PAPEMBERG, a high island off the coast of Japan, called by the natives Takaboko, or Takajama.

Paper is a word derived from the Greek' τrαmigoς, papyrus, the name applied to the celebrated Egyptian plant which was so much used by the ancients in all kinds of writing. It is unnecessary to describe the different expedients which men have in every age and country employed for giving permanence to their ideas, and handing them down to posterity. When the art of writing was once discovered, stones, bricks, leaves of trees, the outer and inner bark, plates of lead, wood, wax, and ivory, were all employed. In the progress of society, men have invented the Egyptian paper, paper made of cotton, paper manufactured from the bark of trees, and in our times paper prepared from old rags.

The only kinds of paper which merit particular attention are, first, the Egyptian; secondly, that made from cotton; thirdly, paper made from the interior bark of trees; fourthly, Chinese paper; fifthly, Japanese paper; sixthly, paper made from asbestos; and, lastly, paper prepared from linen and cotton rags.

Egyptian paper is that particular kind which was used by the ancients, having been made from a kind of reed called papyrus, which grew on the banks of the Nile. Isidorus is of opinion that this paper was first used at Memphis, and Lucan {Pharsalia, lib. iii. ver. 222), speaking of a particular period, says,

Nondum flamineas Memphis connexere biblos Noverat.

But however this may be, it is certain, that of all the kinds of paper used by the ancients, the papyrus was the most convenient, both from its flexibility, and from the ease with which it was fabricated. In fact it seemed a present from nature, and required neither care nor culture. It is not certain at what particular period the ancients began to make paper of papyrus; but there are several authorities which prove that it was prepared in Egypt long before the time of Alexander the Great.

Pliny (lib. xiii. cap. 11) gives a very full description of the method of making this paper in Egypt. According to him, they divided, with a kind of needle, the stem of the papyrus into thin plates or slender pellicles, each of them as large as the plant would admit. These were the elements of which the sheets of paper were composed. The pellicles in the centre were the best; and they diminished in value as they receded from it. When these pellicles were separated from the reed, they were extended on a table, and laid across each other at right angles, in which state they were moistened by the water of the Nile, and whilst wet were put under a press, and afterwards exposed to the rays of the sun. It was supposed that the water of the Nile had a gummy quality necessary to glue these stripes together. But, according to Bruce, we may be assured that this is without foundation, no such quality being discovered in the water of the Nile; on the contrary, he found it of all others the most improper, till it had settled and become absolutely divested of all the earthy particles collected in its turbid state. He made several pieces of this paper both in Abyssinia and Egypt; and it appeared to him that thesaccha-

rine matter with which the whole juice of the plant was impregnated was that which caused the adhesion of these stripes together, and that the only use of the water was to dissolve this matter, and bring it into perfect and equal fusion. When there was not enough of sugar in the plant, or when the water did not sufficiently dissolve it, the pellicles were united by a paste made of the finest wheat flour, mixed with hot water and a little vinegar; and when dried they were flattened and smoothed by means of a mallet.

The size of this paper varied much; yet it seldom exceeded two feet, and was often smaller. It had different names, according to its size and quality. The first, called imperial, was of the finest and largest kind, and used for writing letters by the great men amongst the Romans. The second, called the Livian paper, from Livia the wife of Augustus, was next to the imperial, and in size twelve inches. The third sort, called the sacerdotal paper, was eleven inches in size. The paper used in the amphitheatres was of the dimensions of nine inches; but it was esteemed on account of its strength, whiteness, and polish. The ink, however, sunk less in paper highly polished, and therefore the characters were more liable to be effaced. When it was not carefully soaked in the first preparation, the paper brought a less price, because letters were with difficulty formed upon it, and it emitted a disagreeable odour. To remedy this defect, the paper went through a new course of sizing and hammering; and the size employed on the occasion was made of light bread steeped in boiling water, and passed through a filtering cloth. By this means the paper became in the highest degree united, and smoother than the finest linen.

It was this paper which gave so long a duration to the works of the Gracchi in their own handwriting. “I have seen them,” says Pliny, “in the library of Pomponius Secundus, a poet and citizen of the first rank, nearly two hundred years after they were written.” It may be added, that there still remain manuscripts of this paper, which were undoubtedly written a thousand or twelve hundred years ago. It appears from Pliny, that the Egyptians pasted together the pellicles of the papyrus by means of the waters of the Nile; but that the polishing with ivory, and the operations of the hammer and the press, were added by the invention and industry of the Roman artists. The Egyptians seem to have known the use of size; but it is evident from the same author that the Romans used a stronger size in the making of paper. Notwithstanding the care which was taken to give strength and consistency to the Egyptian paper, the leaves, although collected into a book, were too weak to support themselves; and for this reason it was a very common practice to insert a leaf of parchment after every five leaves.

This paper formed an important branch of Egyptian commerce, which continued to increase towards the end of the Roman republic, and became still more extensive in the reign of Augustus. The demand from foreign nations was often so great as to occasion a scarcity at Rome; and in the reign of Tiberius a tumult occurred amongst [7:17:8]the people in consequence of this scarcity. In a letter of the Emperor Hadrian, the preparing of papyrus is mentioned as one of the principal occupations at Alexandria. “In this rich and opulent city,” says the emperor, “nobody is seen idle. Some are employed in the manufacture of cloth, some in that of writing paper.” During the time of the Antonines, this commerce continued to flourish; and Apuleius says that he wrote upon the paper of Egypt with a reed of the Nile prepared at Memphis.

Towards the end of the third century, the demand for this paper became so great, that when the tyrant Firmus conquered Egypt, he boasted that he had seized as much paper and size as would support his whole army. St Jerome informs us that it was much in use in the fifth century, when he flourished. The duty on the importation of this commodity had become excessive towards the end of the fifth or the beginning of the sixth century; and this duty having been abolished by Theodoric king of Italy, Cassiodorus congratulates the whole world on the discharge of an impost on a merchandise which was so essentially necessary to mankind.

Montfaucon and Mabillon mention several fragments written on this paper in the sixth centry. One of these was a charter of the Emperor Justinian, entitled Charta Plenariae Securitatis. In 1698, Montfaucon saw, in the library of Julio Justiniani, three or four fragments of Egyptian paper of the same antiquity; and Mabillon mentions some books of the Jewish Antiquities of Josephus translated into Latin, which seemed to have been written in the same century, and which were preserved in the Ambrosian Library at Milan; but he had not seen the manuscripts. The same antiquary mentions having seen in the library of St Martin of Tours the remains of an old Greek manuscript of Egyptian paper, and which appeared to him to be of the seventh century. He also believes that the copy of St Mark’s gospel preserved in the register-house of Venice is written upon the same paper; that it is the most ancient of any of the evangelical manuscripts; and that it may be supposed to have been written at the latest in the fourth century. According to the same antiquary, the Egyptian paper was used in France, Italy, and other European countries, both for books of learning and for public records; and there still remains, he adds, a great number of these in the archives of the church at St Denis, at Corby, in the Abbey de Grasse, and in other convents.

It is probable that the invention of paper made of cotton, of which we shall afterwards treat, insensibly destroyed the reputation and manufacture of the Egyptian paper; but it is still a question at what particular period the fabrication of the latter totally ceased. Eustathius, the learned commentator on Homer, assures us that in his time it was no longer in use; but Mabillon maintains that many of the papa) bulls were written on papyrus in the eleventh century. Count Maffei, however (Ùistor. Diplomat, lib. ii.; Eiblioth. Ital. tom. ii. p. 251), is decidedly of opinion that Egyptian paper was not in use in the fifth century. He considers all records written upon this paper, and dated subsequently to this period, as not authentic; and the papal bulls mentioned by Mabillon, as well as the copy of St Mark’s gospel, were, according to him, written upon paper manufactured from cotton. To reconcile in some measure these contradictory accounts, it may be observed, that on some particular occasions, and by some particular persons, the Egyptian paper might have been employed for several hundred years after it ceased to be in general use.^[1. Whoever wishes for a fuller account of the Egyptian paper, may consult, amongst the ancients, Pliny (lib. xiii.), and Theophrastus (lib. iv. chap ix.); and amongst the moderns, Guilandinus, Scaliger, Saumaise, Kerchmayer, Nigrisoli, Hardouin in his edition of Pliny, Mabillon in his work Dr, Re Diplomatien, Montfaucon in his Paleography and Collections; Maffei in his IΓutor. Diplomat., Count de Caylus in the Memoirs of the Academy of Inscriptions, and Bruce in his Travels to discover the Source of the Nile. ]

It is generally supposed that the invention of the paper called charta bombycina supplanted the Egyptian paper in Greece. This paper is incomparably more lasting, and better calculated for all the purposes of writing. It is not precisely known at what period this art, which supposes a great variety of previous experiments, was first reduced to practice. The application of cotton to the purposes of paper-making requires as much labour and ingenuity as the use of linen rags; and for this reason, if we would determine the precise time when paper was made from cotton, we should also be able to fix the invention of the art of paper-making as it is presently practised in Europe. Montfaucon proves, by incontestible authorities, that paper made from cotton was in use in 1100. This paper in the Greek language is called χαgτη βομζυϰινος, or βαμζαϰινος ; for although βομζυξ is the Greek word for silk, yet in those times it was applied, as well as βαμζα ξ, to cotton; and hence the Italians call cotton bambaccio.

