PAPER-MAKING. Paper may be made of any prow material which can be torn and beaten into pulp. The substances commonly employed are linen and cotton rags, and for coarser kinds of paper, grass and straw. We c,annot in this work go at any length into the process of paper-making, but will briefly describe the mode of making hand-made paper, from which the general principles of the manufacture will be understood.
The rags are mostly imported from Germany and the different ports of the Mediterranean. They are sorted by women ; tom up into shreds, and cut into pieces, then dusted in a machine, and washed, first in water, then in a strong alkaline ley, and afterwards in water again ; they are then ready to be made into pulp. To effect this, they are placed with water in a machine called the " engine," where by the rapid rotation of a complicated piece of apparatus, they are torn into the finest imaginable tatters and shreds. This is called " stuff." When the stuff is about half made, it is called " half stuff," and is then " bleached," generally with chlorine, or chloride of lime, one or two pounds of chloride of lime being sufficient for a cwt. of fine rags. This is added to the " half stuff" in the eng,ine, and the mixture is beaten together for an hour or so, then the bleaching liquid run off, fresh water con tinually added, and the half stuff reduced by the continued action of the engine to " fine stuff." Sometimes the sizing mixture and colouring matter are now added, but in general the sizing is an after operation performed upon the finished sheets of paper in its bibulous state. The stuff is now run off into the " stuff chest " or vat.
Hand-made paper is made as follows :— Two men, one called the " vat-man," the other the " coucher," stand on opposite sides of the vat, which is covered with a board or " bridge " between them. The vat is about five fe,et square, and four
feet deep, with slanting sides, and made of wood or stone. The stuff is then diluted with warm water, and continually stirred. The vat-man takes in his hands a mould, which is the size of the sheet of paper to be made. This mould is a frame of wood, having wooden bars numing across, about an inch and a half apart, and across them is laid a wire frame, the wires being from fifteen to twenty per inch ; or sometimes a wove. mould is used, covered with fine wire doth. On the mould a " deckel," or move,able edge frame, is used to prevent the edges of the paper from being rough.
The vat-man puts the deckel upon the mould, and dips it in a vertical position to about half its depth in the stuff, then turns it into a horizontal postion so as to cover it with the stuff, and gives it a peculiar kind of shake, which distribut,es the stuff evenly upon the mould. The mould must be held perfectly level during this operation, or the sheet will be thicker at one end than the other. The mould is then pushed across the bridge to the " c,oucher," who, after draining off the water, lays the surface of the pulp upon a piece of felt, to which it adheres, and then returns the mould to the vat-man. This piece of felt, with what we may now call the sheet of paper adhering to it, is laid with other similar pieces in a pile, which, therefore, consists of alternate layers of paper and felt. The pile, consisting of six or eight quires, is put, and remainkfor some time, under a pressure of about 100 tons, to squeeze out all the water, and the sheets of paper are then removed, pressed again without the felts, and hung across a hair line to dry, in the drying