Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1899-10-27
STORIES OF PAPER.
HOW WATER MARKS WERE MADE AND
WHY THEY CAME INTO USE.

His shakespearean Forgeries- Elaborate
Designs Impressed by the Dandy Roll
er-The Bogus Virgin Mary Letter.
Stories and incidents innumerable are
wound up in the art OF paper making,
and its mechanical processes have at
forded 90 the ingenious story teller many
a chance for thrilling tale.
This is especially true of the system
of placing water marks, so called, in
various brands or makes of paper.
Perhaps tho most interesting true
story which has to do with this branch
of the industry is that of the famous
''Ireland's Confessions.
Ireland had fabricated some Shake
speare manuscripts, which for long
time We're accepted as actual. They
made such an impression indeed that n
number of men, famous at that time for
their erudition and for their literary
standing, voluntarily prepared testi-
monial atteSting absolute belief IN the
authenticity of the manuscripts. To this
document these men affixed their sigma
lures and sent the paper broadcast.
The whole of the original edition of
the fakes was disposed of in few hours,
and so great was the eagerness for the
GulllOll tilab SlIl.It CODlCS WtiS uiSDOFSSNA
of in auction rooms at enormous prices.
Some time after that Ireland himself
threw these gentlemen into much sor
row by explaining just how he had had
fun with them.
Ireland'S story was that the sheet OF
paper which no used was the outside of
several others on which some accounts
had been kept during the reign of
Charles /. At that time Ireland was
wholly unacquainted with the subject
of water marks.
Il carefully selected, " says he, 1.-TWO
half sheets not having any mark what
ever, on which 1 penned my first effu-
sion. - A few pages further on he wrote:
Being thus urged forward to the pro-
ductiOn of more manuscripts, it became
necessary that 1 should possess Il suffi-
cient quantity of old paper to enable mo
to proceed, i'll consequence of which L
applied to a bookseller, who, for the
sum of shillings, suffered me to take
from all the folio and quarto volumes
i'll his shop the fly leaves which they
contained.
by this means 1 was amply stored
with that commodity, nor did l fear
any mention of the circumstances lay
the bookseller. As 1 was fully aware
from the variety of water marks which
are in existence at the present day, that
they must have constantly been altered
since the period of Elizabeth, and being
for some time wholly unacquainted with
the water marks of that age, very care
fully produced my first specimens of tho
writing on such sheets OF old paper as
had no mark whatever.
Having heard it frequently stated
that the appearance of such marks on
the papers would have greatly tended to |
establish their validity, l listened TO !
every remark that was made on the sub !
ject, and L at length CLEANED the intelli- |
gence that = jug was the prevalent wa
ter mark of the reign of Elizabeth, i'll |
consequence of which / inspected all !
the sheets of old paper then i'll my pos
session, and having selected such as had !
the jug OH them produced the succeed |
ing manuscripts upon these, being care |
full, however, to miIlyle with them u |
certain number of blank leaves that the |
production ON a sudden of so many wa |
ter marks might not excite suspicion i'll !
the breasts of those persons who were |
most conversant with the manuscripts. !"
A traveller i'll Messina was once shown |
n letter written by the Virgin Mary |
with her own hand. He remarked that |
it must indeed be n miracle, since tho |
paper showed by its water mark that it |
was not made till some centuries after !
the age of Mary.
1t is the greatest mystery to most peo-
pie how water marks are made And |
yet the matter is the simplest thing i'll
the world. In the manufacture of paper
the pulp, before it has begun to be
dried and after it has been spread on
the moving platform, passes under u
roller called the dandy" On this
"dandy'' is affixed the device which
works the water mark.
1t is of bent wire, and as the roller
presses the paper it presses into it the
marx.
In the same manner most elaborate
designs and even pictures and intricate
representations of whole battle scenes
have been done from an engraved plate
similar to an electrotype, used in the
same manner on the dandy" roller.
OF course check paper and bank pa
per is the most important variety dis
tinguished by water marks. In a pair of
60 note molds prepared by the old proc
ess there are s curved borders, 16
figures, 1GS large waves and 24O letters,
which had all to be separately secured |
by the finest wire to the curved surface.
There were l, csc wires and G7, 5S4
twists and the same repetition where
the stout wires We're introduced to sup
port the under surface.
In ancient times the water marks
We're used for the same purposes as the
old inn signs. The old inns had dolls
and beehivcs, horses ard various other
forms As signs For the same reason the
paper makers had some distinguishing
mark which made their product distinct
from that of other makers.
very fcmous mark of the sixteenth
century was the handmark-a hand top !
ped with star. The jug or pot mark
gave the name to the pot" paper, while