The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1880-04-23
A WORLD OF PAPER.
oNE-TuIRD OF THE PRODUCT MADE IN
AMERICA-THE FIRST DISCOVERY Z.
INA HORNETS NEST-PAPER'S
WONDERFUL USES AND
PROBABILITIES.
PROBABILITIES.

INA HORNETS NEST-PAPER'
WONDERFUL USES AND
PROBABILITIES.
The common wasp, the terror of the
small boy in the country, was undoubt-
edly the pioneer in the paper business,
and to the despised and abused insect
the Herald is disposed to award ample
credit. The wasp made his paper, too,
very much the same way that his human
imitators do to-day, using often the very
same material and producing in his rude
way species of paper nearly as delicate
as the finest tissue grades. Who will
say. therefore, that nature is not a great
teacher? ? Spiders were spinners of intTi-
cate webs before cloth was invented,
the silk worm disclosed to the world
mine or industry and wealth which it is
impossible to estimate, and the beaver
gave to man his earliest and most valua-
bic lessons in dam building. 1t is re-
corded in history that in GO b. c.,
Numa, who lived 300 years before Alex
ander, left several works upon papyrus,
and that this is probably the earliest au-
thenticated use of this material. AS
far back as 800 years ago the Chinese
are thought to have discovered how to
make paper from fibrous matter reduced
A y. an Arabian manufactory of paper
from cotton was established. In 1lj1
the Spaniards manufactured from cotton
various kinds of paper scarcely inferior
in quality to those made from linen
rags. Linen paper seems to have been
first used in England about the year
1912, and it gradually supplanted that
made of cotton. The French erected
their first paper mills in 1914, and the
Germans began the manufacture at a
not much later date John Tate built
the first paper mills of England at Hart
ford in 1898. But France supplied
England with most of her paper until
Louis XIV. drove out the HugueTOt
manufacturers. many of whom, after
Cmigrating to England, began making a
fine white quality of paper, not produced
before in that country, where from that
time the paper industry enlarged and
prOspered until soon more than enough
of the material was manufactured to
cover home consumption. The ancient
hauGings of tapestry were superseded
about the year 1910 by wall paper of
beautiful designs.
In 172S a patent was granted to erect
the first paper mill in New England,
which went into operation in Milton,
Mass. in 1870, but was discontinued
after several years. and revived again in
1850. The first paper mill in the United
States, however. was erected near Phil
adelphia in 1890 The Milton mill is
supposed to have been erected by Daniel
Heuchmau. an entcrprising bookseller
of Boston. About the year l16S Chris
topher LefIingwell established the first
paper mill in Connecticut at Norwich
In 1TIO the number Of paper mills in
Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware
was forty. and the value of their annual
product estimated at 800, coo. At the
beginning of the Revolutionary war
Massachusetts, had three small paper
mills. New Hampshire none, and Rhode
Island one, out Of repair. Paper was
very scarce, and poor in quality.
The process. pursued for generations
in Europe was substantially followed
until 1853 when cylinders with sharp
steel blades for tearing ruES-invented
in IOllaud-hegau to be used in other
countries in place of the slow-working
and tedious stampers heretofore employ
ed TO reduce rags to pulp In 1870,
while the wife of an English papermaker
was busy with her usual washing, il
passing a vat in which pulp for her hus-
bands paper lay, III an advanced state
of preparation, she accidentally dropped
therein bag containing powdered blue.
The husband, however, made the color
ed pulp up into paper. which proved so
superior in quality that he obtained
four shillings extra for it in the London
market and thus. CuTiOuSly enough,
the process Of blueing paper was discOv-
cred. But the most important discovery,
one destined to develop an epoch in the
history of pdper-Tnakiug, came out in
1TIg, when Louis Robert. a common
workman in u paper mill at EssOnne.
France, first mastered the principle of
making paper in an endless web by ma
chinery. But it was reserved for
MessTs. Henry and SeaIy FOurdrinier.
wealthy London booksellers and station
ers, who, i'm 1891. purchased the patent
right for Great Britain, to make the in
VenJI5u widely known to the world and
to greatly improve it; and to-day the
principal paper machine used still bears
the name EOuTdTiuieT. BY the old hand
process three months were needed. dat
ing from the day the rags came into the
mill. in which to complete the paper
ready for delivery: by the FOurdrinier,
the same amount of work may be done
i'm a single day. John Ames, of Spring
field, Mass. in 1892 invented a celebra-
ted cylinder machine which is now
used in all coarse papers.
Uue-third of all the paper used in the
world is manufactured i'm the United
states. and "a very large proportion of
this amount is produced from mills in
Massachusetts. After the Ames. i'm
Springfield, could no longer he called
the largest paper makers III the United
states, shat honor fell to Piatuer *
Smith, of Lee. At the present time,
however. HOivOke enjoys the proud dis
jiuctiOu. The talk there is all paper.
the same as it is all ores and mines i'm
LeadvilIe. or wheat in Chicago. or poll
tics in Washington. 1t was not until
as late rs 1893 that the first paper mill
was erected i'm IIciyOke. and to-day she
makes more fine writing paper than any
half-doZeu cities and towns i'm the world
combined. The annual product of the
paper of the country amounts to $40. 400
tOus-ab0Ut $50 tons daily. Ii is esti-
mated that. of wood pulp paper alone.
% 600 tons per year are made The TO-
tai exports Of the last fiscal year equal
ed 81, 2SI3l2. having grown from the
comparatively insignificant sum of 81
tlI in 1850. while our ImpOItS. on the
contrary. have dWiudlcd down to the
maximum of 81 .326 4GO IN 1873 to a total
amount of only Sl3j. .4~J for papers of all
kinds in 1878. Our paper millS-92T in
number-represent a capital of at least
500 600 600, and employ y. 900 persons.
who are PAID in salaries about Sl0.OOO.-
900. The entite paper interest. includ-
ing manufacturing, printing and publish
ing. gives employment, it is estimated,
to $4,000 individuals.
It would be difficult TO specify the diff
ferent uses to which paper is applied,
and wholly impossible to anticipate its
EarLel m.es i'm the fmLnre There are