The Neihart herald. [volume] (Neihart, Mont.) 1890-1901, 1897-06-19
WHOLE NO., 342.
BLOTTING PAPER.
And Something About the Obsolete Sand
Boxes and Sand.

And Something About the Obsolete Sand
Boxes and Sand.
In England they use thin blot
ting paper; here we use mainly a
thick blotter, Such thin blotting pa
per as is used here is chiefly for
blotting leaves in books. Here we
use ON desk a sheet of blotting pa
per 10 by "a inches, the standard
size, which may be turned over
when one side is pretty we'll filled
with ink. In England the thin blot
ting paper is folded, number of
sheets together, making a sort of
pad, something larger than legal cap
paper, and when leaf gets saturat-
ed with ink it is torn off
Blotting paper is not new, but it
was first made in this country only
about 40 years ago. Before that time
we used some of the thin English
blotting paper, imported, but more
commonly, to prevent ink from blot
ting, we used sand, which was pour
ed upon the written sheet out of
sand box. The sand box was COM
mon article of desk furniture, as the
wafer box was at one time, and al
most as commonly seen as the ink
stand. 1t was made sometimes of
tin, sometimes of wood. It was per-
haps 3 inches in height and maybe
21a inches across the top, where it's
diameter was greatest. 1t was some
thing like a pepper box in the man
ner of its use, but as to shape, in
stead of having a convex top, it had
a concave top, like n little saucer.
The bottom of this saucer was per-
forated The box was filled with
sand through these perforations.
When the box was used, sand was
poured from it upon the writing. A
| little of the sand adhered to the fresh
ink and kept it from blotting. Very
much the greater part of the sand
poured out lay scattered upon the
paper Lifting the book or paper,
the surplus sand was poured back
into the box.
Many Of the wooden sand boxes
were handsomely turned articles.
The sand used was a peculiar, fine
black sand of uniform grain, brought
from Lake George, in this state.
At the time of the civil war in this
country blotting paper had come
into comparatively common use. 1t
is only within Is or 90 years, how
ever, that it has come into the wide
and very nearly general use of the
present time. Now the sales of it in
crease with the population or more
rapidly There are American paper
mills devoted wholly to the manu-
facture of blotting paper, and their
products amount to thousands Of
tons annually, and American blot
ting paper is now an article of ex-
port. We still import little English
blotting paper, but only a very lit
tie, not enough to cut any figure in
the market.
The very best blotting paper is
made wholly of cotton rags. Some
poorer grades are made partly of
wood pulp, and with it may be some
clay Such papers, as they dry out,
become still less absorbent. The ad-
dition of dyes to blotting paper makes
it less absorbent. English blotting
paper is made usually of from 20 to
40 pounds to the ream. American
blotting paper is made from 40 to
$50 pounds to the ream. Blotting
paper colors are white, blue, gran
ite "a very light gray, yellow and
pink. 1t is made in various shades
of these colors. There is sold OF
white blotting paper ten times as
much as of any other color.
Some of the calenders used in
calendering cloths are made of blot
ting paper, sheets of which are
pressed together to form a roll
There still comes now and then
to the wholesale stationery dealer
in New York call for Lake George
sand, showing that there are yet
some users of the old time sand box,
but these calls are now so rare that
they are no longer supplied, and the
sand boxes have long since ceased
to be a part of the wholesale sta
toner's stock. These, however, may
still be found at some retail dealers,
a few left over from years ago, and
occasionally one of these is sold. A
city stationer sold one only the 9th.
er day, but it was not to be actually
used as sand box; it was to finish
out the equipment of an old fash
ioned Knew York Sun.
Not What He Needed.