Biography of René Grillet de Roven

A little is known about René Grillet de Roven (see the calculating machine of René Grillet), Sieur Grillet Maistre Horlogeur, as he was titled.

As it is clear from his name (spelled also René Grilliet), he originates from the town of Roven (Rouen), in the northwestern France, the capital city of Normandy, the same town, where in early 1640s Blaise Pascal created the famous Pascaline. And this probably was not a simple coincidence, because there is a note from the upset Blaise Pascal from 1640s, in which he complains about "a watchmaker from Rouen, who dared to make a beautiful, but absolutely useless for work copy of my machine...". It is possible Pascal to mention namely René Grillet, but this cannot be proved.

Grillet was a well known at the time french mechanic, instrument maker and watchmaker, because he used to work for His Royal Highness King Louis XIV. Besides the calculating machine, which is of a particular interest for us, he is known as a maker of several other devices—a hygrometer (anemometer, actually for this invention he was accused of plagiarism from another instrument maker); graphometers; drawing instrument set; protractor, sector and square; set square, with plumb-bob.

As it already have been mentioned in the article for his calculating machine, Grillet tried to make some money by his calculating machine, but with questionable success.

In 1681 Grillet was in Amsterdam, Netherlands, where he exposed his calculating machine. It seems he stayed in Netherlands for several years, probably perfecting his printing art there under the care of the skilled Dutch master-printers.

In 1690 René Grillet is mentioned to live already in England, where he took patent for painting and printing calicos, and a factory for this purpose was opened in the Old Deer Park at Richmond. It was the first calico-printing factory in England, but Grillet made the mistake to employ mostly Frenchmen, which led him into troubles with the local society and English authorities.