PLATE CCCCIV.

PARALLAX

PARHELION

Engraved by W.D. Sharp, Edinburgh. Art of Ma.-parts weighs nearly 30 hundred weight; and they find this necessary for cutting the rags, especially if they have not been putrefied. In proportioning the rapidity to the resistance, they have also discovered, that a slow motion is preferable to a rapid one. The rollers at Saardom, by calculation made from the different parts of the machinery, make about 68 revolutions in a minute; those at Montargis about 166.—In Holland, too, this trituration of the rags is divided into two distinct operations, performed by rollers constructed on different principles: the first of them, for cutting the rags and preparing for the other, is furnished with blades of steel without any moisture, and with a considerable space between them; the second, intended to reduce the stuff to the proper consistency, has a greater number of blades, composed of a mixture of brads and copper. The mills with rollers are in every respect superior to those formerly in use with mallets. Two Dutch rollers of the construction we have just now described will prepare as much stuff in the same time as 24 mallets; they require infinitely less room; they do it without putrefaction, and as they do it in less time, and with less water, they occasion much less waste of the stuff.

When the stuff is brought to perfection, it is conveyed into a general repository, which supplies the vat from which the sheets of paper are formed. This vat is made of wood, and generally about five feet in diameter, and two and a half in depth. It is kept in temperature by means of a grate introduced by a hole, and surrounded on the inside of the vat with a cale of copper. For fuel to this grate, they use charcoal or wood; and, frequently, to prevent smoke, the wall of the building comes in contact with one part of the vat, and the fire has no communication with the place where they make the paper.

Every vat is furnished on the upper part with planks, enclosed inwards, and even railed in with wood, to prevent any of the stuff from running over in the operation. Across the vat is a plank which is called the trepan, pierced with holes at one of the extremities, and resting on the planks which surround the vat.

The forms or moulds are composed of wire-cloth, and a moveable frame. It is with these that they fetch up the stuff from the vat, in order to form the sheets of paper. The sides of the form are made of oak, which is previously steeped in water, and otherwise prepared to prevent warping. The wire-cloth is made larger than the sheet of paper, and the excess of it on all sides is covered with a moveable frame. This frame is necessary to retain the stuff of which the paper is made on the cloth; and it must be exactly adapted to the form, otherwise the edges of the paper will be ragged and badly finished. The wire-cloth of the form is varied in proportion to the fineness of the paper and the nature of the stuff.

The felts are pieces of woollen cloth spread over every sheet of paper, and upon which the sheets are laid, to detach them from the form, to prevent them from adhering together, to imbibe part of the water with which the stuff is charged, and to transmit the whole of it when placed under the action of the pres. The two sides of the felt are differently raised: that of which the hair is longest is applied to the sheets which are laid down; and any alteration of this disposition would produce a change in the texture of the paper. The stuff of which the felts are made should be sufficiently strong, in order that it may be stretched exactly on the sheets without forming into folds; and, at the same time, sufficiently pliant to yield in every direction without injury to the wet paper. As the felts have to resist the reiterated efforts of the pres, it appears necessary that the warp be very strong, of combed wool, and well twisted. On the other hand, as they have to imbib a certain quantity of water, and to return it, it is necessary that the woof be of carded wool, and drawn out into a flack thread.—These are the utensils, together with the pres, which are used in the apartment where the sheets of paper are formed.

The vat being furnished with a sufficient quantity of the fabric-stuff and of water, two instruments are employed to mix cation of them; the one of which is a simple pole, and the other a pole armed with a piece of board, rounded and full of holes. This operation is repeated as often as the stuff falls to the bottom. In the principal writing mills in England, they use for this purpose what is called a hog, which is a machine within the vat, that, by means of a small wheel on the outside, is made to turn constantly round, and keep the stuff in perpetual motion. When the stuff and water are properly mixed, it is easy to perceive whether the previous operations have been complete. When the stuff floats close, and in regular flakes, it is a proof that it has been well triturated; and the parts of the rags which have escaped the rollers also appear.

After this operation the workman takes one of the forms, furnished with its frame, by the middle of the flart fides, and fixing the frame round the wire-cloth with his thumbs, he plunges it obliquely four or five inches into the vat, beginning by the long side, which is nearest to him. After the immersion he raises it to a level: by these movements he fetches up on the form a sufficient quantity of stuff; and as soon as the form is raised the water escapes through the wire-cloth, and the superfluity of the stuff over the fides of the frame. The fibrous parts of the stuff arrange themselves regularly on the wire-cloth of the form, not only in proportion as the water escapes, but also as the workman favours this effect by gently shaking the form. Afterwards, having placed the form on a piece of board, the workman takes off the frame or deckle, and glides this form towards the coucheer; who, having previously laid his felt, places it with his left hand in an inclined situation, on a plank fixed on the edge of the vat, and full of holes. During this operation the workman applies his frame, and begins a second sheet. The coucheer seizes this instant, takes with his left hand the form, now sufficiently dry, and laying the sheet of paper upon the felt, returns the form by gliding it along the trepan of the vat.

They proceed in this manner, laying alternately a sheet and a felt, till they have made fix quires of paper, which is called a post; and this they do with such swiftness, that, in many sorts of paper, two men make upwards of 20 posts in a day. When the last sheet of the post is covered with the last felt, the workmen about the vat unite together, and submit the whole heap to the action of the pres. They begin at first to press it with a middling lever, and afterwards with a lever about fifteen feet in length. After this operation another person separates the sheets of paper from the felts, laying them Art of Ma-in a heap; and several of these heaps collected together are again put under the pres.

The stuff which forms a sheet of paper is received, as we have already laid, on a form made of wire cloth, which is more or less fine in proportion to the stuff, and surrounded with a wooden frame, and supported in the middle by many cross bars of wood. In consequence of this construction, it is easy to perceive, that the sheet of paper will take and preserve the impressions of all the pieces which compose the form, and of the empty spaces between them.

