Paper is a word evidently derived from the Greek πάπυρος, papyrus, the name of that celebrated Egyptian plant which was so much used by the ancients in all kinds of writing. It would be unnecessary particularly to describe the different expedients which men in every age and country have employed for giving stability to their ideas, and for handing them down to their children. When the art of writing was once discovered, stones, bricks, leaves of trees, the exterior and interior bark, plates of lead, wood, wax, and ivory, were employed. In the progress of society, men have invented the Egyptian paper, paper of cotton, paper manufactured from the bark of trees, and in our times from old rags.
The inhabitants of Ceylon before the Dutch made themselves masters of the island, wrote on the leaves of the talipot. The manuscript of the bramins, sent to Oxford from Fort St George, is written on the leaves of a palm of Malabar. Herman speaks of another palm in the mountains of that country which produces leaves of several feet in breadth. Ray, in his History of Plants, vol. ii. book xxxii. mentions some trees both in India and America, the leaves of which are proper for writing. From the interior substance of these leaves they draw a whitish membrane, large, and somewhat like the pellicle of an egg; but the paper made by art, even of the coarsest materials, is much more convenient in use than any of these leaves.
The Siamese, for example, make two kinds of paper, the one black and the other white, from the bark of a tree called Pllok&koi. These are fabricated in the coarsest manner; but they can be used on both sides with a bokin of fullers earth.
The nations beyond the Ganges make their paper of the bark of many trees. The other Asiatic nations within the Ganges, excepting those toward the south, make it of old rags of cotton cloth; but from their ignorance of the proper method, and the necessary machinery, their paper is coarse. This, however, is by no means the case with that made in China and Japan, which which deserves attention from the beauty, the regularity, the strength, and fineness of its texture. In Europe they have discovered, or rather carried to perfection, the ingenious art of making paper with old rags, originally either from flax or hemp; and since this discovery the paper produced from our manufactures is sufficient for every purpose. And though these materials have been hitherto abundant, several philosophers have attempted to substitute other vegetable substances in their place. In the 6th volume of the Transactions of the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, we have an account of paper made by Mr Greeves near Warrington from the bark of willow-twigs; and it has been observed by a society of able critics, that hop-buds would probably answer this purpose better. The rags in common use for paper-making are a texture of supple and strong fibres separated by a lec from the bark of the plants. It would be in vain to employ the whole body of the plant, as this substance forms a very improper stuff for the operations of the paper-mill. From these principles we are directed in the choice of vegetable substances fit for the present purpose. The greater or less degree of purity in the materials is not absolutely necessary; for flax itself, without any preparation, could be made into paper; but it would be extremely coarse, and the bark of nettles or malloes would not bear the expense of labour. Although cotton be used in the fabrication of paper in the Levant, and perhaps in China, we are not to conclude that the down of plants in Europe, without, the strength or suppleness of cotton, will answer the same purpose.
History.
The chief kinds of paper which merit attention in this work are, 1. The Egyptian paper; 2. The paper made from cotton; 3. Paper from the interior bark of trees or liber; 4. Chinese paper; 5. Japanese paper; 6. Paper made from abeet; and, 7. Paper made from linen rags.
This is the famous paper used by the ancients, which was made of a kind of reed called papyrus, growing in Egypt on the banks of the Nile. According to Isidorus, this paper was first used at Memphis, and Lucan seems to be of the same opinion,
Nondum flamineas Memphis connexere biblos Novaret. PHARSAL. lib. iii. ver. 222.
Whatever truth may be in this, it is certain, that of all the kinds of paper used by the ancients, the papyrus was the most convenient, both from its flexibility and from the ease of fabrication. It was a present from nature, and required neither care nor culture.
It is not certain at what particular period the ancients began to make paper of papyrus; but there are several authorities which prove the use of it in Egypt long before the time of Alexander the Great.
Pliny, lib. xiii. cap. 11, gives a full description of the method of making this paper in Egypt. They divide, says he, with a kind of needle the stem of the papyrus into thin plates or slender pellicles, each of them as large as the plant will admit. These are the elements of which the sheets of paper are composed. The pellicles in the centre are the best; and they diminish in value as they depart from it. As they were separated from the reed, they were extended on a table, and laid across each other at right angles. In this state they were moistened by the water of the Nile, and while wet were put under a press, and afterwards exposed to the rays of the sun. "It was supposed that the water of the Nile," Pliny, lib. xiii. c. 12. had a gummy quality necessary to glue these stripes together. This, says Mr Bruce, we may be assured is without foundation, no such quality being found in the water of the Nile; on the contrary, I found it of all others the most improper, till it had settled and was absolutely defeceted of all the earth gathered in its turbid state. I made several pieces of this paper both in Abyssinia and Egypt; and it appears to me, that the sugar or sweetness with which the whole juice of this plant is impregnated, is the matter that causes the adhesion of these stripes together; and that the use of the water is no more than to dissolve this, and put it perfectly and equally in fusion." When there was not enough of sugar in the plant, or when the water did not sufficiently dissolve it, the pellicles were united by a paste made of the finest wheat flour, mixed with hot water and a little vinegar, and when dried they were flattened and smoothed by the beating of a mallet.
The size of this paper varied much; it seldom exceeded two feet, but it was oftentimes smaller. It had different names, according to its size and quality: The first was called Imperial, which was of the finest and largest kind, and was used for writing letters by the great men among the Romans. The second sort was called by the Romans the Livian paper, from Livia the wife of Augustus; each leaf of this kind was 12 inches. The third sort was called the Sacerdotal paper, and was 11 inches in size.
