Bryan Donkin

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This article is about the engineer born 1768. For the physician born 1845, see Bryan Donkin (physician).

Bryan Donkin
Born22 March 1768 (1768-03-22)
Died27 February 1855 (1855-02-28) (aged 86)
Bermondsey, London
Resting placeNunhead Cemetery
Known forPaper making machine and canning process
SpouseMary Brames
Children11
Parent(s)John Donkin and Jane Soppitt

Bryan Donkin

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

Knole House and estate for the Duke of Dorset.[2]

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.[3] 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,[4] daughter of Peter Brames,[5] 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.[6]

Fourdrinier machine

Main article:
Fourdrinier machine
Leslie - physicsFrancis Baily - astronomerPlayfair - UniformitarianismRutherford - NitrogenDollond - OpticsYoung - modulus etcBrown - Brownian motionGilbert - Royal Society presidentBanks - BotanistKater - measured gravity??Howard - Chemical EngineerDundonald - propellorsWilliam Allen - PharmacistHenry - Gas lawWollaston - Palladium and RhodiumHatchett - NiobiumDavy - ChemistMaudslay - modern latheBentham - machinery?Rumford - thermodynamicsMurdock - sun and planet gearRennie - Docks, canals & bridgesJessop - CanalsMylne - Blackfriars bridgeCongreve - rocketsDonkin - engineerHenry Fourdrinier - Paper making machineThomson - atomsWilliam Symington - first steam boatMiller - steam boatNasmyth - painter and scientistNasmyth2Bramah - HydraulicsTrevithickHerschel - UranusMaskelyne - Astronomer RoyalJenner - Smallpox vaccineCavendishDalton - atomsBrunel - Civil EngineerBoulton - SteamHuddart - Rope machineWatt - Steam engineTelfordCrompton - spinning machineTennant - Industrial ChemistCartwright - Power loomRonalds - Electric telegraphStanhope - InventorUse your cursor to explore (or Click icon to enlarge)
Distinguished Men of Science.[7] Use the cursor to see who is who.[8]

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.[9][10]

Printing machinery

Donkin also worked with printing machinery. In 1813 he and a printer,

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.[2][11]

Tinned food

Donkin became interested in

tinned iron canisters. The firm of Donkin, Hall and Gamble was later merged into Crosse & Blackwells.[13] London's Science Museum has an early Donkin tin can.[14]

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.[2]

Bryan Donkin retired from an active role in the business in 1846 at the age of 78.[10] His sons John, Bryan and Thomas continued the business.

In 1857 the British government authorised the sum of £1,200 (equivalent to £144,598 in 2023)[15] 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 (equivalent to £77,812 in 2023).[15]

Despite the engine's printing unit working badly, the Royal Society and the Astronomer Royal were generally positive when they inspected it on 30 August 1859, expressing their satisfaction at its construction. Donkin was unhappy that he had lost so much money on the project, which he attributed to the engine's unexpected intricacy and the fact that he had very little to base his original cost estimate on, Edvard Scheutz having given him very little information. In addition, costly machine tools had had to be made specially to make the engine's components and many alterations had been introduced along the way.[16]

The machine was used by

London Science Museum
.

Civil engineering

A model of a Fairbairn Pattern Beam Engine of circa 1860 as built by Bryan Donkin & Co.

In the 1820s Donkin became a director of the

Marc Brunel when he had supplied equipment for his machinery at Chatham Dockyard. In 1825–27 Donkin supplied pumps for removing water from the tunnel and also workmen for modifying the tunnelling shield
; at one time it was even suggested that he replace Brunel as engineer.

In 1826 he constructed a model of a landing stage proposed by Brunel for use at Liverpool.

