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Paper& Paper Making , 
 
 ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 BY 
 
 RICHARD HERRING. 
 
 THIRD EDITION. 
 
 Reprinted from " lire's Diclionary of Arts and Manufatlures^ ivith Illustrations 
 and Additions. 
 
 INTRODUCTORY PREFACE 
 Br the late Rev. GEORGE CROLY, LL.D. 
 
 Pontoon : 
 
 LONGMAN, GREEN, LONGMAN, ROBERTS, 
 
 MDCCCLXIII. 
 
 & GREEN. 
 
GEORGE INM'IN. PRINTER, BUCKLERS BURY, LONDON, 
 
Third Edition. 
 
 A A 
 
Contents. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Preface ........ ix 
 
 Introduction ........ xi 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Introduction — Language — ■ Origin of the Art of 
 Writing — Various modes of recording Events 
 which preceded it — Materials upon which Men 
 first wrote : Stones, Bricks, Metals, Skins and 
 Intestines of Animals, Tablets, Leaves, Bark, etc., 
 etc. — The Egyptian Papyrus, from which Paper 
 (so called) was first made — Process of Manufac- 
 ture — Usual Dimensions and extreme Durability 
 of Papyri — Modern Paper — Its general Advan- 
 tages to Mankind — Supposed Period of its In- 
 vention — The Introduction of Paper Making into 
 Europe — Historical Incidents connected therewith 
 — fames Whatman — The superiority of his 
 Manufacture — Adoption of the Fourdrinier 
 Machine — General Advantages of Machinery 
 over the original Process, etc., etc. . . I 
 
 b 2 
 
Vlll 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 PACE 
 
 On the Materials employed in the Formation of Paper 
 — Method of Preparation — Processes of Commi- 
 nution — Washing, Bleaching, etc., described — 
 Paper Making by Hand — P aper-making Machine 
 — Sizing Apparatus — Cutting Machine, etc., 
 explained — General Observations on what are 
 termed JVatcr Marks — Manner of effecting the 
 sa?ne — Importance frequently atiached to them — 
 Ireland's Fabrication of the Shakspeare MSS. — 
 Difficulty of procuring suitable Paper for the 
 purpose — On the perfection to which Water Marks 
 have now attained, especially with reference to the 
 production of Light and Shade, as seen in the 
 New Bank Note, etc. etc. . . . .61 
 
Preface. 
 
 HIS volume is founded upon Lectures 
 delivered at the London Institution, 
 and the Syllabus furnished on those occasions 
 is here retained as a heading to the Chapters, 
 I feel it to be a pleasing duty to avail myself of the 
 present opportunity to acknowledge the kindness 
 and assistance which was rendered me in the 
 illustration of those Lectures by many friends, 
 particularly those in connexion with the Royal 
 Asiatic Society, the Hon. Last India Company, 
 
x PREFACE. 
 
 the Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew, the 
 London Missionary Museum, and the Bank oj 
 England. 
 
 R. H. 
 
 Watling Street, London. 
 
Introduction. 
 
 BY THE LATE REV. GEORGE CROLY, LL.D. 
 
 AVING been present at the delivery 
 of these Lectures, and feeling an 
 interest in them, as the performance 
 of my friend Mr. Herring, I have added, at 
 his request, a few preliminary observations, 
 on the chief employment of paper in our day, 
 namely, in Printing. 
 
 It is a striking, and perhaps a significant 
 coincidence, that the art of making paper 
 from linen fibre, and the art of printing, were 
 discovered nearly at the same time, and were 
 coeval with the first preaching of the Refor- 
 
Xll 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 mation by Huss and Jerome of Prague, of 
 whom Luther was only the more eminent 
 successor — the whole three events dating from 
 the fifteenth century. 
 
 It is certain, that printing was the great 
 instrument of the Reformation in Germany, 
 and of spreading it through Europe ; and it is 
 equally certain, that the making of paper, by 
 means of the cotton or flaxen fibre, supplied 
 the only material which has been found 
 extensively available for printing. Whether 
 this coincidence was simply accidental, or was 
 the effed: of that high arrangement for high 
 purposes, which we so often find in the 
 history of Providence, may be left to the 
 consideration of the Christian. 
 
 But, it is evident, that if printing had been 
 invented in any of the earlier ages, it would 
 have been comparatively thrown away. The 
 Chinese bark of the bamboo, or the rice 
 straw ; the Egyptian papyrus, and the Greek 
 or Roman parchment, would have been too 
 feeble, or too expensive, for the rapid demands 
 of the Press. But at the exact period, when 
 Printing was given to the world, the fabric 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Xlll 
 
 was also given, which was to meet the 
 broadest exigency of that most illustrious 
 invention. 
 
 That the Chinese, in ages almost beyond 
 history, had made paper of cotton, and even 
 of hemp ; and that the Arabians either 
 borrowed, or invented, the manufacture, in 
 the eighth century, is known. But, the 
 discovery perished for want of the Press ; as 
 the Press would have perished for want of 
 the vigour, yet to be created in every faculty 
 of human advance, by the Reformation. 
 
 It should not be forgotten, that the first 
 printed works were religious ; as the " Biblia 
 Pauperum," a small folio, of forty leaves, each 
 with a picture, and a text of Scripture under 
 it ; and the " Speculum humanae Salvationis," 
 a similar work of pictures and texts, in Latin ; 
 and that the last and noblest achievement of 
 Printing, has been the renewed publication of 
 the Gospel, in nearly every language of the 
 globe ! 
 
 The actual origin of Printing has been 
 matter of learned controversy. From the 
 earliest ages impressions had been taken from 
 
XIV 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 seals. There are in the British Museum 
 blocks of lead, impressed with the name or 
 stamp of the Roman authorities. The 
 Chinese, who seem to have had a glimpse of 
 every invention of Europe, produced blocks 
 of wood-engraving, with which they mul- 
 tiplied copies, by impression at least, so early 
 as the tenth century, and even appear to have 
 applied it to a species of bank note. Whether 
 the invention was introduced into Europe by 
 Marco Polo (who visited China in the 
 thirteenth century), or by others, it is known 
 that printed playing cards and devotional 
 tracts (though of the simplest structure, gene- 
 rally a single page) were not infrequent, from 
 the year a.d. 1400. Still, the operation was 
 so expensive, and also so insufficient, that 
 the Art of Printing cannot be said to have 
 been yet discovered. For this discovery, the 
 essential was the use of moveable types. 
 
 The honour of this most simple, yet most 
 comprehensive change, has been warmly 
 disputed by Holland and Germany. But, 
 though Coster, a Hollander, adopted it early, 
 general opinion gives it to Gutenburg, a 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 xv 
 
 printer at Strasburg, between 1436 and 1442. 
 Gutenburg was originally a block-printer ; at 
 length the fortunate idea occurred to him, of 
 getting rid of the solid page, and making his 
 types separate ; those, in the first instance, 
 were cut out of wood. Returning to Mayence, 
 his native city, a partnership with Faust sup- 
 plied him with capital. Faust made a second 
 step in the mechanical portion of the art, by 
 casting the types in metal A subsequent 
 partnership with SchcefFer, Faust's son-in- 
 law, supplied all that was wanting to the art, 
 in his invention of the punch for making the 
 types. The partners subsequently quarrelled, 
 and Gutenburg, in 1458, formed a new 
 establishment in Mayence. The storming of 
 the city by Adolphus of Nassau, in 1462, dis- 
 persed the workmen, and thus spread the art 
 through Europe. It was thenceforth practised 
 in Italy, in France, in Spain, and in England 
 (at Westminster, in 1475). The Cologne 
 Chronicle, printed in 1 474, states that the first 
 large volume produced by printing, was the 
 Bible (an edition of the Vulgate), a work which 
 cost a preparation of ten years. This edition 
 
XVI 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 is without date, or printer's name, but is 
 supposed to have been completed in 1455. 
 
 In an age when the European mind was 
 only emerging from a thousand years of dark- 
 ness, everything was tinged with superstition. 
 The printing of the Bible shared the general 
 charge ; and the comparative cheapness, and 
 still more, the singular fidelity of the copies 
 to each other, were attributed to sorcery. 
 Faust, who probably had no objection to a 
 report, by which so much was to be gained, 
 and which was favoured by the absence of 
 date and name, has since been made the hero 
 of German mysticism ; and is immortalized, 
 as the philosopher, and master of magic, in 
 the celebrated poem of Goethe. 
 
 The Newspaper, the most influential of all 
 human works, is the creation of Printing. It 
 is to the honour of England, that in this 
 country it approaches nearest to excellence, 
 in intellectual vigour, in variety of knowledge, 
 in extent of information, and in patriotic 
 principle. It has, like all the works of man, 
 occasional imperfections, and perhaps among 
 the most prominent are its too minute details 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 xvii 
 
 of offences against public purity. But, there 
 is scarcely a newspaper in this age, which 
 would not have been regarded as a triumph 
 of ability in the last. In fact, the newspaper 
 of England is the great practical teacher of 
 the people. Its constant and universal teaching 
 alone accounts for the superior intelligence of 
 the population. Schools, lecture-rooms, and 
 universities, important as they all are, alto- 
 gether fall behind it in public effect, or find, 
 that to retain their influence, they must follow 
 its steps. Those steps may now and then 
 turn from the right road, but their native 
 tendency is forwards and upwards ! This 
 intellectual giant always advances, and carries 
 the country with him, to a height which no 
 other country, ancient or modern, ever attained, 
 or, perhaps, ever hoped to attain. 
 
 I speak of this form of publication, in no 
 literary favouritism; but, as a great instrument, 
 offered to nations for the safety, the speed, 
 and the security of national progress ; an in- 
 tellectual railroad, given to our era, to meet the 
 increased exigencies of intellectual intercourse; 
 and equal to any weight, and any rapidity. 
 
xvni 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 The most hopeless feature of foreign govern- 
 ments appears to me, their hostility to the 
 Press. Thus, they prohibit the mental air 
 and exercise, which would rectify the "peccant 
 humours" of their people; thus they aggravate 
 popular stagnation into political disease ; thus, 
 casual passion is darkened into conspiracy, and 
 passing disgust is compressed into rebellion. 
 
 England has her ill-humours, but the Press 
 ventilates them away ; the vapours are not 
 suffered to lie on the ground, until they con- 
 dense into malaria. There may be folly, and 
 even faction, among us, and the Press may be 
 the trumpet of both ; but the width of the 
 area is the remedy. A whole nation is always 
 right. No sound can stir it, but the sound 
 which is in accord with its own feelings ; 
 the trumpet which is overwhelming within 
 four walls, is unheard at the horizon ! 
 
 If, in an age of foreign convulsion, England 
 has undergone no catastrophe ; if, in the fall 
 of monarchies, she has preserved her here- 
 ditary throne ; if, in the mingled infidelity 
 and superstition of the Continent, which, like 
 the mingled frenzy and fetters of a lunatic 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 xix 
 
 hospital, have, in our day, exhibited the 
 lowest humiliation of human nature, she has 
 preserved her freedom and her religion, I 
 attribute all, under God, to the vigour and 
 intelligence of public investigation ; the in- 
 cessant urgency of appeal to the public mind ; 
 the living organization, of which the heart is 
 the Press of England ! 
 
Paper & Paper Making, 
 
 ANCIENT AND MODERN 
 
 Chapter I. 
 
 Introduction — Language — Origin of the Art of Writing 
 — Various Modes of recording Events which preceded it — 
 Materials upon which Men first wrote : Stones, Bricks, 
 Metals, Skins and Intestines of Animals, Tablets, Leaves, 
 Bark, etc., etc. — The Egyptian Papyrus, from which Paper 
 ( so called ) was first made — Process of Manufacture — 
 Usual Dimensions and extreme Durability of Papyri — 
 Modern Paper — Its general Advantages to Mankind — Sup- 
 posed Period of its Invention — The Introduction of Paper 
 Making into Europe — Historical Incidents connected there- 
 with — fames Whatman — The superiority of his Manufacture 
 — Adoption of the Fourdrinier Machine — General Advantages 
 of Machinery over the original Process, etc , etc. 
 
 MONGST the numerous and diversi- 
 fied objects of human investigation 
 and research, it would, perhaps, be 
 difficult to single out one, more curious and 
 
 B 
 
2 PAPER AND PAPER MAKING. 
 
 interesting, than that of the medium which 
 bears the symbols of language ; which retains 
 the register of circumstances and events of past 
 ages, and which hands down to us the trans- 
 actions of primeval time, with its intervening 
 periods. 
 
 Undoubtedly the noblest acquisition of man- 
 kind, perhaps the greatest advantage which 
 we possess, is that of the faculty of speech. 
 Without speech, man, in the midst of crowds, 
 would be solitary. The endearments of 
 friendship, and the communications of wisdom, 
 alike would become unavailing ; man, in fact, 
 without speech, could hardly be accounted a 
 rational being. 
 
 That the use of speech or language was 
 given to Adam immediately upon his forma- 
 tion, we have no reason to doubt; for from 
 the testimony of Moses it appears, that he not 
 only gave names to every living creature, " to 
 every beast of the field, and to every fowl of 
 the air," as they were brought to him, but 
 that also as soon as Eve was made he could 
 say — " This is now bone of my bone, and 
 flesh of mv flesh," the first sentence which is 
 
THE ART OF WRITING. 3 
 
 recorded of his uttering, and which is suffi- 
 cient to show, that even then he possessed a 
 competent stock of words to declare the ideas 
 or conceptions of his mind. 
 
 Thus was man at once rendered as superior 
 to the brute creation, as in after times by the 
 aid of writing, or the art of drawing those 
 ideas into vision, he was especially distinguished 
 from the condition of uncivilized savages. 
 For of all the arts that contribute to the com- 
 fort and happiness of mankind, no one, per- 
 haps, is more intimately connected with our 
 social habits, or more closely entwined with 
 the best and purest feelings of our nature, 
 than that of writing. And yet to conceive 
 or to account for the origin of an art so 
 invaluable in its tendency to elevate and 
 improve mankind, as that of exhibiting to 
 sight the various conceptions of the mind, 
 which have no corporeal forms, by means 
 of hieroglyphics or legible characters, is still 
 as difficult and perplexing as in past ages 
 it has ever proved to the sagacity of man- 
 kind. With the poet of old we have yet to 
 inquire — 
 
 B 2 
 
4 PAPER AND PAPER MAKING. 
 
 " Whence did the wondrous mystic art arise, 
 Of painting speech, and speaking to the eyes ? 
 That we by tracing magic lines are taught 
 How to embody, and to colour thought." 
 
 Notwithstanding the great and manifold 
 blessings which men have received from this 
 curious and wonderful invention, it is very 
 remarkable, as a distinguished writer observes, 
 that writing, which gives a sort of immortality 
 to all other things, should, by the disposal of 
 Divine Providence, be without any trace of 
 the memory of its first founders. Indeed, the 
 invention of letters and their various combina- 
 tions in forming words, amounting, it is com- 
 puted, to 620,448,401,733,239,439,360,000, 
 without repeating any combination capable of 
 being made from so small a number of letters 
 as that now comprising our alphabet, has 
 something so extremely ingenious and sur- 
 prising in its application, that most men who 
 have treated the subjecl:, can hardly forbear 
 attributing it to a divine original. 
 
 Many have conceived that the theatre of this 
 important legacy to man was Mount Sinai. 
 But it is observable, that previously to the 
 
ANCIENT MODES OF RECORD. 5 
 
 arrival of the Israelites at Mount Sinai, Scripture 
 makes mention of writing as an art already 
 understood by Moses : " And the Lord said 
 unto Moses, write this for a memorial." 
 (Exodus, 17th ch. 14th v.) Now, Moses 
 seems to have expressed no difficulty of com- 
 prehension when he received this command, 
 nor does anything appear to induce the 
 slightest doubt ; on the contrary, I think we 
 may safely conclude that Moses was even then 
 well acquainted with the art of writing, or 
 otherwise he would have been instructed by 
 God, as in the case of Noah, when he was 
 required to build the Ark. And further, we 
 find that Moses wrote all the words, and all 
 the judgments of the Lord, contained in the 
 twenty-first and two following chapters of 
 the Book of Exodus, before the two written 
 tables of stone were even so much as pro- 
 mised. The delivery of the tables is not 
 mentioned till the 18 th verse of the 31st 
 chapter, after God had made an end of com- 
 muning with him upon the mount. Never- 
 theless, I am not prepared to dispute the 
 probability of a divine origin to so wonderful 
 
6 PAPER AND PAPER MAKING. 
 
 a medium, any more than I am disposed to 
 question the possibility of its resulting merely 
 from what Aristotle terms the Faculty of 
 Imitation ; for which, says he, men are so 
 remarkable, even in an uncivilized state. I 
 pass by all questions of the kind, satisfied for 
 the present with the simple fad:, that such 
 medium does exist ; that through it we 
 become, as it were, introduced to the multi- 
 tudinous throng of a world's tenantry, while 
 we thus learn their words, works, and ways, 
 their History, Literature, and Arts, their 
 Science, and Theology ; and while even the 
 mummy, recovered from the subterranean 
 recesses of the Egyptian pyramids, may still 
 be said to talk with us, by virtue of the roll 
 of papyrus and its pictured inscription which 
 he holds in his hand ; 
 
 " Writing's art, which like a sovereign queen, 
 Amongst her subject sciences is seen ; 
 As she in dignity the rest transcends, 
 So far her power of good and harm extends." 
 
 In the earliest ages of mankind, very simple 
 means were necessarily adopted, to preserve 
 the remembrance of any important event. 
 
WRITING ON BRICKS, STONES, ETC. J 
 
 During many centuries, tradition, perhaps 
 solely, served to represent that, which in re- 
 cent times has been more completely effected 
 by the introduction of printing. At other 
 periods we find trees were planted, heaps of 
 stones, altars or pillars, as we read in sacred 
 history, were erected ; and even games and 
 festivals ordered, to keep up the recollection 
 of important facts. Since, however, the art 
 of writing was invented (be the period when 
 it may), various materials have from time to 
 time been made use of, for the purpose of 
 transmitting to posterity the discoveries and 
 deeds of their ancestors. Thus, for instance, 
 the most ancient remains of writing which 
 have been handed down to us, are upon hard 
 substances, such as bricks, stones, and metals, 
 which were used by the ancients for all mat- 
 ters of public notoriety ; abundant proofs of 
 which we have in the recent discoveries of 
 Mr. Layard. And Josephus, in the third chap- 
 ter of the first book of "Jewish Antiquities," 
 tells us : that, " the descendants of Seth, lead- 
 ing a happy and quiet life, found out by study 
 and observation the motions and distribution, 
 
H PAPER AND PAPER MAKING 
 
 or order, of the heavenly bodies; and, that 
 their discoveries might not be lost to men 
 (knowing that the destruction of the world 
 had been foretold by Adam, which should be 
 once by fire, and once by water), they made 
 two pillars — one of brick, and the other of 
 stone, and wrote or engraved their discoveries 
 thereon ; so that if the rains should destroy 
 that of brick, the other of stone might con- 
 tinue to show mankind their observations," 
 
 In the sacred text we are further informed, 
 that great stones were directed to be set up 
 by the children of Israel, after the passage of 
 the Jordan, and being "plastered with plaster," 
 — which appears to have been a very common 
 practice — "thereon were to be written all the 
 words of the law very plainly." In the book 
 of Job, which some suppose to have been 
 written by Moses, we have an obscure inti- 
 mation of the method employed in registering 
 upon the rock, "graven with an iron pen and 
 lead in the rock for ever." But, although 
 there is apparently a want of clearness in our 
 translation of the passage, by no means does 
 it arfect the idea of Job's desire to give the 
 
TABLETS, BOARDS, AND LEASES. 9 
 
 greatest possible permanence to the words he 
 then uttered. He exclaims, " Oh that my 
 words were now written," or, (though pro- 
 bably not an exact translation,) " Oh that 
 they were printed in a book ;" and more (he 
 adds), "that they were even graven with an 
 iron pen and lead in the rock for ever;" which 
 latter clause some take to be in reference to 
 the leaden tablets which are found to have 
 been in very early use. But I rather favour 
 the interpretation, for which I am indebted to 
 my late esteemed friend the Rev. Dr. Croly; 
 that as a still more indelible and effectual 
 mode of perpetuating his thoughts, it was 
 Job's conception that his words should be 
 graven in the rock with an iron pen, or tool, 
 and the interstices afterwards filled with lead, 
 in order that the contrast occasioned thereby 
 might render them the more readily intelli- 
 gible to those who happened to travel that 
 way. 
 