The traces of the wire-cloth are evidently perceived on the side of the sheet which was attached to the form, and on the opposite side they form an assemblage of parallel and rounded risings. As in the paper which is most highly finished the regularity of these impressions is still visible, it is evident that all the operations to which it is submitted have chiefly in view to soften these impressions without destroying them.—It is of consequence, therefore, to attend to the combination of labour which operates on these impressions. The coucher, in turning the form on the felt, flattens a little the rounded eminences which are in relief on one of the surfaces, and occasions at the same time the hollow places made by the wire-cloth to be partly filled up. Meanwhile the effort which is made in detaching the form, produces an infinite number of small hairs on every protuberant part of the sheet.

Under the action of the pres, first with the felts and then without them, the perfecting of the grain of paper still goes on. The vestiges of the protuberances made by the wires are altogether flattened, and of consequence the hollows opposite to them disappear also; but the traces formed by the interstices of the wire, in consequence of their thickness, appear on both sides, and are rounded by the pres.

The risings traced on each side of the paper, and which can be discovered by the eye on that which is most highly finished, form what is called the grain of paper. The different operations ought to soften but not destroy it; which is effectually done by employing the hammer. This grain appears in the Dutch paper; which is a sufficient proof, that though they have brought this part of the art to the greatest perfection, they have not employed hammers, but more simple and ingenious means. The grain of paper is often disguised by the felts when they are too much used, or when the wool does not cover the thread. In this case, when the paper is submitted to the pres, it takes the additional traces of the warp and the woof, and composes a surface extremely irregular.

The paper, the grain of which is highly softened, is much fitter for the purposes of writing than that which is smoothed by the hammer: on the other hand, a coarse and unequal grain very much opposes the movements of the pen; as that which is beat renders them very uncertain. The art of making paper, therefore, should consist in preserving, and at the same time in highly softening, the grain: the Dutch have carried this to the highest perfection.

The exchange succeeds the operation last described. It is conducted in a hall contiguous to the vat, supplied with several presses, and with a long table. The workman arranges on this table the paper, newly fabricated, into heaps; each heap containing eight or ten of those last under the pres, kept separate by a woollen felt. Art of Ma-in Paper. The pres is large enough to receive two of them at once, placed the one at the other's side. When the compresion is judged sufficient, the heaps of paper are carried back to the table, and the whole turned sheet by sheet, in such a manner that the surface of every sheet is exposed to a new one; and in this situation they are again brought under the pres. It is in conducting these two operations sometimes to four or five times, or as often as the nature of the paper requires, that the perfection of the Dutch plan consists. If the stuff be fine, or the paper slender, the exchange is less frequently repeated. In this operation it is necessary to alter the situation of the heaps, with regard to one another, every time they are put under the pres; and also, as the heaps are highest toward the middle, to place small pieces of felt at the extremities, in order to bring every part of them under an equal pressure. A single man with four or five presses may exchange all the paper produced by two vats, provided the previous pressing at the vats be well performed. The work of the exchange generally lasts about two days on a given quantity of paper.

When the paper has undergone these operations, it is not only softened in the surface, but better felted, and rendered more pliant in the interior parts of the stuff. In short, a great part of the water which it had imbibed in the operation of the vat is dissipated. By the felting of paper is understood the approximation of the fibres of the stuff, and their adhering more closely together. The paper is felted in proportion as the water escapes; and this effect is produced by the management and reiterated action of the pres. Were it not for the gradual operation of the pres, the paper would be porous, and composed of filaments adhering closely together. The superiority of the Dutch over the French paper depends almost entirely on this operation.

If the sheets of paper are found to adhere together, it is a proof that the business of the pres has been badly conducted. To avoid this inconvenience, it is necessary to bring down the pres at first gently, and by degrees with greater force, and to raise it as suddenly as possible. By this means, the water, which is impelled to the sides of the heaps, and which has not yet escaped, returns to the centre; the sheets are equally dry, and the operation executed without difficulty.

According to the state of dryness in which the paper is found when it comes from the apartment of the vat, it is either pressed before or after the first exchange. The operation of the pres should be reiterated and managed with great care; otherwise, in the soft state of the paper, there is a danger that its grain and transparency be totally destroyed. Another essential principle to the success of the exchange is, that the grain of the paper be originally well raised. For this purpose the wire cloth of the Dutch forms is composed of a rounder wire than those used in France, by which they gain the greatest degree of transparency, and are in no danger of destroying the grain. Besides this, the Dutch take care to proportion the wires even where the forms are equal to the thickness of the paper.

Almost every kind of paper is considerably improved by the exchange, and receives a degree of perfection which renders it more agreeable in the use. But it is necessary to observe at the same time, that all papers are Art of making paper in Europe are not equally susceptible of this melioration; on the contrary, if the stuff be unequal, dry, or weakened by the destruction of the fine parts, it acquires nothing of that lustre and softness, and appearance of velvet, which the exchange gives to stuffs properly prepared.

The sheds for drying the paper are in the neighbourhood of the paper mill; and are furnished with a vast number of cords, upon which they hang the sheets both before and after the sizing. The sheds are surrounded with moveable lattices, to admit a quantity of air sufficient for drying the paper. The cords of the shed are stretched as much as possible; and the paper, four or five sheets of it together, is placed on them by means of a wooden instrument resembling a pickaxe. The principal difficulty in drying the paper, consists in gradually admitting the external air, and in preventing the cords from imbibing moisture. With regard to the first of these, the Dutch use very low sheds, and construct their lattices with great exactness. By this means the Dutch paper is dried equally, and is extremely supple before the sizing. They prevent the cords from imbibing the water by covering them with wax. In using such cords, the moisture does not continue in the line of contact between the paper and the cord, which prevents the sheet from stretching in that particular place by its weight, and from the folds which the moisture in the subsequent operations might occasion. The Dutch also employ cords of considerable thickness, and place fewer of them under the sheets; by which means they diminish the points of contact, and give a freer and more equal circulation to the air.

The size for paper is made of the shreds and pairings got from the tanners, curriers, and parchment makers. All the putrefied parts and the lime are carefully separated from them, and they are enclosed into a kind of basket, and let down by a rope and pulley into the cauldron. This is a late invention, and serves two valuable purposes. It makes it easy to draw out the pieces of leather when the size is extracted from them by boiling, or easy to return them into the boiler if the operation be not complete. When the substance is sufficiently extracted, it is allowed to settle for some time; and it is twice filtered before it is put into the vessel into which they dip the paper.