The paper used in the amphitheatres was of the dimensions of nine inches. But what was esteemed of greatest value in it, was its strength, whiteness, and polish. The ink, however, sunk less in paper highly polished; and therefore the characters were more liable to be effaced. When it was not carefully soaked in the first preparation, the paper brought a less price; because letters were with difficulty formed upon it, and it sent forth a disagreeable smell. To remedy this defect, the paper went through a new course of sizing and hammering; and the size used on that occasion was made of light bread steeped in boiling water, and passed through a filtering cloth. By this means the paper became in the highest degree united, and smoother than the finest linen. It was this paper which gave so long a duration to the works of the Graecchi, Tiberius and Caius, in their own hand-writing. "I have seen them (says Pliny) in the library of Pomponius Secundus, a poet and citizen of the first rank, near 200 years after they were written." We may add, that manuscripts of this paper still remain, which have undoubtedly been written 1000 or 1200 years ago. It appears from Pliny, that the Egyptians pasted together the pellicles of the papyrus by means of the water of the Nile; but that the polishing with ivory, and the operations of the hammer and the press, were added by the invention and industry of the Roman artists. The Egyptians seem to have known the use of size; but it is evident from the same author, that the Romans used a stronger size in the making of paper. Notwithstanding the care which was taken to give strength and consistency to the paper of Egypt, the leaves, although collected into a book, were too weak to support themselves; and for this reason it was a common practice, after every five leaves, to insert a leaf of parchment. There still remains in the abbey of St Germain de- pres a fragment of the epistles of St Augustine written in this manner. The manuscript is at least 1100 years old, and in a high state of preservation.
This paper was an important branch of commerce to the Egyptians, which continued to increase towards the end of the Roman republic, and became still more extensive in the reign of Augustus. The demand from foreign nations was often so great, as to occasion a scarcity at Rome; and we read in the reign of Tiberius of a tumult among the people in consequence of this scarcity. In a letter of the emperor Adrian, the preparing of the papyrus is mentioned as one of the principal occupations at Alexandria. "In this rich and opulent city (says he) nobody is seen idle: Some are employed in the manufactory of cloth, some in that of writing paper," &c. During the time of the Antonines, this commerce continued equally to flourish. Apuleius says, that he wrote on the paper of Egypt with a reed of the Nile prepared at Memphis.
The demand for this paper was so great towards the end of the third century, that when the tyrant Firmus conquered Egypt, he boasted that he had seized as much paper and size as would support his whole army.
St Jerome informs us, that it was as much in use in the fifth century when he flourished. The duty on the importation of this commodity had grown excessive towards the end of this or the beginning of the sixth century; and being abolished by Theodoric king of Italy, Caffiodorus, in the 38th letter of his 11th book, congratulates the whole world on the discharge of an impost on a merchandise so essentially necessary to mankind.
The fathers Montfaucon and Mabillon mention several fragments written on this paper in the fifth century. One of them was a charter of the emperor Justinian, entitled Charta plenarie securitatis. Father Montfaucon saw in 1698, in the library of Julio Julliani, three or four fragments of paper of Egypt of the same antiquity. And Mabillon speaks of some books of the Jewish antiquities by Josephus translated into Latin, which seemed to have been written in the same century, and which were preserved in the library of St Ambrose of Milan, but he had not seen the manuscripts. The same father mentions to have seen in the library of St Martin of Tours the remains of an old Greek manuscript of the paper of Egypt, and which appeared to him to be of the seventh century. He also believes that the copy of St Mark's gospel preferred in the register-office of Venice is written on the same paper, that it is the most ancient of any of the evangelical manuscripts, and may be supposed to be written at the latest in the fourth century.
According to the same antiquarian, the paper of Egypt was used in France and Italy, and other European countries, both for books of learning and public records; and there still remains, adds he, a great number of these in the archives of the church at St Dennis, at Corbie, in the abbey De Graffe, and in other convents.
It is probable, that the invention of paper made of cotton, of which we are afterwards to treat, infensibly destroyed the reputation and manufacture of the paper of Egypt; but it is still a question at what particular period the fabrication of the latter totally ceased. Euclachius, the learned commentator on Homer, affirms us, that in his time in 1170 it was no longer in use; but Father Mabillon maintains, that many of the popish bulls were written on the papyrus in the 11th century.
The Count Maffei, in his Istor. Diplomat. lib. ii. Biblioth. Ital. tom. ii. p. 251, is decidedly of opinion, that the paper of Egypt was not in use in the fifth century. He considers all records written on this paper dated posterior to this period as not authentic; and the popish bulls mentioned by Father Mabillon appear to this learned person, as well as the copy of St Mark's gospel, to be written on paper manufactured from cotton. To reconcile in some measure these contradictory accounts, it may be observed, that on some particular occasions, and by some particular persons, the paper of Egypt might have been employed for several hundred years after it ceased to be of general use. Whoever wishes for a fuller account of the paper of Egypt, may consult among the ancients Pliny, lib. xiii. and Theophrastus, lib. iv. chap. ix. and among the moderns, Guilandinus, Scaliger, Saumaise, Kerchmayer, Nigrifoli; Father Hardouin in his edition of Pliny; Father Mabillon in his work De re Diplomat.; Montfaucon in his Paleography, and in his Collections; the illustrious Maffei in his Istor. Diplomat.; the count de Caylus in the Memoirs of the Academy of Inscriptions; and Mr Bruce in his Travels to discover the Source of the Nile.