 Herodotus also mentions a letter engraven 
 on plates of stone, which Themistocles, the 
 Athenian general, sent to the Ionians, about 
 five hundred years before the birth of Christ. 
 
io PAPER AND PAPER MAKING. 
 
 Lead, however, and similar metals being less 
 difficult to write upon, and more simple and 
 convenient, afterwards superseded to a great 
 extent the use of such unwieldy substances as 
 bricks and stone. And subsequently we find 
 others of a still more pliable texture employed, 
 such as the skins of animals, bark, wood, and 
 the leaves of trees. Solomon, for instance, in 
 the Book of Proverbs, in allusion to the prac- 
 tice of writing upon thin slices of wood, 
 advises his son to write his precepts upon 
 the tables of his heart. And the prophet 
 Habakkuk was commanded to write a vision 
 and make it plain upon tables, that he may 
 run that readeth it. Solomon lived a thousand 
 years, and Habakkuk about six hundred and 
 twenty-six, before the Christian era. At a 
 later period, Zacharias, the father of John the 
 Baptist, when inquired of as to what he would 
 have his child called, asked, we are told, for 
 "a writing table, and wrote, saying, his name 
 is John." Amongst the Romans, it was cus- 
 tomary for the public affairs of every year to 
 be committed to writing by the high priest, 
 and published on a table ; such tables being 
 
TABLETS, BOARDS, AND LEAVES. II 
 
 exposed to view, either in their market-places 
 or temples, in order that the people might 
 have an opportunity of becoming acquainted 
 with their contents. 
 
 At an early period in their history, both 
 Greeks and Romans appear to have commonly 
 used either those plain wooden boards, or 
 boards covered with wax. It is probable, that 
 at first the tables were written upon just as 
 they were planed, and that the overlaying 
 them with wax was an improvement on that 
 invention; a very decided advantage being thus 
 obtained, in the facility afforded for erasing 
 any inaccuracies that might have occurred, 
 and consequently of correcting the manuscript. 
 The practice of writing upon tablets of one 
 kind or another, appears not to have been 
 entirely laid aside, until the commencement 
 of the fourteenth century ; and, indeed, even 
 in our day, tablet books of ivory are occasion- 
 ally used, for writing upon with black lead 
 pencils. 
 
 The use of boards was in some measure 
 superseded by that of the leaves of palm, olive, 
 poplar, and other trees. And although, in 
 
12 PAPER AND PAPER MAKING. 
 
 Europe, all these disappeared upon the intro- 
 duction of the papyrus and parchments, in 
 some countries the use of them remains even 
 to this day. Perhaps a record of this old cus- 
 tom may still be found in the word leaf, which 
 we continue to apply to sheets of paper, when 
 sewed up into the form of a book. According 
 to the account of Pliny, the Egyptians were 
 the first to use the palm leaf, and books 
 written on it are still preserved in the East 
 India Museum, as also in the Library of the 
 British Museum. 
 
 The mode of preparation, after cutting into 
 strips of the length and width required, is 
 simply to soak them for a short time in boiling 
 water, after which they are rubbed backwards 
 and forwards over a smooth piece of wood to 
 make them pliable, and then carefully dried. 
 The letters or characters being written or 
 rather engraved thereon with an iron style, 
 which, piercing the outside covering, makes 
 indelible letters ; and by afterwards rubbing 
 the writing over with some dark coloured 
 substance, such as soot or charcoal, the parts 
 etched or scratched have greater relief im- 
 
WRITING ON LEAVES. 13 
 
 parted to them ; and the writing is more 
 easily read. 
 
 Notwithstanding many paper mills have 
 been erected in India, the natives, I under- 
 stand, frequently prefer this method, not only 
 for the ordinary purposes of correspondence 
 and accounts, but even in some quarters for 
 Government documents of importance. 
 
 I must here express my sense of the kind 
 assistance which has on several occasions been 
 afforded me by the Rev. Benjamin Bailey, late 
 of Cottyam, Allepie, Madras, who has not only 
 given to the world a translation in Malayalim 
 of the entire Bible, but has also compiled two 
 voluminous dictionaries, for rendering assist- 
 ance in the study of that language. This 
 gentleman has recently afforded me an oppor- 
 tunity of inspecting many great curiosities of 
 the kind ; indeed, before me is now lying a 
 very neat little specimen written in Malayalim 
 by him (St. Paul's Second Epistle to Timothy), 
 which shows, in a remarkable degree, the 
 astonishing distinctness which may be pro- 
 duced by this singular mode of writing. 
 
 The style with which the letters are 
 
1 4 PAPER AND PAPER MAKING. 
 
 engraven upon the leaf is usually worn in the 
 girdle as a prominent ornament of dress. The 
 case which protects it containing also a small 
 knife, employed in preparing the slips, and 
 likewise a little instrument which is used for 
 piercing the leaves, in order that cords may 
 be passed through them for the purpose of 
 securing the manuscript, as may be seen in the 
 instance of various documents both in the East 
 India Company's Museum, and also in the 
 Library of the British Museum. 
 
 A work which I possess, termed the Kam- 
 mavakyam, written in the Pali language, in 
 Burmese character, upon palm leaf, is thus 
 secured between very handsome covers. It is 
 a Catechism of Sacred Rites, used by the 
 Buddhist priesthood in the examination of a 
 candidate for admission to that order. A 
 translation of it here, however, would be no 
 more consistent in point of matter contained, 
 than it would be in reference to the subject: I 
 am treating. Its character and language 
 throughout are truly humiliating to human 
 nature. 
 
 In the British Museum there are many very 
 
WRITING ON SILK, ETC. 
 
 singular documents of the kind, one in par- 
 ticular, which is written upon 390 leaves, 
 bound, as it were, in a frame of gilt copper, 
 in the form of a tortoise, screws being passed 
 through the strips instead of cords, the fasten- 
 ings, with some addition, representing the 
 limbs of the animal. And in the East India 
 Museum may be seen a smaller one, protected 
 by stout wooden covers, which has been carved 
 to represent some animal, apparently a pig. 
 The custom of writing upon leaves of trees 
 appears to have given rise to the adoption also 
 of the interior bark, the outer being seldom 
 made use of, in consequence of its extreme 
 coarseness. When employed, it is customarily 
 folded over, to admit of its being written upon 
 both sides. The only documents of this kind, 
 which have come under my notice, have been 
 Batta manuscripts, from the island of Sumatra. 
 
 Before the art of making paper was known 
 to the Chinese, they appear to have cut pieces 
 of silk to such sizes as they wished to make 
 their books, and thereupon painted the letters 
 with pencils, the silk being first steeped in 
 a kind of size to prevent the colour from 
 
I 6 PAPER AND PAPER MAKING. 
 
 running. But such material being liable to 
 decay, various animal substances were after- 
 wards employed, as being of a more durable 
 nature. Of course the skins were principally 
 used, after being tanned ; but bones, and even 
 entrails, were also made use of for the like 
 purpose. Thus, in the "History of Mahomet," 
 we read that the Arabians used the shoulder 
 bones of sheep, on which they carved remark- 
 able events with a knife, when, after tying 
 them with a string, they hung those chro- 
 nicles up in their cabinets. And in the library 
 of Ptolemy Philadelphus, which is said to 
 have contained 700,000 volumes, were the 
 works of Homer, written in golden letters, on 
 the skins of serpents. I might mention, that 
 the term volume here should not be under- 
 stood in the sense which it is now customary 
 to receive it, but in its derivation from the 
 Latin, signifying simply a roll, which was the 
 most ancient form of book. 
 
 Parchment, or the skins of beasts, dressed 
 and prepared in a manner rendering them fit 
 for writing upon, appears to have been em- 
 ployed at a very early period. Diodorus 
 
SKINS AND BONES OF ANIMALS. 17 
 
 Siculus informs us that the Persians of old 
 wrote all their records on skins ; and Hero- 
 dotus also alludes to sheep skins, and goat 
 skins, as in general use among the lonians 
 about 440 years before the Christian era. 
 The word Parchment is a corruption of the 
 Latin Pergamena, from Pergamus > which some 
 allege to have been the place of its invention. 
 But it is very probable that in the time of 
 Eumenes, who was king of Pergamus, (about 
 200 years before Christ,) the circumstance of 
 increased consumption merely occasioned the 
 discovery of a better method of dressing the 
 skins ; from which facl: alone, and perhaps 
 with sufficient reason, the origin of the present 
 term was derived. Eumenes, about that 
 period, appears to have endeavoured to form 
 a library at Pergamus, which should surpass 
 that of Ptolemy Philadelphus at Alexandria, 
 and in so doing enraged Ptolemy to that 
 degree that he immediately prohibited any 
 further exportation from Egypt of the papyrus, 
 which by that time was coming into very 
 general use, and thus effectually put a stop to 
 Eumenes' emulation in that particular. It 
 
 c 
 
I 8 PAPER AND PAPER MAKING. 
 
 may be, however, that this prohibition was 
 not solely occasioned by jealousy, but by 
 Ptolemy's fearing that his dominions, which 
 were so much improved in arts, sciences, and 
 civilization, since the discovery and adoption 
 of the papyrus, (of which we shall presently 
 speak,) would be again reduced to a state of 
 ignorance for want of it ; the plant sometimes 
 failing in unfavourable weather, while the 
 supply invariably proved unequal to the de- 
 mand. The people of Pergamus, therefore, 
 were obliged to devise other means, and the 
 improved manufacture of parchment would 
 seem to have been the result. But, that 
 Eumenes on this occasion invented the art of 
 making parchment is exceedingly dubious ; 
 for in the books of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, 
 and other parts of Scripture, we find mention 
 made of rolls of writing, in all probability rolls 
 of parchment. 
 
 The manner of reading such rolls may be 
 gathered from a passage extracted from Hart- 
 ley's " Travels in Greece," which serves also 
 to elucidate the peculiar scriptural expression 
 of their being "written within and without." 
 
PARCHMENT AND PAPYRUS. I 9 
 
 You began (says he) to read by unfolding, 
 and you continued to read and to unfold, till, 
 at last, you arrived at the stick to which the 
 roll was attached ; then you turned the parch- 
 ment round, and continued to read on the 
 other side of the roll, folding it gradually up 
 until you completed the writing : thus were 
 they " written within and without." 
 
 Papyrus, from which the term paper was 
 derived, is the name of a celebrated plant, once 
 extensively used by the Egyptians for making 
 various articles of utility, such as baskets, 
 shoes, cordage, and the like. Some writers 
 state that of this plant the little ark was made, 
 in which the parents of Moses exposed him 
 upon the banks of the Nile, and of this it 
 was that the most ancient paper was manu- 
 factured. Not as would now be customary, 
 by first reducing it to a pulp, nor, indeed, in 
 any way as resembling modern paper, except 
 that in both, vegetable fibre is the basis. 
 That a plant once so useful, and for ages in 
 Egypt so commercially valuable, should have 
 totally disappeared, being altogether unknown 
 to modern botanists, appears scarcely credible ; 
 
20 PAPER AND PAPER MAKING. 
 
 yet so it is. For the ancient descriptions of 
 the papyrus, as a flag or bulrush, with a trian- 
 gular stem that could barely be spanned, and 
 which grew to the height of ten feet, or even 
 considerably more, in the immense marshes 
 occupying a large part of the surface of Lower 
 Egypt ; a leafless wood, as it were, or as one 
 writer describes it, a forest without branches, 
 the bare stem being surmounted only by a 
 head of long, thin, straight fibres, is certainly 
 quite irreconcilable with the nature of the 
 plant which now bears that name, and of 
 which one of the stoutest growth has been 
 very kindly furnished me by Sir W. J. Hooker, 
 from the Royal Gardens at Kew. 
 
 In the prophecy of Isaiah a very remarkable 
 prediction occurs with reference to this plant. 
 " The paper reeds by the brooks, by the mouth 
 of the brooks, and everything sown by the 
 brooks, shall wither, be driven away, and be 
 no more." Doubtless, we may believe that 
 this prophecy has literally received its fulfil- 
 ment. 
 
 With reference to the mode in which the 
 paper was manufactured from this plant, two 
 
THE PAPYRUS. 
 
 21 
 
 distinct opinions have been handed down to 
 us. One, that the epidermis being removed, 
 the spongy part was cut into thin slices, which 
 were steeped in the waters of the Nile, or in 
 water slightly imbued with gum ; after which 
 two layers were placed one above another, 
 carefully arranged in contrary directions, that 
 is, lengthwise and breadthwise, which, after 
 being dried, were finally smoothed and brought 
 to a fit surface for receiving writing, by being 
 rubbed with a tooth or piece of polished ivory. 
 
 Another method said to have been adopted 
 in preparing this material, was simply that of 
 separating the thin concentric coats, or pellicles 
 of the plant which surrounded the stock, by 
 means of a needle or pointed shell (on an 
 average about twenty from each stalk), and 
 afterwards extending them longitudinally side 
 by side on a table, a similar layer being placed 
 across them at right angles ; in which state 
 they were moistened with water, and while 
 wet put under pressure, being afterwards 
 exposed to the rays of the sun, and finally 
 polished, as in the former case, with some hard 
 substance, such as a tooth or shell, not merely 
 
2 2 PAPER AND PAPER MAKING. 
 
 for the purpose of improving the surface, but 
 to prevent its absorbing the ink. The sac- 
 charine matter with which the whole juice of 
 the plant is said to have been impregnated, 
 being usually sufficient to cause the adhesion 
 of the strips together. 
 
 So great was the importance of this manu- 
 facture at some periods, that Gibbon informs 
 us of one Firmus, who raised the standard of 
 revolt in Egypt against the Emperor Aurelian ; 
 that he boasted he would maintain an army 
 solely from the profits of his paper trade. 
 At another time, in the reign of Tiberius, 
 there happened such a scarcity of paper, from 
 causes that are not mentioned, that the Senate, 
 in order to prevent a riot, were obliged to 
 appoint commissioners to distribute paper to 
 the applicants according to their respective 
 demands. 
 
 Papyri vary much more in length than in 
 breadth, and upon this fad: I would dwell, as 
 decidedly favouring the conception that the 
 outer coat merely was employed in preparing 
 the writing material. Indeed, in every speci- 
 men which I have examined, I have found the 
 
USUAL DIMENSIONS OF PAPTRUS. 2.3 
 
 slips of which it is composed rarely exceeding 
 twelve or fifteen inches even lengthwise. 
 Whereas, if they had been produced from the 
 pithy part of the stem, after being cut into 
 slices, there would have been no difficulty 
 whatever in manufacturing the paper of the 
 entire length, which, as I have already stated, 
 sometimes exceeded ten feet. 
 
 The breadth of papyri seldom exceeds 
 eighteen inches, sometimes they are not more 
 than four inches in width, which I imagine 
 to have been determined by the length of the 
 outer coats or pellicles taken from the plant ; 
 the length, of course, being carried to any 
 extent, simply by fastening one sheet to 
 another. The largest specimen of which I 
 have heard is one at Paris, measuring thirty 
 feet in length. The most interesting which 
 we possess in this country is one which may 
 be seen in the Manuscript Department of the 
 British Museum, which appears to have been 
 written in Latin, in the year 572, upon a roll 
 of papyrus, eight feet and a half long, and 
 twelve inches wide. It is a deed relating to 
 the sale of a house and land at Ravenna. 
 
24 PAPER AND PAPER MAKING. 
 
 Though papyri found on mummies are 
 often in a good state of preservation, it is 
 necessary to be very careful in handling them. 
 The roll, owing to its being pressed under the 
 swathings of the mummy, being completely 
 flattened, and from the unvarying high tem- 
 perature of the tomb to which it has for so 
 long a time been subjected, is frequently so dry 
 and brittle, that if any attempt be made to 
 unroll it without previous precaution, small 
 pieces will continually fall off. Still, the 
 durability of this writing material is one of its 
 best qualities. It can, in some instances, be 
 rolled and unrolled after the lapse of many 
 centuries without any detriment to it ; but the 
 complete preservation of such specimens is 
 generally to be attributed to their being kept 
 from the air either in wooden or earthen 
 vessels, frequently in the interior of the Idol 
 to which the mummy was once wont to 
 present his offering, which is usually of some 
 grotesque or even hideous form, altogether 
 unworthy of mention as representing any 
 created thing, either upon the face of the 
 earth, or in the waters beneath. Not long 
 
THE A NT I g)U ITT OF PAPYRUS. 2$ 
 
 since I was shown one, containing a roll of 
 papyrus, which had been roughly carved out 
 of wood, somewhat resembling an overgrown 
 cat in a sitting posture. And this so-called god, 
 as appears to have been customarily the case, 
 was taken from the tomb, where it stood over 
 the mummy, with two very beautiful vases, 
 which at one time contained fragrant oils, 
 believed to be acceptable to the Idol, placed in 
 front. The papyri thus curiously preserved, 
 usually contain an account of the rank or 
 station which the dead once filled, and occa- 
 sionally some description of the particular rites 
 and ceremonies observed with reference to the 
 worship. 
 
 With respect to the period at which the 
 ancients began to make a writing substance of 
 the papyrus, or, indeed, of the name of the 
 originator, nothing decisive is known. It 
 would, however, appear from the prophecy 
 in Isaiah, which has been already referred 
 to, in which mention is made of paper reeds 
 by the brooks, that paper made of such reeds 
 was actually in use when that prophecy 
 was written. And in accordance with this 
 
26 PAPER AND PAPER MAKING. 
 
 conception, the learned Dr. Gill, in his 
 Commentary, says, " On the banks of the Nile 
 grew a reed, or rush, called by the Greeks 
 papyrus, or byblus, from whence come the 
 words paper and bible, or book, of which 
 paper was anciently made, even as early as the 
 time of Isaiah," now nearly 3000 years ago. 
 
 The kind of pen ordinarily used for writing 
 upon this material was simply a reed, cut and 
 split just as our quill pens at present are, but 
 with a point not quite so sharp. 
 
 I have in my possession some very fine 
 specimens of what is usually called Bark Cloth, 
 which, in its manufacture, approximates more 
 nearly to that of modern paper than any other 
 substance with which I am acquainted. It is 
 formed from the bark of a small tree, or shrub, 
 called the Paper Mulberry ( morus papyrifera J, 
 which grows wild in the southern provinces 
 of China, in Ava, in the Burmese country, and 
 in India, as well as in all the Asiatic and Poly- 
 nesian islands, from Japan to Otaheite. If a 
 strip of this bark, which is remarkable for the 
 fineness of its texture, after being soaked in 
 water, be laid on a smooth stone, and then 
 
2 7 
 
 carefully beaten with a bat or mallet, the 
 surface of which is cut into fine ribs, the 
 fibres will become separated more or less from 
 one another ; and if the beating be carefully 
 conducted, the bark will ultimately assume the 
 appearance of a web of fine linen, two pieces 
 of bark being made to incorporate with one 
 another simply by laying them so as to overlap 
 a little, and then beating again. In this simple 
 way the material is formed; and by a short 
 exposure to the sunshine when wet, becomes 
 perfectly white. To render it fit for writing, 
 it is afterwards polished in a manner similar to 
 the papyrus, by rubbing it with a shell or 
 other hard substance until it has very much 
 the appearance of parchment ; and that it 
 bears ink perfectly well, may be seen by an 
 inspection of some Javanese works, which 
 are contained in the library of the Hon. East 
 India Company. 
 
 The bat or mallet employed by the natives in 
 preparing this material is usually about fifteen 
 inches in length, and from two and a half to 
 three inches square, one side being grooved 
 very coarsely, another somewhat finer, a third 
 
28 PAPER AND PAPER MAKING. 
 
 exceedingly fine, and the fourth generally cut 
 in chequers or small squares. The bark is 
 first beaten with the coarsest side of the instru- 
 ment, and then, in turn, with those parts 
 which are finer, the resinous matter contained 
 in it being usually found sufficiently adhesive. 
 