The most ancient manuscript of this paper which Montfaucon saw with a date, was that in the French king’s library, written in the year 1050; but as the manuscripts without date are infinitely more numerous than those which are dated, and as some conjecture can be formed concerning them from the manner of the writing, the same antiquary believes that some of these were written in the tenth century. The researches of the same learned person serve to show that this paper was discovered towards the end of the ninth or beginning of the tenth century; for before the twelfth century it was commonly used throughout the eastern empire, and even in Sicily. Roger king of Sicily says, in a diploma written in 1145, that he had renewed on parchment a charter which had been written upon cotton paper in the year 1100, and another which was dated in the year 1112. About the same time the Empress Irene, in the statutes for regulating some religious houses at Constantinople, states that she had left three copies of these statutes, two on parchment, and one on cotton paper. From that period paper of this sort became still more in use throughout all the eastern empire; and innumerable Greek manuscripts are found written upon it, in all the great libraries.

This discovery happened at a time when there seems to have been a great scarcity of parchment; for it was about the same period that the Greeks erased the writings of Polybius, Diodorus of Sicily, and many valuable ancient authors, for the sake of the parchment. It was the invention of this cotton paper which destroyed the manufacture of the Egyptian article; for, if we may believe Eustathius, who wrote towards the end of the twelfth century, the latter had gone into disuse but a little before his time. We may easily believe, however, that this new invention, although of great advantage to mankind, was only introduced by degrees.

Paper of the interior bark of trees was made from the white pellicle or inner coat which is found in many trees between the bark and the wood. The trees commonly in use were the maple, the plane-tree, the elm, the beech, the mulberry, and most commonly the linden-tree. The ancients wrote upon this inner coat after they had separated it from the bark, and beaten and dried it. Mabillon and Montfaucon speak frequently of manuscripts and diplomas written upon paper made from bark; and positively distinguish it from the Egyptian paper, because it was thicker, and composed of parts less adhesive.

There are many palm-trees in India and America to which botanists have given the name papyraceous, because [7:17:9]the natives have written with bodkins either on the leaves or on .the bark. Such is the American palm, called tal by the Indians; and also the guajaraba of New Spain. Every palm, the bark of which is smooth, and the leaves large and thick, may be used for this purpose.

The art of making paper from vegetable matter reduced to pulp was known in China long before it was practised in Europe; and the Chinese have carried it to a high degree of perfection. The fine paper of China is much softer and smoother than that of Europe; and these qualities are admirably adapted to the pencil, which the Chinese use in writing. Several kinds of their paper discover the greatest art and ingenuity, and are applied with much advantage to many purposes. These are capable of receiving the impression of types; and Chinese paper is celebrated for affording the most clear and delicate proof-impressions from copperplates.

The different sorts of paper vary in China according to the materials of which they are composed, and the various modes of manufacturing these materials. Every province has its peculiar paper. That of Sechuen ⅛ made of linen rags, as in Europe; that of Fo-kien, of young bamboo; that of the northern provinces, of the interior bark of the mulberry; that of the province of Kiang-nan, of the skin which is found in the webs of the silk-worm; and in the province of Houquang, the tree chu or ko-chu furnishes the materials of which paper is made.

The method of fabricating paper from the bark of different trees is nearly the same with that which is followed in the bamboo. To give an idea, therefore, of the manner of manufacturing the interior barks of the mulberry, the elm, and the cotton-tree, it will be sufficient to confine our observations to the bamboo.

The bamboo is a kind of cane or hollow reed, divided by knots, but larger, more elastic, and more durable, than any other reed. The whole substance of the bamboo, composed of filaments, and a great abundance of fibrous materials, are employed in this operation. The shoots of one or two years, nearly as thick as a man’s leg, are preferred. They strip the leaves from the stem, cut them into pieces of four or five feet in length, make them into parcels, and put them into water to macerate. As soon as they are softened, which generally happens in five days, they are washed in pure water, put into a dry ditch, and covered for some days with lime watered for the purpose of slacking. They are then washed carefully a second time, and everyone of the pieces is cut into filaments, which are exposed to the rays of the sun to dry and to bleach. After this they are boiled in large kettles, and then reduced to pulp in mortars of wood, by means of a hammer with a long handle, which the workman moves with his foot.

The pulp being so far prepared, some shoots of a plant named koteng are taken, and being steeped in water four or five days, are reduced to an unctuous or glutinous substance; and when the workmen proceed to make the paper, this is mixed with the pulp in certain fixed quantities, because upon this mixture depends the quality of the paper. When the extract from the koteng is mixed with pulp of the bamboo, the whole mixture is beaten together in mortars till it become a thick and viscous liquor; when it is poured into large tubs or reservoirs, so exactly framed as that no part of the liquor can escape. After this the workmen plunge their forms into the liquor, and take out what is sufficient for a sheet of paper, which, when formed and consolidated, is at once dried and detached from the mould, by being held a moment or two against a heated hollow wall, the two fronts of which are smooth and extremely white. At the extremity of this wall is placed a stove, the pipes of which are carried in a circular manner throughout the whole empty space. The sheets of paper are laid on the surface, to which they adhere till a soft brush is applied to them; and after they become dry, it is easy to distinguish the side which received impressions from the brush from that which adhered to the wall. By means of this stove the Chinese dry their paper as fast as they make it; but it is only in cold seasons, or in certain provinces, that they find this expedient necessary.

The Chinese paper must be dipped in a solution of alum before it can take either ink or colours. They call this operation faner, from the Chinese word fan, which signifies alum. The manner of preparing this solution is extremely simple. Six ounces of isinglass cut very small are put into boiling water, and constantly stirred, that it may dissolve equally. when the isinglass is wholly dissolved in the water, twelve ounces of calcined alum are thrown in, and also stirred till it is completely dissolved and mixed with the isinglass. This composition is afterwards poured into a large deep bason, at the mouth of which there is a little round piece of wood; and the extremity of every sheet of paper is then fixed in another piece of wood, with a slit made to receive it. By means of this apparatus the sheet of paper is plunged into the composition of alum and isinglass; and when it is fully penetrated by the mixture, it is drawn out, and made to glide over a little round piece of wood. The long piece of wood which holds the sheet by one end, and keeps it from tearing, is afterwards suspended with it on a wall till it becomes sufficiently dry.

The Chinese give to the paper intended for different purposes different colours; but we shall confine our observations to the silver colour, which they impart to some kinds. They take two scruples of paste made of cow’s hide, one scruple of alum, and a pint of water, and boil the whole on a slow fire till the water be evaporated. The sheets of paper are then stretched on a smooth table, and covered over with two or three layers of this paste. They afterwards take a certain quantity of talc, washed and boiled in water, with a proportion of one third of alum. The whole is then dried, reduced to a powder, passed through a sieve, boiled a second time in water, dried in the sun, and again passed through the sieve. This powder is then spread equally over the sheets of paper, prepared as above mentioned; and these are afterwards dried slowly in the shade. The sheets of paper, covered in this manner with talc, are laid upon a table, and rubbed with a little cotton, which fixes a certain quantity of .talc in the paper, and carries off the surplus to be used on another occasion. By means of this composition the Chinese draw all manner of figures on their paper.

The paper made from the bamboo is sufficiently white, soft, and closely united, without the least inequality on the surface to interrupt the motion of the pencil, or to occasion the rising of the materials which compose it. But every kind of paper made from die bamboo or the bark of trees is more liable to crack than that made in Europe; besides, it is more susceptible of moisture, and is sooner destroyed with dust and worms. To obviate this last inconvenience, people are obliged frequently to beat their books in China, and to expose them to the sun. It may be observed, however, that the Chinese paper, employed for various purposes in Europe, has been preserved for a long time without receiving damage either from moisture or from insects.

According to Kaempfer, the bark of the morus papifera sativa, or true paper-tree, is chiefly employed for making paper in Japan. Every year, after the fall of the leaves, which happens in the tenth month, corresponding to our December, the Japanese cut the young shoots of this tree into pieces of about three feet, and collect them into parcels, which they boil in water containing a certain quantity of ashes. If the wood be dry, they take care to steep it twenty-three hours in water before it is boiled. The [7:17:10]parcels are kept in a close copper till the bark at the extremity of the shoots is separated from the stem about half an inch; they are then cooled, and the bark alone is fit for making paper. They begin by a preparation, which consists of cleaning the bark, and separating the good from what is bad. For this purpose they steep it in water three or four hours; and as soon as it is softened they scrape off with a knife whatever is blackish or green, and at the same time separate the strong bark of a year’s growth from the slender kind which covers the young shoots. The first of these gives the whitest and best paper. If there be any of the bark of more than a year’s growth, it is laid aside for the coarsest kind.

After the bark has been culled and cleaned in this manner, it is boiled in a clear ley till the matter is of such consistency, that, being gently touched with the finger, it draws off in the form of hairs, or like a collection of fibres. During the time of boiling it is constantly stirred with a strong reed, and the waste by evaporation is supplied from time to time with additional quantities of the clear ley. To make this ley, theyjjut two pieces of wood across the mouth of a tub, and cover them with straw, upon which is laid a bed of ashes a little moistened; and when boiling water is poured on the ashes, the salts contained in them are carried down to the tub. This is what is called a clear ley. After the bark is in the condition which we have just stated, it is washed with great care; for on this washing depends in a great measure the quality of the paper. It is put into a kind of sieve through which the water can flow freely; and great care is taken to turn it with the hand till it be sufficiently diluted, and reduced to soft and tender fibres. For the finest paper a second washing is requisite, and a piece of cloth is used instead of a sieve.

