1 PAPER. sail-cloth and ropes. Its commerce is considerable. Pop. (1871) 6077. PAPER. This well-known fabric is usually composed of vegetable fibres in a minute state of division, and recombined into thin sheets, either by simple drying in contact, or with the addition of size or some other adhesive material. Probably the earliest use of paper was for the purpose of writing upon, and its earliest form was the Papyrus (q. v.) of the Egyptians. The stems of the papyrus plant, which are often eight or ten feet long, are soft and green, externally like the common rush; and the interior consists of a compact cellular tissue or pith. At the bottom of each stem the portion immersed in the mud and water is whiter and more compact; and under the outer skin a number of thin pellicles lie one above the other. These were removed, and laid side by side with their edges overlapping each other, and crosswise upon these was placed one or more similar layers, until the sheet was sufficiently thick; pressure was then applied for a time, and afterwards the sheet was dried in the sun. The width of such sheets, of course, depended upon the length of the portion of papyrus stems taken; but they could be made any length by joining a number of the squares end to end by glue or any other adhesive material. The scapus, or roll, usually consisted of about 20 of them. Owing to the fact that the various layers of the papyrus decrease in thickness as they are nearer to the centre of the stem, the makers were enabled to produce papers of different qualities; and in the time of the Romans many varieties were known, which differed as to the quality of the material, and the size of the pieces of which the sheets were composed. The finest quality was made from the innermost layer of membrane, and was called Hieratica, or paper of the priests. This was made for the Egyptian priests, who interdicted its sale until covered with sacred writing. In this state it was, however, an article of trade, and the Romans found a means of removing the writing, and sold the palimpsest sheets in Rome under the name of Augustus paper, used as a Latin equivalent for its former Greek name of hieratica. It was, however, supposed by many that it was named after the Emperor Augustus, and in consequence a second quality was called after his wife, Lavinia; and the original name of the first quality came in time to be applied to the third quality. The next quality was called Amphitheatrica, it is supposed, from its having been made in the vicinity of the Alexandrian amphitheatre. This last, when imported to Rome, was partly remanufactured by Q. Remmius Fannius Palaemon, the schoolmaster and paper-maker, who, by a peculiar process of his own, reduced its thickness, and rendered it equal to the first quality, when it was sold under the name of Fanniana. There were other inferior qualities, of which one called Emporetica was used as shop-paper. Pliny, from whom we get these very interesting particulars, tells us that all these kinds were manufactured in Egypt, and required the Nile water for their formation. He says, that when it is in a muddy state it has the peculiar qualities of glue, and the various kinds of paper are made on a table where they are moistened with this water. The leaves or sheets of membrane are laid upon it lengthwise, as long indeed as the papyrus will admit of, the jagged edges being cut off at either end; after which a cross layer is placed over: the same way, in fact, that hurdles are made. When this is done, the leaves are pressed together, and dried in the sun.' The idea of the adhesive quality of the Nile water is erroneous, but it is very probable the Egyptian manufacturers encouraged the error. 328 It is obvious the whole merit consisted in using the membranes fresh, whilst their own natural gum was in proper condition to make them adhere together. In India and China, the art of writing with a style or sharp point upon dried palm and other leaves, and also some kinds of bark, is common even at the present day, especially in Ceylon, where we find it common to employ the leaves of the talipot and other palms as paper. Perhaps it was from the employment of these materials, or it is even possible from watching the operations of the paper-making wasps and other insects, that the manufacture of larger pieces, by pulping the materials and spreading them out to a greater extent, was suggested. Whatever was the true origin of the art, it is now lost in the vista of time. 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. D., 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 Ichwandner in the monastery of Goss, in Upper Styria, which purports to be a mandate 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. 1), was also of very early date, as MSS. 