 Without, however, dwelling longer upon 
 this portion of our subject, let us now pro- 
 ceed to trace out, in some measure, the 
 history and progress of that more perfect 
 and ingenious invention, modern paper; 
 and in so doing, I can hardly forbear 
 making some allusion to the incalculable 
 advantages which have resulted to mankind 
 from the introduction of so ingenious and 
 extraordinary a discovery. It certainly would 
 appear very remarkable, that not only amongst 
 mankind generally, but even with those inti- 
 mately associated with that branch of com- 
 merce, so little interest should be found to 
 exist in an acquaintance with its origin and 
 advancement, beyond the bare knowledge 
 which directly concerns them. It is true that 
 with them, no less than with people in general, 
 the very indispensableness of the material 
 
20 
 
 renders familiarity at once an unconscious 
 stumbling-block, to any conception of the 
 grandeur of its importance, or its vastly 
 interesting and varied associations. Yet what 
 infinite trouble and labour, what fruitless con- 
 sumption of time, has not been saved by the 
 invention of paper. How many toilsome and 
 dangerous experiments have not philosophical 
 projectors been spared. What laborious investi- 
 gations and study have not thus been abridged, 
 by the facts of others' researches being so 
 conveyed to posterity — knowledge, more than 
 any one man could have attained to in a 
 thousand years, though born with faculties in 
 maturity. To enumerate all the advantages 
 w T hich the invention of paper has afforded 
 mankind, it were, indeed, useless to attempt; 
 for, whether we look at the traveller, traversing 
 sea and land, without the knowledge of geogra- 
 phy and navigation, without those beautiful 
 charts of the ocean, by which he is now 
 enabled to proceed with safety, and - even to 
 predict with certainty his arrival at the most 
 distant ports ; or, whether we look at the man 
 of science, who being neither artist nor manu- 
 
3o PAPER AND PAPER MAKING. 
 
 fafturer, is thus enabled to communicate his 
 plan and projects with accuracy and ease, for 
 mechanics afterwards to improve and perfect ; 
 or, indeed, whether we view the growing 
 youth, educated with such facility in the 
 principles of their duty, backward even to 
 barbarous states, softened and enlightened by 
 means of the discovery ; its value, in the 
 applicability of its purposes, stands out alike 
 in each, declaring it distinctly, above all other 
 inventions, as truly the most wonderful, useful, 
 and important, which has ever yet transpired 
 in any age of the world ; inasmuch as without 
 it, every other discovery must necessarily have 
 continued comparatively useless to society. 
 For, be it remembered, that in contrasting the 
 results of this invention with the productions 
 of former periods, we are, in fact, arraying in 
 our train the mighty arm of the press against 
 the feeble efforts of an unwieldy style, or the 
 tedious and uncertain process of the slow- 
 paced pen, which, prior to an acquaintance 
 with the art of printing, were the only means 
 mankind possessed for spreading the influence 
 and advantages of learning amongst their 
 
MODERN PRINTING. 3 I 
 
 fellow-creatures. And, again, how highly 
 interesting is it, to observe the prodigious 
 advancement resulting from an ingenious and 
 successful application of machinery in the one 
 case, serving at the same time to develop to 
 our wonder and amazement the extraordinary 
 capabilities of production which have since 
 been revealed by the Printing Machine. 
 Truly may we now pronounce — 
 
 " The Press ! the venerated Press ! 
 Freedom's impenetrable shield — 
 The sword that wins her best success, 
 The only sword that man should wield. " 
 
 It is stated that the daily aggregate printed 
 surface of the Times alone, actually exceeds 
 that of thirty acres ; and the Illustrated London 
 News, on one occasion, sent forth no less than 
 500,000 double numbers, or one million sheets. 
 In fad:, 2000 reams, exceeding seventy tons in 
 weight. 
 
 The manufacture of four or five hundred 
 square feet of paper per minute, and 1 2,000 
 impressions per hour, are now matters of every- 
 day occurrence, although it should be borne in 
 mind, that without the paper machine, pouring 
 
32 PAPER AND PAPER MAKING. 
 
 forth its miles of web, these corresponding 
 advantages in printing could not have been 
 developed. 
 
 We may take, as an instance, that book of 
 books, which Pollok very beautifully describes 
 as — 
 
 " The only star 
 By which the bark of man could navigate 
 The sea of life, and gain the coast of bliss 
 Securely ! " 
 
 Although now a handsome copy, printed on 
 tolerably fine paper, gilt edged, and bound in 
 embossed roan, may be purchased for one 
 shilling, in the reign of Henry the Third, it 
 is recorded that two arches of London Bridge 
 were built for a less sum than that for which 
 a Bible could be procured. And, as we con- 
 tinue the search still further back, the contrast 
 becomes increasingly interesting. For let it be 
 remembered, that the sixty-six books of which 
 the Bible is composed, were not always con- 
 tained in so convenient a form. During the 
 sixteen centuries which were occupied in 
 making known this revelation to man, not 
 only were the advantages which we possess 
 
ADVANTAGES OF MODERN PAPER. 33 
 
 altogether unknown, even in their rudest form, 
 but substitutes, apparently far less promising 
 than many we have referred to, were also at 
 one period and another directed to be employed. 
 As for instance, to Ezekiel, Jehovah once said, 
 " Thou also, son of man, take thee a tile, and 
 lay it before thee, and portray upon it the 
 city, even Jerusalem." And elsewhere, "More- 
 over, thou son of man, take thee one stick 9 
 and write upon it, for Judah, and for the 
 children of Israel, his companions." 
 
 Of course there have been occasions when 
 certain portions of the Scriptures were very 
 beautifully inscribed (more particularly of the 
 New Testament) sometimes in letters of gold, 
 on parchment of the richest purple. Still they 
 were manuscript, and, as such, not unfrequently 
 occupied the labour of individuals for years. 
 Instances are upon record, of fifty years in the 
 life of one man being engaged in the execution 
 of a single copy of the Scriptures. In the 
 present day it is, perhaps, impossible for us 
 properly to appreciate the skill, the labour, 
 and the immense expenditure employed in 
 such productions. For now, by the aid of the 
 
 D 
 
34 PAPER AND PAPER MAKING. 
 
 printing machine, we have an entire copy 
 struck off in the space of one minute; and 
 such were the almost miraculous efforts of the 
 British and Foreign Bible Society last year, 
 that they actually issued, in nearly 150 known 
 languages, an average circulation of a copy for 
 every minute throughout the year. 
 
 It is much to be regretted that in tracing 
 the origin of so curious an art as that of the 
 manufacture of modern paper, any definite 
 conclusion as to the precise time or period 
 of its adoption should hitherto have proved 
 altogether unattainable. The Royal Society 
 of Sciences at Gottingen, in 1755 and 1763, 
 offered considerable premiums for that especial 
 object, but unfortunately all researches, how- 
 ever directed, were utterly fruitless. The 
 most ancient manuscript on cotton paper 
 appears to have been written in 1050, while 
 Eustathius, who wrote towards the end of the 
 1 2th century, states that the Egyptian papyrus 
 had gone into disuse but a little before his 
 time. To reconcile, however, in some mea- 
 sure contradictory accounts, it may be ob- 
 served, that on some particular occasions, and 
 
ORIGIN OF THE ART. 35 
 
 by some particular persons, the Egyptian paper 
 might have been employed for several hundred 
 years after it ceased to be in general use ; and 
 it is quite certain, that although the new in- 
 vention must have proved of great advantage 
 to mankind, it could only have been intro- 
 duced by degrees. Amongst the records 
 which are preserved at the Tower of London, 
 will be found a letter addressed to Henry the 
 Third, and written previously to 1222, which 
 appears to be upon strong paper of mixed 
 materials. Several letters of the following 
 reign, which are there preserved, are evidently 
 written on cotton paper. Were we able to 
 determine the precise time when paper was 
 first made from cotton, we should also be 
 enabled to fix the invention of the art of paper 
 making as it is now practised ; for the appli- 
 cation of cotton to the purposes of paper 
 making requires almost as much labour and 
 ingenuity as the use of linen rags. Some have 
 conceived, and probably with sufficient reason, 
 that China originally gave birth to the in- 
 vention. Certain it is, that the art of making- 
 paper from vegetable matter reduced to pulp 
 
 d 2 
 
36 PAPER AND PAPER MAKING. 
 
 was known and understood there long before 
 it was practised in Europe, and the Chinese 
 have carried it to a high degree of perfection. 
 Several kinds of their paper evince the greatest 
 art and ingenuity, and are applied with much 
 advantage to many purposes. One especially, 
 manufactured from the inner bark of the 
 bamboo, is particularly celebrated for affording 
 the clearest and most delicate impressions from 
 copper plates, which are ordinarily termed 
 India proofs. The Chinese, however, make 
 paper of various kinds, some of the bark of 
 trees, especially the mulberry tree, and the 
 elm, but chiefly of the bamboo and cotton 
 tree, and occasionally from other substances, 
 such as hemp, wheat, or rice straw. To give 
 an idea of the manner of fabricating paper 
 from these different substances, it will suffice 
 (the process being nearly the same in each) to 
 confine our observations to the method adopted 
 in the manufacture of paper from the bamboo — 
 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 is at times employed 
 
CHINESE MODE OF MANUFACTURE. 37 
 
 by the Chinese in this operation, but the 
 younger stalks are preferred. The canes being 
 first cut into pieces of four or five feet in 
 length, are made into parcels, and thrown 
 into a reservoir of mud and water for about a 
 fortnight, to soften them ; they are then taken 
 out, and carefully washed, every one of the 
 pieces being again 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, 
 by means of a hammer with a long handle ; 
 or, as is more commonly the case, by submitting 
 the mass to the action of stampers, raised in 
 the usual way by cogs on a revolving axis. 
 The pulp being thus far prepared, a glutinous 
 substance extracted from the shoots of a certain 
 plant is next mixed with it in stated quantities, 
 and upon this mixture chiefly depends the 
 quality of the paper. 
 
 As soon as this has taken place, the whole 
 is again beaten together until it becomes a 
 thick viscous liquor, which, after being re- 
 duced to an essential state of consistency, by a 
 further admixture of water, is then transferred 
 
3^ PAPER AND PAPER MAKING. 
 
 to a large reservoir or vat, having on each side 
 of it a drying stove, in the form of a ridge of 
 a house — that is, consisting of two sloping 
 sides touching at top. These sides are covered 
 externally with an exceedingly smooth coating 
 of stucco, and a flue passes through the brick- 
 work, so as to keep the whole of each side 
 equally and moderately warm. A vat and a 
 stove are placed alternately in the manufactory, 
 so that there are two sides of two different 
 stoves adjacent to each vat. The workman 
 dips his mould, which is sometimes formed 
 merely of bulrushes, cut in narrow strips, and 
 mounted in a frame, into the vat, and then 
 raises it out again, the water passing off 
 through the perforations in the bottom, and 
 the pulpy paper-stuff remaining on its surface. 
 The frame of the mould is then removed, and 
 the bottom is pressed against the sides of one 
 of the stoves, so as to make the sheet of paper 
 adhere to its surface, and allow the sieve (as 
 it were) to be withdrawn. The moisture, of 
 course, speedily evaporates by the warmth of 
 the stove, but before the paper is quite dry it 
 is brushed over on its outer surface with a size 
 
ITS PROGRESS IN EUROPE. 39 
 
 made of rice, which also soon dries, and the 
 paper is then stripped off in a finished state, 
 having one surface exquisitely smooth, it being 
 seldom the practice of the Chinese to write 
 or print on both sides of the paper. While 
 all this is taking place, the moulder has made 
 a second sheet, and pressed it against the side 
 of the other stove, where it undergoes the 
 operation of sizing and drying, precisely as in 
 the former case. 
 
 That very delicate material, which is 
 brought from China in pieces only a few 
 inches square, and commonly, but erroneously, 
 termed rice paper, is in reality but a membrane 
 of the bread-fruit tree, obtained by cutting 
 the stem spirally round the axis, and after- 
 wards flattening it by pressure. That it is not 
 an artificial production may very readily be 
 perceived by contrasting one of the more 
 translucent specimens with a piece of the 
 finest manufactured paper, by the aid of the 
 microscope. 
 
 The precise period at which the manu- 
 facture of paper was first introduced into 
 Europe appears to be rather a matter of 
 
40 PAPER AND PAPER MAKING. 
 
 uncertainty. Paper-mills, moved by water 
 power, were in operation in Tuscany at the 
 commencement of the fourteenth century; 
 and at Nuremberg, in Germany, one was 
 established in 1390, by Ulman Stromer, who 
 wrote the first work ever published on the art 
 of paper making. He seems to have employed 
 a great number of persons, all of whom were 
 obliged to take an oath that they would not 
 teach any one the art of paper making, or 
 make it on their own account. In the fol- 
 lowing year, when anxious to increase the 
 means of its production, he met with such 
 strong opposition from those he employed, 
 who would not consent to any enlargement 
 of the mill, that it became at length requisite 
 to bring them before the magistrates, by whom 
 they were imprisoned, after which they sub- 
 mitted by renewing their oaths. Two or 
 three centuries later, we find the Dutch, in 
 like manner, so extremely jealous with respect 
 to the manufacture, as to prohibit the expor- 
 tation of moulds, under no less severe a penalty 
 than that of death. 
 
 Fuller makes some exceedingly curious 
 
INTRODUCTION INTO ENGLAND. 41 
 
 observations respecting the paper of his time, 
 which may, perhaps, be introduced here with 
 advantage. He says — " Paper participates in 
 some sort of the character of the country which 
 makes it ; the Venetian being neat, subtile, 
 and court-like ; the French light, slight, and 
 slender ; and the Dutch thick, corpulent, and 
 gross, sucking up the ink with the sponginess 
 thereof." He complains that the paper manu- 
 factories were not then sufficiently encouraged, 
 considering the vast sums of money expended 
 in our land for paper out of Italy, France, and 
 Germany, which might be lessened were it 
 made in our nation. " To such who object," 
 says he, " that we can never equal the per- 
 fection of Venice paper, I return, neither can 
 we match the purity of Venice glasses, and 
 yet many green ones are blown in Sussex, 
 profitable to the makers, and convenient to 
 the users, our home-spun paper might be 
 found beneficial." 
 
 With reference to any particular time or 
 place at which this inestimable invention was 
 first adopted in England, all researches into 
 existing records contribute little to our assist- 
 
42 PAPER AND PAPER MAKING. 
 
 ance. The first paper mill erected here is 
 commonly attributed to Sir John Spielman, a 
 German, who established one in 1588, at 
 Dartford, for which the honour of knighthood 
 was afterwards conferred upon him by Queen 
 Elizabeth, who was also pleased to grant him 
 a licence " for the sole gathering for ten years 
 of all rags, &c, necessary for the making of 
 such paper." It is, however, quite certain 
 that paper mills were in existence here long 
 before Spielman's time. Shakspeare, in the 
 second part of his play of Henry the Sixth, 
 the plot of which appears laid at least a 
 century previously, refers to a paper mill. 
 In fact, he introduces it as an additional 
 weight to the charge which Jack Cade is 
 made to bring against Lord Saye, " Thou hast 
 most traitorously corrupted," says he, " the 
 youth of the realm, in erecting a grammar 
 school ; and whereas, before, our forefathers 
 had no other books but the score and the 
 tally, thou hast caused printing to be used, 
 and, contrary to the king, his crown and 
 dignity, thou hast built a paper mill." 
 
 An earlier trace of the manufacture in 
 
43 
 
 this country occurs in a book printed by 
 Caxton, about the year 1490, in which it is 
 said of John Tate — ■ 
 
 "Which late hathein England doo make thya paper thymic, 
 That now in our Englyssh thys booke is printed inne." 
 
 His mill was situate at or near Stevenage, 
 in Hertfordshire, and that it was considered 
 worthy of especial notice is evident from an 
 entry made in Henry the Seventh's House- 
 hold Book, on the 25th of May, 1498 — " For 
 a rewarde geven at the paper-mylne, 16s. 8d." 
 And again in 1499 — "Geven in rewarde to 
 Tate of the mylne, 6s. 8d." 
 
 Still, it appears far less probable that Shak- 
 speare alluded to Tate's mill (although esta- 
 blished at a period corresponding in many 
 respects with that of occurrences referred to in 
 connection), than to that of Sir John Spielman. 
 Standing as it did in the immediate neigh- 
 bourhood of the scene of Jack Cade's rebellion, 
 and being esteemed so important at the time 
 as to call forth the marked patronage of 
 Queen Elizabeth, the extent of the operations 
 carried on there were calculated to arouse, 
 
44 PAPER AND PAPER MAKING. 
 
 and no doubt did arouse, considerable national 
 interest ; and one can hardly help thinking, 
 from the prominence to which Shakspeare 
 assigns the existence of a paper mill (coupled 
 as such allusion is with an acknowledged 
 liberty, inherent in him, of transposing events 
 to add force to his style, and the very con- 
 siderable doubt as to the exact year in which 
 the play was written), that the reference made 
 was to none other than that of Sir John 
 Spielman's establishment of 1588, concerning 
 which we find it said — 
 
 " Six hundred men are set to work by him, 
 That else might starve or seek abroad thetr bread, 
 Who now live well, and go full brave and trim,, 
 And who may boast they are with paper fed." 
 
 Understanding that some five-and-thirty or 
 forty years since it was asserted by the then 
 occupier of North Newton mill, near Banbury, 
 in Oxfordshire, which at that time was the 
 property of Lord Saye and Sele, that such was 
 the first erected in this country for the manu- 
 facture of paper, and also that it was to that 
 mill Shakspeare referred in the passage just 
 quoted, I recently communicated with Lord 
 
FIRST ENGLISH MILL. 45 
 
 Saye and Sele as to the plausibility of the suppo- 
 sition ; remarking at the same time, £s I would 
 now, that although it was of course quite 
 impossible to award the immortal bard great 
 credit for chronological accuracy, it must, I 
 thought, be admitted, that so marvellous an 
 invention, unless really in existence, could not 
 by any possibility of conception have been 
 conjured up even to supply the unlimited 
 necessities of the poet's strain. His lordship, 
 however, at once terminated the probability 
 of this mill taking the precedence, even of 
 Sir John Spielman's, by informing me that the 
 first nobleman succeeding to that title who 
 had property in Oxfordshire was the son of 
 the first Lord Saye, to whom Shakspeare 
 makes reference. 
 
 Be the introduction or establishment of the 
 invention, so far as this country is concerned, 
 when it may, little progress appears to have 
 resulted therefrom, even so late as the middle 
 of the seventeenth century. In 1695, a com- 
 pany was formed in Scotland " for manu- 
 facturing white writing and printing paper," 
 relating to which, " Articles concluded and 
 
46 PAPER AND PAPER MAKING. 
 
 agreed upon at a general meeting at Edinburgh, 
 the 19th day of August," in the same year, 
 may still be seen by those who are suffi- 
 ciently curious, in the library of the British 
 Museum. It is also recorded in the Crafts- 
 man (910), that William the Third granted 
 the Huguenots refuged in England a patent 
 for establishing paper manufactories, and that 
 Parliament likewise granted to them other 
 privileges, amongst which, in all probability, 
 that very unsatisfactory practice of putting up 
 each ream with two quires composed entirely 
 of sheets spoiled in course of production. 
 Their undertaking, however, like that of many 
 others, appears to have met with very little 
 success. 
 
 In fact, the making of paper here scarcely 
 reached any high degree of perfection until 
 about 1760-5, at which period the celebrated 
 James Whatman established his reputation at 
 Maidstone. 
 
 Until very recently, Whatman's papers (so 
 called) were manufactured at two mills, totally 
 distinct, both of which were worked by the 
 descendants of Mr. Whatman's successors ; the 
 
JAMES WHATMAN. 
 