When the bark is washed, it is laid upon a strong and smooth table, and beaten with a kind of baton of hard wood till it is reduced to a proper consistency. Indeed it becomes so soft that it resembles paper steeped in water. The bark prepared in this manner is put into a narrow tub, with a glutinous extract from rice and the root oreni, which is very viscous. These three substances are mixed together, and stirred with the reed till they form a liquor of uniform consistency. The composition is then poured into vats similar to those used for filling the forms or moulds in our paper-mills.

As soon as the sheets are made and detached from the form, they are laid in a heap upon a table covered with a double mat. A small chip of cane is placed between every sheet, and this jutting out serves to distinguish the sheets, and afterwards to raise them. Every one of the heaps is covered with a plate or thin board of the exact size of the paper. In proportion as the paper dries, or is able to bear it without danger of being compressed into one mass, they lay on additional weights. This pressure, being intended to carry off any unnecessary moisture, is continued during twenty-four hours, when the sheets are, by means of the little pieces of reed, suspended to long plants in the open air, till they are completely dried.

The extract from rice is made in an unvarnished earthen pot, which is at first agitated gently, and then more briskly; new water is next poured in, and the whole is filtered through a linen cloth. The finishing of the process is determined by the viscosity of the substance. The infusion of the root oreni is prepared in this manner: The root, peeled and cut into small pieces, is infused in water for one night, during which time it communicates a viscosity sufficient for the purpose to which it is applied.

The Japanese paper is of such prodigious strength, that the materials of which it is composed might be manufactured into ropes. There is sold at Serige, the capital city of the province of that name, a kind of paper which is fit for bed-hangings and wearing apparel, and so much resembles stuffs of wool and silk that it is often taken for them. There are four trees used in Japan for the manufactory of paper :—1. The true paper-tree, called in the Japanese language kaadsi, and characterized by Kaempfer as papyrus fructu mori celsacy sive morus sativa foliis urticae mortuoe cortice papifero: 2. The false paper-tree, called by the Japanese katsi or kadsire i and by Kaempfer papyrus procumbens lactescens folio longo lanceata cortice chartaceo: 3. The plant which the Japanese call oreni, and which is named by Kaempfer malva radice viscosa flore ephemera magno punico : 4. The futokadsura, named by Kaempfer frutex viscosus procumbens folio telephii vulgaris emulo fructu racemoso. The description of these trees, as given by Kaempfer, may be of service in leading botanists to discover the European plants and shrubs adapted, like the Japanese, for the fabrication of paper.

Before concluding this part of the subject, it may be proper to give an idea of the attempts which have been made to increase the original materials of paper in Europe. A slight attention to the Chinese process in reducing the bamboo to a paste, by a careful and ingenious analysis, and to the method employed by the Japanese in separating the principal fibres of the bark of the mulberry, will show the absurdity not only of taking plants without any kind of choice, but of giving them no preparation, except that of pounding them with mallets. With a proper selection and right treatment, it appears probable that many of the European plants might be used with great advantage in fabricating several kinds of paper. It is evident that the materials used by the Chinese require less labour and preparation than the stuff of linen rags. The sheets of the Chinese paper are easily detached from the form; they are laid in heaps, without the interposition of pieces of woollen cloth; the superfluous water is immediately discharged; and they require not, as in Europe, the vigorous action of presses to unite the parts more closely together.

Asbestos is a fibrous substance of little strength, and the threads of which are easily broken. This substance has the peculiar property of supporting the action of fire without receiving any damage; and hence pieces of cloth and garters made of it are incombustible. From the knowledge of this property, paper has been made of asbestos. The manner of fabricating this paper is described by Mr Lloyd in the Philosophical Transactions (No. 166). A certain quantity of asbestos is pounded in a stone mortar till it be reduced to a substance like cotton. All the parts of earth or stone remaining in the asbestos are then taken off by means of a fine sieve, and it is formed into sheets of paper by an ordinary paper-mill. Mixing it with water reduces it to stuff; but as it is heavier than that made from linen rags, it requires to be continually stirred when it is taken up with the frames. The only excellence of this paper is, that the writing disappears when cast into the fire. But as it is of a slender consistency, and easily torn, it is rather an object of curiosity than of use.

This paper is manufactured throughout all Europe, in the East Indies, and in America, from linen and cotton rags collected in the cities and in the country. Paper made of linen rags was utterly unknown to the ancients. The libri lintei mentioned by Livy (i. lib. iv.), Pliny (lib. xiii. c. xi.), and other Roman writers, are demonstrated by Guilandin, in his commentary on Pliny, to have been written on pieces of linen cloth, or canvass prepared in the manner of painters. But it is not sufficient to be certain that paper made from linen is a modern invention; it is necessary to know by what nation, and at what period, it was discovered. Polydore Virgil (De Inventoribus Rerum, c. ii. c. viii.) confesses his ignorance of this circumstance. Scaliger, without any kind of proof, gives the credit of the invention to the Germans; and Maffei claims it for the Italians. Other writers ascribe this honour to some Greek refugees at [7:17:11]Basil, to whom the manner of making paper from cotton in their own country had suggested the idea. Duhalde is persuaded that Europe derived this invention from the Chinese, who, in several provinces, make paper of rags nearly in the same manner as we now do. But this invention was practised by the Europeans before they had any communication with China, and before the taking of Constantinople, at which time the Greek refugees .were supposed to have retired to Basil. The precise date of this discovery in Europe is not exactly known. Mabillon believes that it took place in the twelfth century, and cites a passage of Pierre de Clugny, born in the year 1100, to prove it. The books which we read every day, says De Clugny, in his treatise against the Jews, are written on sheeps’ and calves’ skins, or on oriental plants, or, finally, ex rasuris veterum pannorum. If these last words signify paper such as we use, there were books of it in the twelfth century. But this citation is the more to be suspected, as Montfaucon himself, after the minutest search in France and Italy, could find no book on this paper anterior to the death of St Louis, in the year 1270.

The epoch of this invention was not approximately determined till 1762, when Μ. Mierman proposed a reward to the person who could procure the most ancient manuscript written on this kind of paper. The collection of all the memoirs sent to him, along with the manuscripts, was published at the Hague in 1767; and it appeared that this paper had been used in Europe before the year 1300.

In 1782 the Abbate Andrez published a work, entitled DelΓ Origine, Progressi, e Stato attuale d ’ ogni Letteratura, in which he speaks of the discovery of many kinds of paper, and particularly of that made of rags. The same person maintains, that paper made from silk was very anciently fabricated in China, and in the eastern parts of Asia; and that the art of making this paper was brought from China to Persia about the year 652, and to Mecca in 706. The Arabs substituted cotton, the commodity of their own country, instead of silk, or rather of bamboo. This cotton paper was carried into Africa and Spain by the Arabs. The Spaniards, from the quantity of linen to be found in the kingdom of Valencia, seem first to have adopted the idea of using linen rags; and hence the most ancient paper of this kind is that of Valencia and Catalonia. From Spain it passed into France, as may be gathered from a letter of Joinville to St Louis about the year 1260; and it is discovered to have been made in Germany in 1312. The first paper-mill in England was erected at Dartford by a German named Spielman in 1588, who was knighted by Queen Elizabeth. In consequence of paper made from cotton being imported from the Levant, paper made from linen was introduced much later into Italy, than into France, Germany, and England.^[2. See the work of Abbate Andrez, printed at Parma, 1782, in 8vo; and Mierman’s Collection, published at the Hague. ]

This manufacture owes, in a great degree, the prodigious advancement which it has attained in Great Britain during the last thirty years, to the ingenious and successful application of machinery. Many of its formerly tedious and uncertain processes are thereby greatly simplified and abridged; a remarkable instance of which is the improvement of cylinder-drying. The drying process used formerly to be effected mainly by the agency of the atmosphere; but since the paper-machine was perfected, the paper is now made to pass in the web, as it is formed, over the surface of a certain number of metal cylinders heated internally by steam, and is dried off in less than two minutes, whereas it was formerly exposed in the winter season to the frequent occurrence of being for weeks or months kept in a damp state, or exposed to severe frost, to its certain and great damage.

The manufacture naturally divides itself into that which is carried on in hand-mills, where the formation of the sheet, as formerly, is still performed by manual labour; and that which is carried on by machine-mills, where the paper is formed upon the machine wire-cloth in one continuous web. To give a distinct view of the subject, it will be necessary to describe all the important parts of the operation in their order, most of which are common to both modes of manufacture.

The materials principally used in Great Britain are old linen and cotton rags, which are collected in great quantity at home. A large quantity of rags, chiefly linen, is annually imported from the different countries whence the exportation is not prohibited, viz. Germany, Italy, Sicily, and Hungary. Within the last ten years a very abundant su pply of material, formerly considered as totally worthless, has been obtained from the cotton factories in Manchester and its neighbourhood; we allude to the cotton waste, and sweepings of the cotton-mills, which, by being devilled, that is, cleaned by a machine used in the cotton manufacture called a devil or skreening machine, and afterwards boiled in alkaline solution, and bleached, are capable of being converted into very tolerable printing paper.

