If the download time takes too long, please turn the AUTO LOAD switch on your browser off. Reproduced from Denis Diderot's Encyclopedie 1767 Gift of Friends of the Cabildo Women graded and sorted cotton and linen rags according to quality. Reproduced from Denis Diderot's Encyclopedie 1767 Gift of Friends of the Cabildo Sorted rags were broken down by hand-stamping the fibers. Reproduced from Denis Diderot's Encyclopedie 1767 Gift of Friends of the Cabildo Stamping mechanism used to reduce rag materials into usable fibers for papermaking. A vat man prepares to dip a paper mold into pulped fiber while the workman to the right drains excess water from a dipped frame.
Heavy presses used to remove the remaining water from the paper are in the background.
Reproduced from Denis Diderot's Encyclopedie 1767 Gift of Friends of the Cabildo Women and a male apprentice at work in the drying loft. After pressing, the paper sheets were hung to dry on ropes woven from cow or horse hair. Newly made paper is burnished to remove unevenness and pressed for a final time.