Ottumwa weekly courier. (Ottumwa, Wapello County, Iowa) 1872-1899, 1878-01-02
FACTS ABOUT PAPER.

FACTS ABOUT PAPER.
Anclcnt 1annscrips ON
Human Dkin--Pepyrus, cotton and
Rags-First American Paper Mill
woonsocket Patriot
Previous TO its manufacture. long
lges ago in Egypt, from an Aquatic
plant called papyrus, various other
were used.
There previously were tracings on
fiat stones; on clay, dried
md hardened by sun or fire, rs in the
bricks on thin boards of
wood covered with wax; on plates of
ivory and metal; on leaves and the
inner bark of trees and intestines of
animals.
In the library Of the Sarbonne,
Paris, is a manuscript certified by
an ancient writer to be written upon
human skin, and an elegant copy of
the Bible, which the Able Rive be-
lieved to be written on the skin of a
woman.
Paper made from the plant above
mentioned certainly was in use in the
time of Herodotus, the "father of his
tory" who lived 500 years before the
Christian era-that is nearly 24OO
years ago. The Romans sized their
paper with preparation made Of
flour.
EARLY MANUFACTURES.
Egyptian paper was largely used in
Asia and Europe until the fifth cen.
fury, and in Italy until the eleventh
century, when parchment and paper
made Of cotton superseded il.
Eighteen hundred years ago the
Chinese, who seem to have had an
inkling of most of the great Europe
an inventions, including gunpowder
and1 printing, made paper from fl.
brous matter, vegetable and animal,
reduced to pulp in water. s#
A mandatory of paper from cot.
ton was established at Samarcand, in
Bokhara, by the Arabs, early in the
18th century. Thence it was taken by
the Saracens to Spain, where firs1
was made paper from linen and hemp
as well as from cotton.
Cotton paper was in I SO in England
lOuS UcAVIe VIC lutIOuuCtlOA tucEt
of linen paper, in the fourteenth cen
fury. For long time the best paper
was made in Holland. To this day
Dutch paper is considered superior
to, as it is dearer than, all other pa
per.
1t seems marvellous that such meal
materials as linen and cotton rag
should produce substance at once 81
delicate and useful as paper. But al
most any fibrous vegetable substance
may be employed.
OLD MANUSCRIPTS.
Wood and straw have been mucl
employed of late years, but the result
is q coarser though much cheaper pa
per than that made from cotton o.
linen rags. 1t takes very kindly t
ink, however, and many newspaper
and other periodicals are printed up
on 1t.
Goblet, the political writer, VIII
: lived on Long Island in 1918, al
: tempted to grow corn in England, O.
his return there but it would not ri
pen. Nevertheless, he made toug
paper out of the husks, on which 70
sometime he printed his Englis
grammar and Weekly Register.
Papyrus manuscripts have bee
: found in the Egyptian catacombs, aI
parently several thousand years ole
Manuscripts have been discovered i
. large numbers (say 1900 in Hercu
!. laneum, small city near the Medi
erranean, and not far from Maple
: which, sharing the fate of Pompei
!, A. D. 70, was destroyed by gres
! earthquake.
The Oldest manuscript in England
written upon cotton paper, bears til
date A. D. 1049, and is in the BIRTHS
!. Museum, in London. One in th
D Royal Library, in Paris, is dated
i year later. The "Aphorism of Hill
pocrates," translated into Arabic, hi
: the date Of the year HOO, and is sal
to be written on the oldest specime
of linen paper extant.
+. HISTORICAL RELICS.
To the same year belongs Arab
manuscript on satin paper (made I
r silk and highly ornamented wit
paintings and gold leaf. Subsequen
y ly such ornaments were called ill,
:. mination, of which many fine spec
mems remain.
q Early in the thirteenth century IL
Emperor Frederick III. of German,
ordained that all public acts write
3 on cotton paper, which was apt to b.
: come humid, should be declared nu
and void, but allowed two years #
them to be transcribed upon parcl
. ment.
The name of the inventor of pape
made from linen rags remains III
3 known. The earliest English man,
: script made upon such paper bea1
I the date of A. d. 1920, which was Il
: fourteenth year of the reign of E'
ward III. 1t has been decided Thu
this was foreign paper.
} The first paper mark, which was
rams face, was found in book OF a
counts, dated A. d. 1880. Thirl
! years later Ulman Stromer began
write at Nuremberg, in Bavaria, Il
first book that had paper making IL
', its subject.
l WALL PAPER.
Long after the use of linen pap'
: became common in France, lette
and accounts Of the royal househol
!, in Paris were written on waxen tai
. lets, some of which are still preserve,
Wynken de Worde, who succeede
William Claxton, the introducer I
printing into England, printed an a.
! dition, "De Proprietatis Rerum," c
tinted paper, which, he states WI
made by John Tate, the younger
: Tate's mill, the first in England, WI
! at Hartford, and his water mark WI
|. !. an elegant pointed star within
|: double circle. This printing was
.. the year 1893.
What is called hand paper was !
: designated from q water mark, son
! years later, Of hand with star
each fingers end. So, from jug ,
!. pot which also was a favorite mar
! the term pot paper is said to ha'
: originated.
! For centuries the custom has bee
: in the houses Of rich people, TO ha'
costly hangings Of tapestry or clio
upon the walls of their princip
: rooms.
About the year l640 began the ma
ufacture of handsomely adorned wa
: paper, as a low-priced substitut
which was speedily and largely pa
: ronized by the middle class.
MODERN INVENTIONS.
What is called the foolscap pap
gets its name from the fact that, aft
= the trial and execution of Charles
: in front of his .own Palace Of Whit