The selection of the rags, if it should not have been performed before they are brought to the paper-mill, is there performed by women sorting them into their various qualities, which facilitates the work of the rag-cutters, whose business it also is to sort the rags into their different kinds as they cut them. The rags are then assigned, in bags or bales of from two to five hundredweights each, to the women in the rag-house. These women stand at small tables of about three feet square, the upper surface being composed of iron wire cloth, the meshes of which are about one fourth of an inch square, whilst underneath there is a drawer. A knife or short scythe is firmly fixed in the centre of the table, in nearly a vertical position, and the woman is placed so as to have the back of it standing next her, and with a large wooden box divided into several compartments upon the floor, on her right hand. She then opens and examines the seams and patches of the rags, and removes the dirt, as well as any other noxious substances, such as pins, needles, buttons, silk and worsted pieces, &c. that may be attached, which would be hurtful to the machinery, as well as to the quality of the paper. She cuts the rags, by drawing them to her across the edge of the scythe, into pieces not exceeding four inches square, which are sorted and thrown into the boxes above referred to, according to their different qualities. A great deal of the dirt, sand, &c. passes through the wire-cloth into the drawer of the table, which is opened and cleaned out at convenience.

The rags, after being thus cut and sorted, are again carefully examined by women called overlookers or overhaulers, who have the charge of seeing that the work is properly performed, and that none of the noxious substances above referred to are allowed to remain in the rags. Much of the beauty and cleanliness of the paper, when finished, depend upon due attention being insisted upon in this department; for any dirty or noxious substances, when once comminuted by the trituration of the stuff into an endless number of small particles scattered over the surface of the paper, are of course wholly fixed and irremoveable.

Several machines have of late years been invented for the purpose of cutting rags, and thereby abridging the labour and expense. By means of rollers they are carried round a large cylindrical drum, on which knives, placed diagonally, revolve with considerable velocity and power, and cut the rags into small diamond-shaped pieces. But [7:17:12]such machines have hitherto been found of comparatively little service, as of course they cannot perform the work of selection, or the removal of the impurities from the material, which can only be done by careful and close examination at the time of cutting the rags, and with the advantage of using the sharp knife to cut or scrape off the injurious portion. These rag-cutting machines, moreover, have been apt to cut the rags into very unequal sizes, leaving one portion much too large, and another portion much too reduced, for the due trituration of them afterwards.

After the rags have been cut and carefully examined, they are enclosed in a cylinder called a duster, the whole circumference of which is composed of iron wire cloth; it measures about four feet and a half in diameter, and is about five feet in length; and a part of the circumference opens on hinges to admit the rags, from one to two hundredweights of which are generally enclosed at a time, and remain in motion for half an hour or an hour. On the axis in the interior of the cylinder there are a number of spokes, each about one foot long, fixed transversely, which pass through the rags when they are in rapid motion, and toss them about so as to make them part the more readily with the dust, sand, and dirt, which may still adhere to them. For the coarser and dirtier descriptions of rags this machine is used with good effect before they are cut, and renders the operation of cutting the rags less accompanied with dust, &c., and therefore less unpleasant and unwholesome to those engaged in it.

The women engaged in the rag-house cut on an average about three quarters of a hundredweight of home rags, that is, rags collected in Scotland and England, in the day of ten working hours, and about one hundredweight and a half of foreign rags in the same time. This arises from the latter being of a much heavier and stronger substance, generally speaking, than the former. Their wages amount to from tenpence to a shilling per day on an average. The nature of their employment, though it subjects them to the inhalation of dust and fibrous matter floating through the air, does not seem at all to injure their health, nor to warrant the adoption of what medical men have sometimes volunteered to recommend, that of breathing through sponges placed over their nose and mouth, to prevent injury to their chests and lungs.

The next process is that of boiling the rags in an alkaline ley, which is rendered proportionally strong, according to the lowness of the quality of the rags and the quantity of the colouring matter to be discharged. In some mills large open-mouthed coppers, with fire under them, are used for this purpose; in others, where there is a full command of steam, the rags are boiled in large square iron boxes, capable of containing ten or twelve hundredweights at a time. Part of the lid is made to move on hinges, or with a rope and pulley and balance-weight, for the purpose of the rags being placed in and taken out of the vessel; and before the steam is allowed to pass into the chest, the lid is secured by being screwed tightly down, and the joints of it formed by oakum to prevent the blowing of the steam. The steam passes through an upright iron pipe of about an inch and a half in diameter, through the centre of the lid down to the bottom of the chest, whence it diverges through a number of pipes or radii towards the sides of the chest. There is a false bottom, also of iron, which is in moveable pieces, about six inches above the real bottom; it is perforated by a number of small holes, to allow the boiling ley to pass constantly through the mass.^[3. A sketch of a chest of this description will be found under the article Bleaching, vol. iv. p. 683. ]

The quantity of alkaline matter varies from four to ten pounds of carbonate of soda to each hundredweight of rags, according to their quality, with about one third part additional of quicklime, to render the ley caustic. The boiling is carried on upon an average for about eight hours, after which the rags are cooled as gradually as possible, since the process of cooling, if rapidly carried on, tends to fix some of the black colouring matter again in the rags. Some makers use only lime in the boiling process, whereas others use pot and pearl ashes to a considerable extent; but we believe that a ley composed of soda and a portion of quicklime is most commonly employed.

The rags, after being thoroughly cooled, to which a gentle flow of cold spring-water let into the boiler materially contributes, are laid aside in large wooden chests for use, or at once conveyed in boxes on wheels into the enginehouse, there to be reduced to pulp. As this is one of the most important processes, and requires the whole power of the mill, we shall explain it, with reference to Plate CCCCIII. This plate represents a plan and elevation of a paper-mill for four engines, EE. W is the water-wheel, on which there are segments, S, of cast iron, which work into a main pinion P. This pinion is fixed on the same lying shaft on which the spur or fly-wheels F are also hung. The motion is thus brought up to the proper speed, it being necessary that the pinions p i p, p, of the engines, and the engine-cylinders c, c, should perform about 150 revolutions per minute.

The engines, fig. 1, which are to be understood as large troughs of an elliptical form, with a division d running nearly the length that intervenes between the foci of these imaginary ellipses, consist of two sorts, according to the purposes to which they are applied, viz. washing and beating engines; the former being designed for washing and rubbing out the rags, and the latter for shortening or beating down the fibres, after the washing and bleaching processes have been performed.

These engines are generally made of strong wood, and lined inside with lead or copper; but for some years past they have been very successfully cast in iron, all in one piece, although, from their awkward shape, it may be easily conceived to be rather a difficult matter to insure a good casting of such a mass. They measure about ten feet in length, four and a half feet in width, and about two and å half feet in depth, being dimensions sufficient to contain about 112 or 120 pounds of rags. From the rapid motion and weight of the machinery, and great friction necessary to triturate the stuff, it is evident that the solid fixing of the engines is a matter of extreme importance. It is usual, therefore, to build, from a solid foundation, a substantial mass of ashler work (fig. 2, A A), of the size of each engine, for it to rest upon.

The cylinders in the engines, technically called the rolls, and by the revolution of which the rags are ground into pulp, are formed in general of solid wood. Elm is most generally used for this purpose. They are commonly about two feet in diameter, and two feet in length. Round the circumference are firmly fixed bars of steel parallel to the axis or spindle, in bunches of two together in the washing engine, and three in the beating engine, generally about eighteen or nineteen several bunches, and making therefore in all about thirty-eight bars in the washing engine cylinder, and fifty-four or fifty-seven in that of the beating engine. These steel bars are sunk and wedged into the circumference of the cylinder, parallel to the axis, and are, moreover, firmly fastened by means of hoops, which are fitted into a groove in the ends of the cylinder, and, passing through the bars at a place cut out in them for that purpose, secure them firmly in their place.

Under the cylinder is what is called a plate, see fig. 2, that is, a number of steel bars, which lie fixed in a place [7:17:13]provided in the trough b for them. They are accurately fitted, so as to form a segment of the same circle as the cylinder itself. The number of bars varies according to the kind of work performed at the mill; but in white-paper mills, in the washing engines, the plate has generally from twelve to eighteen bars, and in the beaters from twenty to twenty-four. The breadth of the plate is almost universally the same everywhere, namely, from five and a half to six inches. A plate six inches broad is found to require quite as much power, from the increased friction, as can in general be spared.

The thickness of the bars in the washing-engine plate is generally from about three eighths to half an inch; and in the beating engine from about three sixteenths to one fourth of an inch. In the latter they are made up with wooden or copper dividers, so as to afford the necessary thickness, in all of five and a half or six inches. The thickness of the cylinder and plate-bars ought to be about the same proportion to each other: they are bevelled or tapered off about an inch or an inch and a half from the edge, like a wedge; and those in the washing engine being intended for opening and rubbing out the cloth and duly washing it, it is the opinion of the writer of this article that they ought not to be under the thickness of one eighth of an inch, and in the beaters under that of a shilling at the edge after being ground, otherwise, by the too rapid conversion into pulp, the strength of the fibre would be materially injured.

The rags having now been boiled, and brought into the engine-house, the workman, or engineer as he is called, fills the engine or trough about half full of water, till the bars of the cylinder, which project fully an inch from the wood, get hold of the water, and begin to turn it round. He then begins to put the rags into the engine, and spreads them with his hand. By Plate CCCCIII. fig. 2, it will be seen that the spindle s, which goes through the cylinder, is supported in its bearing upon an iron lever, called a lighter, Z. A screw h is attached to it, and by moving that screw, the cylinder can be raised*about three inches above, βr depressed so as to come into contact with the bars of the plate.

