Communication · 1803

Continuous paper machine

A moving wire belt makes paper in endless rolls instead of single hand-dipped sheets.

Based on Louis-Nicolas Robert's 1799 design, the Fourdrinier brothers' machine was running in England by 1803. Continuous paper, and later wood pulp from the 1840s, cut the cost of paper sharply and fed the rotary presses of mass-circulation newspapers.

See it in the living tree Wikipedia

Arcs above join it to what it stood on, arcs below to what it led to. The bar places this stretch on the tree's whole timeline.

What it built on 2

Factory system 1771
Water-powered paper mill 1276

Related measurements

The dashed line marks when it first worked.

New book titles per million people, UK Latest: 2.11k titles per million (2009) Source: Our World in Data

Literacy rate, England/UK since 1475 Latest: 98.5 % (1950) Source: Our World in Data