NIUM.
(Fr. mashed or pulped paper). This manufacture has certainly been in use for more than a century in Europe;'but it is not improbable that it was first sug gested by some of the beautiful productions of Sinde and other parts of India, where it is employed in making boxes, trays, etc., as well China and Japan. Its first cation, as far as we know, was to the manufacture of snuff-boxes by a German named Martin, in 1740, who learned it of a Frenchman named Lefevre; but the French say that be learned the art in England. Properly speaking, paper-mache is paper-pulp molded into shape, and it has been used, not only to make small articles, such as boxes, trays, etc., but in the interior decoration of houses for cornices, ceilings, etc. The ceilings in Chesterfield house, and some other fine Elizabethan structures, are made of this material, which at one time, owing to a combination of the stucco-workers to raise the price of their labor, took the Place almost entirely of stucco in house ornamentation. At present a combination of both stucco and paper is similarly employed under the name of Carton pierre. From the extension of the applications of papier-mache to the manufacture of a number of light and useful articles, modifications have taken place in its composition, and it is. now of three kinds-1st, the true kind, made of paper-pulp"; 2d, sheets of paper pasted together after the manner of pasteboard, but submitted to far greater pressure; and 3d, sheets of thick millboard cast from the pulp are also heavily pressed. The term
papier-mache is in trade held to apply rather to the articles made of the pulp than to the pulp itself; and a vast manufacture has sprung up during the present century, particu larly in Birmingham, in which a great variety of articles of use and ornament are made of this material. They are coated with successive layers of asphalt varnish, which is acted upon by heat in ovens until its volatile parts are dissipated, and it hedomes hard, and capable of receiving a high polish. Mother-of-pearl is much used in their decoration, for which purpose, when several layers of the varnish still remain to be applied. thin flakes of the shell of the form of the pattern are placed on the varnish, and are covered by the succeeding layers, giving rise to elevations where they are hidden by the coats of varnish. The surface is then ground down smooth and polished, and the grinding down brings to light the pieces of mother-of-pearl shell, which thus present the appearance of inlaid patterns. The fine surface which can be given to the asphalt varnish also permits of burnished gilding and other decorative applications with excellent effect.