The subject of water-marks assists iu elucidating the history of paper-making, and the mark of the manufacturer has often been found of use in detecting literary forgeries and frauds in the falsification of accounts. One of the oldest water, marks in existence is an open band, whose middle finger is connected by a straight line or stem with a star. This appears on a sheet of paper of the manufacture of hinders, which at that time supplied all the paper needed for the ence of England. Upon a sheet of paper is written a letter, preserved in one of the museums at Venice, which was addressed to Francesco Capello, by king Henry vtr., from 'our manor of Woodstock,' on the 20th of July 1502. Mr. Herring, however, states its introduction at 1530, adding that it gave the name to hand 'paper. Note-paper once bore a tankard, but it had since the royal arms in a shield without motto or supporters. Post was marked with a postman's horn in a shield with a crown ; Copy had a fleur-de-lys only ; deny and several larger sorts, a fleur - de - lys in a crowned shield; royal, a shield with a bend sinister, and a fleur-de-lys for crest. Mr. Herring traced the term asp to the jockey cap, or something like it, in use when the first edition of Shakespeare was printed. The date given to foolscap in the Arclueologia xii.is i 1661, and the traditional story related of its origin is that, when Charles I. found his revenues short, he granted certain privileges, amounting to monopolies, and among these was the manufacture, of paper, the exclusive right of which was sold to certain parties, who grew rich and enriched the Government at the expense of those who were obliged to use paper. At this time all English paper bore in water-marks the royal arms. The Parliament under Cromwell made jests of this law in every conceivable manner, and, among other indignities to the memory of Charles, it was ordered that the royal arms be removed from the paper, and the fool's cap and bells substituted. These were also removed when the Rump Parlia ment was prorogued ; but paper of the size of the Parliament's journals still bears the name of foolscap.' Mr. Herring relates that the practice of blueing the paper-pulp had its origin in an accidental circumstance. About the year 1790, at a paper mill belonging to Mr. Buttenshaw, his wife was superintending the washing of some fine linen, when accidentally she dropped her bag of powder blue into some pulp in a forward state of prepara tion, with which the blue rapidly incorporated. On Mr. Buttenshaw's inquiring what had imparted the peculiar colour to the pulp, his wife, presuming that no great damage was done, took courage, and confessed the accident, for which she was after wards rewarded by her husband, who, by intro ducing to the London market the improved blue cake, obtained for it an advance of four shillings per bundle.
In paper-making by machinery, the pulp is first made to flow from the vat upon a wire frame or sifter, which moves rapidly up and down. Having passed through the sifter, the pulp flows over a ledge in a regular and even stream, and is received upon an endless web of wire-gauze, which moves forward with a shaking motion from side to side, assisting to spread the pulp evenly, and allowing the to pass through the wire, by which means the pulp solidifies as it advances. Before the pulp quits the plane of the wire, it is pressed by a roller covered with felt, and is then taken up by an endless web of felt, which, gradually moving forward, absorbs a further portion of the moisture. It is again pressed between rollers, and, after being passed over cylinders heated by steam, it is cut by machinery into sheets. Thus in two or three minutes, the pulp, which is introduced upon the web at one extremity of the machine, is delivered at the other in the state of perfect paper. By
this process 25 square feet can be made in one minute, or 15,000 square feet in a working day of ten hours.
Paper can be made from multitudinous vege table substances, but only profitably from a few. It is manufactured in China from various materials, each province or district having its own peculiar manufacture. In that country, Ho - chi is rice - straw paper used for sacrificial burnings. Pi-tsze is the mulberry bark paper, which has been long used in the Hankow Mission Hospital as a substitute for lint and old rag. It comes from Wu-chang-fu and Ynn-yang-fu in Hu-peh. Wan-tsai hien, Fung-sin hien, and Lin chang hien, all in Kiang-si, make a paper, called Piau-sin, used for packing. Lin-yang hien, in Hunan, also supplies this article. Hwa - tsien paper from Fuh-kien and Sin-chang hien (Kiang-si) is a rough paper for packing drugs in. Hwang pian paper, made in Kwang-sin-fu (Kiang-si) is the same as the Ho-chi, used in burning for the dead. Ta-tseh, Chung-tsch, made in Kwang-sin fu, are used for account books. Mau-pien and Lien-chi are fine papers made in Northern Fuh kien and in Yuen-shan hien (Kiang-si), and used for writing, printing, and mounting pictures or scrolls. Kai-lien-chi is a good yellow thin paper, useful for wrapping up powders in dispensary practice. Lah-tsien is a waxed note-paper. Seven lined and eight-lined paper, divided by perpen dicular red lines, and stamped with curious coloured devices, are sold everywhere in great variety at small cost. In Foh-kien province, paper is made from young soft bamboo ; in the province of Che-kiang it is made from paddy straw ; in the province of Kiang-nan it is made from the refuse silk, and this paper is very fine and delicate, being highly valued for writing complimentary inscriptions upon. To size the paper and render it fit for ink, they make a glue, somewhat similar to isinglass, from fish bones ; these they chop up very small, and soak the mass in water, which is continually renewed ; when all oily impurity is extracted, they add a due proportion of alum, which has been dissolved. Over the vessel in which this mixture is, a rod is laid, a cleft-stick is used for holding the sheet of paper during the process of dipping ; as soon as the paper has been sufficiently saturated, it is withdrawn by gently rolling it round the stick which has been laid over the vessel ; the sheet of paper is after wards hung to dry either near a furnace, or in the sun. They employ a vast variety of fibrous substances for this manufacture, and apply paper to a variety of uses little thought of in other countries. They make up an infinite variety of kinds, from the coarse, heavy, half-inch thick touch-paper for retaining a slow, enduring fire, to the beautiful so-called India paper suited for the finest proof engravings. In the tea-chests there is a lavish use of many thicknesses of paper. If a hut or boat is leaky overhead, the bed is pro tected by a large sheet of oiled paper. If a shop keeper wants to tie up a parcel, he seizes a strip of tough paper, and by rolling it on his thigh at once converts it into a strong pack-thread; and even a torn sail is at times patched with tough paper. In China it is the cheapest of materials in daily use, and the manufacturers are very numerous. They make it of rice-straw, wheat-straw, cotton, hemp, of young bamboos, of different fibres, and of the barks of the paper mulberry, Broussonetia papyrifera, also of the Ailanthus and other trees, and of the refuse of the silk cocoon, showing that the inventors of the art make use chiefly of unwoven fibres, though they also employ refuse cloth and silk, etc.