It is known that the Chinese were acquainted with the art of making paper from pulp artificially prepared as early as the commencement of the Christian era; and it is thought that they used the bark of various trees, the soft parts of bamboo stems, and cotton. In the 7th c., the Arabians learned the art of making it of cotton from the Chinese, and the first manufactory was established, about 706 A.n., at .Samarcand. From thence it was transplanted to Spain, where, under the Moors, paper was made not only of cotton, but it is thought also of hemp and flax. The exact time of the introduction of paper made of linen rags is very uncertain; but the best evidence is offered by the Arabian physician Abdollatiph, who writes, in an account of his visit to Egypt in the year 1200, " that the cloth found in the catacombs, and used to envelop mummies, was made into garments, or sold to the scribes to make paper for shopkeepers ;" and as there is no doubt that these mummy-cloths were linen, it proves that the use of this material is of no mean antiquity. Of the use of linen rags in Europe, the earliest proof is in the Celebrated document found by Ichwaudner in the monastery of Goss, in Upper Styria, which purports to lie a man date of Frederick II., emperor of the Romans, and is dated 1242. It is written on paper which has been proved to be made of linen. The practice of making a distinctive water mark on the paper, by means of an impression on the, fine sieve of threads or wires upon which the floating pulp is received (fig. 4), was also of very early date, as MMS. as old as the 13th c. bear it. But there is really no satisfactory information respecting the exact time or place of the introduction of paper-making into Europe; by some it is supposed that Spain was the first to receive tthe art, and that thence it spread to France and Hol land, and afterwards to England It is quite certain that England was a long time behind these countries. As a proof of this, we find that the first patent for paper-making was taken out in 1665, by one Charles Hildeyerd, but it was for "The way and art of mak blew paper used by sugar-bakers and others." The second was in 1675, by Eustace Barneby, " The art and skill of making all sorts of white paper for the use of writing and printing, being a new manufacture, and never practiced in any way in any of our kingdoms or tlo•inions." This, then, was the first commencement of the making of writing and printing paper; but that it did not equal the manufactures of other countries is shown by the specification of another patent, taken out by John Briscoe in the year 1685, which is thus expressed: "The true art and way for making English paper for writing, printing, and other uses, both as good and as sermceable in al?respects, and especially as white as any French or Dutch paper." As a general rule, it was the custom of paper makers to employ linen rags for fine papers, but a great variety of other materials have been in use from its first introduction; for, as early as 1680, _Nathaniel Bladen took out a patent for " An engine method and mill, whereby hemp, flax, lynnen, cotton, cordage, silke, woolen, and all sortsof materials " might be made into paper and paste board; and from that time innumerable efforts have been made to prepare other materials than cot ton and linen rags for the manufacture of paper. The following is a summary of the patents which have been taken out in Imhain for making paper from various materials, with the dates, which will show to those engaged in this investigation in what directions the inquiry has been previously conducted. The arrangement is alphabetical, and con sequently not in the order of dates: But whatever the material employed, the process for nearly all is the same. The rags, bark, fibers. or other ,substance, have to be reduced with water into a fine smooth pulp. This, in the early stages of the manufacture, was accomplished by macerating and boiling the material, until, in the case of bark, fibers, or other raw material, the fibers could be drawn out from the cellulose matter, after which it was beaten with mal lets, or with pestles in mortars, or scampers moved by some power. Water is generally used, but in Holland wind-mills do this work. The beating is continued until the material is reduced to a very smooth pulp. The pulping, in our machine paper-mills, is much more rapidly accomplished by boiling the linen or cotton rags, or other material, in a strong he of caustic alkali. This effectually cleans the rags, and other vegetable fibers are softened and separated in a remarkable manner by it; they are then put into a machine called the washing-machine which washes out Pt and everything but the pure vegetable fiber. This machine is a large cast-iron vessel, usually about 10 ft. in length, 4t ft. in width, and 2 ft, in depth. In the middle, occupying about two-thirds of its length, is a partition, always cast with it, called the mid-feather, to support the axle or driving :shaft. This turns the cylinder which has a large number of teeth_ or ridges running across it, which grip and tear the rags, or other materials, as they are drawn under it by the current formed by its revolutions. In order to facilitate this, a peculiar form is given
to the bottom of the part in which the cylinder works, as seed in fig. 1. The rise, a, is called the the backfall, and the materials are drawn up to, and through the narrow space at b, by the current; then, as they pass over the ridged surface, c, they come in contact with , the ridged surface of the cylinder, and are • thus violently ground and drawn through the stream carrying them round and round until they are thoroughly washed and partly pulped; • 'Pane or, as it is technically called, broken in. The a washing-machine is supplied with a continued .