It is generally supposed that the invention of the paper made of cotton, called charta bombycina, supplanted the Egyptian from coarser paper in Greece. This paper is incomparably more lasting, and better calculated for all the purposes of writing. It is not precisely known at what period this art, which supposes a great variety of previous experiments, was first reduced to practice. The application of cotton to the purposes of paper-making requires as much labour and ingenuity as the use of linen rags; and for this reason, if we could determine the precise time when paper was made from cotton, we should also fix the invention of the art of paper-making as it is presently practised in Europe. Father Montfaucon proves, by incontestable authorities, that paper from cotton was in use in 1100. This paper, in the Greek language, is called χαρτα βομβυκινης, or βαμβακιος; for although βαμβακιος is the Greek word for silk, yet in those times it was applied, as well as βαμβακιος, to cotton; and hence the Italians to this day call cotton bambaccio.
The most ancient manuscript of this paper which Father Montfaucon saw with the date, was that in the French king's library, written A.D. 1030; but as the manuscripts without date are infinitely more numerous than those which are dated, and as some conjecture can be formed concerning them from the manner of writing, this father believes some of these to have been written in the 10th century.
The researches of the same learned antiquarian amount almost to a proof that this paper was discovered towards the end of the ninth century or beginning of the tenth; for before the twelfth century it was commonly used in the eastern empire, and even in Sicily. Roger king of Sicily says, in a diploma written in 1145, that he had renewed renewed on parchment a charter which had been written on paper of cotton, in the year 1100, and another which was dated in the year 1112. About the same time the empress Irene, in the flatutes for some religious houses at Constantinople, says that she had left three copies of the same flatutes, two in parchment and one in paper from cotton. From that period this paper was still more in use through all the eastern empire; and innumerable Greek manuscripts are found written on it in all the great libraries.
This discovery happened at a time when there seems to have been a great fearcety of parchment; for it was about this period that the Greeks erated the writings of Polybius, Diodorus of Sicily, and many valuable ancient authors, for the fake of the parchment.
It was the invention of this paper of cotton which destroyed the manufacture of the paper of Egypt; for, if we may believe Eutathius, who wrote towards the end of the 12th century, the latter paper had gone into disuse but a little before his time. We may easily believe, however, that this new invention, although of great advantage to mankind, was introduced by degrees.
The manufacture of this kind of paper has flourished in the Levant for many ages, and is carried on with great success even to this day. It is not necessary to lay any thing farther, than that the paper produced from cotton is extremely white, very strong, and of a fine grain.
This paper of the ancients was made from the white pellicle or inner coat found in many trees between the bark and the wood. The trees commonly in use were the maple, the plane tree, the elm, the beech, the mulberry, and most frequently the lindin-tree. The ancients wrote on this inner coat after they had separated it from the bark, beat, and dried it.
The fathers Mabillon and Montfaucon speak frequently of manuscripts and diplomas written on paper made from bark; and positively distinguish it from the Egyptian paper, because it was thicker, and composed of parts less adhering together.
There are many palm trees in India and America to which botanists have given the name papyraceous, because the natives have written with bodkins either on the leaves or the bark. Such is the American palm, called tal by the Indians; and of the same kind is the guajara-ba of New Spain. Every palm, the bark of which is smooth, and the leaves large and thick, may be used for this purpose.
The art of making paper from vegetables reduced to stuff was known in China long before it was practised in Europe; and the Chinese have carried it to a degree of perfection hitherto unknown to the European artists. The fine paper in China is softer and smoother than that of Europe; and these qualities are admirably adapted to the pencil, which the Chinese use in writing. Several kinds of their paper discover the greatest art and ingenuity, and might be applied with much advantage to many purposes. They are capable of receiving, for example, the impression of types; and both maps and prints have been executed with success on the Chinese paper.
The different sorts of paper vary in China according to the materials of which they are composed, and to the different manner of manufacturing those materials. Every province has its peculiar paper. That of Se-chuen is made of linen rags as in Europe; that of Fo-kien, of young bamboo; that of the northern provinces, of the interior bark of the mulberry; that of the province of Kiang-nan, of the skin which is found in the webs of the silk-worm; finally, in the province of Hu-quang, the tree chu or ko-ehu furnishes the materials with which they make paper.
The method of fabricating paper with the bark of different trees is nearly the same with that which is followed in the bamboo. To give an idea, therefore, of the manner of manufacturing the interior barks of the mulberry, the elm, and the cotton-tree, it will be sufficient to confine our observations to the bamboo.
The bamboo is a kind of cane or hollow reed, divided by knots; but larger, more elastic, and durable than any other reed.
The whole substance of the bamboo, composed of filaments, and a great abundance of fibrous materials, is employed in this operation. The shoots of one or two years, nearly the thickness of a man's leg, are preferred. They strip the leaves from the stem, cut them into pieces of four or five feet long, make them into parcels, and put them into water to macerate. As soon as they are softened, which generally happens in five days, they wash them in pure water; put them into a dry ditch; cover them with lime for some days, which they water for the purpose of flaking: they wash them carefully a second time; cut every one of the pieces into filaments, which they expose to the rays of the sun to dry and to bleach them. After this they are boiled in large kettles; and then reduced to stuff in mortars of wood, by means of a hammer with a long handle, which the workman moves with his foot.
The stuff being thus prepared, they take some shoots of a plant named ko-teng, which, steeped in water four or five days, is reduced to an unctuous or glutinous substance; and when they proceed to make the paper, this is mixed with the stuff in certain exact quantities, for on this mixture depends the goodness of the paper.
When the extract from the ko-teng is mixed with stuff of the bamboo, the whole mixture is beat together in mortars till it becomes a thick and viscid liquor. This is poured into large tubs or reservoirs, to exactly frame as that no part of the liquor can escape.
