Short answers, pulled from the story.
Henry Fourdrinier (the 11th of February 1766 - the 3rd of September 1854) was a British paper-making entrepreneur who, with his brother Sealy, commissioned the development of the Fourdrinier machine. The machine produced continuous rolls of paper and was based on an earlier design by Frenchman Louis-Nicolas Robert. A patent for it was granted on the 24th of July 1806.
The invention cost sixty thousand pounds. The expense caused Henry and Sealy Fourdrinier to go bankrupt. Despite the machine being widely adopted across the industry, the brothers received almost no financial benefit because various laws made the patent difficult to protect.
Fourdrinier received very little. In 1839 a petition was brought before parliament, and in 1840 a payment of seven thousand pounds was made to Fourdrinier and his family. A separate arrangement with Russia, where two machines were built at Peterhof in 1814, promised seven hundred pounds per year for ten years, but no money was ever paid despite Fourdrinier petitioning Tsar Nicholas.
The Fourdrinier machine produced paper in continuous rolls and offered considerably higher productivity than traditional hand methods. It also extended the range of available cut paper sizes, since output was not limited by the size of a hand frame or deckle. Roll-form paper made applications such as wallpaper printing practical at scale.
Henry Fourdrinier's father was a paper maker and stationer also named Henry Fourdrinier. His grandfather was the engraver Paul Fourdrinier (1698-1758), sometimes mistakenly called Pierre Fourdrinier. His sister Jemima was the mother of the theologian John Henry Newman.
Henry Fourdrinier died on the 3rd of September 1854 at the age of 88.