Robert Gill Ranson
Robert Gill Ranson (c1791-c1842)
1842 Robert Gill Ranson of Ipswich, Paper Maker, became a member of the Institution of Civil Engineers.[1]
1844 Obituary [2]
Mr. Robert Gill Ranson, Assoc.Inst.C.E., was a manufacturer of paper at Ipswich; in 1840 he introduced an improved mode of sizing and drying machine-made paper, substituting for the ordinary tedious process of tab-sizing (in which it was requisite that the paper should be previously cut into sheets), a method by which he was enabled to size and dry writing or drawing papers, in the lengths made by Fourdrinier’s machine: by this process, the time occupied in the manufacture was reduced, and the uncertainty of the effect of the weather in drying was avoided.
In consequence of a long illness, preceding his decease, this invention was not extensively carried out, but it appears now probable that it will be generally adopted.
Mr. Ranson only became an Associate of the Institution in 1842, but he demonstrated the interest he felt in its welfare, by exhibiting at the President’s conversazione a sheet of drawing paper 400 feet in length, which had been completed by his process from the state of rags, in the short space of 48 hours.
He was highly respected by his friends, and his decease, at the age of 51 years, was much regretted.