 47 
 
 paper in the one case being readily distin- 
 guished by the water mark, " J. Whatman, 
 Turkey Mill," and in the other by the water 
 mark simply " J. Whatman," but bearing 
 upon the upper wrapper of each ream the 
 original and well-known stamp, containing 
 the initials L. V. G., which are those of 
 L. V. Gerrevink, as celebrated a Dutch manu- 
 facturer prior to Mr. Whatman's improve- 
 ments, as Mr. Whatman's name has since 
 become in all parts of the world. 
 
 The Report of the Juries of the Great 
 Exhibition of i 85 1 — a work from whence 
 information might very naturally be sought, 
 and which one would have supposed to be 
 unexceptionable in point of authenticity — 
 contains an unfortunate error with reference 
 to the position of Mr. Whatman at that time. 
 It is there stated that he gained his knowledge 
 of the manufacture prior to establishing these 
 well-known mills, " by working as a journey- 
 man in most of the principal paper manu- 
 factories of the Continent," which is altogether 
 an erroneous assertion ; for Mr. Whatman, 
 previously to his being engaged as a manu- 
 
48 PAPER AND PAPER MAKING. 
 
 facturer, was an officer in the Kent Militia, 
 and acquired the information, which eventually 
 rendered him so successful, by travelling in 
 the suite of the British Ambassador to Hol- 
 land, where the best papers were then made ; 
 and the insight thus obtained enabled his 
 genius to effect the great improvements after- 
 wards so universally admitted. 
 
 The comparatively recent application of 
 machinery has effected wonderful results in 
 the manufacture of paper. 
 
 The principle of paper making by ma- 
 chinery is simply this : instead of employing 
 moulds and felts of limited dimensions, as was 
 originally the practice, the peculiar merit of 
 the invention consists in the adaptation of an 
 endless wire gauze to receive the paper pulp, 
 and again an endless felt, to which in progress 
 the paper is transferred ; and thus by a mar- 
 vellously delicate adjustment, while the wire 
 at one end receives but a constant flow of 
 liquid pulp, in the course of two or three 
 minutes the finished fabric is carefully wound 
 on a roller at the other extremity. 
 
 The largest paper made by hand, termed 
 
ADVANTAGES OF MACHINERY. 49 
 
 Antiquarian, measures 53 inches by 31, and 
 so great is the weight of liquid pulp employed 
 in the formation of a single sheet, that no 
 fewer than nine men are required, besides 
 additional assistance in raising the mould out 
 of the vat by means of pulleys ; while by the 
 aid of the paper machine, the most perfect 
 production may be ensured, of a continuous 
 length, and eight feet wide, without any 
 positive necessity for personal superintendence. 
 Instead of counting sheets in course of pro- 
 duction, as formerly, or even measuring the 
 length by yards, we may actually have the 
 paper drawn out as it were, and wound up, 
 miles in length. In the recent Dublin Ex- 
 hibition, a sheet was exhibited which was 
 said to have been of sufficient length to wrap 
 round the world ; but, I must confess, that I 
 am not in a position to vouch for the accuracy 
 of the statement. An anecdote, however, is 
 told (the truth of which I have no reason to 
 doubt) of the patentee of this machine, and a 
 relative or friend of his, of some considerable 
 standing and influence in the pottery district, 
 who were dining together about the period at 
 
 E 
 
50 PAPER AND PAPER MAKING. 
 
 which this machine was first adopted ; when 
 the one, speaking of the advantages which he 
 conceived the new mode would prove to his 
 friend, alluded above all others to the remark- 
 able capability which it possessed of producing 
 paper of any length that could possibly be 
 required. " Well," said his friend, " I very 
 much doubt that ; but if you can make me 
 five miles of the quality I require, I shall cer- 
 tainly have little hesitation in admitting all the 
 perfection and suitability which you have 
 laboured to impress upon me." The very 
 next day the machine was set to work, and 
 timed, in order to ascertain the required length 
 wound upon the reel, which, after being 
 charged with Excise duty, was forwarded 
 without delay to its destination ; and, as may 
 be conceived, to the utter astonishment of his 
 incredulous friend. 
 
 It is a fact, which certainly deserves to be 
 noticed for its singularity as well as for the 
 strong point of view in which it places the 
 merits of this invention, that an art of such 
 great importance to society as that of the 
 manufacture of paper should have remained 
 
ITS MECHANICAL PROGRESS. 51 
 
 almost dormant for at least eight centuries 
 since paper is first believed to have been in 
 use, and that upwards of 200 of those years 
 should have elapsed since its first introduction 
 into England, without any mechanical im- 
 provement whatever as regards the processes 
 which were then employed. It is true, that 
 various attempts from time to time were 
 made, but in every instance they appear to 
 have met with very little success. In France, 
 an ingenious artist (Monsieur Montgolfier) 
 contrived three figures in wood to do the 
 work of the vatman, the coucher, and the 
 layer ; but, after persevering for six months, 
 and incurring considerable expense, he was at 
 length compelled to abandon his scheme. 
 And although paper was previously manu- 
 factured in China, in Persia, and indeed 
 throughout all Asia, sometimes of considerable 
 length, it was so, not by machinery, but by 
 means of a mould of the size of the paper 
 intended to be made, suspended like a swing, 
 and having men placed at the distance of about 
 every four feet, for the purpose of producing 
 an uniform shaking motion, after the mould 
 
 E 2 
 
52 PAPER AND PAPER MAKING. 
 
 had been immersed in the vat, in order to 
 compact the pulp. 
 
 Such, then, was the rude state of this im- 
 portant manufacture, even up to the com- 
 mencement of the present century, when a 
 small working model of a continuous machine 
 was introduced into this country from France 
 by Mr. John Gamble, brother-in-law to 
 Monsieur Leger Didot, the proprietor at that 
 time of the paper manufactory at Essonne. 
 
 The individual to whose genius we owe 
 that beautiful contrivance, which has since 
 been adopted wherever the want which it was 
 designed to remedy has been truly felt, and 
 which has contributed in an eminent degree 
 to the advancement of civilization, was an 
 unassuming clerk in the establishment of 
 Monsieur Didot, named Louis Robert, who 
 following his favourite pursuit of inventing 
 and improving, not unfrequently had to bear 
 the reproach of wasting time on an invention 
 that could never be brought to perfection. 
 Fortunately, however, the patience and atten- 
 tion of this persevering man were at length 
 sufficiently rewarded by the completion of a 
 
LOUIS ROBERT. 
 
 53 
 
 small model, not larger than a bird organ, 
 which enabled him to produce paper of a 
 continuous length, although but the width 
 of a piece of tape. So successful was this 
 performance, that his employer, instead of 
 continuing to thwart his progress, was now 
 induced to afford him the means of making 
 a model upon a larger scale ; and in a few 
 months a machine was completed, capable of 
 making paper the width of Colombier (24 
 inches), for which the consumption in France 
 was very great. After a series of experiments 
 and improvements, Louis Robert applied to 
 the French Government for a patent, or brevet 
 d* invention, which he obtained in 1799 for a 
 term of fifteen years, and was awarded the 
 sum of 8,000 francs as a reward for his 
 ingenuity. The specification of this patent 
 is published in the second volume of the 
 " Brevets d'Inventions Expires." Shortly 
 afterwards M. Didot purchased Louis Robert's 
 patent and paper machine for 25,000 francs, 
 to be paid by instalments ; but not fulfilling 
 his engagements, the latter commenced legal 
 proceedings, and recovered possession of his 
 
54 PAPER AND PAPER MAKING. 
 
 patent, by a decision dated June 23rd, 1801. 
 Towards the close of the year 1800, M. Didot 
 proposed to his brother-in-law, Mr. Gamble, 
 that patents should be taken out in England, 
 and suggested that he, being an Englishman, 
 and holding a situation under the British 
 Government, would in all probability accom- 
 plish it without much difficulty. To this 
 proposition Mr. Gamble assented, and in the 
 month of March, 1801, he left Paris for 
 London, where, happily for the vigorous 
 development of this project, he obtained an 
 introduction, immediately upon his arrival, 
 to one of the principal wholesale stationery 
 houses in Great Britain — a firm of consider- 
 able opulence — and to those gentlemen he 
 mentioned the nature and circumstances of 
 his visit, at the same time showing them 
 several rolls of the paper of great length, 
 which had been made at Essonne by Louis 
 Robert's machine, and which induced them 
 to take a share in the patent. 
 
 The firm alluded to was that of the Messrs. 
 Fourdrinier — a name which has indeed be- 
 come alike famous and unfortunate — and this 
 
THE FOUR D R INIER MACHINE. SS 
 
 transaction it was which first connected them 
 with the paper machine. In the year 1801, 
 Mr. Gamble returned to Paris, and concerted 
 measures with Monsieur Leger Didot and 
 Louis Robert, to have the working model, 
 which was then at Essonne, sent over to 
 England to assist in the construction of other 
 machines ; and the following year M. Didot 
 arriving in London, was introduced by Mr. 
 Gamble to the Messrs. Fourdrinier, when a 
 series of experiments for improving the 
 machine was considered desirable, and at once 
 commenced. But in order to accomplish the 
 arduous object which those gentlemen then 
 had in view, they laboured without inter- 
 mission for nearly six years, when, after 
 incurring an expense of £60,000, which was 
 borne exclusively by the Messrs. Fourdrinier, 
 they at length succeeded in giving some 
 farther organization and connection to the 
 mechanical parts, for which they likewise 
 obtained a patent ; and finding eventually that 
 there was little prospect of being recompensed 
 for labour and risk, or even reimbursed their 
 expenses, unless Parliament should think 
 
56 PAPER AND PAPER MAKING. 
 
 proper to grant an extension of the patent, 
 they determined upon making a fresh appli- 
 cation to the Legislature for that purpose. 
 But it would appear that although in the 
 Bill, as it passed the House of Commons, such 
 prolonged period extended to fourteen years, 
 in the Lords it was limited to seven, with an 
 understanding that such term should be ex- 
 tended to seven years more in the event of 
 the patentees proving, upon a future appli- 
 cation, that they had not been sufficiently 
 remunerated. No such application, however, 
 was made, in consequence of a Standing Order 
 of the House of Lords, placed on their Journal 
 subsequently to the passing of the said Acl: ; 
 which regulation had the effect of depriving 
 the Messrs. Fourdrinier of any benefit what- 
 ever from the invention ; and ultimately, so 
 great were the difficulties they had to en- 
 counter, and so little encouragement or support 
 did they receive, that the time and attention 
 required to mature this valuable invention, 
 and the large capital which it absorbed, were 
 the means of reducing those wealthy and liberal 
 men to the humiliating condition of bank- 
 
HENRY FOURDR INIER . 
 
 57 
 
 ruptcy. A leading article in the Times, June 
 17, 1847, speaking of Mr. Henry Fourdrinier, 
 thus concludes by advocating his claims : — 
 " Three days only are past since an assembly, 
 illustrious for rank and station, met to cele- 
 brate and immortalize the memory of Caxton. 
 What more fitting or graceful opportunity of 
 paying a tribute of respect and justice to his 
 fellow-labourer in an adjoining field ? the one 
 the father of printing, the other the inventor (?) 
 of a process by which the full benefits of 
 printing have been realized to the civilized 
 world. And in the case of Mr. Fourdrinier 
 this advantage is found, that he can receive 
 in person the tribute of a nation's gratitude ; 
 an octogenarian, he still lives ; unlike Caxton, 
 he is not yet a subject for posthumous honours. 
 It is not a monument he wants, but justice. 
 The world, no doubt, according to ancient 
 precedent, would rather pay its tribute of 
 admiration, if we should not rather say its 
 debt of homage, after death. But it is fortu- 
 nately in the power of the present age to 
 point to a modern example of tardy but full 
 reparation made to a living man, a great im- 
 
5^ PAPER AND PAPER MAKING. 
 
 provement upon the old rule, the mockery of 
 a national funeral, and Westminster Abbey. 
 Lord Dundonald's case will always stand as a 
 brilliant exception to the common neglect of 
 contemporary merit, and by his side it would 
 be well to place, at no great interval, the man 
 who in a humbler sphere, but better suited to 
 an age of peace, has benefited humanity, by 
 facilitating the diffusion of letters, and the 
 acquisition of knowledge. " Powerful and 
 influential as is that journal, however, this 
 worthv man was still left to combat so bitter 
 a reverse, without even the means of procuring 
 comfort in his declining years. But I am 
 happy to say that an appeal has since been 
 made to that particular branch of trade so 
 materially benefited by the invention, the 
 paper manufacturers, in order to furnish the 
 surviving claimants upon the public gratitude 
 with a competent annuity for the remainder 
 of their days. And I sincerely hope that the 
 results of this laudable effort may have proved 
 to be as worthy the spirit of its originators, 
 as on the part of the public generally it de- 
 served consideration, as being supremely a 
 
CONCLUDING OBSERVATIONS. S9 
 
 national duty. For, be it remembered, that 
 while the value and importance of such an 
 invention to the paper maker is sufficiently 
 clear and conclusive, from the fad: of its general 
 adoption throughout the United Kingdom, by 
 no less than 700 manufacturers (averaging, 
 probably, twice that number of machines) ; 
 so on the other hand, we surely cannot remain 
 unmindful of its effects and benefits upon our- 
 selves, when, in contrasting the results of the 
 paper-making machine with the productions 
 of a former period, we find the cost reduced 
 to the consumer considerably more than one- 
 half, in some instances to actually a fourth. 
 
 Thus, then, it will be seen, that as civilization 
 has advanced, the facilities for recording and 
 transmitting facts have uniformly improved 
 and multiplied, until now, instead of oral 
 tradition, necessarily uncertain ; instead of the 
 bark and leaf, perishable or fragile ; instead of 
 the papyrus, so brittle ; the parchment, so 
 costly ; the raw cotton paper, so expensive ; 
 instead of inscriptions by the unwieldly style 
 and by the slow-paced pen, — we have now a 
 cheap, serviceable material, manufactured from 
 
6o PAPER AND PAPER MAKING. 
 
 the most useless of fabrics, and even from the 
 very refuse of our clothing, which, conjointly 
 with that art which preserves all other arts, 
 enables us far to surpass, in recording and 
 transmitting power, even the greatest demands 
 in the world's history. 
 
Chapter II. 
 
 On the Materials employed in the Formation of Paper — 
 Method of Preparation — Processes of Comminution — Wash- 
 ings Bleaching^ etc., described — Paper Making by Hand — 
 Paper-making Machine — Sizing Apparatus — Cutting Ma- 
 chine, etc., explained — General Observations on what are 
 termed Water Marks — Manner of effecting the same — Im- 
 portance frequently attached to them — Ireland's Fabrication 
 of the Shakspeare MSS. — Difficulty of procuring suitable 
 Paper for the purpose — On the perfeclion to which Water 
 Marks have now attained, especially with reference to the 
 production of Light and Shade, as seen in the New Bank 
 Note, etc. etc. 
 
 N the present chapter it will be my 
 object to take as general a glance at 
 the principles of paper making, as 
 in the former it was my endeavour to treat 
 its history. 
 
 First, then, we have to notice the nature of 
 some of the materials employed. And although 
 everybody is supposed to know that paper is 
 
62 PAPER AND PAPER MAKING. 
 
 made from rags, it may, perhaps, be excusable 
 to consider of what the rags themselves ori- 
 ginally were composed. Unquestionably, the 
 simplest definition one could give would be, 
 fragments of worn-out clothing ; and by 
 clothing, no doubt we all sufficiently under- 
 stand the dress, vesture, or garments usually 
 adopted by man. Still we have to ask our- 
 selves of what are these articles of clothing 
 composed ? It has been somewhat shrewdly 
 remarked, in every instance, of a something of 
 which man has previously denuded something 
 else. At one time (as we all know) he cun- 
 ningly entraps innumerable individuals, of the 
 fox, weasel, and squirrel tribes, to strip them 
 of their warm and valuable fur. At another, 
 he hatches and feeds legions of caterpillars, 
 that he may rob them of the defensive padding 
 which they spin to protect their helplessness 
 while passing through the chrysalis state. 
 Sometimes he pastures the sheep for its skin 
 and its wool, occasionally setting so little store 
 by the carcase as to melt it into tallow, or 
 burn it as fuel. And even mother earth her- 
 self is treated with no greater forbearance ; by 
 
MATERIALS EMPLOYED. 63 
 
 alternately feeding her up with manure, and 
 teasing and tormenting her surface with 
 tillage, she is coaxed and compelled to send 
 forth a living vegetable down, which is shorn, 
 plucked and plundered from her bosom, in 
 the shape of cotton, flax, and hemp. 
 
 And all those silks, woollens, flax, hemp, 
 and cotton, in all their varied forms, whether 
 as cambric, lace, linen, holland, fustian, cor- 
 duroy, bagging, canvas, or even as cables, are 
 or can be used in the manufacture of paper of 
 one kind or another. Still, when we speak 
 of rags, as of necessity, they accumulate, and 
 are gathered up by those who make it their 
 business to collect them, they are very far 
 from answering the purposes of paper making. 
 Rags, to the paper maker, are almost as various, 
 in point of quality or distinction, as the ma- 
 terials which are sought after through the 
 influence of fashion. Thus, the paper maker, 
 in buying rags, requires to know exactly of 
 what the bulk is composed. If he is a manu- 
 facturer of white papers, no matter whether 
 intended for writing or printing, silk or woollen 
 rags would be found altogether useless, inas- 
 
64 PAPER AND PAPER MAKING. 
 
 much, as is well known, the bleach will fail 
 to act upon any animal substance whatever. 
 And although he may purchase even a mixture 
 in proper proportions adapted for the quality 
 he is in the habit of supplying, it is as essential 
 in the processes of preparation, that they shall 
 be previously separated. Cotton in its raw 
 state, as may be readily conceived, requires far 
 less preparation than a strong hempen fabric, 
 and thus, to meet the requirements of the 
 paper maker, we have rags classed under 
 different denominations, — as, for instance, be- 
 sides Fines and Seconds, we have 'Thirds, which 
 are composed of fustians, corduroy, and similar 
 fabrics ; Stamps or Prints (as they are termed 
 by the paper maker), which are coloured rags, 
 and also innumerable foreign rags, distinguished 
 by certain well-known marks, indicating their 
 various peculiarities. I might mention, how- 
 ever, that although by far the greater portion 
 of the materials employed are such as we 
 have already alluded to, it is not from their 
 possessing any exclusive suitableness — since 
 various fibrous vegetable substances have 
 frequently been used, and are indeed still 
 
SUIT ABILITY OF VARIOUS FIBRES. 65 
 
 successfully employed — but rather on account 
 of their comparatively trifling value, arising 
 from the limited use to which they are 
 otherwise applicable. 
 
 To convey some idea of the number of 
 substances which have been really tried ; in 
 the library of the British Museum may be 
 seen a book printed in low Dutch, containing 
 upwards of sixty specimens of paper, made of 
 different materials, the result of one man's 
 experiments alone, so far back as the year 
 1772. In fact, almost every species of tough 
 fibrous vegetable, and even animal substance, 
 has at one time or another been employed ; 
 even the roots of trees, their bark, the bine 
 of hops, the tendrils of the vine, the stalks of 
 the nettle, the common thistle, the stem of 
 the hollyhock, the sugar cane, cabbage stalks, 
 beet-root, wood shavings, sawdust, hay, straw, 
 willow, and the like. Two inventions have 
 been patented for manufacturing paper en- 
 tirely from wood. One process consists in 
 first boiling the wood in caustic soda lye, in 
 order to remove the resinous matter, and then 
 washing to remove the alkali ; the wood is 
 
66 PAPER AND PAPER MAKING. 
 
 next treated with chlorine gas, or an oxygenous 
 compound of chlorine, in a suitable apparatus, 
 and washed to free it from the hydrochloric 
 acid formed ; it is now treated with a small 
 quantity of caustic soda, which converts it 
 instantly into pulp, which has only to be 
 washed and bleached, when it will merely 
 require to be beaten for an hour or an hour 
 and a half in the ordinary beating-engine, and 
 made into paper. The other invention is very 
 simple, consisting merely of a wooden box 
 enclosing a grindstone, which has a roughened 
 surface, and against which the blocks of wood 
 are kept in close contact by a lever, a small 
 stream of water being allowed to flow upon 
 the stone as it turns, in order to free it of the 
 pulp, and to assist in carrying it off through 
 an outlet at the bottom. Of course the pulp 
 thus produced cannot be employed for any 
 but the coarser kinds of paper. Straw is 
 occasionally used, in connection with other 
 materials, such as linen or cotton rags, and 
 even with considerable advantage, providing 
 the processes of preparation are thoroughly 
 understood. Where such is not the case, and 
 
STRAW, WOOD, RAGS, ETC. 67 
 
 the silica contained in the straw has not been 
 destroyed (by means of a strong alkali), the 
 paper will invariably be found more or less 
 brittle. The waste, however, which the 
 straw undergoes, in addition to a most ex- 
 pensive process of preparation, necessarily 
 precludes its adoption to any great extent. 
 
