PAPER. Before proceeding to an account of the pre sent mode of manufacturing paper, it may be advisible to give a sketch of the history and improvements of the art. Cotton paper appears to have been used in Greece about the ninth century, although no dated manuscript has been found written on this paper older than the middle of the 11th, but several of those without a date still extant ap pear considerably older. About the beginning of the 12th century the use of this paper was very common in Greece. It also took the place of the Egyptian Papyrus, which had been previously used in Greece.
Linen paper appears to have been made use of in Eu rope about the beginning of the 14th century. The old est German paper-mill was established in 1390 at Nurem berg. It is uncertain if the art was invented in Germany, or imported from the east. The first paper-mill in Eng land was etablished at Dartford, by a German, jeweller to Queen Elizabeth, about the year I 538.
For a long time after its establishment, the manufacture was in a very backward state in this country, so that the finer kinds used to be imported from France and Holland, till within the last fifty or sixty years. From that period, however, the manufacturers of Britain have made rapid strides, and we now find that paper of the best quality is not only made in Kent, the original seat of the manufac ture, but in almost every district of the island. Till within about sixty years, paper was made by means of scampers or hammers, which still continue to be used in most of the French and Italian mills.
An account of the method then in use is not devoid of interest. In France and Holland, in the old way, the rags, after being well washed, were placed, in their damp state, in close vessels, generally tubs, and left there for about fourteen days. This caused them to become slightly putrefied and destroyed, or at least injured ; the fibres being then placed in large wooden mortars, they were bruised and hammered down to a fine pulp by stampers: shod with iron; two of these stampers worked in each mortar alternately ; and it required about forty pair, work ing night and day, to prepare a hundred and twelve pounds of rags. Being reduced to pulp, or rather paste, they were made into paper by a method a good deal like that at present in use, less attention being paid to the tex ture and fine surface of the sheet. In England the mode
was something different. The rags being fermented near ly in the same way as in France and Holland, they were placed in a circular wooden bowl, diverging regularly to wards the top; in this bowl an iron cylinder worked, the pressure on which was considerable, and acting on the side of the bowl, so that the rags were squeezed and rubbed in this way, till they obtained nearly the same degree of trituration that was given them in the French method. This is nearly the same process by which snuff is now manufactured in this country. Of these two modes, the French was the best ; so that about the middle of the last century, it was commonly used in this country.
About this time the paper engine was invented in Hol land, which totally changed the mode of making paper, and paved the way for the great improvements which have since taken place in the art.
We now come to describe the present mode of making paper both by the hand and by various machines. Before coming to the mill, the rags are sorted into four or five kinds, according to their fineness. This is, however, rather carelessly done. The first operation at the mill, is the cutting and re-sorting of the rags, which is generally done by women. A frame of a table is covered with wire cloth, of about three meshes to the running inch. In this frame a part of a scythe, about a foot long, is fixed, rather inclining backwards. On the left side are the uncut rags, and on the right is a box, divided into several compart ments. The operator takes up a few of the rags, and shakes them on the table, so as to allow much of the dirt to pass through ; she then takes up a piece, and draws it along the sharp side of the scythe so as to cut it into portions of three or four inches square, and places it in one of the compartments according to its fineness. Seven or eight sorts are in general made ; the new pieces are laid aside for the purpose of making bank notes, or any paper which may require great strength. The rags are then taken to a larger table, also covered with wirecloth, and examined by an overseer, who throws out the pieces which belong to another sort. Rags may be cut and sorted for about Is. 4d. to Is. 6d. per cwt. and an active woman can cut nearly that quantity in a day.