John Hall (engineer)

John Hall (5 September 1765 - 7 January 1836) was an English millwright and mechanical engineer, who, in 1785, founded the Dartford-based engineering company which became J & E Hall, today a prominent supplier of refrigeration machinery, and part of the Daikin group. During Hall's lifetime, he helped mechanise the papermaking industry, co-founded the first UK canning firm, and developed steam engines for land and marine use.

Born in Whitchurch, Hampshire, John was the second son of a millwright, William Hall (1710-1794), who had previously worked in Dartford, but was employed at the Portal family's paper mill in Laverstoke, Hampshire. John Hall moved to Dartford in April 1784, and was employed by a Mr T H Saunders to repair a mill on the River Darent in Hawley. Saunders urged Hall to set up his own business, repairing and maintaining machinery used in corn, paper, oil and powder mills in and around Dartford, and in 1785 Hall opened a workshop in Lowfield Street in Dartford.Bryan Donkin was an early apprentice, in 1892.

Around 1800, the firm moved to larger premises in Waterside (now Hythe Street) on land which had once formed part of Dartford Priory. Through his association with Donkin, now involved in the area's papermaking industry, Hall helped a partnership with the Fourdrinier brothers (Henry and Sealy) and John Gamble, to make paper machines, installed in Frogmore mill in Apsley, Hertfordshire.

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