 With all the drawbacks attending the pre- 
 paration of straw, there is certainly no fibre 
 to compete with it at present as an auxiliary 
 to that of rags. A thick brown paper, of 
 tolerable strength, may be made from it 
 cheaply, but for printing or writing purposes 
 only an inferior description can be produced, 
 and of little comparative strength to that of 
 rag paper. Its chief and best use is that of 
 imparting stiffness to common newspaper. 
 Some manufacturers prefer for this purpose 
 an intermixture of straw with paper shavings, 
 and others in place of the paper shavings give 
 the preference to rags. The proportion of 
 straw used in connection with rags or paper 
 shavings varies from 50 to 80 per cent. 
 
 The cost at the present time of producing 
 two papers of equal quality, one entirely from 
 
 F 2 
 
68 PAPER AND PAPER MAKING. 
 
 straw, and the other entirely from rags, would 
 be very nearly equal ; for although the cost 
 of the rags would be at least JT 1 7 per ton, and 
 the cost of the straw not more than £2 per 
 ton, in addition to the greatly increased cost 
 of preparing the straw, the rags would only 
 waste one-third, while the straw would waste 
 fully one-half. Thus taking into consideration 
 the waste which each undergoes in process of 
 preparation, the aclual cost of material in pro- 
 ducing a ton of paper may be stated relatively 
 as £25 for rags, and £4 for straw. The cost, 
 however, of preparation, which includes power, 
 labour, and chemicals, being so very much 
 greater in the case of the straw — from two to 
 three times as much as that of rags — a 
 similarity of value is thus ultimately attained. 
 
 In order to reduce the straw to a suitable 
 consistency for paper making, it is placed in 
 a boiler, with a large quantity of strong alkali, 
 and with a pressure of steam equal to 120, 
 and sometimes to 150 lbs. per square inch; 
 the extreme heat being attained in super- 
 heating the steam after it leaves the boiler, 
 by passing it through a coiled pipe over a fire, 
 
SUITABLENESS OF FIBRE. 69 
 
 and thus the silica becomes destroyed, and the 
 straw softened to pulp, which, after being- 
 freed from the alkali by washing it in cold 
 water, is subsequently bleached and beaten in 
 the ordinary rag engine, to which we shall 
 presently refer. 
 
 All that can be said as to the suitableness 
 of fibre in general, may be summed up in 
 very few words ; any vegetable fibre having a 
 corrugated edge, which will enable it to cohere 
 in the mass, is fit for the purpose of paper 
 making ; the extent to which such might be 
 applied can solely be determined by the 
 question of cost in its production ; and hitherto 
 nearly everything which has been proposed as 
 a substitute for rags has been excluded either 
 by the cost of freight, the cost of preparation, 
 or the expenses combined. Given, plenty of 
 money to work out their processes, sanguine 
 but unpractical inventors may, regardless of 
 cost, produce paper from wood, hay, or stubble; 
 but, to quote the words of Dr. Forbes Royle, 
 "The generality of modern experimentalists 
 seem to be wholly unacquainted with the 
 labours of their predecessors, many of them 
 
JO PAPER AND PAPER MAKING. 
 
 commencing improvement by repeating ex- 
 periments which had already been made, and 
 announcing results as new which had long 
 previously been ascertained." 
 
 For all writing and printing purposes, 
 which manifestly are the most important, 
 nothing has yet been discovered to lessen the 
 value of rags, neither is it at all probable that 
 there will, inasmuch as rags of necessity must 
 continue accumulating ; and before it will 
 answer the purpose of the paper maker to 
 employ new material, which is not so well 
 adapted for his purpose as the old, he must 
 be enabled to purchase it for considerably less 
 than it would be worth in the manufacture 
 of textile fabrics, and, besides all this, rags 
 possess in themselves the very great advantage 
 of having been repeatedly prepared for paper 
 making by the numerous alkaline washings 
 which they necessarily receive during their 
 period of use. 
 
 England requires upwards of i 20,000 tons 
 of rags yearly, a large proportion of which 
 she derives from a foreign source. But surely 
 our home-supply could be greatly enlarged, 
 
THE COLLECTION OF RAGS. 71 
 
 and to an extent more than adequate to all 
 demands. The collection of rags has hitherto 
 been by a small traffic in the hands of petty 
 dealers ; and the general carelessness of col- 
 lection and the lowness of price have equally 
 diminished the quantity. It has been ascer- 
 tained, that in scarcely fifty houses out of 
 every hundred, any collection is ever made. 
 This negligence arises partly from mistakes 
 as to the nature, value, and manner of the 
 collection. It has been commonly sup- 
 posed that white rags alone are of use in paper 
 making. But coloured rags generally are 
 useful, and even waste paper can be valuably 
 employed in the manufacture. 
 
 Every housekeeper ought to have three 
 bags ; a white one for the white rags, a green 
 one for the coloured, and a black one for the 
 waste paper (the three might be furnished for 
 a shilling) which would prevent litter, waste, and 
 the trouble of collecting when the demand came. 
 
 A suitable agency formed in the towns and 
 villages would settle all demands, arrange the 
 contributions, and reduce the whole into a 
 regular trade. 
 
72 PAPER AND PAPER MAKING. 
 
 Parochial officers might rind attention to this 
 subject a very effectual mode of increasing the 
 means at their disposal for charitable purposes. 
 
 The general apprehension, that we require 
 French or foreign rags for our manufacture is 
 a mistake ; we have a sufficient supply at home 
 if we will but make use of it. There are 
 more rags wasted, burnt, or left to rot, than 
 would make our paper manufacturers inde- 
 pendent of all assistance from abroad. 
 
 A regular communication ought to be 
 formed by country carriage, and by railroads, 
 for the conveyance of the bags to London, 
 or to those Paper Mills in the country which 
 enter largely into the trade. 
 
 We require only the application of the 
 means in our possession. A little industry, a 
 little intelligence, and an established system, 
 would perfectly secure us from failure in an 
 important branch of art and trade, already 
 worth six millions sterling, employing a large 
 number of skilled workmen, and conducing, 
 most effectually, to the industry and comfort 
 of the peasantry, and to the trade and resources 
 of the Empire. 
 
FIRST STAGE OF PREPARATION. 73 
 
 In considering the various processes or 
 stages of the manufacture of paper, we have 
 first to notice that of carefully sorting and 
 cutting the rags into small pieces, which is 
 done by women ; each woman standing at a 
 table frame, the upper surface of which con- 
 sists of very coarse wire cloth ; a large knife 
 being fixed in the centre of the table, nearly 
 in a vertical position. The woman stands so 
 as to have the back of the blade opposite to 
 her, while at her right hand on the floor is a 
 large wooden box, with several divisions. 
 Her business consists in examining the rags, 
 opening the seams, removing dirt, pins, needles, 
 and buttons of endless variety, which would 
 be liable to injure the machinery, or damage 
 the quality of the paper. She then cuts the 
 rags into small pieces, not exceeding four 
 inches square, by drawing them sharply across 
 the edge of the knife, at the same time keeping 
 each quality distinct in the several divisions of 
 the box placed on her right hand. During 
 this process, much of the dirt, sand, and so 
 forth, passes through the wire cloth into a 
 drawer underneath, which is occasionallv 
 
74 PAPER AND PAPER MAKING. 
 
 cleaned out. After this, the rags are removed 
 to what is called the dusting machine, which 
 is a large cylindrical frame covered with 
 similar coarse iron wire-cloth, and having a 
 powerful revolving shaft extending through 
 the interior, with a number of spokes fixed 
 transversely, nearly long enough to touch the 
 cage. By means of this contrivance, the 
 machine being fixed upon an incline of some 
 inches to the foot, the rags, which are put 
 in at the top, have any remaining particles of 
 dust that may still adhere to them effectually 
 beaten out by the time they reach the bottom. 
 
 The rags being thus far cleansed, have next 
 to be boiled in an alkaline lye or solution, 
 made more or less strong as the rags are more 
 or less coloured, the objecl: being to get rid 
 of the remaining dirt and some of the colouring 
 matter. The proportion is from four to ten 
 pounds of carbonate of soda with one-third of 
 quick lime to the hundred weight of material. 
 In this the rags are boiled for several hours, 
 according to their quality. 
 
 The method generally adopted is that of 
 placing the rags in large cylinders, which are 
 
THE PREPARATION OF RAGS. 75 
 
 constantly, though slowly, revolving; thus 
 causing the rags to be as frequently turned 
 over, and into which a jet of steam is cast 
 with a pressure of something near 30 lbs. to 
 the square inch. 
 
 After this process of cleansing, the rags are 
 considered in a fit state to be torn or macerated 
 until they become reduced to pulp, which was 
 accomplished, some five -and -thirty or forty 
 years since, by setting them to heat and fer- 
 ment for many days in close vessels, whereby 
 in reality they underwent a species of putre- 
 faction. Another method subsequently em- 
 ployed was that of beating them by means of 
 stamping rods, shod with iron, working in 
 strong oak or stone mortars, and moved by 
 water-wheel machinery. So rude and in- 
 effective, however, was this apparatus, that no 
 fewer than forty pairs of stamps were required 
 to operate a night and a day in preparing one 
 hundred weight of material. At the present 
 time, the average weekly consumption of 
 rags, at many paper mills, exceeds even thirty 
 tons. The cylinder or engine mode of com- 
 minuting rags into paper pulp appears to have 
 
76 PAPER AND PAPER MAKING. 
 
 been invented in Holland, about the middle 
 of the last century, but received very little 
 attention here for some years afterwards. The 
 accompanying drawing will serve to convey 
 
 some idea of the wonderful rapidity with 
 which the work is at present accomplished. 
 No less than twelve tons per week can now 
 be prepared by means of this simple con- 
 trivance. The horizontal section represents 
 an oblong cistern, of cast iron, or wood lined 
 
THE RAG ENGINE. 
 
 77 
 
 with lead, into which the rags, with a sufficient 
 quantity of water, are received. It is divided 
 by a partition, as shown (A), to regulate the 
 course of the stuff. The spindle upon which 
 each cylinder C moves, extending across the 
 engine, and being put in motion by a band 
 wheel or pinion at the point B. One cylinder 
 is made to traverse at a much swifter rate 
 than the other, in order that the rags may be 
 the more effectually triturated. The cylinders 
 C, as shown in the vertical section, are fur- 
 nished with numerous cutters, running parallel 
 to the axis, and again beneath them similar 
 cutters are mounted (D) somewhat obliquely, 
 against which, when in motion, the rags are 
 drawn by the rapid rotation of the cylinders, 
 and thus reduced to the smallest filaments 
 requisite, sometimes not exceeding the six- 
 teenth of an inch in length ; the distance 
 between the fixed and moveable blades being 
 capable of any adjustment, simply by elevating 
 or depressing the bearings upon which the 
 necks of the shaft are supported. When in 
 operation, it is of course necessary to enclose 
 the cylinders in a case, as shown, E, otherwise 
 
7^ PAPER AND PAPER MAKING. 
 
 a large proportion of the rags would, inevitably, 
 be thrown out of the engine. The rags are 
 first worked coarsely, with a stream of water 
 running through the engine, which tends 
 effectually to wash them, as also to open their 
 fibres ; and in order to carry off the dirty 
 water, what is termed a washing drum is 
 sometimes employed, consisting simply of a 
 framework covered with very fine wire gauze, 
 in the interior of which, connected with the 
 shaft or spindle, which is hollow, are two 
 suction tubes, and by this means, on the 
 principle of a syphon, the dirty water con- 
 stantly flows away through a larger tube 
 running down outside, which is connected 
 with that in the centre, without carrying 
 away any of the fibre. 
 
 After this, the mass is placed in another 
 engine, where, if necessary, it is bleached by 
 an admixture of chloride of lime, which is 
 retained in the engine until its action becomes 
 apparent. The pulp is then let down into 
 large slate cisterns to steep, prior to being 
 reduced to a suitable consistency by the beating 
 engine, as already described. The rolls or 
 
BLEACHING AND BLUEING. 79 
 
 cylinders, however, of the beating engine are 
 always made to rotate much faster than when 
 employed in washing or bleaching, revolving 
 probably from 120 to 150 times per minute, 
 and thus, supposing the cylinders to contain 
 forty-eight teeth each, passing over eight 
 others, as shown in the drawing, effecting no 
 fewer than 103,680 cuts in that short period. 
 From this the great advantage of the modern 
 engine over the old-fashioned mortar machine, 
 in turning out a quantity of paper pulp, will 
 be at once apparent. The introduction of 
 colouring matter in connection with the paper 
 manufacture is accomplished simply by its 
 intermixture with the pulp while in process 
 of beating in the engine. 
 
 Although the practice of blueing paper is 
 not, perhaps, so customary now as was the 
 case a few years back, the extent to which it 
 is still carried may be a matter of considerable 
 astonishment. On its first introduction, when, 
 as regards colour, the best paper was anything 
 but pleasing, so striking a novelty would no 
 doubt be hailed as a great improvement, and 
 as such received into general use ; but no 
 
8o PAPER AND PAPER MAKING. 
 
 such an artifice is really needed. In fact, 
 this is proved by the superior delicacy of a 
 first-class paper, now made without any 
 colouring matter whatever, and which is 
 truly beautiful, both in texture and appear- 
 ance.* 
 
 Common materials are frequently and very 
 readily employed, through the assistance of 
 colouring matter, which tends to conceal the 
 imperfection. Indeed, it would be difficult 
 to name an instance of apparent deception 
 more forcible than that which is accomplished 
 by the use of ultramarine. Until very recently, 
 the fine bluish tinge given to many writing 
 papers was derived from the admixture of that 
 formerly expensive, but now, being prepared 
 artificially, cheap mineral blue, the oxide of 
 cobalt, generally termed smalts, which has 
 still the advantage over the ultramarine of 
 imparting a colour which will endure for a 
 much longer period. One pound of ultra- 
 marine, however, going further than four of 
 smalts, the former necessarily meets with more 
 
 # Sec Richard Herring's " Pure Wove Writing Paper.'' 
 
SMALTS AND ULTRAMARINE. 81 
 
 extended application, and where the using is 
 rightly understood, and the materials employed, 
 instead of being fine rags, comparative rubbish, 
 excessively bleached, its application proves 
 remarkably serviceable to the paper maker in 
 concealing for a time all other irregularities, 
 and even surpassing in appearance the best 
 papers of the kind. 
 
 At first, the introduction of ultramarine led 
 to some difficulty in sizing the paper, for so 
 long as smalts continued to be used, any 
 amount of alum might be employed, and it 
 was actually added to the size to preserve it 
 from putrefaction. But since artificial ultra- 
 marine is bleached by alum, it became of 
 course necessary to add this salt to the size 
 in very small proportions, and as a natural 
 consequence the gelatine was no longer pro- 
 tected from the action of the air, which led 
 to incipient decomposition, and in such cases 
 the putrefaction, once commenced, proceeded 
 even after the size was dried on the paper, 
 and gave to it a most offensive smell, which 
 rendered the paper unsaleable. This difficulty, 
 however, has now been overcome, and pro- 
 
82 PAPER AND PAPER MAKING. 
 
 viding the size be quite free from taint when 
 applied to the paper, and quickly dried, putre- 
 faction will not subsequently occur ; but if 
 decay has once commenced, it cannot be 
 arrested by drying only. 
 
 The operation of paper making, after the 
 rags or materials to be used have been thus 
 reduced and prepared, may be divided into 
 two kinds : that which is carried on in hand 
 mills, where the formation of the sheet is 
 performed by manual labour ; and that which 
 is carried on in machine mills, where the 
 paper is produced upon the machine wire- 
 cloth in one continuous web. 
 
 With respect to hand-made papers, the 
 sheet is formed by the vatman's dipping a 
 mould of fine wire cloth, fixed upon a wooden 
 frame, and having what is termed a deckle, 
 to determine the size of the sheet, into a 
 quantity of pulp which has been previously 
 mixed with water to a requisite consistency ; 
 when, after gently shaking it to and fro in a 
 horizontal position, the fibres become so 
 connected as to form one uniform fabric, 
 while the water drains away. The deckle 
 
PROCESS Br HAND. 
 
 *3 
 
 is then removed from the mould, and the 
 sheet of paper turned off upon a felt, in a pile 
 with many others, a felt intervening between 
 each sheet, and the whole subjected to great 
 pressure, in order to displace the superfluous 
 water ; when, after being dried and pressed 
 without the felts, the sheets are dipped into 
 a tub of fine animal size, the superfluity of 
 which is again forced out by another pressing ; 
 each sheet, after being finally dried, under- 
 going careful examination before it is finished. 
 
 Thus we have, first, what is termed the 
 water-leaf y the condition in which the paper 
 appears after being pressed between the felts — 
 this is the first stage. Next, a sheet from the 
 bulk, as pressed without the felts, which still 
 remains in a state unfit for writing on, not 
 having been sized. Then a sheet after sizing, 
 which completely changes its character ; and, 
 lastly, one with the finished surface. This 
 is produced by placing the sheets separately 
 between very smooth copper plates, and then 
 passing them through rollers, which impart a 
 pressure of from twenty to thirty tons. After 
 only three or four such pressures, it is simply 
 
 a 2 
 
^4 PAPER AND PAPER MAKING. 
 
 called rolled, but if passed through more fre- 
 quently, the paper acquires a higher surface, 
 and is then called glazed. 
 
 The paper-making machine is constructed 
 to imitate in a great measure, and in some 
 respects to improve, the processes used in 
 making paper by hand ; but its chief ad- 
 vantages are the increased rapidity with which 
 it accomplishes the manufacture, and the 
 means of producing paper of any size which 
 can practically be required. 
 
 By the agency of this admirable contrivance, 
 which is so adjusted as to produce the intended 
 effect with unerring precision, a process which 
 in the old system of paper making occupied 
 about three weeks, is now performed in as 
 many minutes. 
 
 The paper-making machine is supplied from 
 the " chest'' or reservoir F, into which the 
 pulp descends from the beating engine, when 
 sufficiently ground ; being kept in constant 
 motion, as it descends, by means of the agitator 
 G, in order that it shall not settle. From this 
 reservoir the pulp is again conveyed by a pipe 
 into what is technically termed the " lifter" H, 
 
THE MACHINE. 
 
 87 
 
 which consists of a cast-iron wheel, enclosed 
 in a wooden case, and having a number of 
 buckets affixed to its circumference. The 
 trough I, placed immediately beneath the 
 endless wire K, is for the purpose of receiving 
 the water which drains away from the pulp 
 during the process of manufacture ; and as this 
 water is frequently impregnated with certain 
 chemicals used in connection with paper 
 making, it is returned again by a conducting 
 spout into the " lifter," where, by the rotation 
 of the buckets, both the pulp and back-water 
 become again thoroughly mixed, and are 
 together raised by the lifter through the 
 spout L, into the trough M, where the pulp 
 is strained by means of a sieve or " knotter," 
 as it is called, which is usually formed of 
 brass, having fine slits cut in it to allow the 
 comminuted pulp to pass through, while it 
 retains all lumps and knots ; and so fine are 
 these openings, in order to free the pulp 
 entirely from anything which would be 
 liable to damage the quality of the paper, 
 that it becomes necessary to apply a means 
 of exhaustion underneath, in order to faci- 
 
H8 PAPER AND PAPER MAKING. 
 
 litate the passage of the pulp through the 
 strainer. 
 
