sheets of a thin matter, made of some vegetable substance.

The materials on which mankind have, in different ages, contrived to write their sentiments, have been extremely various; in the early ages they made use of stones, and tables of wood, wax, ivory, &c. See BOOK.

Paper, with regard to the manner of making it, and the materials employed therein, is reducible to several kinds; as Egyptian paper, made of the rush papyrus; bark-paper, made of the inner rind of several trees; cotton paper; incombustible paper; and European paper, made of linen rags.

Egyptian paper was principally used among the ancients; being made of the papyrus, or biblis, a species of rush which grew on the banks of the Nile. In making it into paper, they began with lopping off the two extremes of the plant, the head and the root; the remaining part, which was the stem, they cut lengthwise into two nearly equal parts, and from each of these they stripped the feebly pellicles of which it consisted. The innermost of these pellicles were looked on as the best, and that nearest the rind as the worst: they were therefore kept apart, and made to constitute two different sorts of paper. As the pellicles were taken off, they extended them on a table, laying them over each other transversely, so as that the fibres made right angles: in this state they were glued together by the muddy waters of the Nile; or, when those were not to be had, with paste made of the finest wheat-flour, mixed with hot water and a sprinkling of vinegar. The pellicles were next pressed to get out the water, then dried, and lastly flatted and smoothed by beating them with a mallet: this was the Egyptian paper, which was sometimes farther polished by rubbing it with a glass-ball, or the like.

Bark-paper was only the inner whitish rind, inclosed between the bark and the wood of several trees, as the maple, plane, beech, and elm, but especially the tilia, or linden-tree, which was that mostly used for this purpose. On this stripped off, flatted, and dried, the ancients wrote books, several of which are said to be still extant.

Chinese paper is of various kinds. Some is made of the rinds or barks of trees, especially the mulberry-tree and elm, but chiefly of the bambu and cotton-tree. In fact, almost each province has its several paper. The preparations of paper made of the barks of trees, may be instanced in that of the bambu, which is a tree of the cane or reed kind. The second skin of the bark, which is soft and white, is ordinarily made use of for paper: this is beat in fair water to a pulp, which they take up in large moulds, so that some sheets are above twelve feet in length; they are completed, by dipping them sheet by sheet, in alum-water, which serves instead of the size among us, and not only hinders the paper from imbibing the ink, but makes it look as if varnished over. This paper is white, soft, and close, without the least roughness; though it cracks more easily than European paper, is very subject to be eaten by the worms, and its thinness makes it liable to be soon worn out.

Cotton-paper is a sort of paper which has been in use upwards of six hundred years. In the French king's library are manuscripts on this paper, which appear to be of the Xth century; and from the XIIth century, cotton manuscripts are more frequent than parchment ones. Cotton-paper is still made in the East-Indies, by beating cotton rags to a pulp.

