Bryan Donkin - letterpress printing pioneer

Thanks to somebody cutting up an 1820 encyclopaedia and selling individual pages on eBay we now have a picture of the Bacon & Donkin press patented in 1813. It was the first rotary press having 4 rotating flat formes, it was the first with composition rollers and the first with an ink duct. One was sold to Cambridge University Press. Donkin patented another press in 1816 and developed the 2 colour security printing of excise stamps.
Donkin is mainly known for his development of the fourdrinier paper making machine at Frogmore Paper Mill and the invention of canning food.

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