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 the art, and that thence it spread to France and Holland, 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 making blew paper used by sugarbakers and others.' The second was in 1675, by Eustace Barneby, for 'The art and skill of making all sorts of white paper for the use of writing and printing, being a new manufacture, and never practised in any way in any of our kingdomes or dominions.' This, then, was the first commencement of the making of writing and printing paper; but that it did not equal the manufactures of other coun tries is shewn 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 serviceable in all respects, and especially as white as any French or Dutch paper.' As a general rule, it was the custom of papermakers to employ linen rags for fine papers, but a great variety of other materials have been in use 241 PAPER. from its first introduction; for, as early as 1680, Names of Inventors, and Dates of Patents. Old Writing Paper, Pea Stalk, Rots of various kinds, Sawdust, Silk, Stiff, 1853; Wheeler and Co., 1854; Rossiter and Co., 1854; Smith Tan (Spent Bark), Berry, 1838; Lilly, 1854; Jullion, D'Harcourt, 1838; Brooman, 1855. Diaper, 1854. Coupland, 1854; Holt and Fraser, Jones, 1805 Zander, 1839; Lloyd, 1852; Hill, 1854. Thistle-down, Tobacco-stalks, Wool, Ruck and Touche, 1857. Nesbitt, 1824: Johnson, 1855. Bellford, 1854; Jones, 1805; De la Garde, 1825; Koops, 1800. D Harcourt, 1838. Ley, 1852; Ciarke, 1853; Lalle mande, 1853; Crossley, 1851; Hemming, 1857; Westerman, 18: 2. Blmano, 1838; De la Berteche, 1855; Johnson, 1855; Ackland, 1854; Barling, 1855; Dubus, 1857. Wilkinson, 1852; Johnson, 1855. Martenoli de Martonoi, 1855; Archer, 1855. Bladen, 1682; Bull, 1817; Williams, 1833. Koops, 1800; Lambert, 1824; Zinder, Koops, 1800; Lora Berridale, 1854; Wrack Grass or Zostera, Spooner, 1857. But whatever the material employed, the process for nearly all is the same. The rags, bark, fibres, into a fine smooth pulp. This, in the early stages of or other substance, have to be reduced with water the manufacture, was accomplished by macerating and boiling the material, until, in the case of bark, fibres, or other raw material, the fibres could be drawn out from the cellulose matter, after which it was beaten with mallets, or with pestles in mortars, or stampers moved by some power. Water is gener Berry, 1838: Gibbs, 1933 and 1857; ally used, but in Holland wind-mills do this work. Gibbs, 1833; De la Garde, 1825; Bladen, 1682; Hooper, 1790; Koops, De la Garde, 1825; D'Harcourt, Calvert, 1846; Nerot, 1846; Coupier, Balmano, 1838; Warner, 1853; Fig. 1. are softened and separated in a remarkable manner Ruck and Touche, by it; they are then put into a machine called the washing-machine (fig. 1), which washes out dirt PAPER. and everything but the pure vegetable fibre. This machine (figs. 1, 2, and 3) is a large cast-iron vessel, usually about 10 feet in length, 44 feet in width, and 2 feet in depth. In the middle, occupying about two-thirds of its length, is a partition, always cast with it, called the mid-feather, a (figs. 1 and 2), to support the axle or driving-shaft, b Fig. 2. (figs. 1 and 2). This turns the cylinder c (fig. 1), 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 seen in fig. 3. The rise, a (fig. 3), is called the back-fall, and the an hour is submitted to the same process as in the We will now suppose the pulp formed and ready mould, which con sists of a sheet Fig. 4. fine fibres of bamboo, which the workmen of these countries split and weave with remarkable skill There are usually two kinds of moulds employed. In one, as in fig. the wires are woven across each other, forming a very fine gauze, and paper made with them is known as wove. 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 it. called kind of mould is 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 on such moulds ground and drawn through, the stream carrying is called laid, and them round and round until they are thoroughly is easily known washed and partly pulped; or, as it is technically by the impression called, broken in. The washing-machine is supplied of the wires upon Whichever with a continued flow of clean water, and the soiled water as regularly escapes through a fine gauze screen, in the ends of the cylinders, in which is an ingenious arrangement for raising it and carrying it away through the axis, which is hollow. The contents of the washing-machine are then allowed to flow out through a large valve, opening downwards is a thin frame, into the draining-chest. Here the water is drained which exactly away, and the stuff is then placed in the bleaching corresponds vats, which are made of stone, and each calculated the frame of the mould, and the workman first to contain a hundredweight of stuff, which is here submitted to the action of a strong solution of chloride of lime for about twenty-four 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 s then placed in another washing-engine, and for It to Fig. 5. places the deckle on the mould, and then dips 243 PAPER. an face of the sheet of pulp to a piece of felt or has a shogging motion, important it, Fig. 6 is a side view of the machine, and fig. 7 a vertical one. The principle of the machine is very simple; it contains a pulp vat, A (figs. 6 and 7), with a hog or wheel inside to agitate the pulp, and an arrangement for pouring the pulp over the wire-gauze