Behind the cylinder it will be found that there is a rise (fig. 3, r) in the trough, which, on the side next the cylinder, forms a segment of a circle similar to that of the cylinder, and within an inch or two from it, and then descends by a rapid declivity from the point t to the natural bottom. This rise is called by the workmen the backfall, from the rags falling down upon it. The cylinder is always, when the mill is at work, enclosed in a wooden cover, fig. 4. The cover of the washing engine has four slits or grooves cut down through the top of it, two on each side of the cylinder. The two slits w next the cylinder are made for a board of wood ιo, which can be put in or removed at pleasure, being guided by grooves in the inside of the cover. The other two slits c receive two frames of very fine copper-wire cloth c, having about 4900 holes in every square inch. These wire-cloth frames are generally fixed, being only taken out when any repairs are requisite.

The rags being now filled into the engine, the cylinder, by means of elevating the screw (fig. 2) h, is raised as high as it will go, as there is thereby room for a greater quantity of water being carried round with the dirty rags, and driven by it, in its rapid revolutions, against the wirecloths. In the bottom of the trough, see fig. 1, there is a false bottom f which is punctured through by a number of small holes, and which communicates with a cock O. This cock, when kept fully open for the first twenty or thirty minutes, has the effect, in consequence of the pressure of water and suction, of carrying off a great deal of dirty water, as well as sand and loose particles from the rags, which have escaped former cleaning operations.

When the engine has been once filled with rags and water, of which there must be a large supply constantly flowing, the cylinder, by its projecting bars, working like the paddles of a steam-boat, draws them in. It then throws them up to the top of the back-fall formerly alluded *to, dashing a portion against the two wire-cloths, through which the dirty water passes, and the rags or stuff remain. A great portion of course descend the inclination at the back-fall, and by this means produce a regular progressive motion of the stuff, which comes again and again under the action of the cylinder bars and plate. The cylinder is gradually depressed as the washing goes on, till it comes as nearly as possible in contact with the plate at its lowest point. The plates are not placed directly in line with the bars of the cylinder, but he at an angle of about five degrees. This prevents the one from being locked against the other, should the cylinder, from any cause, be too much depressed; and it is moreovei∙ necessary that they should be in that position, to promote the reducing of the rags to pulp, on somewhat of the same principle with the cutting process performed by a pair of scissars, the one blade forming an angle with the other.

To make good paper, a great deal depends upon the state of the engines, bars, and plates. If these be not in proper working order, and well fitted together, and adapted for the description of material worked, it is impossibly that any subsequent care can remedy the mischief done in the engine-house. It is much to be regretted that the great demand which has prevailed for paper for many years past has induced manufacturers generally to sacrifice quality to quantity, by hurrying the process, which impairs the strength of the fibre, and injures the texture of the paper.

Mr John Murray of Hull has paid considerable attention to the state of modern paper, and has contrasted its condition with that which was made thirty or forty years since, greatly to the disadvantage of the former. Mr Murray, who has pointed out the value of the Phormium tenax, or New Zealand flax, as a substitute for hemp in making cordage, and who has also printed and published a pamphlet (in 1836) upon paper made of its leaves, which, though coarse, is remarkably strong, thus writes, in a postscript appended to that work:—“The unquenchable rage for bleaching that now prevails is carried to an extent altogether irrational, and which our calmer judgment would condemn if suffered to interpose. Paper, when bleached, if the chloride be not removed, or permanently neutralized, produces effects of the most disastrous kind.” Mr Murray then refers to a number of recent publications, which, he alleges, are rapidly crumbling into dust; and seems to attribute the whole evil to excessive bleaching. Whilst we admit the ruinous effect on the fibre, of bleaching to excess, and whilst we also admit that there is much truth and justice in Mr Murray’s remarks, we do not share, to the same extent, in the alarm which he experiences in contemplating the speedy ruin of the books and manuscripts of the present day; and we are rather disposed to attribute the evil complained of, not by any means so much to excess of bleaching, as to the hasty preparation of the stuff in the engines.

In any former treatises on paper-making which we have seen, we observe that the trituration of the rags is described as an operation of cutting. If the bars and plates of the washing engines are kept so sharp as to cut the rags, nothing can be conceived more injurious. Every paper-maker knows that the stuff is rendered mellow and soft, by being rubbed out by blunt bars and plates. The longer the time occupied by this operation, the more water will the stuff incorporated with it hold when it is worked into paper, and the less easily will the water drain off from it, which is always a sign of strong paper. Stuff, on [7:17:14]the other hand, which has been quickly prepared by sharp tackle, never has the water properly beaten up with it; but the fibres, having been cut down, as it were, are held in suspension in the water merely, and the paper made from such stuff is always weak, flimsy, and perishable.

An abundant supply of fine water is very essential to produce paper of fine quality. When the rags are first begun to be washed, the engine consumes about a hogshead per minute for the first half hour; but this quantity is soon diminished by the rags being opened up into pulp, and thereby taking up more room for themselves in the engine, till, towards the conclusion of the washing process, the water which passes through the wire-cloths does not amount probably to one-twentieth part of that quantity.

In reducing the rags to half stuff, about three or four hours have been hitherto considered as necessary for fine papers; but, from the desire to produce a large quantity, it is the practice of most machine-mills now to do this in half the time, to the very great injury of the fabric. The power required to keep each of the cylinders moving the stuff, when pretty near to the plate, is equal to about five horses.

The rags having undergone the process of being washed and broken in, that is, rubbed into half-prepared pulp, the engineer shuts off the supply of washing water, and then, by means of an iron hook two feet and a half long, which he inserts into the cavity of a conical brass valve, fitted into a pipe at the bottom of the trough or engine, raises that valve, and the half stuff then flows through a pipe of about six inches diameter, into the bleaching-house, situated in the under story, where it is received into a draining-chest of pretty large size, and suffered to part with the water, which flows through a number of very small holes bored in the wood. As soon as the stuff is emptied, the washing-engine is again filled with rags, as before.

The bleaching process is carried on in some mills by the rags being subjected in close chambers to the action of chlorine, which is produced in leaden retorts, from sulphuric acid, sea-salt, and the black oxide of manganese, and for an account of preparing which, we refer to the article Bleaching. In a great many mills, however, where this mode was long carried on, it has been entirely abandoned, and the practice of steeping the rags in a solution of chloride of lime has been very generally substituted, particularly in Scotland. The advantage, in the latter process, consists in the stuft' not being so much injured in the fabric as if exposed to chlorine itself; and although the whitening effect may not be produced so speedily or completely as if done by the action of the gas, yet, by giving the steeping process plenty of time, that is nearly compensated for, and there is much less waste in the latter than in the former process.

The bleaching house for steeping consists of a long apartment, according to the number of sheets necessary for the extent of the works, and about sixteen feet wide. A passage of three or four feet wide goes down the middle, and on each side are arranged stone chests about three feet deep, and containing about fifty-seven cubic feet. In each there is a false bottom, which has been made of many different materials, none of which is so good as could be wished, to resist the action of the chloride, and which, therefore, require frequent renovation, viz. lead, copper, wood, stone, slate, &c. The false bottom is pierced through with a number of holes, as small as can be made; and under the false bottom there is a small pipe, into which a valve is fitted, and attached by a wire reaching up to the top of each chest, by pulling which, the liquid is allowed to escape at pleasure into a large tank, extending under the whole of the chests. In this tank is sunk a pipe, with a pump, for the sake of raising the liquor. Although this solution be now very weak, yet it is much better than pure water, and therefore it is so far eligible to make use of it.

The half stuff having come down from the washing engine into the draining chest, which is situated about three feet higher than the level of the stone bleaching chests, and being now freed by drainage of a great part of the water with which it descended from the engine, a part of one of the sides of the draining chest, being a kind of door on hinges, is opened, and the stuff is promptly raked into an iron square box lined with wood or metal, which moves on a railroad fixed along the passage above referred to, and is carried to each of the chests in succession, as they are ready to receive the stuff. About one hundredweight of rags is laid in each chest, and receives upon an average from six to eight pounds of Tennant’s strong saturated chloride of lime, according to the quality of the rags, in solution with about twelve gallons of water; and the chest is then nearly filled up with the weak liquor pumped from the tank. Great care is necessary to keep the stuff frequently stirred, otherwise the whitening throughout would not go on regularly. It is always found, that from the effect of the air and light, the upper stratum of the stuff in the chests becomes white, whilst what is under is for some time but little affected.

The stuff is allowed to remain in the steep for twenty-four hours before the liquor is allowed to drain off, and of course there must be as many chests as there are hundredweights of stuff prepared in the twenty-four hours; but it is found not to have reached its maximum of whiteness even in twenty-four hours, for the stuff which has been set to steep on Saturday, is always found on the Monday mornings to be of a somewhat purer white than on any other morning.

After the time for steeping has expired, the stuff is again lifted into the iron box formerly mentioned, which, being full of stuff, is moved on the railway till it is placed on a moving sole of a Bramah hydraulic press, which is situated in a convenient part of the passage; and the water being injected by pumps moved by the machinery of the mill into the piston of about ten inches diameter, causes by its great pressure the iron sole, with the wet bleached stuff upon it, to rise against a wooden ram, as it is called, of the exact size of the box containing the stuff. What remains of the chloride in solution, as the ram enters into the box, is thus gradually pressed out, and flows into the tank formerly mentioned as situated under the chests. The ram enters into the box about one half of its whole depth, and it will be seen by the annexed table what space is occupied by a hundredweight of the material in its raw and manufactured state at different stages of the process.
[table]

The object of pressing out the liquid weak chloride of lime is to lighten the labour of raising the stuff to the higher story of the engine-house again, and also to render the process of washing it out the more easy; for it is most essential that none of the bleaching matter should be left in it.