Immediately before the operation, a certain quantity of alum is added to the size. The workman takes a handful of the sheets, smoothed and rendered as supple as possible, in his left hand, dips them into the vessel, and holds them separate with his right, that they may equally imbibe the size. After holding them above the vessel for a short space of time, he seizes on the other side with his right hand, and again dips them into the vessel. When he has finished ten or a dozen of these handfuls, they are submitted to the action of the press. The superfluous size is carried back to the vessel by means of a small pipe. The vessel in which the paper is sized is made of copper, and furnished with a grate, to give the size when necessary a due temperature; and a piece of thin board or felt is placed between every handful as they are laid on the table of the press.

The Dutch are very careful, in sizing their paper, to have every sheet in the same handful of equal dryness; because it is found that the dry sheets imbibe the size more slowly than those which retain some degree of moisture. They begin by selecting the padges in the dry- Art of making paper in Europe house; and after having made them supple, and having destroyed the adherence between the sheets, they separate them into handfuls in proportion to the dryness, each of them containing that number which they can dip at one time. Besides this precaution, they take care to apply two sheets of brown paper of an equal size to every handful. This brown paper, firm, solid, and already fixed, is of use to support the sheets.

As soon as the paper is sized, it is the practice of some paper mills to carry it immediately to the drying house, and hang it, before it cools, sheet by sheet on the cords. The paper, unless particular attention be paid to the lattices of the drying-house, is apt to dry too fast, whereby a great part of the size goes off in evaporation; or, if too slow, it falls to the ground. The Dutch drying-houses are the best to prevent these inconveniences:—But the exchange after the sizing, which is generally practised in Holland, is the best remedy. They begin this operation on the handfuls of paper, either while they are still hot, or otherwise, as they find it convenient. But, after the exchange, they are careful to allow the heaps to be altogether cold before they are submitted to the press. Without this precaution, the size would either be wholly squeezed out by the press of the exchange, or the surface of the paper become very irregular. It is of consequence that the paper, still warm from the sizing, grow gradually firm, under the operation of the exchange, in proportion as it cools. By this method it receives that varnish which is afterwards brought to perfection under the press, and in which the excellency of the paper either for writing or drawing chiefly consists. It is in consequence of the exchanging and pressing that the Dutch paper is soft and equal, and that the size penetrates into the body of it, and is extended equally over its surface.

The exchange after the sizing ought to be conducted with the greatest skill and attention, because the grain of the paper then receives impressions which can never be eradicated. When the sized paper is also exchanged, it is possible to hang more sheets together on the cords of the drying-house. The paper dries better in this condition, and the size is preserved without any sensible waste, because the sheets of paper mutually prevent the rapid operation of the external air. And as the size has already penetrated into the paper, and is fixed on the surface, the insensible progress of a well conducted drying-house renders all the good effects more perfect in proportion as it is slowly dried.

If to these considerations be added the damage done to the paper in drying it immediately after the press of the sizing room, whether it be done in raising the hairs by separating the sheets, or in cracking the surface, it is evident that the trouble of the second exchange is infinitely overpaid by the advantage.

When the paper is sufficiently dry, it is carried to the finishing room, where it is pressed, selected, examined, folded, made up into quires, and finally into reams.—It is here put twice under the press; first, when it is at its full size, and fecondly, after it is folded.

The principal labour of this place consists in afforting the paper into different lots, according to its quality and faults; after which it is made up into quires. The person who does this must possess great skill, and be capable of great attention, because he acts as a check on those Art of Ma-who separated the paper into different lots. He takes King Paper the sheets with his right hand, folds them, examines them, lays them over his left arm till he has the number requisite for a quire, br. *35 the fides parallel to one another, and places them in heaps under the table. An expert workman, if proper care has been taken in assorting the lots, will finish in this manner near 600 quires in a day.

The paper is afterwards collected into reams of 20 quires each, and for the last time put under the pres, where it is continued for 10 or 12 hours, or as long as the demand of the paper-mill will permit.

A method has lately been discovered of bleaching the rags or stuff, which will undoubtedly be adopted everywhere in the preparation of writing paper, provided the expence of the procefs be not too great. This discovery was made by Scheele, M. Berthollet, and M. Chaptal. The first of these illustrious writers communicated to the Swedish Academy of Sciences an Essay on Manganese, containing a numerous series of experiments, intended to investigate the nature and properties of that substance. Among thefe experiments were several which pointed out a new state of the muriatic acid, or the acid distilled from sea-falt, otherwise known under the name of the acid or spirit of sea-falt. This state of the muriatic acid was produced by Mr Scheele, in consequence of putting the said acid into a retort or distilling vessel, along with the above-mentioned substance called manganese, and distilling over the acid into a proper receiver; it was found to have changed its nature and properties in a very remarkable manner, while at the same time the manganese remaining in the retort had suffered a very material alteration.

To the new state of the acid thus produced, in consequence of certain theoretic ideas which Mr Scheele entertained respecting the mutual action of the original muriatic acid and the manganese on each other during the procefs of distillation, he gave the name of dephlogifticated muriatic acid. Since the time of this original discovery, in consequence of certain changes which have occurred in the theory or philosophy of chemistry, this new state of the acid of sea-falt has been called the oxygenated muriatic acid. Among many other properties of it discovered by Mr Scheele, the most remarkable was, that it destroyed the colour of every vegetable substance which was exposed to its action; or, in other words, it bleached them; or, in the language of the dyers, it discharged their colours; that is to say, whatever happened to be the colour of any vegetable body that was submitted to the action of the oxygenated or dephlogifticated muriatic acid, it always became white, or lost its colouring matter.

In the year 1786, Dr Beddoes, then professor of chemistry in the university of Oxford, published an English translation of the Chemical Essays of Mr Scheele; and thereby made known to the chemists of Great Britain the power of the oxygenated or dephlogifticated muriatic acid, to bleach or whiten vegetable substances, or to discharge or decompose their colours. But M. Berthollet, a celebrated chemist in France, and one of the members of the Academy of Sciences at Paris, appears to have been the first who thought of rendering the above-recited discovery subservient to the purposes of manufacture.