 The lumps collected upon the top of this 
 knotter, more particularly when printing 
 papers are being manufactured, are composed 
 to a considerable extent of india-rubber, which 
 is a source of much greater annoyance to the 
 paper maker than is readily conceived. For, 
 in the first place, it is next to impossible in 
 sorting and cutting the rags to free them 
 entirely from the braiding, and so forth, with 
 which ladies adorn their dresses ; and in the 
 next, the bleach failing to act upon a substance 
 of that character, the quality of the paper 
 becomes greatly deteriorated by the large black 
 specks which it occasions, and which enlarge 
 considerably under the combined heat and 
 pressure of the rolls and cylinders. 
 
 Passing from the strainer, the pulp is next 
 made to distribute itself equally throughout 
 the entire width of the machine, and is after- 
 wards allowed to flow over a small lip or 
 ledge, in a regular and even stream, whence 
 it is received by the upper surface of the 
 endless wire K, upon which the first process 
 
STRAINING THE PULP. 
 
 8 9 
 
 of manufacture takes place. Of course, the 
 thickness of the paper depends in some mea- 
 sure upon the speed at which the machine is 
 made to travel, but it is mainly determined by 
 the quantity of pulp allowed to flow upon the 
 wire, which by various contrivances can be 
 regulated to great nicety. Paper may be 
 made by this machine considerably less than 
 the thousandth of an inch in thickness, and, 
 although so thin, it is capable of being coloured, 
 it is capable of being glazed, it is capable of 
 receiving a water mark ; and, what is perhaps 
 still more astonishing, a strip not exceeding 
 four inches in width, is sometimes capable of 
 sustaining a weight of 20 lbs., so great is its 
 tenacity. 
 
 But to return to the machine itself. The 
 quantity of pulp required to flow from the 
 trough M being determined, it is first received by 
 the continuous woven wire K, upon which it 
 forms itself into paper ; this wire gauze, which 
 resembles a jack-towel, passing over the small 
 copper rollers N, round the larger one marked 
 O, and being kept in proper tension by two 
 others placed underneath. A gentle vibratory 
 
90 PAPER AND PAPER MAKING. 
 
 motion from side to side is given to the wire, 
 which assists to spread the pulp evenly, and 
 also to facilitate the separation of the water, 
 and by this means, aided by a suction pump, 
 the pulp solidifies as it advances. The two 
 black squares on either side of the " dandy" 
 roller P indicate the position of two wooden 
 boxes, from which the air is partially exhausted, 
 thus causing the atmospheric pressure to ope- 
 rate in compacting the pulp into paper, the 
 water and moisture being drawn through the 
 wire, and the pulp retained on the surface. 
 
 Next, we have to notice the deckle or 
 boundary straps Q, which regulate the width 
 of the paper, travelling at the same rate as the 
 wire, and thus limiting the spread of the pulp. 
 The " dandy" roller P is employed to give any 
 impression to the paper that may be required. 
 We may suppose, for instance, that the cir- 
 cumference of that roller answers exactly to 
 the length or breadth of the wire forming a 
 hand mould, which, supposing such wire to 
 be fixed or curved in that form, would neces- 
 sarily leave the same impression as when 
 employed in the ordinary way. Being placed 
 
COMPACTING THE PAPER. 91 
 
 between the air boxes, the paper becomes 
 impressed by it when in a half-formed state, 
 and whatever marks are thus made the paper 
 will effectually retain. The two rollers 
 following the dandy, marked R and O, are 
 termed couching rollers, from their performing 
 a similar operation in the manufacture of 
 machine-made papers to the business of the 
 coucher in conducting the process by hand. 
 They are simply wooden rollers covered with 
 felt. In some instances, however, the upper 
 couch roll R is made to answer a double 
 purpose. In making writing or other papers 
 where smalts, ultramarine, and various colours 
 are used, considerable difference will frequently 
 be found in the tint of the paper when the 
 two sides are compared, in consequence of 
 the colouring matter sinking to the lower side, 
 by the natural subsidence of the water, or 
 from the action of the suction boxes ; and to 
 obviate this, instead of employing the ordinary 
 couch roll, which acts upon the upper surface 
 of the paper, a hollow one is substituted, 
 having a suction box within it, acted upon by 
 an air pump, which tends in some measure to 
 
9 2 PAPER AND PAPER MAKING. 
 
 counteract the effect, justly considered ob- 
 jectionable. Merging from those rollers, the 
 paper is received from the wire gauze by a 
 continuous felt 3, which conducts it through 
 two pair of pressing rollers, and afterwards to 
 the drying cylinders. After passing through 
 the first pair of rollers, the paper is carried 
 along the felt for some distance, and then 
 turned over, in order to receive a corresponding 
 pressure on the other side, thus obviating the 
 inequality of surface which would otherwise 
 be apparent, especially if the paper were to be 
 employed for books. 
 
 The advantage gained by the use of so great 
 a length of felt is simply that it becomes less 
 necessary to stop the machine for the purpose 
 of washing it, than would be the case if the 
 felt were limited in length to its absolute 
 necessity. 
 
 In some instances, when the paper being 
 made is sized in the pulp with such an in- 
 gredient as re sin 9 the felt becomes so com- 
 pletely clogged in the space of a few hours, 
 that unless a very great and apparently 
 unnecessary length of felt be employed, 
 
UTILITY OF THE FELT 
 
 93 
 
 a considerable waste of time is constantly 
 incurred in washing or changing the felt. 
 
 The operation of the manufacture will now 
 be apparent. The pulp flowing from the 
 reservoir into the lifter, and thence through 
 the strainer, passes over a small lip to the 
 continuous wire, being there partially com- 
 pacted by the shaking motion, more thoroughly 
 so on its passage over the air boxes, receiving 
 any desired marks by means of the dandy 
 roller passing over the continuous felt between 
 the first pressing rollers, then turned over to 
 receive a corresponding pressure on the other 
 side, and from thence off to the drying 
 cylinders, which are heated more or less by 
 injected steam ; the cylinder which receives 
 the paper first being heated less than the 
 second, the second than the third, and so on ; 
 the paper, after passing over those cylinders, 
 being finally wound upon a reel, as shown, 
 unless it be printing paper, which can be 
 sized sufficiently in the pulp, by an admixture 
 of alum, soda, and resin, or the like ; in which 
 case it may be at once conducted to the 
 cutting machine, to be divided into any length 
 
94 PAPER AND PAPER MAKING. 
 
 and width required. But, supposing it to be 
 intended for writing purposes, it has first to 
 undergo a more effectual method of sizing, 
 as shown in the accompanying drawing ; the 
 size in this instance being made from parings 
 obtained from tanners, curriers, and parchment 
 makers, as employed in the case of hand-made 
 papers. Of course, sizing in the pulp or in 
 the engine offers many advantages, but as 
 gelatine, or animal size, which is really essential 
 for all good writing qualities, cannot at present 
 be employed during the process of manu- 
 facturing by the machine without injury to 
 the felts, it becomes necessary to pass the 
 web of paper, after it has been dried by the 
 cylinders, through this apparatus. 
 
 In most cases, however, the paper is at 
 once guided, as it issues from the machine, 
 through the tub of size, and is thence carried 
 over the skeleton drums shown, inside each 
 of which are a number of fans rapidly re- 
 volving ; sometimes there are forty or fifty of 
 these drums in succession, the whole confined 
 in a chamber heated by steam. A paper- making 
 machine with the sizing apparatus attached 
 
SIZING APPARATUS. 
 
 95 
 
 sometimes measures, from the wire-cloth 
 where the pulp first flows on, to the cutting 
 machine at the extremity, no less than one 
 thousand feet. The advantage of drying the 
 paper in this manner over so many of these 
 
 drums is, that it turns out much harder and 
 stronger, than if dried more rapidly over 
 heated cylinders. Some manufacturers adopt 
 a peculiar process of sizing, which in fact 
 answers very much better, and is alike appli- 
 cable to papers made by hand or by machine, 
 provided the latter description be first cut into 
 pieces or sheets of the required dimensions. 
 The contrivance consists of two revolving felts, 
 between which the sheets are carried under 
 several rollers through a long trough of size, 
 being afterwards hung up to dry upon lines, 
 previously to rolling or glazing. The paper 
 
96 PAPER AND PAPER MAKING. 
 
 thus sized becomes much harder and stronger, 
 by reason of the freedom with which the 
 sheets can contract in drying ; and this is 
 mainly the reason why paper made by hand 
 continues to be so much tougher than that 
 made by the machine, in consequence of the 
 natural tendency of the pulp to contract in 
 drying, and consequently becoming, where 
 no resistance is offered, more entwined or 
 entangled, which of course adds very con- 
 siderably to the strength and durability of the 
 paper. In making by the machine, this 
 tendency is completely checked. 
 
 It may be interesting to mention, that the 
 first experiment for drying paper by means of 
 heated cylinders was made at Gellibrand's 
 calico-printing factory, near Stepney ; a reel 
 of paper, in a moist state, having been conveyed 
 there from Dartford, in a post-chaise. The 
 experiment was tried in the presence of the 
 patentees of the paper machine and Mr. 
 Donkin, the engineer, and proved highly 
 satisfactory, and the adoption of copper cylin- 
 ders, heated by steam, was thenceforth con- 
 sidered indispensable. 
 
CUTTING MACHINE. 
 
 97 
 
 The next operation to be noticed, now that 
 the paper is finished, is that of cutting it into 
 standard sizes. Originally, the reel upon 
 which it was finally wound was formed so 
 that its diameter might be lessened or increased 
 at pleasure, according to the sizes which were 
 required. Thus, for instance, supposing the 
 web of paper was required to be cut into 
 sheets of eighteen inches in length, the dia- 
 meter of the reel would be lessened to six 
 inches, and thus the circumference to eighteen 
 inches ; or, if convenient, it would be increased 
 to thirty-six inches, the paper being afterwards 
 cut in two by hand with a large knife, the 
 width of the web being regulated by the 
 deckle straps, Q, to either twice or three 
 times the width of the sheet, as the case 
 might be. However, in regard to the length, 
 considerable waste, of necessity, arose, from 
 the great increase in the circumference of the 
 reel as the paper was wound upon it ; and to 
 remedy this, several contrivances have been 
 invented. To dwell upon their various pecu- 
 liarities, or separate stages of improvement, 
 would prove of little comparative interest to 
 
 H 
 
98 PAPER AND PAPER MAKING. 
 
 the general reader ; it will, therefore, be well 
 to limit attention to the cutting machine, of 
 which an illustration is given, which is un- 
 questionably the best, as well as the most 
 ingenious invention of the kind. 
 
 The first movement or operation peculiar 
 to this machine is that of cutting the web 
 of paper longitudinally, into such widths as 
 may be required ; and this is effected by 
 means of circular blades, placed at stated 
 
 distances, which receive the paper as it issues 
 direct: from the other machinery, and by a 
 very swift motion, much greater than that 
 at which the paper travels, slit it up with 
 
CUTTING MACHINE. 
 
 99 
 
 unerring precision wherever they may be 
 fixed. 
 
 A pair of those circular blades is shown in 
 the drawing, A, the upper one being much 
 larger than the lower, which is essential to 
 the smoothness of the cut. And not only is 
 the upper blade larger in circumference, but 
 it is also made to revolve with much greater 
 rapidity, by means of employing a small 
 pinion, worked by one at least twice its 
 diameter, which is fixed upon the same shaft 
 as the lower blade, to which the motive power 
 is applied. The action aimed at is precisely 
 such as we obtain from a pair of scissors. 
 
 The web, as it is termed by the paper 
 maker, being thus severed longitudinally, the 
 next operation is that of cutting it off into 
 sheets of some particular length horizontally ; 
 and to do this requires a most ingenious 
 movement. To give a very general idea of 
 the contrivance, the dotted line represents the 
 paper travelling on with a rapidity in some 
 cases of eighty feet per minute, and yet its 
 course has to be temporarily arrested while 
 the required separation is effected ; and that, 
 
 h 2 
 
ioo PAPER AND PAPER MAKING. 
 
 too, without the paper's accumulating in am 
 mass, or getting creased in the slightest degree. 
 
 The large drum B, over which the paper 
 passes, in the direction indicated by the arrows, 
 has simply an alternating motion, which serves 
 to gather the paper in such lengths as may 
 be required ; the crank arm C, which is capable 
 of any adjustment either at top or bottom, 
 regulating the extent of the movement back- 
 wards and forwards, and thus the length of 
 the sheet. As soon as the paper to be cut 
 off* has passed below the point D, (at which a 
 presser is suspended, having an alternating 
 motion given to it, in order to make it 
 approach to, and recede from, a stationary 
 presser-board,) it is taken hold of as it descends 
 from the drum, and the length pendant from 
 the presser is instantly cut off by the moveable 
 knife E, to which motion is given by the 
 crank F, the connecting rod G, the lever H, 
 and the connecting rod I. The combined 
 motion of these rods and levers admits of the 
 moveable knife E remaining nearly quiescent 
 for a given time, and then speedily closing 
 upon the fixed knife K, cutting off* the paper 
 
CUTTING MACHINE, 101 
 
 in a similar manner to a pair of shears, when 
 it immediately slides down a board, or in some 
 instances is carried along a revolving felt, at 
 the extremity of which several men or boys 
 are placed to receive the sheets, according to 
 the number into which the width of the web 
 is divided. 
 
 As soon as the pressers are closed for a 
 length of paper to be cut off, the motion of 
 the gathering drum is reversed, smoothing 
 out the paper upon its surface, which is now 
 held between the pressers ; the tension roll L 
 taking up the slack in the paper as it accu- 
 mulates, or rather bearing it gently down, 
 until the movement of the drum is again 
 reversed to furnish another length. The 
 handle M is employed merely to stop a portion 
 of the machinery, should the water mark not 
 fall exactly in the centre of the sheet, when 
 by this means it can be momentarily adjusted. 
 
 The paper being thus made, and cut up 
 into sheets of stated dimensions, is next looked 
 over and counted out into quires of twenty- 
 four sheets, and afterwards into reams of 
 twenty quires, which subsequently are carefully 
 
102 PAPER AND PAPER MAKING. 
 
 weighed, previously to their being sent into 
 the market. 
 
 Another method of making paper, which 
 should be noticed, was invented by Mr. 
 Dickinson, and consists in causing a polished 
 hollow brass cylinder, perforated with holes or 
 slits, and covered with wire cloth, to revolve 
 over and in contact with the prepared pulp. 
 The cylinder being connected with a vessel 
 from which the air has been exhausted, the film 
 of pulp adheres to the hollow cylinder. It is 
 then turned off continuously upon a solid one 
 covered with felt, upon which it is condensed 
 by the pressure of a third revolving cylinder, 
 and is thence delivered to the drying rollers. 
 This description of machine is more especially 
 suitable for the manufacture of thin tissue papers. 
 
 Connected with the manufacture of paper, 
 there is one point of considerable interest and 
 importance, and that is, what is commonly, 
 but erroneously, termed the water mark, 
 which may be noticed in the Times news- 
 paper, in the Bank of England Notes, Cheques, 
 and Bills, as also in every Postage and Receipt 
 Label of the present day. 
 
ANCIENT IVATER MARKS. 103 
 
 The curious, and in some instances absurd 
 terms, which now puzzle us so much in 
 describing the different sorts and sizes of paper, 
 may frequently be explained by reference to 
 the various paper marks which have been 
 adopted at different periods. In ancient times, 
 when comparatively few people could read, 
 pictures of every kind were much in use where 
 writing would now be employed. Every 
 shop, for instance, had its sign, as well as 
 every public-house ; and those signs were not 
 then, as they often are now, only painted upon 
 a board, but were invariably adtual models of 
 the thing which the sign expressed — as we 
 still occasionally see some such sign as a bee- 
 hive, a tea-canister, or a doll, and the like. 
 For the same reason printers employed some 
 device, which they put upon the title pages 
 and at the end of their books, and paper 
 makers also introduced marks, by way of 
 distinguishing the paper of their manufacture 
 from that of others ; which marks becoming 
 common, naturally gave their names to different 
 sorts of paper. And since names often remain 
 long after the origin of them is forgotten and 
 
104 PAPER AND PAPER MAKING. 
 
 circumstances are changed, it is not surprising 
 to find the old names still in use, though in 
 some cases they are not applied to the same 
 things which they originally denoted. One 
 of the illustrations of ancient water-marks 
 given in the accompanying plate, that of an 
 open hand with a star at the top, which was 
 in use as early as 1530, probably gave the 
 name to what is still called hand paper, Jig. 
 1446. 
 
 Another very favourite paper-mark, at a 
 subsequent period, 1540-60, was the jug or 
 pot, which is also shown,^. 1 447, and would 
 appear to have originated the term pot paper. 
 The fool's cap was a later device, and does not 
 appear to have been nearly of such long con- 
 tinuance as the former, Jig. 1448. It has 
 given place to the figure of Britannia, or that 
 of a lion rampant, supporting the cap of 
 liberty on a pole. The name, however, has 
 continued, and we still denominate paper of a 
 particular size by the title of foolscap. The 
 original figure has the cap and bells, of which 
 we so often read in old plays and histories, as 
 the particular head-dress of the fool, who at 
 
DERIVATION OF NAMES OF PAPER. 105 
 
 one time formed part of every great man's 
 establishment. 
 
 The water mark of a cap may sometimes 
 be met with of a much simpler form than 
 just mentioned, frequently resembling the 
 jockey caps of the present day, with a trifling 
 ornamentation or addition to the upper part. 
 The first edition of " Shakspeare," printed by 
 Isaac y^ggard and Ed. Blount, 1623, will be 
 
 1418 1446 1419 
 
io6 PAPER AND PAPER MAKING. 
 
 found to contain this mark, interspersed with 
 several others of a different character. No 
 doubt, the general use of the term cap to 
 various papers of the present day owes its 
 origin to marks of this description. 
 
 The term imperial was in all probability 
 derived from the finest specimens of papyri, 
 which were so called by the ancients. 
 
 Post paper seems to have derived its name 
 from the post-horn, which at one time was 
 its distinguishing mark, Jig. 1449. It does 
 not appear to have been used prior to the 
 establishment of the general post-office ( 1 670), 
 when it became the custom to blow a horn, 
 to which circumstance, no doubt, we may 
 attribute its introduction. The mark is still 
 frequently used, but the same change which 
 has so much diminished the number of painted 
 signs in the streets of our towns and cities, 
 has nearly made paper marks a matter of 
 antiquarian curiosity ; the maker's name being 
 now generally used, and the mark, in the few 
 instances where it still remains, serving the 
 purpose of mere ornament, rather than that 
 of distinction. 
 
ANECDOTES OF WATER MARKS. 107 
 
 Water marks, however, have at various 
 periods been the means of detecting frauds, 
 forgeries, and impositions, in our courts of law 
 and elsewhere, to say nothing of the pro- 
 tection they afford in the instances already 
 referred to, such as bank notes, cheques, 
 receipt, bill, and postage stamps. The cele- 
 brated Curran once distinguished himself in 
 a case which he had undertaken by shrewdly 
 referring to the water mark, which effectually 
 determined the verdict. And another instance, 
 which may be introduced in the form of an 
 amusing anecdote, occurred once at Messina, 
 where the monks of a certain monastery ex- 
 hibited, with great triumph, a letter as being 
 written by the Virgin Mary with her own 
 hand. Unluckily for them, however, this 
 was not, as it easily might have been, written 
 upon the ancient papyrus, but on paper made 
 of rags. On one occasion a visitor, to whom 
 this was shown, observed, with affected so- 
 lemnity, that the letter involved also a miracle, 
 for the paper on which it was written was 
 not in existence until several centuries after 
 the mother of our Lord had died. 
 
io8 PJPER AND PAPER MAKING. 
 
 A further illustration of the kind occurs 
 in a work entitled " Ireland's Confessions" 
 respecting his fabrication of the Shakspeare 
 manuscripts, — a literary forgery, even still more 
 remarkable than that which is said to have 
 been perpetrated by Chatterton, as " Rowley's 
 Poems." 
 