mould, B, B, B, B, which instead of being in single squares, as in the hand-process, in an endless sheet moving round two rollers, a, b, which keep it stretched out and revolving when in operation. Under the part which receives the pulp there is a series of small brass rollers, dders, E (figs. 6 and 7), (fig. 6), these, being nearly close together, keep it where the drying is perfectly level, which is a most necessary condition; finished, and thence besides which, there is a shallow trough, ee (fig. 6), to the calenders, which called the save all, which catches and retains the are polished rollers of water, which always escapes with some pulp in hard cast-iron, suspension; and an arrangement of suction boxes adjusted as to give a and tubes, f,f,f(fig. 6), worked by air-pumps, which considerable pressure draw much of the water out as the pulp passes to the paper, and at over them. The pulp is kept from running over the same time a glossithe sides by straps called the deckles, which are ness of surface. For also endless bands, usually of vulcanised India- writing papers, the rubber, carried round moving rollers, so that they paper passes through travel with the wire-gauze, and therefore offer no a shallow trough of resistance to it. In addition to all this, the frame- size after leaving the work on which the surface of the wire-gauze rests drying cylinders, and SO PAPER. then passes over another series of skeleton cylinders, with fans moving inside, by which it is again dried without heat, and afterwards passes through the calenders. Printing and other papers are usually sized by mixing the size in the pulp, in which stage the colouring materials-such as ultramarine for the blue tint of foolscap-are also introdrced. Still following the paper web in the drawing (fig. 6), it is seen to pass from the calenders to another machine, F; this slits the web into widths, which are again cross cut into sheets, the size of which is regulated at will. The water-mark is impressed on machin made paper by means of a fine light-wire cylinder with a wire-woven pattern; this is placed over the wire-gauze sheet upon which the pulp is spread, but near the other end of it, so that the light impression of the marker may act upon the paper just when it ceases to be pulp, and this remains all through its course. There are many other interesting points about the paper-machine, but their introduction here would rather tend to confuse the reader. Its productive power is very great; it moves at a rate of from 30 to 70 feet per minute, spreading pulp, couching, drying, and calendering as it goes, so that the stream of pulp flowing in at one end is in two minutes passing out finished paper at the other. It has been computed that an ordinary machine, making webs of paper 54 inches wide, will turn out four miles a day, and that the total production of all the mills in Britain is not less than 6,000,000 of yards, or 3400 miles daily. For very obvious reasons, the manufacture of paper has been localised on the banks of streams that afford an abundant supply of pure water for washing and pulping. Kent is celebrated for its paper-mills and for the fine quality of its paper, and is the chief county in this respect. Next follow Hertfordshire (where it was first commenced in England in 1490 by John Tate of Stevenage, of whom it is said in a book printed by Caxton, Which late hathe in England doo make thya paper thynne, That now in our Englyssh thys booke is printed inne; and the same John Tate is mentioned in Henry VII.'s Household Book, under dates May 25, 1498 and 1499, for a rewarde geven at the paper-mylne,' and geven in rewarde to Tate of the mylne, 6s. 8d.'), Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire, and Lancashire. It was introduced into Scotland in the year 1695, when a company was formed for carrying it on under Articles' signed at a general meeting held in Edinburgh, which articles are now in the Library of the British Museum. It has become a very important branch of manufacture; and not only is paper of a very fine quality made from rags and the new material Esparto, Alfa, or Spanish Grass (the Lygeum Sparteum of botanists), but also the mannfacture of paper-machines is carried on most suc cessfully both for foreign and home use, Both of these manufactures are carried on in the immediate neighbourhood of Edinburgh. Since the introduction of the penny postage, penny papers, and other economical measures, especially the abolition of the excise duty, an enormous impetus has been given to this branch of British manufacture, and considerable difliculty has been found in supplying the makers with raw material: this difficulty has been much increased by the export duties laid by other countries upon the export of rags. The greatest relief has been experienced from improved methods for preparing paper pulp from straw, and from the introduction of the Esparto, which yields half its weight of paper. Of this material English imports in 1869 had risen to about 90,000 tons, which represented 45,000 tons of paper. The British imports of rags have been also very large |