This washing is performed in precisely the same way as that of the rags, and goes on for about an hour, after which, in the same engine, the pure water being shut off, and the boards in the cover of the engine being put into their places, the pulp is reduced considerably in length of fibre in the same engine with blunt tackle, which tends to soften the stuff, and make it mellow. The engine which is specially set apart to wash out the remains of the chlorine, and to [7:17:15]soften the stuff, is sometimes called the intermediate engine; the stuff being now half way between rags and paper, and called half stuff.

The stuff is then let down to the beating engine by lifting a valve in the pipe, and it is then beaten down by tackle considerably sharper than that in the washing engines. The stuff is here, as it were, combed out into fibres of perhaps one eighth of an inch in length, and this operation for fine paper ought to take from four to five hours; and, from the friction between the cylinder bars and those of the plate, the stuff' ought to become moderately warm. It is now in a condition to be made into paper; and, by a valve being lifted, it flows out of the beating engine by a pipe which conducts it to a large stone or wooden reservoir called a chest in the vat-house or machine-house.

The apparatus for the formation of the paper in single sheets at a time by the hand consists of,

1. A chest for receiving the prepared stuff, and which, if there be enough of fall in the situation, it is extremely desirable to have situated about three feet higher than the vat, in order that the stuff may flow from the chest to the vat gradually as it is worked into paper, otherwise it must be lifted by a lad at intervals by means of a copper pan.

2. The vat, which is a stone vessel about six feet square, and about four deep. It is agitated by a hog or little wheel about twelve inches in diameter, which revolves through the whole length of it to keep the stuff constantly stirred; for the fibrous particles, being heavier than water, would otherwise sink.

3. The moulds or frames, of which a pair is required, so that when the vatman is dipping the one into the stuff, the coucher maybe placing the sheet on a layer of felts, of which from four to eight quires, according to the size of the paper, form a post, that is, the whole quantity which is brought under the press at one time. The vatman stands at one side of the vat, and the coucher at the far corner of the side, on the vatman’s left hand, and facing him; and between them is a narrow ledge of wood, on which the mould is sent from the vatman to the coucher. The vatman always holds in his hand a frame of wood called a deckle, which is about an inch broad, and is made to fit exactly all round the edge of the mould, for the purpose of forming a clean and not a ragged edge to the sheet; it is this which is called the water-edge, and which is so easily distinguishable from any other species of edge than can be otherwise produced as to have been generally adopted in paper used for banknotes. This description of paper is in consequence generally made on moulds of the size of the note, that it may possess the water edge, for the purpose of rendering forgery more difficult.

The moulds are made of brass wires or wire· cloth fixed upon a wooden frame, which is generally made of mahogany. A number of wooden ribs are fixed across the frame, placed at intervals of about one inch from each other, for the wires or wire-cloth to rest on. When wires only are used, these are laid longitudinally along the frame and across the wooden ribs, and interlaced with a wire somewhat thicker than the wires running lengthways, which is placed on the top of each rib. Paper made on such moulds is called laid, in contradistinction to what is made off the woven wire-cloth, and which is therefore called wove paper.

When the vatman dips the mould into the vat with the deckle upon it, he takes up a quantity of the pulp, which has been previously mixed with a great deal of water, and well agitated by the hog : he then throws off a great portion of the stuff and water over the edge of the mould farthest from him, and bringing the mould to a horizontal position, shakes it to and from him, which connects the fibres together so as to form one uniform fabric, and shakes out the water. To attain this method perfectly requires a long apprenticeship, simple as it may seem. As soon as the pulp is no longer in a liquid state on the mould, the workman raises the deckle with his fore-fingers and thumbs from oft* the mould, and with his remaining fingers shoves the mould along the ledge before referred to, to the coucher, who is ready to receive it, and who places it in an inclined position upon a small wooden curved stay, on which it reposes for a few seconds, that the water may be further drained from the newly-formed sheet. The coucher is in the mean time pitching a felt or piece of blanketing upon a wooden plank of the proper size, and then takes the mould and presses the face of it upon the felt, which receives and takes off the sheet of paper from the mould, still in a very wet state. The mould, being now freed of the sheet formed upon it, is pushed back along a wooden bridge, as it is called, which is joined to the ledge, and is placed at right angles to it. The bridge crosses the vat in front of the vatman, and the mould lies on it ready to be used by him, whilst the other mould is employed by the coucher. The process is continued till all the felts, being placed above each other with a sheet between each, are employed, which takes about half an hour. A heavy plank is then placed on the top of the post, as this quantity is called, and the whole is drawn in on a railroad, or rollers, under a press which is contiguous, and where the water is squeezed out, either by means of a screw, or by a Bramah hydraulic press. The paper, when it comes out of this press, is so coherent as to admit of being handled, and the sheets are accordingly laid together in a pack by themselves, the felts being placed on a wooden deal between the person who takes off the sheets from the felts, called the layman, and the coucher, who immediately, with the aid of the vatman, begins a new post. The water-mark is produced by wires in the shape of the letter or design being raised upon the surface of the mould.

After a number of packs have been made, they are put into another press, where they are made to srveat by pressure; that is, just to part with a small quantity of water, which comes from them in single drops. If the pressing be carried on too quickly or too long, the paper would be damaged by the sheets adhering to each other, onå peeling or tearing when attempted afterwards to be separated.

The paper is then parted sheet by sheet, so as to be enabled to undergo another pressure before it goes to the loft to be dried. In fine writing paper it is the practice to part the paper twice over, pressing between each parting. This is to make the sheets lose the marks of the felts, and to get the paper as dry as possible before it goes to the loft.

The lofts consist of a number of spaces filled with tribbles, that is, hair-ropes fixed into spars of wood, the ends of which are made to slide up and down the upright posts of wood, one of which is fixed at the corner of each space. The paper is hung up in spurs, as they are called, of five or six sheets thick, upon the ropes, by the help of a wooden cross, shaped somewhat like the letter T. The workman holds this cross at the lower part of it, and the top of the cross must be as long as the width of the sheet. The dryworker then, with his left fore-finger and thumb, pinches the corner of the hard-pressed pack, which has undergone one, two, or, if fine writing paper, three, hard-pressings since it left the felts. He then partially raises by that corner the spur of five or six sheets, and with the cross gently catches the paper, which he slips over the hair-line, and leaves it there suspended. The pack is placed on a table which moves on small wheels, and against which the workman stands, and which he can push or draw with ease to any part of the loft that he pleases. When the tribble lines are all full, he pushes up the sides or spars upwards along the upright posts, which are bored all the [7:17:16]way up for small pins of wood that support the tribbles; about eight or nine tribbles fill a room, as it is called, that is, each space. The sides of the lofts are boarded with spars of wood, placed vertically, about four inches wide and four separate. Inside of these are shutters made exactly similar, but fixed on wheels which move in a groove, so as to shut in the loft entirely or partially, or leave it open, according to the state of the weather. Many lofts have, in addition, woollen curtains within the shutters, which, with the addition of the heat derived from steam carried round the loft in pipes, are most serviceable for drying when the state of the weather renders it impracticable to dry by the air.

When the weather is favourable, the paper, before being sized, may be dried in twenty-four hours. After being sized, it ought not to be dried in less than three or four days, as by too rapid drying the size has a great tendency to fly from the paper; and therefore, when hung up after undergoing this process, the shutters are, in general, immediately dosed upon it, so as to make the drying as gradual as possible.

Messrs Cowan’s drying lofts at Valleyfield Mills, near Edinburgh, are perhaps as extensive as any in the kingdom. The paper is brought up to the loft by a crane on a scale, which is then in the loft placed on a carriage upon wheels, that moves on a railway along the centre of the lofts, forming a continuous line of about 360 feet in length. There are about 60 rooms or spaces, with nine tribbles in each, making about 500 tribbles in all, which, when filled, hold about 1200 reams of post paper.

The paper up to this point is quite bibulous, and therefore unfit to bear the ink. It is therefore transferred, when dry, to the sizing-house. The size is made from the refuse of tan-yards, called scrolls, consisting of the parings of skins, pates, ears, &c.; which materials range in price, according to quality, from L.20 to L.40 per ton when thoroughly dried. The scrolls, as these pieces are called, are boiled for about ten hours, and the gelatine gradually and carefully strained off through straw, branches of trees, charcoal, &c., and lastly, through fine flannel bags. An addition of alum to the amount of about one fourth of the weight of the scrolls is then made. The size is run into chests or casks for use, where it soon congeals. When run off it is much too strong to size any description of paper with. When the sizing operation is to proceed, therefore, it is mixed up and diluted with water, in a small boiler, and heated with steam. From the boiler it is made to flow in a spout into a tub of about five feet square, which is also heated with steam introduced under a false bottom, it being very essential to use it always very hot. An additional quantity of alum is also made use of, which is placed in the spout, and is gradually dissolved as the size flows down in contact with it. The workman stands close to the tub, and dips the paper in handfuls, containing about six quires on an average, with a wrapper at top and bottom, which he soaks thoroughly, turning it backwards and forwards, so that every portion becomes completely penetrated with the size. It is also allowed to remain some minutes soaking in the tub, being held by wooden pincers suspended by a balance-weight. He then carefully lifts them out one by one, and places them in a press, adding to the heap till the press is full. The surplus size flows, and is then by a moderate pressure squeezed out of the paper, the edges of which are next rinsed by hot water, before the pressure is taken off, to prevent them from adhering together; and with the same view the heaps of paper, when taken out of the press, are enveloped with woollen cloths, so as to exclude the cold air.