The workmen after this plunge their forms into the liquor; take out what is sufficient for a sheet of paper; which immediately, from the glutinous substance, becomes firm and shining; and is detached from the form by turning down the sheet on the heap of paper already made, without the interposition of pieces of woollen cloth, as in Europe.
In order to dry this paper, they have a hollow wall, the two fronts of which are smooth and extremely white. At the extremity of this wall is placed a stove, the pipes of which are carried in a circular manner through the whole empty space. The sheets of paper are laid on the surface, to which they adhere till they come over them with a soft brush; and after they are dry, it is easy to distinguish the side which received impressions from the brush from that which adhered to the wall. By means of this stove the Chinese dry their paper as fast as they can make it; but it is only in cold seasons, or in certain certain provinces, that they find this expedient necessary.
The Chinese paper must be dipped in a solution of alum before it can take either ink or colours. They call this operation funer, from the Chinese word fun, which signifies alum. The following is the manner of preparing this solution: Six ounces of ifinglas cut very small is put into boiling water, and constantly stirred, that it may dissolve equally. When the ifinglas is wholly dissolved in the water, they throw in twelve ounces of calcined alum, which is also stirred till it is completely dissolved and mixed with the ifinglas. This composition is afterwards poured into a large and deep bason, at the mouth of which is a little round piece of wood; the extremity of every sheet of paper is fixed in another piece of wood, with a slit made to receive it; by means of this equipage they plunge the sheet of paper into the composition of alum and ifinglas; and when it is fully penetrated, they draw it out, making it glide over the little round piece of wood. The long piece of wood which holds the sheet by one end, and keeps it from tearing, is afterwards suspended with it on a wall till it is sufficiently dry.
The Chinese give the paper intended for different purposes different preparations. We shall confine our observations to the silver colour which they give to some paper. They take two scruples of paste made of cow's hide, one scruple of alum, and a pint of water: the whole is boiled on a slow fire till the water be evaporated. The sheets of paper are then stretched on a smooth table, and covered over with two or three layers of this paste. They take afterwards a certain quantity of tale, washed and boiled in water, with the proportion of one-third of alum; this is dried, reduced to a powder, passed through a sieve, boiled a second time in water, dried in the sun, and again passed through the sieve. This powder is spread equally over the sheets of paper, prepared as we mentioned above; and then they are dried slowly in the shade.
The sheets of paper, covered in this manner with tale, are laid upon a table, and rubbed with a little cotton; which fixes a certain quantity of the tale in the paper, and carries off the surplus to be used on another occasion. By means of this composition the Chinese draw all manner of figures on their paper.
Formerly the Chinese wrote with a bodkin of iron on tablets of bamboo; afterwards on satin with a pencil; and during the dynasty of their tyrants, about 160 years before Christ, they discovered the art of making paper.
The paper made from the bamboo is sufficiently white, soft, closely united, without the least inequality on the surface to interrupt the motion of the pencil, or to occasion the rifting of the materials which compose it. Meanwhile every kind of paper made from the bamboo or the bark of trees, is readier to crack than that made in Europe; besides, it is more susceptible of moisture, and sooner destroyed with dust and worms. To obviate this last inconvenience, they are obliged frequently to beat their books in China, and to expose them to the sun. It may be observed, however, that the Chinese paper, employed for various purposes in Europe, has been preserved for a long time without receiving damage either from moisture or insects.
According to Kempfer, the bark of the morus papi fera sativa, or true paper tree, is chiefly employed for making paper in Japan. Every year after the fall of the leaves, which happens in the tenth month, corresponding to our December, the Japanese cut the young shoots of this tree into pieces of about three feet, collect them into parcels, which they boil in water into which they have cast a certain quantity of ashes. If the wood is dry, they take care to steep it 23 hours in water before it is boiled. The parcels are kept in a close copper till the bark at the extremity of the shoots is separated from the stem about half an inch; they are then cooled; and the bark alone is fit for making paper. They begin by a preparation which consists of cleaning the bark, and separating the good from the bad. For this purpose they steep it in water three or four hours; and as soon as it is softened they scrape off, with a knife whatever is blackish or green, and at the same time separate the strong bark of a year's growth from the tender which covers the young shoots. The first of these gives the whitest and best paper. If there is any of the bark of more than a year's growth, it is laid aside for the coarsest.
After the bark has been culled and cleaned in this manner, it is boiled in a clear ley till the matter is of that consistency, that, being touched gently with the finger, it draws off in the form of hairs, or like a collection of fibres. During the time of boiling it is constantly stirred with a strong reed, and the waste by evaporation supplied from time to time with additional quantities of the clear ley. To make this ley, they put two pieces of wood across the mouth of a tub, cover them with straw, on which they lay a bed of ashes a little moistened; and pouring boiling water on the ashes, the fats contained in them are carried down to the tub. This is what is called a clear ley.
After the bark is in the condition we have just now stated, it is washed with great care; for on this washing depends in a great measure the goodness of the paper. It is put into a kind of sieve through which the water can flow freely; and great care is taken to turn it with the hand till it is sufficiently diluted, and reduced to soft and tender fibres. For the finest paper a second washing is requisite, and a piece of cloth is used instead of a sieve.
When the bark is washed, it is laid on a strong and smooth table, and beat with a kind of baton of hard wood till it is reduced to a proper consistency. It becomes indeed so soft, that it resembles paper steeped in water.
