The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1882-12-03

permit Il to receive fluid ink. and thus ron
tlered 10 q moro effective rival OF papyrus.
There H. OF course. no comparison between
the two materials In respect OF durability.
Papyrus 10 scarcely more durable than modern
paper. tho preservation OF ancient specimens
being due to two extraneous circumstances.
viz. the burial OF some 1000 rolls In the crup-
ton Of vcsuvius which destroyed Hercuia-
neum and Pompeii. and the use Of papyrus
rolls to cnwrap mummies whom these were de-
posted In tho Egyptian catacombs.
II tho term paper. In the narrow sense. IL linn
tied to material manufactured OF rags or
other vegetable fibre reduced to pulp. there
can be no doubt that the credit Of the invention
belongs to the Chinese. According to some
historians It was made in China as early as the
year 1856 b. c.. while according to others the
introduction of the fabric should not be placed
earlier than the year 200 OF our era 1t ID undis-
puted that four kinds Of paper have been made
in China since the later OF these dates. and
from that time to our own there has been but
little change In the processes OF manufacture.
These papers are known as rice. silk. bamboo.
and bark. The first IL made from
tho pith Of a leguminous plant. i'm
ported from India and from the island
OF Formosa. Tho pith. having been prepared
Of the length desired for the Sheet III cut In
thin Slice which Ia then fattened. pressed. and
dried. This delicate material. which 10 used Tor
writing and printing. as we'll as for painting.
gets its namo not from tho substance OF which
il Is composed. but from the sizing OF rico
water which 1t receives. The so-called silk
paper OF China Is also misnomer. for 1t Is
made from cotton and linen rags. hemp. I'M
manufactured cotton. and the like sometimes
mingled with wood pulp and bamboo pulp. and
possibly with n little silk. But silk rags
could not by themselves be reduced to a pulp
and hemp are prepared by being cut and well
washed: they are then bleached. and by a
maceration OF twelve days duration are con-
verted into a pulp. This is made into
balls weighing about four pounds.
which. after being saturated with water. are
spread upon frame with reeds. and
pressed under heavy weights. The dry
ing is completed by hanging the sheets
upon tho wall of room. and the process Is
finished by coating them with q gum sizing.
and polishing them with some smooth hard
substance. Tho shoots of this so-called silk
paper which. as we have seen. is mainly cotton
paper are sometimes of very large d.
mensions reaching. for example. twelve
feet in length and In breadth. OF the
so-called bark paper We need only say that
1t is made from the inner bark Of the smaller
branches OF q variety OF the mulberry tree.
This bark is wrought into a pulp. and then
moulded into sheets. which. after compression
and drying. form material which will take
ink. though 1t is even more delicate than the
rice paper" The bamboo paper. as the name
implies is made from the fibre OF the bam-
boo plant reduced to a pulp. which Is formed
into sheets and subsequently compressed and
dried.
The art OF paper making spread from China
throughout Central Asia. and it was found
there about the beginning OF the eighth CEN
fury by the Saracens. who brought 1t to Spain.
Tho material chiefly used ny tho Spanish
Moors was raw cotton. and the manufactured
product was accordingly yellow and brittle but
about the close Of the eleventh century some
Christian Spaniards who had learned the art
OF paper making. substituted cotton rags. and
not long afterward made tho further improve
ment Of stamping the rags into pulp by water
power. By the close Of the twelfth century
cotton paper had come into general use in
southern and western Europe. but rs 1t was
then made it did not possess sufficient strength
or solidity for many purposes. and by the close
of the fourteenth century 1t was almost en-
tirely superseded by paper made OF hemp and
linen rags. 1t was the introduction of this
strong. and yet reasonably cheap. linen paper
which gave powerful impulse to the introduce
ton OF printing by means Of movable types.
Although 1t Is known that paper mill exist
ed in England toward the close Of tho fifteenth
century-there is indeed. some evidence of pa
the fourteenth-it was long before the manu-
facture nourished in the island OF Great
Britain. and 1t was not until 1890 that some
Huguenot refugees who had settled in England
began the manufacture OF white writing paper.
Nor was 1t until the close OF the eighteenth CEN
fury that the English fabrics were equal to
those OF the Continent. The first paper mill in
America was established in 1890 by William
Rettinghuysen (anglicized into Ri.tenhouse)
and William Bradford on q small stream near
Philadelphia. still called Paper Mill Run. The
second paper mill in the United States was
built in ITO at Crefsld. now a part OF German
town. and in 172S the third paper mill in Penn
syvania was erected by some apprentices OF
Rttenhouse. By ITO there were in Pennsylva-
mia. New Jersey. and Delaware-then the
chief seats Of the paper manufacture-forty
mills, whose annual product was valued
Island. and Connecticut had five paper mills
between them. and in New York there were ut
least two. Before the Revolutionary war Amer
Every household in the Northern colonies then
spun and wove linen from the fax grown
wren almost every yer farm and i was used
employed; After the Revolution paper mills
multiplied and at present the number of paper
The principal seat of the American paper
manufacture is now in the four western coun-
tics OF Massachusetts. region whose flourish
ing cities and towns are largely dependent on
this industry for their prosperity. For &C.
count. however. OF the numerous improvements
which have been made since paper WAS first
reader to MIR. Smiths monograph. in which
the subject is discussed with thorough knowl-
edge and In ADEQUATE detail We have pre-
epochs of the history Of paper. because they
are less familiar to the general reader.