 The interest which at the time was uni- 
 versally felt in this production of Ireland's 
 may be partially gathered from the fact, that 
 the whole of the original edition, which ap- 
 peared in the form of a shilling pamphlet, was 
 disposed of in a few hours ; while so great 
 was the eagerness to obtain copies afterwards, 
 that single impressions were sold in an auction 
 room at the extravagant price of a guinea. 
 
 This gentleman tells us, at one part of his 
 explanation, that the sheet of paper which he 
 used was the outside of several others, on some 
 of which accounts had been kept in the reign 
 of Charles the First ; and being at that time 
 wholly unacquainted with the water marks 
 used in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, " I 
 carefully selected (says he) two half sheets, 
 not having any mark whatever, on which I 
 
« IRELAND'S CONFESSIONS:' I 09 
 
 penned my first effusion." A few pages 
 further on he writes — " Being thus urged 
 forward to the production of more manu- 
 scripts, it became necessary that I should 
 possess a sufficient quantity of old paper to 
 enable me to proceed; in consequence of 
 which I applied to a bookseller named Verey, 
 in Great May's Buildings, St. Martin's Lane, 
 who, for the sum of five shillings, suffered me 
 to take from all the folio and quarto volumes 
 in his shop the fly leaves which they con- 
 tained. By this means I was amply stored 
 with that commodity — nor did I fear any 
 mention of the circumstance by Mr. Verey, 
 whose quiet, unsuspecting disposition, I was 
 well convinced, would never lead him to make 
 the transaction public ; in addition to which, 
 he was not likely even to know anything 
 concerning the supposed Shaksperian discovery 
 by myself, and even if he had, I do not imagine 
 that my purchase of the old paper in question 
 would have excited in him the smallest degree 
 of suspicion. As I was fully aware, from the 
 variety of water marks which are in existence 
 at the present day, that they must have con- 
 
I io PAPER AND PAPER MAKING. 
 
 stantly been altered since the period of Eliza- 
 beth, and being for some time wholly unac- 
 quainted with the water marks of that age, 
 I very carefully produced my first specimens 
 of the writing on such sheets of old paper as 
 had no mark whatever. Having heard it 
 frequently stated that the appearance of such 
 marks on the papers would have greatly 
 tended to establish their validity, I listened 
 attentively to every remark which was made 
 upon the subject, and from thence I at length 
 gleaned the intelligence that a jug was the 
 prevalent water mark of the reign of Elizabeth ; 
 in consequence of which I inspected all the 
 sheets of old paper then in my possession, and 
 having selected such as had the jug upon 
 them, I produced the succeeding manuscripts 
 upon these, being careful, however, to mingle 
 with them a certain number of blank leaves, 
 that the -production on a sudden of so many 
 water marks might not excite suspicion in 
 the breasts of those persons who were most 
 conversant with the manuscripts." 
 
 Thus this notorious literary forgery, through 
 the cunning ingenuity of the perpetrator, 
 
WATER MARKS. 
 
 I I i 
 
 ultimately proved so successful as to deceive 
 many learned and able critics of the age. 
 Indeed, on one occasion, a kind of certificate 
 was drawn up, stating that the undersigned 
 names were affixed by gentlemen who enter- 
 tained no doubt whatever as to the validity 
 of the Shaksperian production, and that they 
 voluntarily gave such public testimony of 
 their convictions upon the subject. To this 
 document several names were appended by 
 persons as conspicuous for their erudition as 
 they were pertinacious in their opinions. 
 
 The water mark in the form of a letter p y 
 of which an illustration is given, Jig. 1450, 
 was taken from Caxton's well-known work, 
 " The Game of the Chess," a fac simile of 
 which has recently been published as a tribute 
 to his memory. Paper was made expressly 
 for the purpose, in exact representation of the 
 original, and containing this water mark, 
 which will be found common in works printed 
 by him. 
 
 The ordinary mode of effecting such paper 
 marks as we have been describing, is that of 
 affixing a stout wire in the form of any object 
 
I I 2 PAPER AND PAPER MAKING. 
 
 to be represented to the surface of the fine 
 wire-gauze, of which the hand -mould or 
 machine dandy roller is constructed. 
 
 The perfection, however, to which water 
 marks have now attained, which in many 
 instances is really very beautiful, is owing to 
 a more ingenious method, recently patented, 
 and since adopted by the Bank of England, 
 as affording considerable protection to the 
 public in determining the genuineness of a 
 bank note. 
 
 To produce a line water-mark of any auto- 
 graph or crest, we might either engrave the 
 pattern or device first in some yielding surface, 
 precisely as we should engrave a copper-plate 
 for printing, and afterwards, by immersing 
 the plate in a solution of sulphate of copper, 
 and electrotyping it in the usual way, allow 
 the interstices of the engraving to give as it 
 were a casting of pure copper, and thus an 
 exact representation of the original device, 
 which, upon being removed from the plate, 
 and affixed to the surface of the wire-gauze 
 forming the mould, would produce a cor- 
 responding impression in the paper ; or, 
 
WATER MARKS. 
 
 supposing perfect identity to be essential, as in 
 the case of a bank note, we might engrave 
 the design upon the surface of a steel die, 
 taking care to cut those parts in the die 
 deepest which are intended to give greater 
 effect in the paper, and then, after having 
 hardened, and otherwise properly prepared 
 the die, it would be placed under a steam 
 hammer, or other stamping apparatus, for the 
 purpose of producing what is technically 
 termed a " force," which is required to assist 
 in transferring an impression from the die to 
 a plate of sheet brass. This being done, the 
 die, with the mould-plate in it, would next 
 be taken to a perforating or cutting machine, 
 where the back of the mould plate — that is, 
 the portion which projects above the face of 
 the die — would be removed, while that portion 
 which was impressed into the design engraven 
 would remain untouched ; and this being sub- 
 sequently taken from the interstices of the die 
 and placed in a frame upon a backing of fine 
 wire-cloth, becomes a mould for the manu- 
 facture of paper of the pattern which is desired, 
 or for the production of any water mark, 
 
 i 
 
114 PAPER AND PAPER MAKING. 
 
 autograph, crest, or device, however com- 
 plicated. 
 
 Light and shade are occasioned by a very 
 similar process, but one which perhaps requires 
 a little more care, and necessarily becomes 
 somewhat more tedious. For instance, in the 
 former case the pulp is distributed equally 
 throughout the entire surface of the wire 
 forming the mould, whereas now we have to 
 contrive the means of increasing to a very 
 great nicety the thickness or distribution of 
 the pulp, and at the same time to make pro- 
 vision for the water's draining away. This 
 has been accomplished by first taking an 
 electrotype of the raised surface of any model 
 or design ; and again, from that, forming in a 
 similar manner a matrix or mould, both of 
 which are subsequently mounted upon lead 
 or gutta percha, in order that they may with- 
 stand the pressure which is required to be put 
 upon them in giving impression to a sheet of 
 very fine copper wire-gauze, which, in the 
 form of a mould, and in the hands of the 
 vatman, suffices ultimately to produce those 
 beautiful, transparent effects in paper pulp. 
 
LIGHT AND SHADE. 
 
 ir 5 
 
 The word " Five," in the centre of the Bank 
 of England note, is produced in the same 
 manner. The deepest shadows in the water 
 mark being occasioned by the deepest en- 
 graving upon the die, the lightest by the 
 shallowest, and so forth ; the die being em- 
 ployed to give impression by means of the 
 stamping press and " force" to the fine wire- 
 gauze itself, which by this means, providing 
 the die be properly cut, is accomplished far 
 more successfully than by any other process, 
 and with the additional advantage of securing 
 perfect identity. 
 
 It may be interesting to call attention to 
 the contrast as regards the method of mould 
 making originally practised, and that which 
 has recently been adopted by the Bank of 
 England. In a pair of five-pound note 
 moulds, prepared by the old process, there 
 were eight curved borders, sixteen figures, 
 1 68 large waves, and 240 letters, which had 
 all to be separately secured by the finest wire 
 to the waved surface. There were 1,056 
 wires, 67,584 twists, and the same repetition 
 where the stout wires were introduced to 
 
 1 2 
 
l 16 PAPER AND PAPER MAKING. 
 
 support the under surface. Therefore, with 
 the backing, laying, large waves, figures, 
 letters, and borders, before a pair of moulds 
 was completed, there were some hundreds of 
 thousands of stitches, most of which are now 
 avoided by the new patent. But further, by 
 this multitudinous stitching and sewing, the 
 parts were never placed precisely in the same 
 position, and the water mark was consequently 
 never identical. Now, the same die gives 
 impression to the metal which transfers it to 
 the water mark, with a certainty of identity 
 unattainable before, and one could almost say 
 never to be surpassed. 
 
 And may we not detect principles in this 
 process which are not only valuable to the 
 Bank, but to all public establishments having 
 important documents on paper, for what can 
 exceed the value of such a test for discovering 
 the deceptions of dishonest men ? One's 
 signature, crest, or device of any kind, ren- 
 dering the paper exclusively one's own, can 
 now be secured in a pair of moulds, at the 
 cost merely of a few guineas. 
 
 The facility with which ordinary written 
 
CHEQUE PAPER. I 1 7 
 
 characters can be expunged from paper by 
 chemical bleaching liquids, acids, and alkalies, 
 has led to the adoption, by bankers, for their 
 cheques and drafts, of papers which present 
 obstacles to the fraudulent alteration of the 
 amount and intent of these documents. 
 
 Instances of this description of forgery have 
 occasionally occurred. In the spring of 1859, 
 a cheque was paid at a branch of the Bank 
 of England, in which both the amount had 
 been altered and the crossing extracted by 
 chemical means. 
 
 In 1 822, William Robson patented a method 
 of securing bankers' cheques by printing upon 
 their surface vegetable colours equally fugitive 
 with common writing ink. 
 
 This method, and its extension to the 
 tinting of writing papers in the pulp, has 
 been generally adopted by bankers. Those 
 papers which exhibit the perfection of Robson's 
 principle are limited in practice almost ex- 
 clusively to certain tints obtained from log- 
 wood. 
 
 Mr. Baildon's paper is a tinted one, from 
 which the colour is removed. The patentee 
 
I I 8 PAPER AND PAPER MAKING. 
 
 states that he offers absolute integrity and 
 security from alteration for any document 
 once issued ; and this is obtained by a fluid 
 or ink, which, when used, becomes, in fact, 
 a permanent dye, different from any inks yet 
 introduced for this purpose, which are pigments. 
 The least attempt to tamper with the ink or 
 paper is instantly detected by a dark stain in 
 the paper, which can never be removed. 
 
 As early as i 8 1 7, Gabriel Tigere patented a 
 method of manufacturing " writing paper 
 from which it would be extremely difficult, 
 if not impossible, afterwards to extract or 
 discharge any writing from such paper." 
 This paper was impregnated during the sizing 
 process with the ferrocyanide of potassium. 
 
 Mr. William Stone's patent, 1851, was an 
 effort to supply the deficiencies of this method. 
 He added a solution of the iodide of potassium 
 and starch to the ferro or ferridcyanide of 
 potassium. This method has been fully 
 carried out into practice, but it failed to give 
 the complete security desired. The chemical 
 defects of Tigere's method may be stated 
 thus : — Although admirable in the protection 
 
ii9 
 
 it affords against the application of acids, it is 
 powerless to resist the bleaching powers of 
 such substances as common chloride of lime 
 (bleaching powder) in solution, and the ink 
 may also be removed by the application of 
 either of the caustic alkalies. In Stone's 
 method, although by the application of 
 bleaching agents containing chlorine the 
 paper is stained by the blue compound termed 
 the iodide of starch, this is removed again by 
 the application of an alkali. 
 
 Manufactured paper, independently of the 
 miscellaneous kinds, such as blotting, filtering, 
 and the like, which are rendered absorbent 
 by the free use of woollen rags, may be divided 
 into three distinct classes, viz., writing, 
 printing, and wrapping. The former again 
 into five — cream wove, yellow wove, blue 
 wove, cream laid, and blue laid. The printing 
 into two — laid and wove ; and the latter into 
 Jour — blue, purple, brown, and whited brown, 
 as it is commonly termed 
 
 To obtain a simple definition of the mode 
 adopted for distinguishing the various kinds, 
 we must include, with the class denominated 
 
I 20 PAPER AND PAPER MAKING. 
 
 « 
 
 writing papers, those which are used for 
 drawing, which being sized in like manner, 
 and with the exception of one or two larger 
 kinds, of precisely the same dimensions as 
 those passing by the same name, which are 
 used strictly for writing purposes (the only 
 distinction, in fact, being, that the drawings 
 are cream wove, while the writings are laid), 
 there would of course be no necessity for 
 separating them. Indeed, since many of the 
 sizes used for printing are exactly the same 
 as those which would be named as writing 
 papers, for the sake of abridgment we will 
 reduce the distinctions of difference to but 
 two heads, fine and coarse ; under the latter 
 including the ordinary brown, papers, the 
 whited brown, or small hand quality, and the 
 blues and purples used by grocers. The 
 smallest size of the fine quality, as sent from 
 the mill, measures 1 z\ by 15 inches, and is 
 termed pot; next to that foolscap, \b\ by 
 1 3 i ; then post, 1 8 J by 15J; copy, 20 by 
 16J; large post, 2o| by 16J ; medium post, 
 22 J by 18 ; sheet-and-third foolscap, 22^ by 
 13^ ; sheet-and-half foolscap, 24 J by 13J; 
 
GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS. I 21 
 
 double foolscap, 27 by 17; double pot, 25 
 by 1 5 ; double post, 30 i by 19; double crown, 
 30 by 20; demy, 20 by 15^; ditto printing, 
 22^ by 17J; medium, 22 by 17J; ditto 
 printing, 23 by 18J; royal, 24 by 19; ditto 
 printing, 25 by 20; super-royal, 27 by 19; 
 ditto printing, 27 by 21 ; imperial, 30 by 22 ; 
 elephant, 28 by 23 ; atlas, 34 by 26; colum- 
 bier, 34^ by 23^ ; double elephant, 40 by 
 26 1 ; and antiquarian, 53 by 31. The different 
 sizes of letter and note paper ordinarily used 
 are prepared from those kinds by the stationer, 
 whose business consists chiefly in smoothing 
 the edges of the paper, and afterwards packing 
 it up in some tasteful form, which serves to 
 attract attention. 
 
 Under the characteristic names of coarse 
 papers may be mentioned Kent cap, 21 by 1 8 ; 
 bag cap, 24 by 1 9 J ; Havon cap, 26 by 21 ; 
 imperial cap, 29 by 22^; double 2 -lb., 24 by 
 1 7 ; double 4-lb., 31 by 21; double 6-lb., 
 28 by 19; casing of various dimensions, also 
 cartridges, with other descriptive names, 
 besides middle hand, 21 by 16; lumber hand, 
 22j by 19J; royal hand, 25 by 20; double 
 
122 PAPER AND PAPER MAKING. 
 
 small hand, 29 by 19; and of the purples, 
 such significations as copy loaf, 21 J by 16^, 
 38-lb. ; powder loaf, 26 by 18, 5 8-lb. ; double 
 loaf, 23 by \6\, 48-lb. ; single loaf, 27 by 
 21^,78-lb.; lump, 3 3 by 23, 100-lb.; Hambro', 
 23 by 1 6 J, 48-lb.; titler, 35 by 29, 120-lb. ; 
 Prussian or double lump, 42 by 32, 200-lb ; 
 and so forth, with glazed boards of various 
 sizes, used chiefly by printers for pressing. 
 These are manufactured in a peculiar manner 
 by hand, the boards being severally composed 
 of various sheets made in the ordinary way, 
 but turned off the mould one sheet upon 
 another, until the required substance be 
 attained ; a felt is then placed upon the mass 
 and another board formed. By this means, 
 the sheets, when pressed, adhere more effec- 
 tually to each other, and the boards conse- 
 quently become much more durable than 
 would be the case if they were produced by 
 pasting. Indeed, if any great amount of heat 
 be applied to pasteboards, they will split, and 
 be rendered utterly useless. The glazing in 
 this case is accomplished by friction. 
 
 To complete the category of ccarse papers, 
 
NAMES AND DIMENSIONS. 123 
 
 must be mentioned milled boards, employed 
 in book-binding, of not less than 150 de- 
 scriptions, as regards sizes and substances. 
 Still, however, an incomplete idea is conveyed 
 of the extraordinary number of sizes and 
 descriptions into which paper is at present 
 divided. For instance, we have said with 
 reference to writing qualities, that there are 
 Jive kinds — cream wove, yellow wove, blue 
 wove, cream laid, and blue laid ; and again, 
 that of each of those kinds there are numerous 
 sizes : but in addition there are, as a matter 
 of course, various thicknesses and makes of 
 each size and kind. In fad:, no house in 
 London, carrying on the wholesale stationery 
 trade, is without a thousand different sorts ; 
 many keep stock of twice that number. 
 
 The quantity of paper manufactured in 
 this country at the commencement of the 
 eighteenth century appears to have been far 
 from sufficient to meet the necessities of the 
 time. Even in 1 721, it is supposed that there 
 were but about 300,000 reams of paper 
 annually produced in Great Britain, which 
 were equal merely to two-thirds of the con- 
 
I 24 PAPER AND PAPER MAKING. 
 
 sumption. But in 1784, the value of the 
 paper manufactured in England alone is stated 
 to have amounted to £800,000 ; and that, 
 by reason of the increase in price, as also of 
 its use, in less than twenty years it nearly 
 doubled that amount. 
 
 With a view to greater exactness, it may 
 be well to append some extracts from various 
 Parliamentary returns, relating to the Excise 
 duties levied upon paper, which, since an 
 article of the kind is necessarily subjected to 
 great alteration in value, according to the 
 scarcity or abundance of raw materials, are, of 
 course, better calculated to show a steady 
 increase in the demand, than any mere 
 references to statements of supposed value, 
 from time to time. 
 
 In one return, specifying the rates of duty 
 and amount of duty received upon each 
 denomination of paper since 1770, it appears 
 that the total amount of duty on paper 
 manufactured in England for the year 1784, to 
 which I have just alluded as being estimated 
 in value at £800,000, was £46,867 19s. 9^d., 
 the duty at that time being divided into seven 
 
EXCISE REGULATIONS. 125 
 
 distinct classes or rates of collection; while 
 twenty years after, when the mode of assessing 
 the duty was reduced to but three classes, it 
 had risen to £315,802 4s. 8d. ; in 1830, 
 fifteen years after, to £619,824 7s. lid. ; 
 in 1835, for the United Kingdom, to 
 £833,822 i2Sc 4d., or, in weight, to 
 70,655,287 lbs., which was, again, within 
 so short a period as fifteen years, very nearly 
 doubled. The quantity of paper charged 
 with Excise duty in the United Kingdom, 
 since 1 844, being — 
 
 Date. 
 
 Charged with Duty. 
 
 Exported on Draw- 
 back, or 
 Free of Duty. 
 
 Returned for 
 Home Consumption. 
 
 
 lbs. 
 
 lbs. 
 
 lbs. 
 
 1844. 
 
 109,495,148 
 
 4,900,274 
 
 104,594,874 
 
 1845 
 
 124,247,071 
 
 4,864,185 
 
 119,382,886 
 
 1846 
 
 127,442,482 
 
 4,836,556 
 
 122,605,926 
 
 1847 
 
 121,965,315 
 
 5, 8 53,979 
 
 116,111,336 
 
 1848 
 
 121,820,229 
 
 5,180,286 
 
 116,639,943 
 
 1849 
 
 1 32,1 32,660 
 
 5>9 66 >3i9 
 
 126,166,341 
 
 1850 
 
 141,032,474 
 
 7,762,686 
 
 133,269,788 
 
 1851 
 
 i5 ,9°3,543 
 
 8,305,598 
 
 I 4*,597,945 
 
 1852 
 
 i 54 ? 4 6 9» 211 
 
 7,328,886 
 
 i47,i4o,3 2 5 
 
 1853 
 
 177,633,010 
 
 13,296,874 
 
 164,336,135 
 
 1854 
 
 177,896,224 
 
 16,1 12,020 
 
 161,784,204 
 
 1855 
 
 166,776,394 
 
 1 1 , 1 18,551 
 
 155,657,843 
 
 1856 
 
 187,716,575 
 
 14,798,979 
 
 172,917,596 
 
 1857 
 
 191,721,620 
 
 16,031,063 
 
 i75,69 ,557 
 
 1858 
 
 192,847,825 
 
 16,548,828 
 
 176,298,997 
 
 1859 
 
 217,827,197 
 
 20,142,350 
 
 197,684,847 
 
126 PAPER AND PAPER MAKING. 
 
 As the duty has ceased, we shall probably 
 lose the means of determining in future the 
 progress of this manufacture, but the foregoing 
 table will ever be of interest as showing what 
 has been done. 
 