The bark prepared in this manner is put into a narrow tub, with a glutinous extract from rice and the root oreni, which is very visous. These three substances, mixed together, are stirred with the reed till they form a liquor of an equal and uniform consistency. This composition is poured into tubs similar to those used for filling the forms in our paper mills.
As soon as the sheets are made and detached from the form, they are laid in a heap on a table covered with a double mat. A small chip of cane is placed betwixt every sheet. This piece of cane jutting out, serves to distinguish the sheets, and afterwards to raise them. Every one of the heaps is covered with a plate or thin board of the exact size of the paper. In proportion as the paper dries, or is able to bear it without danger of being compressed into one mass, they lay on additional weights. This pressure, intended to carry off any unnecessary moisture, is continued for 24 hours, when the sheets are suspended, by means of the little pieces of reed, to long plants, in the open air, till they are completely dried.
The extract from rice is made in an unvarnished earthen pot. The pot is agitated at first gently, then more briskly: new water is poured in, and then it is filtered through a linen cloth. The fineness of the process is determined by the viscosity of the substance.
The infusion of the root oreni is made in the following manner: The root, peeled and cut into small pieces, is infused into water for one night, during which time it communicates a viscosity sufficient for the purpose to which it is applied.
The Japanese paper is of such prodigious strength, that the materials of which it is composed might be manufactured into ropes. There is told at Serige, the capital city of the province of Japan of that name, a kind of it fit for bed hangings and wearing apparel; resembling so much stuffs of wool and silk, that it is often taken for them. The following is Kempfer's catalogue of trees used in Japan for the manufacture of paper. 1. The true paper tree, called in the Japanese language kudhi, Kempfer characterizes thus: Papyrus fructu mori celfae, sive morus sativa folii utique mortuae cortice papifera. 2. The false paper tree, called by the Japanese kashi, kadfire; by Kempfer, papyrus procumbens lacteifrons folio longo lanceato cortice chartaceo. 3. The plant which the Japanese call oreni is named by Kempfer malva radice vifosa flore ephemero magno punico. 4. The fourth tree used for paper is the futokadura, named by Kempfer frutex vifosus procumbens folio telephii vulgaris emulo fructu racemo.
The description of these trees, given more particularly by Kempfer than the limits of this work will permit, may be of great service to lead botanists to discover the European plants and shrubs adapted, like the Japanese, for the fabrication of paper.
Before finishing our reflections on this part of the subject, it will be proper to give a just idea of the attempts which have been made to increase the original materials of paper in Europe.
A slight attention to the process in China in reducing the bamboo to a paste, by a careful and ingenious analysis, and to the long and proper method of the Japanese of separating the principal fibres of the bark of the mulberry, will show the absurdity not only of taking plants without any kind of choice, but of giving them no preparation except that of pounding them with mallets.
With a proper selection, and good principles, it appears not improbable that many of the European plants might be used with great advantage in constructing several kinds of paper.
It is evident that the materials used by the Chinese require less labour and preparation than the stuff of linen rags. The sheets of the Chinese paper are easily detached from the form; they are laid in heaps without the interposition of pieces of woollen cloth; the superfluous water is immediately discharged; and they require not, as in Europe, the vigorous action of presses to unite the parts more closely together.
The asbestos is a fibrous substance of little strength, the threads of which are easily broken. See Mineralogy Index. This substance has the peculiar property of supporting the action of fire without receiving any damage; whence pieces of cloth and garters made of it are incombustible. From the knowledge of this property paper has been made of the asbestos. Dr Brukman, professor at Brunswick, published the natural history of this fossil; and four copies of his book, in the library of Wolfenbuttle, are on this paper.
The manner of fabricating this paper is described by M. Lloyd in the Philosophical Transactions, No 166. A certain quantity of the asbestos is pounded in a mortar of stone till it be reduced to a substance like cotton. All the parts of earth or stone remaining in the asbestos are then taken off by means of a fine sieve, and it is formed into sheets of paper by an ordinary paper mill. Mixing it with water reduces it to fluff; only, as it is heavier than that from linen rags, it requires to be continually stirred when they are taking it up with the frames. The only excellence of this paper is, that the writing disappears when it is cast into the fire. It must be observed, at the same time, that as it is of a flender consistence, and easily torn, it is more an object of curiosity than use.
This paper is manufactured through all Europe of paper made linen rags collected in the cities and in the country, from rags. This kind of paper was utterly unknown to the ancients. The libri lintei mentioned by Livy, I. lib. iv. Pliny, XIII. c. xi. and by other Roman writers, are demonstrated by Guilandin, in his commentary on Pliny, &c. to have been written on pieces of linen cloth, or canvas prepared in the manner of painters.
But it is not sufficient to be certain that paper from linen is a modern invention; it is necessary to know by what nation, and at what period, it was discovered. Polydore Virgil, De Inventoribus Rerum, C. II. c. viii. confesses his ignorance of these facts. Scaliger, without any kind of proof, gives the glory to the Germans; and Count Maffei to the Italians. Other writers ascribe this honour to some Greek refugees at Basil, to whom the manner of making paper from cotton in their own country had suggested the idea. Du Halde is persuaded that Europe derived this invention from the Chinese, who, in several provinces, make paper of rags nearly in the same manner that we do. But this invention was practised by the Europeans before they had any communication with China, and before the taking of Constantinople, at which time the Greek refugees were supposed to have retired to Basil. The precise time of this discovery in Europe is not exactly known. Father Mabillon believes that it was in the twelfth century; and cites a passage of Pierre de Clugny, born A. D. 1100, to prove it. The books which we read every day, says that abbé in his treatise against the Jews, are written on sheep's and calves' skins; or on oriental plants; or, finally, Ex raritatis veterum pannorum. If these last words signify paper, such as we use, there were books of it in the twelfth century. But this citation is the more to be suspected, as Montfaucon himself, after the minutest search in France and Italy, could find no book on this paper antecedent to the death of St Louis, A. D. 1270.
