Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1862-12-20
W(ottester 4ailp Syn
Manufacture ofPrlnting Paper.


From the Scientific American.
The invention of movable types, stereo
tipping, the machine for casting type, aud inn
provements in the printing press, have I'M
doubleday tended to advance knowledge by
the aids which they have furnished in provid-
ing cheap literature; and at the same time it
is equally true that Improvements in the art
of paper-making have done as much in effect
ing the same object. But all the improve
ments in type-making, setting type, and print
ing, would be of little avail in advancing
knowledge, if sufficient supply of paper at a
moderate cost was not obtainable. Paper re-
ally forms the item of greatest cost in the art
OF book-making; Improvements in machinery
for making paper and in the art of bleaching
1t, but above all a great reduction in the cost
of the raw Notwithstanding reduced
the cost of paper so much below what it was
during the last century, that books and peri
odicals have of late years been produced at an
unexampled and gratifyingly low cost. A
change, however, has suddenly come over
that state of things. Printing paper which,
eighteen months ago, was selling at six cents
per pound, has advanced in price three-fold;
and, as consequence, all kinds of publica-
tons must be raised in price also. The
causes of this are deprecated currency, an
increase of taxation; and, above all, a search
ty of the raw material-cotton-du to the
war in our country, which has of course al
most entirely suppressed the southern cotton
trade.
In the year 1857, cotton rags, of which pa
per is chiefly made, became scarce for brief
period; and paper advanced in price one-half
Ofits former rate. Much excitement was &C.
easioned thereby, and great energy was dis
played in making efforts to furnish substi-
4nfa far nd
and other periodicals then teemed with trea-
atises respecting the manufacture of paper
from straw, wood, flax, cotton, and numerous
other materials. Several good Improvements
were then undoubtedly made in preparing
straw, grasses and wood for making paper;
but when the price of cotton rags fell, all the
new materials, except in few cases, were
abandoned. The present prospects, however,
offer no hope of a sufficient supply Of cotton
rags for several years to come; therefore
some substitute is mperatively.required, and,
judging from the present prices of the raw
material, tits reasonable to conclude that many
substitutes can be furnished at less cost. Pa
per can be manufactured from every vegeta-
BILE substance that contains fiber-the minute
threads of vegetable tissue.
The oldest known paper was made of the
papyrus, an aquatic plant growing in Egypt.
liz SllIlSoS iltiuG paper lIOlll COltOH pSlOlS
the christian era; and the Arabians introduce
ed the art Of making paper from cotton and
linen into Spain in the eleventh century. In
I7l9. Reaumer the French scientist, publish
ed an essay, in which he stated that paper
could be made of wood and hornets nests,
and in 1874, Seba, a Belgian writer on natur
al history, stated that paper could be made
from the GtgG marina or sea-grass. In I75l,
M. Guettard, of France, exhibited specimens
OF paper made of the bark, wood and leaves
of trees, and also from various plants; and in
,NT56, during scarcity of linen rags, paper
was made of straw in Germany. In 1872, a
book was issued in Germany by Jacob Chris
tian Schatfers of Ratisbon, which was printed
upon sixty specimens of paper, made of as
many different materials. There is copy of
this remarkable volume in the library of the
Smithsonian Institution at Washington.
Among the paper materials of which it is COM
posed are hornets nests, saw-dust, moss,
beech, aspen, mulberry, pine, hop vines,
hemp, leaves of aloes, barley straw, wheat
straw, broom corn, thistle stalks, and almost
every material which has been proposed of
late years as a substitute for cotton and linen
rags in paper manufacture. We have ad-
duced these facts to show that printing paper
not only can be, but has been made of an in
Vulnerable variety of materials. The simple
reason why they have not been commonly
used is because paper could be made cheaper
from cotton rags, owing to the low price of
the latter, and because they could be easily
reduced to pulp. But this state of things has
changed, and favorable opportunity is now
presented for the employment in paper-mak-
ing of some of the materials above enumera-
ted.
A few weeks ago, we published some ac-
count of the progress made in Austria, in
the manufacture of paper from the fbers of
maize corn. We may learn something from
Austria in the manufacture of both cloth and
paper from maize fiber, as a substitute for
cotton. We have lately examined Il very
beautiful pamphlet prepared by Arof. j. Aren-
stein, and printed on paper composed of pulp
made of maize, cotton, and linen fiber, The
quality of this paper resembled that of the fine
'Indan wove" that is used for the prints of
steel engravings. We are informed that
great number of works in the German Ian
guage are now printed on maize paper at the
imperial printing Office in Vienna There are
also establishments at Vienna and SchlOegl-
muela, where maize flax is spun and woven
into cloth in considerable quantities 1t is to
this substance that we wish to direct particu-
lar attention at this time. There is no coun-
try in the world where the raw material for
maize paper can be obtained in such album
dance and perfection as in the United States.
Its fiber--unlike that of cotton-is not free,
but is cemented and imbedded in vegetable
gluten and albumen, which require to be re-
moved by chemical and mechanical processes
before it is fit for making paper. What the
expense Of these processes may be we are I'M
able to say; but the present high price of cot
ton rags warrants US in urging experiments
with this material, in the confident hope that
it may be economically employed in the man
ufacture of paper.