 The emancipation of the manufacturer 
 from the troublesome meddling of the Excise- 
 man, will afford scope for his energy, his 
 genius, and his invention, hitherto unthought 
 of. It may be that at first the introduction 
 of foreign paper will subject him to a com- 
 petition severe and embarrassing, but eventually 
 British machinery, skill, and capital, will 
 maintain their supremacy. Already, con- 
 tinental papers are losing a hold obtained 
 solely by lowness of price, their inferiority 
 of material proving an obstacle to general 
 adoption. Quality is a better test than cheap- 
 ness ; and as the British paper maker warms 
 to his work, it will be found that his care- 
 fulness and uniformity of manufacture will 
 secure him the preference. In some spe- 
 cialities, perhaps, such as the thin tinted linear 
 and other papers, which postal regulations 
 have necessitated upon the Continent, it may 
 
GENERAL REMARKS. 12J 
 
 not pay him to compete with his foreign 
 brethren, but in the supply of the really 
 substantial descriptions of writing and printing 
 papers in hourly consumption, he need fear 
 little from foreign rivalry. 
 
 Considering the enormous extent of the 
 paper manufacture, and the vast improve- 
 ments which have taken place in connection 
 therewith, it is not a little remarkable that, 
 with the exception of the unfortunate Four- 
 driniers, who sacrificed their all to present to 
 mankind the bare principles of the art, as in 
 the main they now exist, no other name 
 should rest upon the page of history as being 
 similarly associated with those many intro- 
 ductions and improvements which have suc- 
 cessively raised the paper manufacture to the 
 apparently perfect standard which it has at 
 length attained. It is true, there would be 
 no difficulty in recording the names of very 
 many who, by the employment of the wealth 
 which they have inherited, are now altogether 
 unsurpassed as paper manufacturers ; and it is 
 equally true that, if we turn to the Reports of 
 the Jurors of the Great Exhibition of 1851, 
 
128 PAPER AND PAPER MAKING. 
 
 we shall find many other names more or less 
 distinguished by the greater or lesser im- 
 portance of the materials or means for which 
 they have themselves applied for and obtained 
 the security of a patent. Still, we search in 
 vain for any name upon record as indicating 
 the true genius to whom is chiefly owing the 
 surpassing beauty of the finest specimens of 
 the paper fabric. 
 
 Undoubtedly, the most enterprising and 
 successful paper manufacturer of the present 
 day is Mr. William Joynson, of St. Mary 
 Cray, Kent, who by individual effort has 
 succeeded in working his upward way, from 
 the position of a journeyman in a humble 
 paper mill, to the level of the most respected, 
 and probably the most wealthy of paper 
 manufacturers. 
 
 But Mr. Joynson, distinguished as he greatly 
 is for the superior finish of his writing papers, 
 was not the originator of the process by which 
 that finish was attained. At the cost of much 
 time and some thousands of pounds, Mr. 
 Joynson laboured to acquire a knowledge of 
 the means by which that peculiar character 
 
JOrNSON AND DEWDNEY. 129 
 
 and surface was so successfully accomplished 
 which, it is said, was first given to writing 
 papers at . the Hele paper mills, near Col- 
 lumpton, Devon, by the late Mr. John 
 Dewdney. Not only in this respect, but in 
 many others, Mr. Dewdney rendered very 
 distinguished service to the art of paper 
 making — probably no man more so ; and yet, 
 throughout his entire life as a paper manu- 
 facturer, he never once patented a single in- 
 vention,* or refused admitting to his mill any 
 person who wished to go over it. Whether 
 the same kind-hearted and generous spirit that 
 appears uniformly to have prompted Mr. 
 Dewdney in the conduct of his business 
 would be consistent now-a-days, many may 
 question, as indeed in practice most do ; but 
 with Mr. Dewdney it certainly answered no 
 bad end, for after acquiring a competency for 
 himself and each member of a large family, 
 he quietly retired from the paper manufacture ; 
 
 * For various particulars relative to patents in con- 
 nection with paper-making machinery, the reader is 
 referred to the Report of the Jurors of the Great Exhi- 
 bition of 185 1. 
 
 K 
 
130 PAPER AND PAPER MAKING. 
 
 and in the early part of the year 1852, imme- 
 diately after the Commissioners of the Great 
 Exhibition had awarded him a prize medal 
 " for the excellence of his writing papers, and 
 also for the permanent dye of his blue papers 
 for the use of starch manufacturers," he dis- 
 posed of his well-known mills and everything 
 connected with them, to his old friend and 
 competitor, Mr. Joynson, to whom to the 
 last day of his life he continued warmly 
 attached, and by whom he was ever con- 
 sulted upon the various alterations and in- 
 ventions which were adopted at St. Mary 
 Cray. 
 
 These observations, which are partly tech- 
 nical, — because, without technicality, the view 
 would be incomplete, — may give some idea 
 of the skill required in the workman, and the 
 expenditure demanded of the capitalist, to 
 produce so simple a thing as a sheet of paper. 
 The most exact care, the most ingenious in- 
 vention, the nicest work of hand, and the most 
 complicated machinery, are essential to that 
 superiority which the British manufacture of 
 paper has at length established. 
 
PAPER HANGINGS. 131 
 
 But the capabilities of paper are still more 
 extensive. There are probably few branches 
 of use, taste, or ornament, to which it may 
 not be applicable. We have it already moulded 
 into many forms of utility, and even of elegance, 
 under the well-known name of papier mactie — 
 a material which may yet be formed into 
 works of art, painted and enamelled tables, 
 antique candelabra, models of busts, statuettes, 
 classic temples, and everything which can be 
 shaped in a mould. 
 
 An earlier and more important use of paper 
 is in the decoration of dwellings. Formerly, 
 the apartments of persons of opulence were 
 hung with tapestry, generally brought from 
 the Continental loom. But its cost, its loss 
 of colour by time, and the rise of commercial 
 and industrial opulence, displaced this elaborate 
 and heavy decoration, and substituted "paper 
 hangings." The first specimens of those 
 exhibited nothing but the rudeness of an art 
 in its infancy, and were almost wholly foreign ; 
 but the capability of the invention was large, 
 and it had the advantage of converting the 
 humble covering of walls into copies of the 
 
132 PAPER AND PAPER MAKING. 
 
 pencil, on a new and extended scale. The 
 Continental specimens of this manufacture 
 already display representations of leading na- 
 tional events, memorable battles, and even 
 portraits of eminent men, forming, for even 
 the humbler ranks, a kind of historic galleries. 
 
 The English manufacturer excels in the 
 proportions of his paper (English, twelve 
 yards long, by twenty-one inches wide ; 
 French, nine yards by eighteen inches.) But 
 the art is still difficult and costly ; the blocks 
 for a single pattern sometimes amounting to 
 thousands. One of the principal French 
 manufacturers is, at present, producing a 
 design, requiring upwards of three thousand 
 blocks, at a cost of £2,000 ; the design alone 
 costing £1,200. 
 
 But time and practice will lighten both the 
 difficulty and the expense. The manufacture 
 may yet spread through every mart in the 
 world. In its more advanced stage, it may 
 supply the place of Fresco, or rather be a 
 multiplied Fresco. 
 
 The cartoons of Raphael, the noblest work 
 of design, are upon paper ; the finest Italian 
 
CONCLUSION. 
 
 1 33 
 
 pi&ures might be copied upon paper ; and 
 the tardy and toilsome work of the engraver 
 might be exchanged for the rapid, cheap, and 
 popular design, no longer limited to the palace 
 or the cloister, but sent in thousands of copies 
 round the globe. Nor let this be called 
 Utopian ; what can be Utopian in the country 
 of the railroad, the steam-ship, and the electric 
 telegraph ! 
 
 The art wants only public encouragement. 
 Let the encouragement be given, and the 
 talent will be found. Let Government offer 
 a premium of even a thousand pounds for the 
 best specimen. Let the Society of Arts make 
 it one of the objects of their patronage ; let it 
 be once favoured, and it will soon advance to 
 excellence. 
 
 Nor let any one scoff at the interest which I 
 venture to express in the ornament even of a 
 cottage wall. Ornament is the crown of art. 
 Taste is thought. Elegance is the refinement 
 of civilization. The study of beauty, gran- 
 deur, and truth, in History and in Nature, is 
 the most practical education of man ! Who 
 shall say that the sight of some heroic action — 
 
l 34 PAPER AND PAPER MAKING. 
 
 some noble figure of history — some sublime 
 exercise of talent, magnanimity, or patriotism, 
 pictured on a cottage wall, — may not be like 
 a flash through the darkness of the peasant 
 heart; may not suddenly awake the latent 
 energy of the unconscious poet, the patriot, 
 and the hero ; may not give to the world a 
 Shakspeare, a Wallace, or a Wellington ! 
 
 (•EORGE UN WIN, GRESHAW STEAM PRESS, BUCKLERSBURV, B.C. 
 
Second Edition, in octavo, with Plates and Specimens, price 7s. 6d. 
 
 PAPER AND PAPER-MAKING, 
 
 ANCIENT AND MODERN, 
 
 BY 
 
 RICHARD HERRING, 
 
 WITH AN INTRO DUC TI O N 
 
 BY THE 
 
 REV. DR. CROLY- 
 
 OPINIONS OP 
 
 " The work combines the qualities which might 
 be looked for from the union of liberal curiosity 
 and practical knowledge. In all that regards the 
 various processes by machinery, whether in pre- 
 paring the rags or straw, or in finishing the con- 
 verted 'pulp' into perfect paper, Mr. Herring 
 is full and explicit. With the description of the 
 actual processes of the manufacture are plea- 
 santly mingled some collateral facts, often of the 
 nature of anecdote."— Spectator. 
 
 " This work contains not only the history of 
 paper and paper making, but an account of all 
 the known substances that have ever been used 
 for the purposes for which we employ paper, 
 from the papyrus of the Egyptians to the 
 shoulder-bones of sheep used by the Arabians. 
 It is carefully written, and is full* of information 
 relative to a subject which, since the diminu- 
 tion in the supply of rags, is rising into national 
 importance." — Daily News. 
 
 " The subject of paper making is an interest- 
 ing one, and the author of the volume under 
 notice has had the benefit of the experience of 
 his father, extending over a period of nearly half 
 a century, to enhance the interest and import- 
 ance of what he has to say on the subject. The 
 treatise is illustrated with various engravings, 
 and an appendix of leaves forming numerous 
 specimens of paper, fine and coarse, with orna- 
 mental and other water-marks, &c. ; and the 
 whole constitutes a very interesting volume, in 
 which the history of the paper manufacture is 
 traced from its more primitive antetypes, through 
 its own earlier progress, onwards to its most 
 recent improvements."— Builder. 
 
 " There is poetry in everything— for to contem- 
 plate anything in 'the light of truth, is to discern 
 in it the beautiful handiwork of nature and of 
 God, and to express in words the sentiments 
 thus created, and as they have been felt, is, in 
 its essential character, poetry. Charles 
 Dickens, always truthful, correct, and lucid in 
 his expression, is a true poet. Mr. Herring, 
 our author, is the poet of paper, and he has pro- 
 duced on the subject a most entertaining and 
 exhaustive work. The whole subject is discussed 
 in a temper of philosophical contemplation, and 
 
 THE PRESS. 
 
 illustrated by a series of beautiful plates, which 
 make plain the whole mystery of the manufac- 
 ture."— Sentinel. 
 
 " The work is founded on lectures delivered at 
 the London Institution, in which Mr. Herring 
 gave a learned and elaborate account of the his- 
 tory of paper and of paper making. The book 
 l- s divided into three chapters, the first treating 
 historically of the early materials used for wri- 
 ting purposes, and of modern paper, with the 
 progress of the invention to its present superior 
 condition. The second treats of the materials 
 used in the manufacture of paper, the machinery 
 of different kinds, the water marks, and other 
 incidental points in the art of paper making. In 
 the last, among miscellaneous topics, the paper 
 duty and the excise regulations affecting the 
 manufacture are discussed. The history and the 
 principles are described in a concise and satis- 
 factory manner, and illustrative specimens, 
 made from a variety of materials and of different 
 textures, are bound up with the volume." — Lite- 
 rary Gazette. 
 
 " At the present moment, when books, news- 
 papers, and other periodicals are issued to the 
 world in numbers almost beyond calculation, and 
 when the want of linen fibre for the manufacture 
 of paper to supply the daily increasing demand, 
 has been exciting the deep interest both of the 
 press and of the Government, a carefully com- 
 piled and well-written book on Paper and Papeb 
 Making, Ancihnt and Modern, cannot be other- 
 wise than welcome. Such a one is the octavo 
 volume just issued by Mr. Herring, which is 
 based upon the lectures recently given by him 
 upon the subject at the London Institution. 
 Without being either tedious or technical, the 
 author conducts his reader through the history 
 of paper, the process of its manufacture, its 
 varieties, its distinctive marks, and also inci- 
 dentally to the question of the influence of the 
 duty on the spread of knowledge; and as the 
 volume is amply illustrated by plates of machi- 
 nery, specimens of parer marks, and specimens 
 of the various kinds of paper described, it sup- 
 plies just that amount of knowledge, upon a very 
 interesting and important topic, which every well- 
 read person would desire to possess. "—Notes and 
 Queries 
 
OPINIONS OF THE PRFAS-eontinued. 
 
 This volume, on a subject of universal use and 
 universal interest, is the work of a gentleman 
 extensively connected with the commerce of 
 paper, and perfectly acquainted with the details 
 of its production. It is, we believe, the only one 
 which enters alike into the history of the manu- 
 iacture and commercial values of paper, and thus 
 not merely supplies important information to the 
 merchant, but offers a now field for the investi- 
 gation of the philosopher. The volume proceeds 
 in an interesting anecdotical manner, at the same 
 time giving the technical details and description 
 of the machinery, with elaborate accuracy. Speci- 
 mens of the different kinds of paper, with the old 
 and sometimes curious marks of the different 
 tabries, are given; the whole forming a work 
 which ought to be in the library of every public 
 institution, and of every man" of letters and 
 which ought espeiially to form the companion of 
 every man connected with the commerce of this 
 great and growing manufacture. It is only fair 
 to the author of such a work to congratulate him 
 on the research and the accuracy of his per- 
 formance, and to express our wishes for the 
 circulation and public accentance of a volume 
 which does him honour."— Standard. 
 
 "Mr. Herring's work on Paper and Paper 
 Making is a very valuable addition to the History 
 of Manufactures, as well as to that of Literature 
 and Civilisation. The author is, we believe 
 acquainted practically with the many improve- 
 ments mid? lately in this important branch of 
 manufactures. Much of what is found in these 
 pages was contained in a course of lectures 
 delivered in the London Institution. There is 
 I fi , le .°r no dt T reading and mere technical 
 talk m these pages; they are filled with matter 
 winch is at orue entertaining and instructive 
 and the style is that of a skilful literary artist- 
 one who kno.v3 not onlv what to say, but how to 
 say it. Illustrative erg.-avings, and soecimens 
 of paper in var o is stages and forms of manu- 
 facture, e lhance the value of the book It will 
 amply repay a diligent perusal. If every author 
 would select a subject which he knows as well 
 and write about it as well as Mr. Herring this 
 would be a brighter and a better world to critics 
 and the bet er sort of readers. A good book on 
 any subject-even upon blank paper-is pleasant 
 and profitable reading. Apart from its literary 
 merits, the book is a good specimen of typo- 
 graphy and general getting up-free from all the 
 superfluities of finery and splendjur of outward 
 adornment."— Globe. 
 
 " While the history of printing has been fre- 
 quently and copiously dealt with, there has been 
 a strange neglect with regard to the history of 
 that material without which the art of printing 
 would be comparatively useless. Yet it will be 
 admitted, that the history of paper and paper 
 making is a subject which may be made m<r» 
 interesting to general readers ; for they can more 
 thoroughly appreciate the progress and result of 
 the various improvements and discoveries which 
 have been made from time to time. This want 
 Mr. Herring has very satisfactorily supplied in 
 the work before us ; and though he goes back to 
 very remote times, and into the technicalities of 
 the subject, he does not dwell on those points 
 more than is necessary to enable the reader to 
 understand and feel an interest in the whole when 
 he is perusing the more popular portions of the 
 volume. The volume is illustrated not only by 
 
 engravings, but by actual specimens of various 
 kinds of paper bound up with it— a mode of 
 Hlust-ation which we think might be generally 
 adopted in popularly explaining various arts and 
 manufactures. Mr. Hbrbing has introduced 
 some interesting anecdotes, and Dr. Cbolt has 
 added a characteristic introduction or preface, 
 pointing out the important influence of printing 
 and paper making upon the religious, social and 
 political condition of the world." — BnqKah 
 Churchman. 
 
 '' Thanks to the varied sources of information 
 which Mr. Herring has had at his disposal, he 
 has accumulated in these pages a mass of the 
 most interesting facts, applicable to almost every 
 detail in the manufacture and sale of the article, 
 and succeeded in explaining more clearly than is 
 generally possible by means of a book, the nature 
 of the difficulties with which each successive 
 invention had to deal . The purely historical part 
 of the subject, and that especially which relates 
 to the origin and use of materials for writing and 
 engraving upon, employed by the ancients, is 
 extremely copious, displaying abundant evidence 
 of extensive research, and supplying one of the 
 ' most interesting chapters in the book, of early 
 ; human invention, which its entire annals can 
 present us with. The account given of the 
 i modern mode of converting pulp into paper by 
 continuous rotatory motion, is extremely explicit 
 and satisfactory, the manufacture being exhibited 
 by beautifully engraved drawings of the machi- 
 nery, and the value of the book is greatly en- 
 hanced by the addition of a number of leaves, 
 exhibiting the progress of the manufacture at its 
 several stages, and some remarkable examples of 
 water-marking in light and shade. Altogether 
 the book is one of great value, as regards the 
 history of the practical details of the art, and of 
 equal interest in an antiquarian and bibliological 
 point of view, "^-Morning Advertiser. 
 
 " A useful volume. Mr. Herring ' begins with 
 the beginning,' and has a short essay on the 
 origin of language ; from this he traces the 
 history, if we may so speak, of the various in- 
 ventions resorted to by men whereby to stamp an 
 imperishable record of their thoughts, their hopes, 
 their aspirations, and their deeds. This history 
 is interesting ; and we may remark, that in old 
 days, as now, the paper makers seem to have 
 created colossal fortunes, while they who crossed 
 the fabric with the stylus, achieved no fortune 
 but one of fame. Thus, we are told of a certain 
 Firmus, a paper maker, that he raised the stan- 
 dard of revolt in Egypt against the fifniperor 
 Aurehan, and boasted that he could maintain an 
 army solely from the profits of his paper trade ! 
 What a radical newspaper this Firmus would 
 have set up against the powers that then were, 
 if he had only known to what purpose paper 
 might be turned! Mr. Herring is amusing 
 when describing the names of the different sorts' 
 of paper. Three are derived from the marks 
 applied by paper makers to distinguish their 
 respective productions. The water mark of ' an 
 open hand, with a star,' in use as early as 1530, 
 probably gave the name to ' hand' paper; ' pot' 
 paper was distinguished by a jug ; and ' fools- 
 cap,' which now bears Britannia, or a lion ram- 
 pant supporting the cap of liberty 0:1 a pole,' is 
 no satirical allusion to such cap,' but was origi- 
 nally given because of the former device of the 
 ' cap and bells.' "—Athenmim. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 LONGMAN, GREEN, LONGMAN, ROBERTS, AND GREEN. 
 
 7 
 
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