The epocha of this invention was not determined till 1762, M. Mierrman having proposed a reward to the person who could procure the most ancient manuscript written on this kind of paper. The collection of all the memoirs sent to him along with the manuscripts was Art of Ma-published at the Hague in 1767; and it appeared that this paper had been used in Europe before the year 1300.
In 1782 the Abbé Andréz published a work entitled Dell' Origine, Progressi, e Stato attuale d'Ogni letteratura; wherein he speaks of the discovery of many kinds of paper, and particularly of that made of rags. The Abbé Andréz maintains, that paper made from silk was very anciently fabricated in China, and in the eastern parts of Asia; that the art of making this paper was carried from China to Persia about the year 652, and to Mecca in 706. The Arabs substituted cotton, the commodity of their own country, in place of silk or rather bamboo. This paper of cotton was carried into Africa and Spain by the Arabs. The Spaniards, from the quantity of linen to be found in the kingdom of Valencia, seem first to have adopted the idea of using linen rags; and the most ancient paper of this kind is of Valencia and Catalonia. From Spain it passed into France, as may be learned from a letter of Joinville to St Louis about the year 1260. It is discovered to have been in Germany in 1312, and in England in 1320 and 1342. In consequence of the paper made from cotton in the Levant, the paper from linen was introduced much later into Italy. See the work of Abbé Andréz, printed at Parma, 1782, in 8vo; and Mierman's Collection, published at the Hague.
Sect. I. Art of Making Paper in Europe.
To give a concise view of this subject, it will be necessary to proceed with all the important parts of the operation in their order.
The selection of the rags, is the arranging of them into different lots, according to their quality and to the demand of the paper mill. In general this selection is very much neglected: The degrees of fineness and whiteness, distinguished with little care, are thought to be the only objects of importance; whereas the hardness and softness, the being more or less worn, are much more essential in this selection. It is certain, that a mixture of soft and hard rags occasions much more loss in the trituration than a difference in point of fineness or of colour. This exactness in the selection is still more necessary where cylinders are used instead of mallets. We cannot do better than to give the method practised in Holland as worthy of imitation.
They begin by a general separation of the rags into four lots; superfine, fine, middle, and coarse. These lots are given to selectors, who subdivide each of them into five chests. They have besides a bench, on which is fixed vertically a hook, and a piece of scythe which is terminated by a crooked point.
The person, for example, who has the charge of the fine lot, puts into one of the chests the hard rags, or those which are little used, into another the soft, into a third the dirty, into a fourth those which are stitched or hemmed, and, finally, into the fifth the superfine rags which happen to be among the fine.
After this process, the women who have the charge of it are at extreme pains to pick out every kind of sewing, and especially the knots of thread and the hems, by means of the hook or scythe which they have under their hands. They take care also by the same means to cut and reduce the rags exactly by the warp and the woof into small pieces. It is of great advantage to cut or tear the pieces of rags by a thread, whether it be by the warp or the woof; because if it is done obliquely, many of the ends are lost in the operation.
When they have selected a certain quantity of each of these subdivisions, they are placed on an iron grate, which covers a large chest where they are beat, and otherwise turned, till the filth and dust pass through the bars of the grate and fall into the chest.
The number of lots in the selection of rags must be proportioned to the mass from which the selection is made, and to the kinds of paper produced by the mill. Some mills, the work of which is considerable, make nine lots of their rags, five of which respect the fineness, and the rest the cleanliness and the colour. In ordinary mills there are only four lots, and in some two.
We have already observed, that the selection which regards the hardness of the materials is the most essential; because it is of great importance to obtain stuff composed of equal parts, and without any loss. But it is necessary to add, that the fineness and beauty of the paper depend in some cases on a selection not rigorous. Thus, for example, it is of great service to allow the middling to retain some part of the fine, and the fine some part of the superfine; for without this the inferior kinds of paper can never be of great value. The most common fault is to mix the rags of the inferior lots with the superior; which though it augments the quantity of paper, is extremely injurious to the quality. It does much better to mix part of the superior lots with the inferior. It is the want of attention to this mixture which makes some paper mills excel in the superior sorts of paper, while the inferior kinds are of a very bad quality.
The selection of rags being made with exactness, however, and the lots being fermented and triturated separately, the mixture may be made with much greater advantage when they are both reduced to fluff; always taking care that it be in the same proportion as if it were in the state of rags, and only in the manner which we just now mentioned; for the inferior sorts gain more in beauty and quality by this mixture than is lost in itself; whereas if the fine fluff receives a certain quantity of the inferior, the paper is more damaged in its value than increased in quantity. In this manner the interest of the manufacturer, as in all cases, is intimately connected with the goodness of his commodities.
In some mills the place for fermentation is divided into two parts, one of which serves for washing away and for the filth from the rags. After allowing them to steep for some time in a large stone vat, they stir them, and pour in fresh water till the impurities connected with the rags run over. When they are as clean as they possibly can be made by this kind of washing, they are laid in a heap to putrefy. In this condition they experience a degree of fermentation, which is first discovered by a mouldiness of the different pieces of cloth. Afterwards the mass grows warm; and then it is of great consequence to attend to the progress of this heat, in order to moderate its effects: for this purpose, the middle of the heap, where the fermentation is strongest, is turned out, and vice versa. In mills where mallets are used, the putrefaction is carried to a great height, which is frequently attended with two inconveniences. The first is that a part of the rags is reduced to an earthy substance, which is found in great abundance about the cutting table, as we shall afterwards have occasion to see. But besides this waste, excessive fermentation makes the stuff incapable of sustaining the action of the mallets till it is equally pounded. A paper made from a stuff too hard and too little fermented, is coarse and ill compacted; that made from rags too much fermented, is composed of fibres without softness and without strength.
