A NEW METHOD OF MAKING OR MANUFACTURING PRINTING PAPER, PARTICULARLY FOR COPPER PLATE PRINTING
Year: 1787

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, SAMUEL
HOOPER, of the Parish of Saint Giles in the Fields, Bookseller and Stationer,
send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third, by His
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at West-
minster, the Seventeenth day of September, in the twenty-seventh year of His
reign, did give unto me, the said Samuel Hooper, His special license that I,
the said Samuel Hooper, during the term of fourteen years therein expressed,
should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within that part of
the Kingdom of Great Britain called England, the Dominion of Wales, and
Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "A NEW METHOD OF MAKING
OR MANUFACTURING PRINTING PAPER, PARTICULARLY FOR COPPER PLATE PRINTING;"
in which said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso obliging me, the
said Samuel Hooper, to cause a particular description of the nature of my
said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be
inrolled in His Majestie's High Court of Chancery within one calendar month
next and immediately after the date of the said in part recited Letters
Patent, as in and by the same, relation being thereunto had, may more fully
and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Samuel Hooper, do hereby declare that the printing paper made and manu-

page_text: factured according to this my Invention is much superior to any hitherto
made in this country, and is also much superiour in colour, and in every respect
in point, quality, equal to the best paper made in France, and free from specks
and iron moulds, to which the French paper is in general very much subject, to
the great trouble and loss of the printers in clearing it from its foulness before
they can use it, especially for fine prints, which otherwise, by a speck or iron
mould being left in the paper, and coming particularly in the light parts, are sure
to spoil it, all which defects are intirely remedied by the mode herein described.
The paper upon this principle is also a great advantage to the print itself, as
the surface is never raised by picking out the foul parts, as is well known to
be absolutely necessary in the French paper. It has also another advantage
over the French, by being made on wove moulds, which give the whole sheet
an equal surface; whereas the French, being made on common moulds, leaves
the wire mark, which prevents an equal surface. The manner in which the
paper, as herein described, is to be made, is as follows, that is to say:-
The usual and customary method hitherto used for making of paper, and
with the accustomed materials, is to be pursued until the rags are prepared in
the engine, when the materials after mentioned are to be introduced in the
proportion or quantity herein directed for the quantity of rags herein men-
tioned, and so in proportion for a greater or lesser quantity of rags, (that is to
say) To one hundred weight of the best rags, prepared in the engine till fit
to make into paper, take forty pound weight of alabaster or plaister, ten pound
weight of talc or talk, and ten pound weight of plaister of Paris, which is of a
nore binding quality than the English, all of which must be calcined and
reduced to a powder; to these add twelve pounds of the best white sugar
candy pounded, put these into the engine and lett them be incorporated with
the pulp of the rag, with a sufficient quantity of size made from rice and
pearl barley, to give the paper firmness; but in some cases it may be found
necessary to vary the quantity of powder, that is, according to the kind or
quality of the paper you want, for a thin paper will take less and a thick one
require more powder; and this variation will depend not only altogether in
the quality of the rags, but likewise in that which is indispensably necessary to
give the paper, so as to answer its particular purpose, and for what kind of
printing it is wanted. This done, it will produce paper of the colour and
quality as herein-before described. The several articles of alabaster, talc or
talk, and plaister of Paris, may be either of them separately used for the
purpose, being nearly of a similar nature, and then in the proportion of half
a hundred weight of alabaster, tale or talk, or plaister of Paris, to a hundred
weight of rags, to be calcined and reduced to a powder, and used with the

page_text: materials, and in other respects, as before mentioned; but the mixture of the
several articles together as herein described produces the best effect.
In witness whereof, I, the said Samuel Hooper, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Seventeenth day of October, in the year of our
Land One th