Moreover, to prevent the paper from sticking when it is strongly sized, it is separated or parted sheet by sheet, after which it is pressed moderately, so as to make the spurs slightly adhere together. It is better to keep the sized paper forty-eight hours before hanging it up to dry, and then the more gradual the drying the better.

Another mode of sizing, which tends to save both labour and wrappers, is by means of a machine or wooden table about two feet from the floor, above which are placed two spars of wood parallel to each other, supported from the table. The spurs of paper are placed vertically on the table, that is, their long edge resting on the table and across it; and between each spur a thin slip of wood is introduced, which is attached to the spars of wood by means of hooks and eyes. The slips of wood are then pressed somewhat tightly together, so that the whole mass is easily raised, by a pulley fixed overhead, to a small carriage, by which the paper, when raised from the table, and thus suspended in the air, can be wheeled right over the tub, into which it is let down to receive the size. This tub is divided into two compartments by a wooden sole affixed to a screw, which lies horizontally, and is worked by some wheels, so as to press the paper. The paper, when let down into the other portion of the tub, has the frame and slips hooked away from it as soon as it is gently pressed by the screw, so as to keep it from falling down. The hot size is then allowed to flow in amongst the paper, on which, when thoroughly soaked with size, the screw is made to work, and to press it. A board which has been pressed down against the paper is now fastened to a board of similar construction by means of strong iron clamps, and the screw is worked back again, leaving the paper still under pressure. A strong false bottom of wood, on which the paper rests, is now raised by means of a rack and pinion, and with it the paper and the heavy planks confining it, above the liquid size; and whenever the pressure is removed, it is at once set aside as sized. The size left in the tub is then pumped back to the boiler to be again heated.

There cannot be a stronger evidence of the necessity for the stuff being well prepared, in order to obtain a sound paper, than the process of sizing. If the stuff has been slowly prepared by trituration, so as to hold a good deal of water, it will also hold and keep the size in a manner corresponding thereto; whereas a quickly prepared stuff, which has been cut rather than rubbed out, however strong the size that may be employed, can scarcely be got to keep it. It is also very injurious should any of the chlorine or chloride of lime be left in the paper unwashed out, as the glutinous matter is thereby decomposed, and rendered of no avail.

After the paper has again been thoroughly dried, it is taken to the salle οx finishing-house, where it is pressed very often in order to take out the marks of the lines, and to improve the surface generally.^[4. A very laborious operation, and one injurious to the paper, used to be performed in the salle; that of picking out the knots and lumps in the paper by means of small knives. The paper could not fail to be injured by this system of scraping, and the ink was always apt to sink where it had been scraped; but this operation is now rendered almost unnecessary by the invention of the strainer, through which the pulp is strained before it passes into the vat. ] The hot-pressing is carried on by means of smooth paper boards which have been glazed by passing through metal rollers. The paper is placed alternately between these, and heat is communicated by hot iron plates being laid upon these at intervals of about six quires. These plates are heated in an iron box, into which a supply of steam is sent, and where they do not generally require to be more than five or ten minutes. These plates, [7:17:17]by means of pressure, communicate a good deal of heat throughout the paper, after it has been all brought under the action of the hydraulic press.

In consequence, however, of the general use of steel pens, and perhaps to some extent of the fashion of the day, it is necessary to finish fine letter-papers now with a much higher gloss, and various methods have been adopted for this purpose. One of these methods consists in using, instead of the hot-pressing smooth glazed boards, copper plates made very smooth, on which the sheets of paper are laid, a copper plate and a sheet of paper alternately. These, when filled with about one quire of paper, are passed between a pair of iron rollers, where the pressure is equal to twenty or thirty tons, and which are driven by the machinery of the mill. By moving a clutch, a small wheel is thrown in and out of gear at pleasure, so that the workman can instantaneously reverse the motion of these rollers, and they can be made either to take the copper plates away, or to return them again towards him after they have passed through, so as to sustain the pressure twice over. Another workman attends on the other side of the rollers to return the copper plates. It requires three women to be attending to fill and empty each set of copper plates, one filling in the rough, another taking out the smooth paper, and the third lifting off the copper plates in succession, and placing them on the sheets of paper as these are laid down. When the paper has had three or four pressures, it is pretty smooth, and is then denominated rolled or hot-pressed; but if it be passed more frequently through the rollers, it acquires a higher surface, and is then called glazed. Each set of three women can in this manner fill in about twenty reams of paper in one day. The work is laborious, from the quickness with which it is done; and, from the sharp edges and corners of the copper plates, and of the paper itself, the women are very liable to have their fingers cut, so that this department of work is not very popular, and in some manufactories it has acquired the name of the tread-mill.

Another mode of giving a higher surface to paper is by passing it through a calender, or cylinders which have been made of cast iron, copper, or brass, or one of them, like the ordinary calenders, consisting of a paper bowl. But these, although they be accurately fitted and polished, are all more or less liable to receive marks or indentations from any minute hard substances, or from folds or creases which may be in the paper, and which they give out again, and thus mark the paper.

The paper is now, after being rolled or glazed, told out into quires or half quires, folded, and made up into reams, and is subjected to pressure under hydraulic presses in every stage. It is then tied up in a wrapper, with a label on it, for the protection of the duty, and, the label being filled up by the trader and officer respectively, the paper is weighed by the latter, and stamped, so as to denote the amount being charged against the maker. The trader is allowed to keep his uncharged paper in bond, so that he is so far more favourably situated than those who follow many exciseable trades, where the duty is levied on the raw material, or on the article in some process of manufacture. The regulations deemed necessary to protect the revenue are abundantly complicated and contradictory; but it must be allowed that, within the last few years, a disposition seems to have been manifested, both by the Board of Excise and their officers, to afford every facility, and cause as little annoyance as possible to the manufacturer; whilst the officers are now, generally speaking, a much more respectable and efficient class of men, than when their ranks used to be recruited from the decayed lacqueys and dissipated butlers of the gentry; and undeniably the appointment of Sir Henry Parnell’s Commission of Excise Inquiry in 1833 has tended much to promote the comfort and free dom of the trader, and, at the same time, to afford additional security to the interests of the revenue.

Hitherto we have considered this manufacture as carried on by the hand. The papers made in that way are, for the most part, fine writing papers, into which it is necessary to introduce the water-mark, showing the maker’s name on the mould. As the machine cannot have a water-mark nor make any paper except upon a wove wire-cloth, all water-marked and laid paper is necessarily made by hand.

The stuff having come from the engine-house in pipes, and being contained in large circular chests or reservoirs ready for use, is in them kept constantly stirred by wooden agitators, so that it may not sink to the bottom, or flow out on the machine in thick and thin portions.

The machine which is now used so universally all over: the kingdom is the invention of a Mr Louis Robert, and 1 was brought to this country by M. Didot of Paris, who' came over to England about thirty or forty years ago, and, with the assistance of the MM. Fourdrinier, and Mr Donkin the engineer, succeeded in perfecting the invention, and in acquiring a patent right, which was afterwards renewed for a longer period by parliament, in consequence of the patentee’s not having derived sufficient compensation.

The stuff flows out of the chests CC, Plate CCCCIV. by a pipe p, on which there is a cock b, which the machineman opens more or less wide, according to the thickness of the paper to be made. It falls into the spout s, where it meets a large supply of water, which has been in great part passed through the web of pulp before, as will be afterwards explained. It then falls into the vat at the opening of the spout, and is there agitated by the little hog, as it is called.

A very important improvement has, however, been introduced at this stage, which, though not part of MM. Fourdrinier’s machine, is now universally applied to it. We allude to the straining of the stuft; and thereby keeping out of the paper all the knots and hard substances which it was formerly necessary to scrape out in the salle, to the great injury of the surface of the paper. The strainer is an American invention, and has been introduced into England for about nine years; and a patent is now enjoyed for it by the Messrs 1botson of Poyle Mill, Buckinghamshire.

The strainer is generally used before the stuff flows into the vat. It consists of a brass rectangular trough of about five or six feet in length by two feet in width, with sides about four inches deep. The bottom consists of a number of heavy bars of brass, the surface of which is perfectly planed and polished. They are about one inch in breadth, and can be taken out at pleasure. When the strainer is at work, these bars, which rest on a projecting ledge, and which are very firmly fixed in by wedges, &c. are placed so as almost to be in contact along the whole of their well-fitted edges; and the spaces between them at the sides are occupied by thin wedges, of such a size as to correspond to the length of the fibres. The strainer is driven by mcans of a light iron or brass shaft which passes above it, and has two small notched wheels, one placed above each end, and working into the frame of the strainer. When the shaft revolves, therefore, it will be seen that at every notch the strainer is raised, and then quickly descends by its own weight, so as to produce a continual jerking motion, making about a hundred and thirty strokes per minute. The stuff is now flowing in, and the bars are placed so close to each other that the fibres must necessarily pass longitudinally. The knots, &c. are therefore kept back, and as they accumulate in the strainer, the workman, with a wooden rake, draws them towards himself, then shuts off the flow of the stuff' in that direction by means of a kind of sluice, composed of a piece of wood, which is covered with felt, and which [7:17:18]is pressed in across the strainer. The end of the strainer next the workman is therefore left dry, and with a thin piece of copper or other metal he scoops up the knots, &c. takes out the sluice, and repeats the operation when it is required.