In 1789, he published in the Annales de Chimie an essay calculated entirely for the use of manufacturers, by being divcided of theoretic ducfusions; of which the title is, "Method of Bleaching Linen or Cotton Cloths, Threads, and Yarns, by means of oxygenated Muriatic Acid, and of some other properties of that Liquor which may be useful in Manufactures."

In the fame work, and in the fame year, M. Chap- tal, another French chemist, published an account of fome experiments, in which, among many other applications of the oxygenated muriatic acid to purpofes ufe- ful in the economical arts, he gives information of having bleached or whitened coarfe rags ufed by the paper-makers, fo as greatly to improve the quality of the paper into which they were afterwards manufactured. His preparation of this bleaching liquor differs not from Berthollet's, which is as follows: "Take fix ounces of manganese and fifteen ounces of sea-falt, both reduced to a fine powder; mix these accurately, and introduce them into a retort or distilling vessel: Then take twelve ounces of oil of vitriol and eight ounces of water, mixed together, and allowed to cool; add these to the other ingredients in the retort, and connect the retort with a caflk or receiver capable of holding twenty-feven gallons and a half of water, but only containing twenty-five gallons, which is to be impregnated with the gas or vapour of the oxygenated muriatic acid; and proceed to distillation, firft without and afterwards with a fire gradually raised, till the whole acid comes over."

Experiments have been made with this liquor both by fome of the principal paper-makers in the neighbourhood of Edinburgh, and by Meffrs Clement and George Taylors of Maidstone in Kent. By the former it was found, that paper made of rags and pulp whitened in this manner, was superior to any other made of fimilar materials, not only in colour but in fineness of texture. By the latter, the excellence of the liquor was found to be fo great, that probably having never heard of Scheele, Berthollet, and Chaptal, and conceiving themselves to be the first inventors of it, they obtained a patent for its exclusive ufe, which other manufacturers will doubtless difregard. It is not to be concealed, however, that, even with all the precautions which can poffibly be taken at firft, various circum- stances of imperfection muft necessarily remain to be removed by means of farther experience, both in the perfection of the bleaching procefs and the economy of its application to ufe; but for the attaining of this experience a short time will rarely be sufficient. The above account, it must appear, refers to the time when the bleaching of rags by this procefs was firft introduced. The practice, we find is still (1808) successfully continued by fome of the manufacturers in the vicinity of Edinburgh, and has been improved by uing the bleaching salt (the hyperoxymuriate of lime), the right to the preparation of which is exculively vefted by patent in Meffrs Tennant and Company of Glasgow.

SECT. II. Of the different Kinds of Paper.

The paper proper for writing should be without Writing knots, without any parts of the stuff not tritura-pa- teted, without folds, and without wrinkles, of a fupple texture, its grain uniform and regular, softened in the exchange, exchange, and not destroyed by smoothing. The ground of this paper must be extremely white, or shaded with a very light blue, which adds to its natural splendour. It is of great importance that it be fully and equally fixed, otherwise the writing cannot be well finished, and the turnings of the letters will be very imperfect. This paper should be made from stuff not putrefied, which takes a better grain, receives more benefit from the exchange, is more equally fixed, and, finally, is less subject to folds and wrinkles in the different operations. To make paper peculiarly fit for durable writing, Dr Lewis recommends the impregnation of it with astringent materials. "It is observable (says he) that writings first begin to fade or change their colour on the back of the paper, where the larger strokes have sunk in, or are visible through it; as if part of the irony matter of the vitriol was in a more subtle or diffused state than the rest, and sunk further, on account of its not being fully disengaged from the acid, or sufficiently combined with the astringent matter of the galls. Hence, it should seem probable, that if the paper was impregnated with astringent matter, the colour of the ink would be more durable. To see how far this notion was well founded, I dipped some paper in an infusion of galls: and, when dry, repeated the dipping a second and third time. On the paper thus prepared, and some that was unprepared, I wrote with different inks; several of which, that the effects might be more sensible, had an over-proportion of vitriol. The writings being exposed to the weather till the best of the inks on the unprepared paper had faded and changed their colour, those on the prepared paper were all found to retain their blackness. It is therefore recommended to the consideration of the paper-makers, whether a particular kind of paper might not be prepared for those uses where the long duration of the writing is of principal importance, by impregnating it with galls or other astringents, in some of the operations it passes through before it receives the glazing; as, for instance, by using an astringent infusion, instead of common water, in the last operation, when the matter is reduced into a pulp for being formed into sheets. The brownish hue which the paper receives from the galling, would not perhaps be any great obstacle to its use; and, if the proposal should be thought worthy of being carried into execution, further inquiries may possibly discover the means of obviating the imperfection, and communicating astringency without colour."

The paper used for drawing, or for coloured maps, is in some mills made from one kind of white stuff, either fine or middling; in others, from a mixture of three or four kinds of stuff of different colours. The Dutch were not long ago almost wholly in possession of this manufacture. The same qualities are necessary in this paper as in that for writing. The grain, however, must be a little more raised, although softened by the exchange; for, without this grain, the pencil would leave with difficulty the traces of the objects. Great care is also necessary in the sizing of this paper, that the drawing be neatly performed, and also that the sinking of the ink or colours into the irregularities of the stuff be prevented.

This paper is also made in greatest perfection by stuffs not rotted. These take a more even glofs, and are in better condition to receive all the impressions of the painter. It is also necessary that furniture paper be well softened, and submitted to the exchange, to take more exactly the outlines of the figures. The French have carried this part of the manufacture of paper to the highest state of perfection.

The British and Dutch have had the greatest success in manufacturing pasteboard, which they make either used in the from a single mat of stuff on the form, or from a collection of several sheets pasted together. In both cases, woollen the sheets of pasteboard are made of stuff not rotted, cloth, and triturated with rollers furnished with blades of well tempered steel. By the operation of the exchange, and smoothing continued for a long time, the British and Dutch obtain solid and smooth stuffs, which neither break under the folds of cloth, nor adhere to them. The stuffs not putrefied have another advantage in this species of pasteboard, namely, that of resisting the action of heat, which they experience between the folds of cloth, without warping or tarnishing, and of consequence they may be used for a long time.