flow of clean water, and the soiled water as regularly escapes through a fine gauze screen, Ftg.
in the ends of the cylinders, in which is an 1• ingenious arrangement for raising it and carrying it away through the axis,which is hollow. The contents of washing-machine are then allowed to flow though a large valve, open ing downwards into the draining-chest. Here the water is drained away, and the stuff is then placed in the bleaching vats, which are made of stone, and each calculated to .contain a hundredweight of stuff, which is here submitted to the action of a strong solu tion of chloride of lime for about 24 hours, and frequently agitated; after which it is transferred to a hydraulic press, and pressed so as to remove the greater portion of the liquid and chloride of lime. It is then placed in another washing-engine, and for an hour is submitted to the same process as in the first; by which all vestiges of the bleach ing materials are removed, and the stuff so much more broken down as to be called hallstuff. From this engine it is let out by a valve, and finds its way into the beating engine, which is placed at a lower level so- as to receive it. Here the arrangement is nearly the same as in the washing and intermediate engines; but the ridges on the bars below the cylinder, and on the cylinder itself, are much sharper, and the-disinte gration of the fibers is carried on with great rapidity until they are quite separated; and the flow of the water in a rapid current, as it passes the cylinder, draws them out and arranges them in the water in much the same way as wool or cotton is laid on the carding cylinders of a carding-machine. This Operation takes about five hours, at the end of which time the materials have been worked up with the water into an almost impalpable pulp. This is then let out into the pulp vat, where it is kept continually agitated by a wooden wheel revolving in it, called a hog, and from this the hand-workman or machine is :supplied.
We will now suppose the pulp formed and ready for use in the vat, and will first •describe the process of hand-making, as formerly practiced in all Countries, and still in use, more or less, in all paper-making countries. The workman or vatman takes an implement called a mold, which consists of a sheet of very fine network, attached to a frame. In Europe, this network Was always made of very fine wire; but in India, China, and Japan, it is usually made of fine fibers of bamboo, which the workmen of these -countries split and weave with remarkable skill. There are usually two kinds of molds employed. In one the wires are woven across each other, forming a very fine gauze, and paper made with them is known as wore. In the other, there are several cross-bars in the frame, and straight wires are laid from side to side, and about four or five to each half ,sheet are laid across them lengthwise, to keep them in position; the transverse wires are about twenty to the inch; the longitudinal ones are a little more.than an inch apart. Paper made on such molds is called laid, and is easily known by the impression of the wires upon it. Whichever kind of mold is used, another implement called the deckle is required. It is a thin frame, which exactly corresponds to the frame of the mold, and the workman first places the decide on the mold, and then dips them into the pulp; the deckle forms a ridge which retains just enough of the liquid pulp for the sheet of paper. The water of the pulp speedily drains through the wire gauzl and after it has stood in an inclined position for a few minutes, .another workman,.called the toucher, applies the face of the sheet of pulp to a piece of felt or flannel cloth stretched on a board, called the couch, and the sheet thus pressed, leaves the mold, and is left on the couch. Every successive sheet is similarly treated. and they are piled one on another, with a sheet of felt between each, until from four to eight quires, or a post, as it is called, is formed, Each post is put in a press, and under pressure parts with nearly all the moisture in the sheets of paper. The felts are then removed, and after several pressings, and other minor operations, the paper is hung on hair ropes, called tribbles, in the drying-loft; and when dried, resembles blotting-paper, and cannot be written upon. This is remedied by dipping it in a weak solution of hot size, sometimes tinged with color, after which it is pressed, dried, folded, and made up into quires. Hot pressing and glazing are done by _passing the sheets through hot and polished iron rollers.