Linen or European paper appears to have been first introduced among us towards the beginning of the XIVth century; but by whom this valuable commodity was invented, is not known. The method of making paper of linen or hempen-rags, is as follows. The linen-rags being carried to the mill, are first sorted, then washed very clean in puncheons, whose sides are grated with strong wires, and the bottoms bored full of holes. After this they are fermented, by laying them in heaps close covered with sacking, till they sweat and rot, which is commonly done in four or five days. When duly fermented, they are twisted into handfuls, cut small, and thrown into oval mortars, made of well-seasoned oak, about half a yard deep, with an iron-plate at bottom, an inch thick, eight inches broad, and thirty long; in the middle is a wash-block, grooved, with five holes in it, and a piece of hair-sieve fastened on the inside; this keeps the hammers from touching it, and prevents any thing going out except the foul water. These mortars are continually supplied with water, by little troughs from a cistern, fed by buckets fixed to the several floats of a great wheel, which raises the wooden hammers for pounding the rags in the mortars. When the rags are beaten to a certain degree, called the first stuff, the pulp is removed into boxes, made like corn-changers' bins, with the bottom-board afloat, and a little separation on the front for the water to drain away. The pulp of the rags being in, they take away as many of the front boards as are needful, and press the mats hard down with their hands; the next day they put on another board, and add more pulp, till the box is full; and here it remains mellowing a week, more or less, according to the weather. After this, the stuff is again put into clean mortars, and is beaten afresh, and removed into boxes, as before, in which state it is called the second stuff. The mats is beat a third time, till some of it being mixed with fair water, and brewed to and fro, appears like flour and water, without any lumps in it; it is then fit for the pit-mortar, where it is perfectly disfolved, and is then carried to the vat, to be formed into sheets of paper. But lately, instead of pounding the rags to a pulp with large hammers, as above, they make use of an engine, which performs the work in much less time. This engine consists of a round solid piece of wood, into which are fastened several long pieces of steel, ground very sharp. This is placed in a large trough with the rags, and a sufficient quantity of water. At the bottom of the trough is a plate with steel bars, ground sharp like the former; and the engine being carried round with prodigious velocity, reduces the rags to a pulp in a very short time. It must be observed, that the motion of the engine gauges the water in the trough to circulate, and by that means constantly returns the stuff to the engine. The trough is constantly fed with clean water at one end, while the dirty water from the rags is carried off at the other, through a hole, defended with wire gratings, in order to hinder the pulp from going out with the dirty water.

When the stuff is sufficiently prepared as above, it is carried to the vat, and mixed with a proper quantity of water, which they call priming the vat. The vat is rightly primed, when the liquor has such a proportion of the pulp, as that the mould, on being dipped into it, will just take up enough to make a sheet of paper of the thickness required. The mould is a kind of sieve exactly of the size of the paper to be made, and about an inch deep, the bottom being formed of fine brafs wire, guarded underneath with ticks, to prevent it bagging down, and to keep it horizontal; and further, to strengthen the bottom, there are large wires placed in parallel lines, at equal distances, which form those lines visible in all white paper when held up to the light: the mark of the paper is also made in this bottom, by interweaving a large wire in any particular form. This mould the maker dips into the liquor, and gives it a shake as he takes it out, to clear the water from the pulp. He then slides it along a groove to the coucher, who turns out the sheet upon a felt laid on a plank, and lays another felt on it; and returns the mould to the maker, who by this time has prepared a second sheet in another mould: and thus they proceed, laying alternately a sheet and a felt, till they have made six quires of paper, which is called a post; and this they do, with such swiftness, that, in many sorts of paper, two men make twenty posts or more in a day. A post of paper being made, either the maker or coucher whistles; on which four or five men advance, one of whom draws it under the press, and the rest press it with great force, till all the water is squeezed from it; after which it is separated by sheet from the felts, and laid regularly one sheet upon another; and having undergone a second pressing, it is hung up to dry. When sufficiently dried, it is taken off the lines, rubbed smooth with the hands, and laid by till sized, which is the next operation. For this they chafe a fine temperate day; and having boiled a proper quantity of clean parchment, or vellum shavings, in water, till it comes to a size, they prepare a fine cloth, on which they strew a due proportion of white vitriol and roch-alum finely powdered, and strain the size through it into a large tub; in which they dip as much paper at once as they can conveniently hold, and with a quick motion give every sheet its share of the size, which must be as hot as the hand can well bear it. After this, the paper is pressed, hung up sheet by sheet to dry; and being taken down, is forted, and what is only fit for outside-quires laid by themselves; it is then told into quires, which are folded and pressed. The broken sheets are commonly put together, and two of the worst quires are placed on the outside of every ream or bundle; and being tied up in wrappers, made of the settling of the vat, it is fit for sale.

Paper is of various kinds, and used for various purposes: with regard to colour, it is principally distinguished into white, blue, and brown; and with regard to its dimensions, into atlas, elephant, imperial, super-royal, royal, medium, demi, crown, foolscap, and pot-paper.