In England they have at least equalled any other nation in the manufacture of this paper; and even in paper Scotland they have arrived to such a degree of perfection in this art, that great part of what they manufacture is sent into England. It requires to be made of a soft and equal stuff, without folds or wrinkles, of a natural whiteness, and with a shade of blue. It must be sized less strongly than writing paper, but sufficiently well to give neatness to the characters. The paper, thus properly prepared, yields easily to the printing press, and takes a sufficient quantity of ink. The stuff must be without grease, and wrought with that degree of flowness as to make it spread equally over the form, and take a neat and regular grain; without this the characters will not be equally marked in every part of the page; and the smallest quantity of grease renders the sizing unequal and imperfect. Some artists with considerable success, both to meliorate the grain, and to reduce the inequalities of the surface, have submitted this paper to the exchange. And it is proper to add, that a moderate degree of exchanging and of prelling may be of great service after the sheets are printed, to destroy the hollow places occasioned by the press, and the relievo of the letters.

Engraving requires a paper of the same qualities for with the last mentioned, with respect to the stuff, which engraving, must be pure, without knots, and equally reduced; the grain uniform, and the sheets without folds or wrinkles. To preserve the grain, it is necessary that it be dried slowly in the lowest place of the drying-houfe. If it is submitted to the exchange, the effects of it must be moderated with the greatest care, and the action of the two first presses must be equally distributed over the whole mats, otherwise the inequality of the moisture at the middle and sides will expose it to wrinkles in the drying. The sizing of this paper must also be moderate. These circumstances are necessary to make it receive with neatness all the soft and delicate touches of the plate.—The soft and yielding paper of Auvergne possesses all those advantages; and accordingly a great quantity of this and of printing paper were formerly imported into Britain and Holland from France, where they fill continue to rot the materials from which they make engr- Paper. Sect. III.

The wire wove frame, though but lately invented, is, we are told, peculiarly adapted to this kind of paper.

Paper for cards must be manufactured from a pretty firm stuff, in order to take that degree of smoothness which makes the cards glide easily over one another in using. For this reason the cardmakers reject every kind of paper which is soft and without strength. This paper requires to be very much fized, since the sizing holds the place of varnish, to which the smoothing gives a glazed and shining surface. To answer all these purposes, the rags require to be a little rotted, and the mallets strongly armed with iron studs. Formerly Angoumois was almost the only province in France which fold card-paper to the Dutch and the other northern nations. The rags of Angoumois have the peculiar quality of not turning too soft in the putrefaction, and the mills of that province reduce them to stuff though they be not much putrefied. The French, we believe, excel every other nation in this branch of the manufacture of paper.

Sect. III. Miscellaneous Observations on Paper.

To hinder paper from sinking, take about the size of a nut of rock alum, dissolve it in a glass of clear water, and apply it to the paper, which has not been sufficiently fized, with a fine sponge. It is in this manner that the paper-manufacturers of Paris prepare the paper for drawing called papier laves. When there is occasion to write on a printed book, or on paper too fresh, it is sufficient to mix a little gum with ordinary ink.

To give to writing paper a brilliant varnish, take that which is of an ordinary fineness, very smooth, without any kind of flain or hairs on its surface; stretch it on a smooth plank, and by means of a hare's foot cover it with a thin and equal layer of sandarac finely powdered. Afterwards, if a whole ream is to be varnished, take eight ounces of rock alum and one ounce of white sugarandy; bring them to boil in fix pints of water; and when the liquor is lukewarm, wet that side of the sheet which has been covered with the sandarac with a fine sponge; lay the sheets in a heap, one sheet exactly above another; and submit the ream to the press for the space of twelve hours; hang them afterwards sheet by sheet on the cords of the drying-house; put them again under the press for some days to stretch them; and, finally, beat them with a book-binder's mallet. This paper can only be used for three or four months after it is prepared.

Painters prepare their paper for drawing, and give it a dark ground, which spares them much labour of the pencil afterwards in those places where shade is necessary. For this purpose, they take white paper and pass a sponge over it, which has imbibed water impregnated with foot, leaving the light places to be formed afterwards. They use also a kind of paper for drawing, which is called tainted paper. A light colour is passed over the whole ground, which deprives the paper of its original brightness, and makes the light places of the print appear more in relivo, and more luminous.

The method most common and most convenient for copying a print, is to use oiled paper. The manner of preparing this paper is to take that which is thin and smooth, known commonly by the name of serpentine paper, and moisten it with a composition, two parts of the oil of walnuts and one part of the oil of turpentine mixed well together. A sheet of pasteboard and a sheet of paper are laid on a smooth table; above them are placed two sheets of paper to be prepared; and a layer of the oil applied to the uppermost is sufficient to penetrate both. This may be done to any number of sheets, and a strong sheet of pasteboard is placed over the whole. The heap is afterwards submitted to the press, under which it remains for two or three days till the oil be completely dry. Paper prepared in this manner serves to copy very readily and exactly all kinds of figures and plans; because, being altogether transparent, all the parts of the drawing, whether of light or shade, are easily distinguished.

Besides the paper made from the asbestos, it is necessary for wrapping up gunpowder and valuable writings, to have a paper that will not easily take fire. The manner in which this is prepared is extremely simple. Ordinary paper is dipped into boiling liquid, consisting of three-fourths of water, and one-fourth of dissolved alum. This salt, which is not inflammable, covers the surface of the paper, and renders it in some measure incombustible.

In the season of verjuice, a little of it diluted with water is sufficient for obliterating any fresh spot of ink. The fact of the verjuice dissolved in water answers the purpose equally well, and the fact of forrel or oxalic acid is also employed with this view. If the spots be dry, and the above acids are insufficient to eradicate them, a little aquafortis diluted in water, and applied with the feather of a quill, or a fine hair pencil, will make them entirely disappear.

Books and manuscripts are sometimes defaced by accidental stains with oil. To remove such blemishes, burn sheep's bones and reduce them to a fine powder; lay a quantity of this powder on each side of the stain; place it between two sheets of white paper, and submit it for twelve hours to the press. If the stains have not disappeared, it will be necessary to reiterate the process.

To make oiled papers take colours; mix with the colours a very small quantity either of the gall of a pike or carp; and, as these substances are of the nature of soap, they dissolve the grease that is in the paper, and permit the colours to be spread over the surface.