The second inconvenience is, that the rags turn greasy by too much fermentation, and of consequence it is very difficult to separate and reduce them by all the washings of the trituration.
We shall not describe the form of the place for fermentation, because in different paper works these places are of different constructions: it is sufficient to say, that they are all placed in low situations and made very close. The selected rags are placed in them in heaps, and watered from time to time to bring on the fermentation. In different paper mills they practise different methods in the putrefaction of their rags.
In certain provinces in France, they lay in the place for putrefaction a heap equivalent to what the mill can triturate in a month. When this is equally and sufficiently moistened by means of moveable pipes, they cover it with an old heap, which has lain a month in a state of fermentation. When this old heap is exhausted by the mill, the new one becomes a covering to another, and so on. From this detail it is easy to perceive, that there must be near three weeks difference of putrefaction in the same heap, and also that in this method there is no allowance for those seasons in which the fermentation advances more rapidly.
In general the putrefaction goes on more slowly in proportion to the fineness of the rags. But when, on any occasion, it advances more rapidly than the demand from the mill, the rags are turned over and watered, to stop the fermentation and prevent the bad effects.
All the inconveniences attending the excess of putrefaction are remedied in Holland by machines which triturate the rags without having recourse to it; and their success in this manner of preparing the stuff has attracted the notice of the French artists, some of whom have adopted with advantage the Dutch machinery.
Meanwhile, it is possible to carry the method of putrefaction to much greater perfection; and several manufacturers have made attempts so well concerted, as to deserve the attention of those who study the subject.
In the neighbourhood of Brussels some paper manufacturers, who have constructed their mills after the Dutch plan, have still found it necessary to putrefy their rags; but, at the same time, they have an excellent method for moderating the effects of this putrefaction. In the great galleries connected with the buildings of the paper mill, they have constructed a continuation of chests, capable each of them of containing a certain quantity of rags; for example, the quantity which the cylinder can triturate in one day. The number of chests is equal to the number of days which the rags in any season require for putrefaction; and the number actually employed is greater or less according to the season. In prosecuting this plan, they lay a heap of rags in one chest, as often as they take one from another. It should also be observed, that, for the sake of the fermentation, the rags are first moistened in a large hollow stone before they are arranged into the chests.
The peculiar advantages of this method are, the equal fermentation of the rags, without any part of them being weakened; great ease in washing them; and it is even pretended, that a less degree of fermentation renders the impurities and the discoloured parts both of hemp and linen more soluble, and consequently the stuff of a purer white.
When the rags are reduced to a proper state of putrefaction, they are carried to the cutting table, which table is placed on solid trestles, and enclosed on three sides to contain the rags cut in it. Before the table is fixed vertically a part of the blade of a scythe, the edge of which is turned from the operator. This workman, in a situation rather elevated, takes from the left side a handful of the putrefied rags, and arranging them the long way, gives them a gentle twirl, presses the half-formed rope against the blade of the scythe, and, in the manner of sawing, cuts it into three or four pieces, which he throws to the right side of the table. In this operation the rags lose part of their filth, and especially of the earthy particles occasioned by too much putrefaction.
When the rags have been submitted to all the fore- Mills for going operations, they are in a condition to be reduced triturating into a fibrous stuff, of which the paper is made. To the rags obtain this stuff, mills are constructed on different principles. Those which have been used for a long time, over all Europe, and which by a statement in the Encyclopédie Methodique, published at Paris in 1789, are still used in France, are mills with mallets. But the mills invented by the Dutch, and used in the neighbouring provinces, and, excepting one instance, in every part of Great Britain, are mills with cylinders or rollers. In the former of these, the mallets are raised by notches, fixed at convenient distances in a large circular beam of wood. The teeth fixed on the end of the mallet fall into a corresponding gap made the whole breadth of the plate, and the strokes are repeated till the rags are reduced to a proper consistency. On supplying the vat with water, and carrying off all the impurities, the operation is nearly similar to that in the mills with cylinders.
Such is the nature of what may be called the old method of making paper. It was proper to speak of this old method, because at one time, and that not very distant, it universally prevailed. That it was inferior to that now in practice, seems very evident; and that the rotting of the rags was peculiarly absurd, cannot be denied, as the paper made of fermented stuff could neither be so strong nor so durable as that which is made in the common way without putrefaction. The only kind of paper that, with any propriety, could be made from putrefied stuff, was pateboard; but we are informed by the most intelligent papermakers in Britain, that they seldom or never even putrefy the rags or ropes of which pateboard is made. It will now be requisite to state the method presently in practice, with the improvements lately made in the art.
The duster is made in the form of a cylinder, four The duster. and a half feet in diameter, and five feet in length. It is altogether covered with a wire net, and put in motion by its connection with some part of the machinery. A Art of Ma-convenient quantity of rags before the selection are enking Paper clofed in the duffer, and the rapidity of its motion sepa- rates the dust from them, and forces it through the wire. It is of confiderable advantage to ufe the duffer before felection, as it makes that operation lefs pernicious to the felectors.