Donkin's works regularly supplied machinery for use in civil engineering projects, including

locks on the Caledonian Canal.[2]

As an eminent engineer, Donkin was often consulted on civil engineering matters. He supported Thomas Telford's 1814 proposals for a massive suspension bridge at Runcorn, and in 1821 reported along with Henry Maudslay on an iron bridge erected by Ralph Dodd at Springfield, Chelmsford. Thomas Telford employed Donkin in his survey of rivers in the London area for the Water Supply report, completed shortly before Telford's death.[17] Donkin died in 1855 and was buried in a family plot in Nunhead Cemetery, south London.[18]

Other work

In 1820 Donkin worked with

Calcutta. This 'Rose Engine' is now at the Science Museum, London.[19]

By 1847, Donkin's company had designed its first products for the emerging

gas industry. The name Donkin has since become a generic name for certain gas valves and Bryan Donkin RMG Gas Controls Limited remains a going concern
in Europe. AVK and Howden Blowers also continue manufacture of Bryan Donkin equipment.

Among Donkin's other inventions were a screw-cutting and dividing machine; an instrument to measure the velocity of rotating machinery; and an engine to count the rotations of a machine. The last two received the

Royal Society of Arts
Prize medal.

Death

The Donkin family vault in Nunhead Cemetery

Donkin died at home in the New Kent Road, London, on 27 February 1855. He was buried in a vault in Nunhead Cemetery. His wife, Mary, died on 27 August 1858 and was buried in the same vault, as were other family members at later dates.

Institutions

In 1805, with John Hall and others, he formed the Society of Master Millwrights, acting as its treasurer.

He was a member of the Society of Arts, becoming a vice-president and chairman of the Committee of Mechanics.

He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1838.

Donkin was one of the originators and a vice-president of the Institution of Civil Engineers, which was founded by Henry Robinson Palmer, one of his pupils. He also helped the institution to obtain its royal charter in 1828, advancing 100 guineas towards the costs.

Donkin was elected a member of the Smeatonian Society of Civil Engineers in 1835 and served as its president in 1843.[20]

He was a founder member of the Royal Astronomical Society and served on its council.[1]

Notes

  1. ^
    doi:10.1093/mnras/16.4.73a
    . Retrieved 24 June 2017.
  2. ^
    ISBN 978-0-9934680-1-8
    .
  3. ^ Donkin, Sydney Bryan. Bryan Donkin FRS MICE 1768–1855. London, Transactions of the Newcomen Society, Vol 27 (1949–50), pp 85–95
  4. ^ "England Marriages, 1538–1973 ", database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:NVLH-GX7 : 13 March 2020), Mary Brames in entry for Bryan Donkin, 1798. Accessed 4 October 2020
  5. ^ "England Births and Christenings, 1538-1975", database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:JWS7-CSQ : 19 September 2020), Mary Brames, 1772. Accessed 4 October 2020
  6. ^ Hesketh, Everard, J & E Hall Ltd 1785 to 1935, Glasgow University Press, 1935.
  7. William Walker
    , ref. NPG 1075a, National Portrait Gallery, London, accessed February 2010
  8. doi:10.1021/ed018p203
    .
  9. ^ Walker Jr., William (1862). Memoirs of the Distinguished Men of Science of Great Britain Living in the Years 1807-8. London: W. Walker & Son. pp. 75–77.
  10. ^ a b A Brief Account of Bryan Donkin FRS and of the Company he Founded 150 years ago. Bryan Donkin Company Ltd, Chesterfield, 1953. Accessed 21 Oct 2023
  11. ^ Hebert, Luke (1849). The Engineer's & Mechanic's Encyclopedia. Kelly. p. 345.
  12. ISBN 978-0-8493-3775-8
    .
  13. ISBN 978-0-8493-3775-8
    .
  14. ^ Tin can used for the early preservation of food. Science Museum, London. Retrieved: 30 May 2022.
  15. ^ a b UK Retail Price Index inflation figures are based on data from Clark, Gregory (2017). "The Annual RPI and Average Earnings for Britain, 1209 to Present (New Series)". MeasuringWorth. Retrieved 7 May 2024.
  16. ISBN 978-0-262-12146-0
    .
  17. ISBN 978-0727729392
    . Retrieved 14 September 2018.
  18. ^ Geoghegan, Tom (21 April 2013). "The story of how the tin can nearly wasn't". BBC News. Retrieved 14 September 2018.
  19. ^ Rose Engine, London Science Museum. Retrieved: 30 May 2022.
  20. ISBN 0-7277-1526-7

References

External links
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