Emery paper, which is employed for taking the rust from iron without waiting it, is made by impregnating coarse paper with gummed water or any other tenacious substance, and then covering it over with the finest emery.

The colours proper for paper are not different from those used for other substances, and are enumerated under the article COLOUR-Making. They are applied with soft brushes, after being tempered to a due degree with size or gum-water. If the paper on which they are to be laid is soft, so that the colours are apt to go through, it must also be fized before they are laid on, or a proportionably larger quantity must be used along with the colours themselves. If a considerable extent of the paper is to be done over with one colour, Miscellaneous Observations on Paper.

It must receive several coatings, as thin as possible, letting each coat dry before another is put on, otherwise the colour will be unequal.

Take yellow ochre, grind it with rain-water, and lay a ground with it upon the paper all over; when dry, take the white of eggs, beat it clear with white sugar-candy, and strike it all over; then lay on the leaf-gold; and when dry, polish it with a tooth. Some take saffron, boil it in water, and dissolve a little gum with it; then they strike it over the paper, lay on the gold; and, when dry, they polish it.

Take two scruples of clear glue made of neats leather, one scruple of white alum, and half a pint of clear water; simmer the whole over a slow fire, till the water is consumed, or the steam ceases: Then, your sheets of paper being laid on a smooth table, you dip a pretty large pencil into that glue, and daub it over as even as you can, repeating this two or three times: then sift the powder of talc through a fine sieve, made of horse-hair or gauze, over it; and then hang it up to dry; and, when dry, rub off the superfluous talc, which serves again for the same purpose. The talc you prepare in the following manner: Take fine white transparent Muscovy talc; boil it in clear water for four hours; then take it off the fire, and let it stand fo for two days: then take it out, wash it well, and put it into a linen rag, and beat it to pieces with a mallet: to 10 pounds of talc add 3 pounds of white alum, and grind them together in a little hand-mill; sift it through a gauze-sieve; and being thus reduced to a powder, put it into water, and just boil it up: then let it sink to the bottom, pour off the water from it, place the powder in the sun to dry, and it will become of a hard consistence. Beat this in a mortar to an impalpable powder, and keep it, for the use above mentioned, free from dust.

The common grounds laid in water are made by mixing whiting with the common glovers size, and laying it on the paper with a proper brush in the most even manner. This is all that is required, where the ground is to be left white; and the paper being then hung on a proper frame till it be dry, is fit to be painted. When coloured grounds are required, the same method must be pursued, and the ground of whiting first laid; except in pale colours, such as straw-colours or pink, where a second coating may sometimes be spared, by mixing some strong colour with the whiting.

There are three methods by which paper-hangings are painted; the first by printing on the colours; the second by using the pencil; and the third by laying them on with a pencil, as in other kinds of painting.

When the colours are laid on by printing, the impression is made by wooden prints; which are cut in such manner, that the figure to be expressed is made to project from the surface by cutting away all the other part; and this, being charged with the colours tempered with their proper vehicle, by letting it gently down on a block on which the colour is previously spread, conveys it from thence to the ground of the paper, on which it is made to fall more forcibly by means of its weight, and the effort of the arm of the person who uses the print. It is easy to conclude, that there must be as many separate prints as there are colours to be printed. But where there are more than one, great care must be taken, after the first, to let the print fall exactly in the same part of the paper as that which went before; otherwise the figure of the design would be brought into irregularity and confusion. In common paper of low price, it is usual, therefore, to print only the outlines, and lay on the rest of the colours by stencilling; which both saves the expense of cutting more prints, and can be practised by common workmen, not requiring the great care and dexterity necessary to the using several prints.

The manner of stencilling the colours is this. The figure, which all the parts of any particular colour make in the design to be painted, is to be cut out, in a piece of thin leather or oil-cloth, which pieces of leather or oil-cloth are called stencils; and being laid flat on the sheets of paper to be printed, spread on a table or floor, are to be rubbed over with the colour, properly tempered, by means of a large brush. The colour passing over the whole is consequently spread on those parts of the paper where the leather or cloth is cut away, and gives the same effect as if laid on by a print. This is nevertheless only practicable in parts where there are only detached masses or spots of colours: for where there are small continued lines, or parts that run one into another, it is difficult to preserve the connection or continuity of the parts of the cloth, or to keep the smaller corners close down to the paper: and therefore, in such cases, prints are preferable. Stencilling is indeed a cheaper method of ridding coarse work than printing: but without such extraordinary attention and trouble as render it equally difficult with printing, it is far less beautiful and exact in the effect. For the outlines of the spots of colour want that sharpness and regularity that are given by prints, besides the frequent extralineations, or deviations from the just figure, which happen by the original misplacing of the stencils, or the shifting the place of them during the operation.

Pencilling is only used in the case of nicer work, such as the better imitations of the India paper. It is performed in the same manner as other paintings in water or varnish. It is sometimes used only to fill the outlines already formed by printing, where the price of the colour, or the exactness of the manner in which it is required to be laid on, render the stencilling or printing it less proper; at other times, it is used for forming or delineating some parts of the design, where a spirit of freedom and variety, not to be had in printed outlines, are desired to be had in the work.

The paper designed for receiving the flock is first managed, prepared with a varnish-ground with some proper colour, or by that of the paper itself. It is frequently the flock practised to print some mosaic, or other small running paper. The flock is then printed in colours, on the ground, before the flock be laid on; and it may be done with any pigment of the colour desired, tempered with varnish, and laid on by a print cut correspondently to that end.

The method of laying on the flock is this. A wooden print being cut, as is above described, for laying on the colour in such manner that the part of the design which is intended for the flock may project beyond the rest of the surface, the varnish is put on a block covered with the leather or oil-cloth, and the print is to be used also in the same manner, to lay the varnish on all the parts where the flock is to be fixed. The sheet, thus prepared by the varnished impression, is then to be removed to another block or table, and to be firew- ed over with flock; which is afterwards to be gently compressed by a board, or some other flat body, to make the varnish take the better hold of it; and then the sheet is to be hung on a frame till the varnish be perfectly dry; at which time the superfluous part of flock is to be brushed off by a soft camel's-hair brush; and the proper flock will be found to adhere in a very strong manner.