The felection is performed much in the fame manner as we have already defcribed; only it is found more convenient to have the tables for cutting off the knots and fitching, and for forming them into a proper shape, in the fame place with the cutting table. The surface both of these and of the cutting table is compofed of a wire net, which in every part of the operation allows the remaining dust and refuse of every kind to escape.
The rags, without any kind of putrefaction are again carried from the cutting table back to the duffer, and from thence to the engine, where, in general, they are in the space of fix hours reduced to the stuff proper for making paper. The hard and soft of the fame quality are placed in different lots; but they can be reduced to stuff at the fame time, provided the soft be put fome- what later into the engine.
The engine is that part of the mill which performs the whole action of reducing the rags to pafté, or, as it may be termed, of trituration. The number of the engines depends on the extent of the paper work, on the force of water, or on the conftuction of the ma- chinery.
It will afford a sufficient idea of the work, to give in detail a defcription of the different parts of the engine. Figure 1. reprefents the chapiter which covers the roller. It is four feet three inches in length, and two feet eight inches in breadth. The fuperior part is pierced with two openings running crofswife, 1, 2, 3, 4, into which enter the cheffes, or wicker frames, figures 6. and 7.; the firft, made of wire cloth, enters into the opening 3 and 4; the fecond made of hair cloth, and strength- ened with several crofs bars of wood, enters into the opening 1, 2, serves to retain the finall pieces of rags which escape through the firft, and prevents them from falling into the dabot or hole-scupper, fig. 2. This hole- scupper is placed acros the vat of the engine, parallel to the axle of the roller; the part g enters into the notch c of the chapiter; and the extremity h enters in- to the opening k of the tunnel k l (fig. 3.), by which means the water dahed through the wicker frames by every revolution of the roller is precipitated into the ca- nal f h, and lofs itfelf below the engine. The figures 4, 9, and 10, reprefent the roller in perpective, in plane, and in profile. It is two feet in diameter, and two feet three inches in length. The trundle head A is 16 inches in diameter, about half as much in length, and furnished with feven fpuindles of iron, which are screwed to the end of the trundle head, made alfo of iron. The teeth or blades of the roller are 27 in number, and fit- tled strongly into the wood which compofes its body, parallel to its axis. They are of that thicknefs as to leave as much empty space as they occupy. The ex- terior face of each of the blades fhouid be made round, and divided into two parts, with a longitudinal motion, as in the profile a a a, fig. 10.
The axis AB of the roller (fig. 4. and 9.) has two parts perfectly rounded in A and in B, which perform the office of pivots. These pivots reft in the fockets A and B (fig. 3.) in the middle of the levers OAH and Art of Ma- OBH. It is by means of thefe levers that they raife at king Paper in Europe. pleasure, or lower the axis of the roller, and fit it exact- ly, and in a parallel manner, to the plate. The plates (fee fig. 5.) are made of steel cut into channels, in such a manner as to correpond with the blades of the roller. Their channels are not perpendicular, but oblique; and there are two rows of them, b x, a d, confifting of seven or eight blades each on one plate.—Thoſe in b x, for the purpoſe of changing the plate, lie in an oppofite di- rection to thoſe in a d. The levers are kept in their po- fition near the vat by bands of iron, MN and m n; be- tween which they are made higher or lower by the cogged wheel H, which supports one of the extremities. Wedges N n are likewife employed to fix the levers at a convenient height above the plates. Finally, Every vat is ſupplied with a small flide door, which is occasionally raifed to carry the prepared stuff by means of the feppers of wood to the general repositories.
Fig. 5. is placed in the vat fig. 8.; the roller (fig. 4.) Working is placed above it in fuch a manner that the pivots reft of the en- in the fockets of the levers; the scupper (fig. 2.) and gine. the chapiter are difpoſed in the manner above men- tioned. The vat is charged with a proper quantity of rags, and fresh water is admitted by a fpiqot placed at one of the corners. In this situation, when the engine is put in motion, the roller turning upon its axis draws the wa- ter and the rags by the leaft inclined plane, and making them paſs between its blades and the channels of the plate, daſhes them againſt the chapiter and the wicker- frames; and, in ſhort, part of them falls back into the vat, and returns into the circulation. The caufe of this circulation is evidently the continual void oc- caſioned by the movement of the roller on the one fide, and the return of the water and the stuff on the other.
As all the rags are not thrown towards the part B d of the chapiter, from whence they might fall back into the vat, but a part of them to a greater diftance; it is neceſsary to have the wicker frames formerly defcribed, not only to prevent their loſs, but to allow the dirty wa- ter to ecape. The fpiqot at the corner of the vat con- tinually supplies this waſte of water. This operation would be ſufficient to whiten the rags, although the ro- lers were raifed confiderably from the plate; and there- fore the force and action of the rollers reducing them to stuff muſt be much more effeſtual. It requires great skill to conduct the engine, whether it be with regard to the firſt quantity, to the proper time for adding the ſofter rags, to the augmenting or diminishing the wa- ter in proportion to the trituration; or, finally, to knowing exactly when the stuff is reduced to a proper consistency.
In the paper manufactory at Montargis, it was at- tempted to introduce rollers of the greafest strength and the leaft weight poſſible, in order to give them the grea- ter rapidity; but the experiment did not ſucceed: the rollers of prodigious rapidity were found to produce stuff neither in greater quantity nor of ſuperior quality. The moft experienced artists have eſtabliſhed a propor- tion between the motion of the roller and the greater or leſs refilience of the rags. And the Dutch, who have arrived at very great perfection in this art, have followed a method totally different from that praefided at Montargis. A roller in Holland complete in all its