patents relating to gearing, steel pens, paper-making and railway wheels. Other inventions of Bryan Donkin that were not patented concerned revolution counters and improvements in accurate screw threads for use in graduating mathematical scales. Donkin was elected a member of the Society of Arts in 1803 and was later Chairman of the Society's Committee of Mechanics and a Vice-President of the society. He was also a member of the Royal Astronomical Society. In 1818 a group of eight young men founded the Institution of Civil Engineers; two of them were apprentices of Bryan Donkin and he encouraged their enterprise. After a change in the rules permitted the election of members over the age of 35, he himself became a member in 1821. He served on the Council and became a Vice- President, but he resigned from the Institution in 1848.

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Principal Honours and Distinctions

FRS 1838. Vice-President, Institution of Civil Engineers 1826–32, 1835–45. Member, Smeatonian Society of Civil Engineers 1835; President 1843. Society of Arts Gold Medal 1810, 1819.

Further Reading

S.B.Donkin, 1949–51, "Bryan Donkin, FRS, MICE 1768–1855", Transactions of the Newcomen Society 27:85–95.

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