The method of preparing the flock is, by cutting woollen rags or pieces of cloth with the hand, by means of a large bill or chopping knife; or by means of a machine worked by a horic-mill.

There is a kind of counterfeit flock-paper, which, when well managed, has very much the same effect to the eye as the real, though done with less expense. The manner of making this fort is, by laying a ground of varnish on the paper; and having afterwards printed the design of the flock in varnish, in the same manner as for the true; instead of the flock, some pigment, or dry colour, of the same hue with the flock required by the design, but somewhat of a darker shade, being well powdered, is strewed on the printed varnish, and produces nearly the same appearance.

PAPER-Money is a term frequently made use of for bank-bills, which pass currently in trade instead of gold and silver.

Concerning this species of currency, the national utility of which has been controverted by some, we have the following observations in Dr Smith's Treatise on the Wealth of Nations: "The substitution of paper in the room of gold and silver money replaces a very expensive instrument of commerce with one much less costly, and sometimes equally convenient. Circulation comes to be carried on by a new wheel, which it costs less both to erect and maintain than the old one.

"When the people of any particular country have such confidence in the fortune, probity, and prudence of a particular banker, as to believe that he is always ready to pay upon demand such of his promiscuous notes as are likely at any time to be presented to him, those notes come to have the same currency as gold and silver money, from the confidence that such money can at any time be had for them.

"A particular banker lends among his customers his own promiscuous notes, to the amount, we shall suppose, of 100,000l. As those notes serve all the purposes of money, his debtors pay him the same interest as if he had lent them so much money. This interest is the source of his gain. Though some of those notes are continually coming back upon him for payment, part of them continue to circulate for months and years together. Though he has generally in circulation, therefore, notes to the amount of 100,000l., 20,000l. in gold and silver may frequently be a sufficient provision for answering occasional demands. By this operation, therefore, 20,000l. in gold and silver perform all the functions which 100,000l. could otherwise have performed. Eighty thousand pounds of gold and silver can therefore, in this manner, be spared from the circulation of the country; and if different operations of the same kind should at the same time be carried on by many different banks and bankers, the whole circulation may be thus conducted with a fifth part only of the gold and silver.

"Let us suppose, for example, that the whole circulating money of some particular country amounted, at a particular time, to 1,000,000l. sterling, that sum being then sufficient for circulating the whole annual produce of their land and labour. Let us suppose too, that, some time thereafter, different banks and bankers issued promiscuous notes, payable to the bearer, to the extent of 1,000,000l. referring in their different coffers 200,000l. for answering occasional demands. There would remain, therefore, in circulation 800,000l. in gold and silver, and 1,000,000l. of bank notes, or 1,800,000l. of paper and money together. But the annual produce of the land and labour of the country had before required only 1,000,000l. to circulate and distribute it to its proper consumers, and that annual produce cannot be immediately augmented by those operations of banking. One million, therefore, will be sufficient to circulate it after them. The goods to be bought and sold being precisely the same as before, the same quantity of money will be sufficient for buying and selling them. The channel of circulation, if I may be allowed such an expression, will remain precisely the same as before. One million we have supposed sufficient to fill that channel. Whatever, therefore, is poured into it beyond this sum, cannot run in it, but must overflow. One million eight hundred thousand pounds are poured into it. Eight hundred thousand pounds, therefore, must overflow, that sum being over and above what can be employed in the circulation of the country. But though this sum cannot be employed at home, it is too valuable to be allowed to lie idle. It will therefore be sent abroad, in order to seek that profitable employment which it cannot find at home. But the paper cannot go abroad; because, at a distance from the banks which issue it, and from the country in which payment of it can be exacted by law, it will not be received in common payments. Gold and silver, therefore, to the amount of 800,000l. will be sent abroad, and the channel of home circulation still remain filled with 1,000,000l. of paper instead of 1,000,000l. of those metals which filled it before.

"But though so great a quantity of gold and silver is thus sent abroad, we must not imagine that it is sent abroad for nothing, or that its proprietors make a profit of it to foreign nations. They will exchange it for foreign goods of some kind or another, in order to supply the consumption either of some other foreign country or their own.

"If they employ it in purchasing goods in one foreign country in order to supply the consumption of another, another, or in what is called the carrying trade; whatever profit they make will be an addition to the neat revenue of their own country. It is like a new fund, created for carrying on a new trade; domestic business being now tranfacted by paper, and the gold and silver being converted into a fund for this new trade.

"If they employ it in purchasing foreign goods for home consumption, they may either first purchase such goods as are likely to be consumed by idle people who produce nothing, such as foreign wines, foreign silks, &c.; or, fecondly, they may purchase an additional stock of materials, tools, and provisions, in order to employ an additional number of industrious people, who reproduce, with a profit, the value of their annual consumption.

"So far as it is employed in the first way, it promotes prodigality, increases expence and consumption without increasing production, or establishing any permanent fund for supporting that expence, and is in every respect hurtful to the society.

"So far as it is employed in the second way, it promotes industry; and though it increases the consumption of the society, it provides a permanent fund for supporting that consumption, the people who consume, reproducing, with a profit, the whole value of their annual consumption. The gross revenue of the society, the annual produce of their land and labour, is increased by the whole value which the labour of those workmen adds to the materials upon which they are employed; and their neat revenue by what remains of this value, after deducting what is necessary for supporting the tools and instruments of their trade.

"That the greater part of the gold and silver which, being forced abroad by those operations of banking, is employed in purchasing foreign goods for home consumption, is, and must be employed for purchasing those of this second kind, seems not only probable, but almost unavoidable. Though some particular men may sometimes increase their expence very considerably, though their revenue does not increase at all, we may be assured that no class or order of men ever does so; because, though the principles of common prudence do not always govern the conduct of every individual, they always influence that of the majority of every class or order. But the revenue of idle people, considered as a class or order, cannot in the smallest degree be increased by those operations of banking. Their expence in general, therefore, cannot be much increased by them, though that of a few individuals among them may, and in reality sometimes is. The demand of idle people, therefore, for foreign goods, being the fame, or very nearly the fame, as before, a very small part of the money, which being forced abroad by those operations of banking, is employed in purchasing foreign goods for home consumption, is likely to be employed in purchasing those for their use. The greater part of it will naturally be destined for the employment of industry, and not for the maintenance of idleness.