After the stuff has been thus strained and mixed in the vat by the agitator working in it, it is allowed to flow out by a number of holes in the side of the vat. These holes are of an oval figure, about four inches long by two in width; and against each of them is accurately fitted a brass plate, attached to a rod. This rod is worked by a screw in the workman’s hand, who can thereby again regulate the flow of the stuff into a little cavity or box at c. From this point a piece of leather or apron extends to the point t, from whence the stuff flows on an endless fine wire-cloth, on which the web is formed. This wire-cloth, which must be perfectly level, moves upon a number of small copper rollers, about an inch and a half diameter and an inch and a half separate. These rollers rest upon a frame, which is left so far free as to be moved laterally by a rod which is attached to a little crank e; and thus is produced a vibration, more or less quick, according to the nature of the stuff, which causes the water to flow through the wire-cloth, and connects the fibres of the pulp together. A large shallow wooden vessel is placed below the wire-cloth, called the save-all, which receives the water and the flour of the pulp in large quantity. The water then passes through a spout on the side of the machine, and flows into a box, from whence it is lifted up by the scoops f, and then meets the supply of stuff from the chest, and flows into the vat.

The edges of the paper are formed by pliable deckles, which were formerly made of leather, then of woollen cloth. Belts or deckles, however, composed of alternate layers of linen and caoutchouc, firmly cemented together, are now most generally employed. These belts are half an inch thick and about sixteen feet long, and are drawn by the pulley upon the shaft g. It will be seen that they move under a solid plate of iron or brass, which is moderately pressed down upon them, but not so much so as to impede their free motion along with the wire-cloth, whilst they fit sufficiently tight to it to prevent any of the stuff from flowing away laterally before the paper is set.

By the time these caoutchouc deckles leave the wirecloth at the point p the stuff is no longer fluid, though a good deal of water still flows from it. The wire-cloth then passes on with the pulp upon it through the cylinders ii, of which the under one is of metal, covered with a jacket, as it is called, of felting or flannel; and the upper one is generally of wood, but hollow, and covered with mahogany about an inch and a half thick; that wood being less apt to shrink or get out of shape than any other; and this roller also has a jacket. A slight pressure is given by these, which are called the wet-press cylinders; and after this stage the paper pulp is led on upon an endless felt, which must proceed exactly at the same speed as the wire-cloth, as, by any irregularity in their motion, the pulp would break. The wire-cloth returns back round the under wet-press cylinders, to receive a new supply of pulp, and is supported by a series of copper tube rollers, which revolve by the friction of it. The wire-cloth is generally about twenty-five feet in length by five feet in width, and has about sixty holes in the lineal, or 3600 in the square inch.

The web of paper, still in a very wet state, is now carried away by an endless felt, between cast-iron cylinders kk, where it sustains a severe pressure, and where a great deal of water is squeezed out, after which the paper may be handled. It then passes through a second pair of press cylinders, that the mark of the felt which was impressed on the under surface by the first pressure may be removed; and for this purpose the under surface is now placed next the metal cylinder. The web then passes over the surface of a number of cylinders, heated with steam, and arranged as to number and relative position according to the ideas of the manufacturer or millwright. When the web has passed over about thirty lineal feet of surface heated in this manner, it is dry, and is wound upon a reel I.

When this reel has been filled, or has performed about a hundred and thirty revolutions, a spring, which holds in the ends of the reel, is taken out. The reel which is attached to the arms m, which move on the axis n, is moved quickly round, and changes places with the other reel, when the paper is torn through, and the end of the web is then attached to the reel in gear, which is filled, whilst the paper is being cut off the reel which is at liberty.

The paper machine moves at the rate of from twenty-five to forty feet per minute. The whole process, therefore, in its transition from liquid pulp at the one end, to dry paper at the other, occupies scarcely two minutes. This, in the ordinary state of the weather, could not formerly be done in less than seven or eight days. Supposing, therefore, that the machine makes ten yards lineal of a web per minute, or 600 in the hour; this is equal to a mile in three hours, or four miles per diem of twelve hours. The paper is generally made about fifty-four inches wide. Reckoning that there are 300 machines in Great Britain, and that they work twelve hours each day on an average (many go both day and night), the length of web would altogether be equal to 1200 miles, and the area of what was made would be about 3,000,000 yards daily.

Printing paper, which is now entirely made by the machine, is in general sized in the pulp. White soap, starch, glue, and dissolved rosin, are principally used for this purpose, with the addition of a few pounds of alum. Such of these as are used are put through a sieve into the beating engine. The web, before being dried off, is also in some mills passed through hot size, the surplus of which is pressed out between two cylinders. This tends to strengthen the paper materially; but it is not easy for paper to keep the size if it be dried off hastily on the cylinders; and this is difficult, if not impossible, in the finer descriptions of paper, where the material is not so strong as that for more common kinds, and not so favourable for being thoroughly sized.

The fine bluish tinge which so many writing papers possess is derived from a mineral but very expensive blue, namely, the oxide of cobalt, generally called smalts. This article used entirely to be imported from Saxony, Denmark, and Sweden; but the great improvements which have been effected by British manufacturers of late years have rendered it unnecessary to seek a supply abroad. In writing paper of fine quality it is usual to add four or five pounds of smalts to the hundredweight of rags.^[5. This blue is now greatly cheaper than it was during the war, and even after its termination, having fallen from 2s. 6d. to Is. 3d. per pound, which last is the present price for FFFE smalts. ]

Several machines have of late years been invented for cutting paper as it is made by the machine. Amongst others, one by MM. Fourdrinier of Staffordshire has been very generally introduced and approved of. As it is capable, however, of cutting five or six thicknesses of paper at once, it is not in general attached to the machine, but in some contiguous convenient place. The paper is reeled on small rolls of about six inches diameter, and these are placed with the spindles lying in grooves in a curved frame, whence they are taken and passed round a drum, and then through some small rollers. After the web is divided longitudinally by circular knives, which are set opposite each [7:17:19]other upon shafts on each side of the paper, the progress of it is stopped for an instant by a very ingenious contrivance, when a knife descends, beginning at one side of the web, which is held fast by a heavy weight laid across it, and cuts it across. The web then goes on till it has passed as much paper through as is the requisite size of the sheet, when the knife again descends. The sheets thus cut are carried on by a small felt moved in connection with the rest of the machinery.

The paper-machine is peculiarly suited for making thin papers, which are not easily made by hand without great damage in the couching department, from the difficulty of getting off the sheet whole upon the felt; namely, the thin paper for copying letters, tissue-papers used for putting before prints, &cA large quantity of remarkably thin paper, also, made from old ropes of a better description than usual, and called pottery tissue, is made by MM. Fourdrinier and others, for printing the colours on the china, &c. which could never have been made by hand. The machine has also been of immense service in producing paper of large sizes of sheets for newspapers, which could not have been worked by hand. It would have been very serious and laborious work for a man to make paper even large enough for a single sheet of the Times newspaper, which measures two feet by three. Indeed, till about 1825, the legislature restricted the size of newspapers to twenty-two by thirty-two inches, beyond which they could not be stamped; which restriction was done away with just as soon as it became possible to make by machinery any size of paper that might he desired. But, perhaps, in no department of paper-making has the advantage of the machine shone so conspicuously as in the paper used for paper-staining, and the consequent great reduction in price of the hangings. Before the application of the machine, the paper used by paper-stainers was of the size of twenty-eight by twenty-three inches, called elephant. It required, in order to form a piece of twelve lineal yards, that sixteen or eighteen of these sheets should be pasted together, which is now rendered wholly unnecessary by the paper being furnished to the Stainers in sheets of twelve yards each in length.

The chief seats of paper manufacture in Great Britain are,—

1. Kent, where it was first established, and where there are a great number of hand-mills for making fine watermarked writing papers. There are also a good many machines for fine writing and printing paper.

2. In Hertfordshire, Buckinghamshire, and Oxfordshire, the manufacture of fine printing papers is very extensively carried on, and all made by machinery.

3. In Lancashire and the contiguous counties, it is carried on to a very large extent, the material, as already noticed, being chiefly derived from the refuse of the cotton mills, to which is added a mixture of cotton-bagging, of which there is a large supply, and which tends to strengthen the paper. This description of paper, however, both from the impurities which are inseparable from so very dirty a material ’ as the sweepings of the cotton mills, and from its spongy . soft texture, is very inferior to that which is made out of a sound ’strong rag, provided that the trituration of the stuff, already adverted to, be done in a proper manner.

4. In Scotland the manufacture is carried on to a large and rapidly increasing extent. From the ready communication with London, and other causes, both fine writing papers and others find a ready market there. Independently of the white paper, there is manufactured in all parts of the country a large quantity of brown paper, made from old ropes, &c.

Mr M‘Culloch, in his Commercial Dictionary, supposes that there are about 700 paper mills in England, and from seventy to eighty in Scotland. The former must, however, be on an average on a much smaller scale than the Scotch mills; for whilst the duty produced in England in 1833 amounted to L.622.933, it amounted in Scotland, in the same year, to L.102,536; thus showing, that although ’ the mills in England are about ten times as numerous as those in Scotland, the duty is only about six times as much.

Paper is considerably adulterated with plaster of Paris, sometimes to the amount of thirty per cent., for the purpose of gaining weight. This can easily be detected by burning a portion of a sheet, when the plaster will remain after combustion in an ashy whitish-coloured residuum. Brown paper is also often mixed up with a good deal of ochre or clay, the makers saying that it is for the purpose of giving it a nice brown colour, though it may be doubted whether it be not also with the intention of increasing the weight.

The following table, showing the strength of different kinds of paper, has been prepared from actual experiment. It denotes the number of pounds avoirdupois required to break a strip of paper two inches wide, both ends being secured above, and the weights attached to a small wooden roller, resting upon the strip of paper.
[table]