"When we compute the quantity of industry which the circulating capital of any society can employ, we must always have regard to those parts of it only which consist in provisions, materials, and finished work: the other, which consists in money, and which serves only to circulate those three, must always be deducted. In order to put industry into motion, three things are requisite; materials to work upon, tools to work with, and the wages or recompense for the sake of which the work is done. Money is neither a material to work upon, nor a tool to work with; and though the wages of the workman are commonly paid to him in money, his real revenue, like that of all other men, consists, not in the money, but in the money's worth; not in the metal pieces, but in what can be got for them.

"The quantity of industry which any capital can employ, must evidently be equal to the number of workmen whom it can supply with materials, tools, and a maintenance suitable to the nature of the work. Money may be requisite for purchasing the materials and tools of the work, as well as the maintenance of the workmen. But the quantity of industry which the whole capital can employ, is certainly not equal both to the money which purchases, and to the materials, tools, and maintenance, which are purchased with it; but only to one or other of those two values, and to the latter more properly than to the former.

"When paper is substituted in the room of gold and silver money, the quantity of the materials, tools, and maintenance, which the whole circulating capital can supply, may be increased by the whole value of gold and silver which used to be employed in purchasing them. The whole value of the great wheel of circulation and distribution is added to the goods which are circulated and distributed by means of it. The operation, in some measure, resembles that of the undertaker of some great work, who, in consequence of some improvement in mechanics, takes down his old machinery, and adds the difference between its price and that of the new to his circulating capital, to the fund from which he furnishes materials and wages to his workmen.

"What the proportion is which the circulating money of any country bears to the whole value of the annual produce circulated by means of it, it is perhaps impossible to determine. It has been computed by different authors at a fifth, at a tenth, at a twentieth, and at a thirtieth part of that value. But how smallsoever the proportion which the circulating money may bear to the whole value of the annual produce, as but a part, and frequently but a small part, of that produce, is ever destined for the maintenance of industry, it must always bear a very considerable proportion to that part. When, therefore, by the substitution of paper, the gold and silver necessary for circulation is reduced to perhaps a fifth part of the former quantity, if the value of only the greater part of the other four fifths be added to the funds which are destined for the maintenance of industry, it must make a very considerable addition to the quantity of that industry, and consequently to the value of the annual produce of land and labour.

"That part of his capital which a dealer is obliged to keep by him unemployed, for answering occasional demands, is so much dead stock, producing nothing either to him or to his country. The judicious operations of banking enable him to make it active and productive. The gold and silver money which circulates in any country, and by means of which the produce of its land and labour is annually circulated and distributed to the proper consumers, is in the same manner as the ready money of the dealer, all dead stock. It is a very valuable part of the capital of the country, which produces nothing to the country. The judicious operations of banking, by substituting paper in the room of a great part of it, enables the country to make a great part of this dead stock active and productive. The gold and silver money which circulates in any country, may very properly be compared to a highway, which, while it circulates and carries to market all the grafs and corn of the country, produces itself not a single pile of either. The judicious operations of banking, by providing, if I may be allowed so violent a metaphor, a fort of waggon-way through the air, enable the country to convert, as it were, a great part of its highways into good pastures and corn fields, and thereby to increase very considerably the annual produce of its land and labour. The commerce and industry of the country, however, it must be acknowledged, though they may be somewhat augmented, cannot be altogether so secure, when they are thus, as it were, suspended upon the Daedalian wings of paper money, as when they travel about upon the solid ground of gold and silver.

"The whole paper money of every kind which can easily circulate in any country, never can exceed the value of the gold and silver, of which it supplies the place, or which (the commerce being supposed the same) would circulate there if there was no paper money. If twenty shilling notes, for example, are the lowest paper money current in Scotland, the whole of that currency, which can easily circulate there, cannot exceed the sum of gold and silver which would be necessary for tranfacting the annual exchanges of twenty thillings value and upwards, usually tranfacted within that country. Should the circulating paper at any time exceed that sum, as the excess could neither be fent abroad, nor be employed in the circulation of the country, it must immediately return upon the banks to be exchanged for gold and silver. Many people would immediately perceive that they had more of this paper than was neceffary for tranfacting their buflness at home, and as they could not fend it abroad, they would immediately demand payment of it from the banks. When this superfluous paper was converted into gold and silver, they could eafily find a use for it by lending it abroad; but they could find none while it remained in the shape of paper. There would immediately, therefore, be a run upon the banks to the whole extent of this superfluous paper, and, if they showed any difficulty or backwardness in payment, to a much greater extent; the alarm which this would occasion necessarily increasing the run." See BANK and TRADE.

PAPER Office, an office in the palace of Whitehall, in which all the public writings, matters of state and council, proclamations, letters, intelligences, negociations abroad, and generally all dispatches that pass through the offices of the secretaries of State, are lodged, by way of library.

PAPIER MACHE. This is a substance made of cuttings of white or brown paper, boiled in water, and beaten in a mortar, till they are reduced to a kind of paste, and then boiled with a solution of gum arabic or of size, to give tenacity to the paste, which is afterwards formed into different toys, &c, by pressing it into oiled moulds. When dry, it is done over with a mixture of size and lamp black, and afterwards varnished. The black varnish for these toys, according to Dr Lewis, is prepared as follows: some colophony, or turpentine boiled down till it becomes black and friable, is melted in a glazed earthen vessel, and thrice as much amber in fine powder sprinkled in by degrees, with the addition of a little spirit or oil of turpentine now and then: when the amber is melted, sprinkle in the same quantity of tarcoolla, continuing to stir them, and to add more spirit of turpentine, till the whole becomes fluid; then strain out the clear through a coarse hair bag, pressing it gently between hot boards. This varnish, mixed with ivory black in fine powder, is applied, in a hot room, on the dried paper paste; which is then set in a gently heated oven, next day in a hotter oven, and the third day in a very hot one, and let stand each time till the oven grows cold. The paste thus varnished is hard, durable, glossy, and bears liquors hot or cold.