A chronology of paper and paper-making

Preface

HE facts embraced in the following pages have been gathered from so many sources, that it would materially encumber the work to give authorities. The valuable essay of Breitkopf, 1 published in 1784, and the interesting history of Matthias Koops, 2 who made extensive experiments in England in the beginning of the present century, have furnished numerous data. The Jury Report of the London Industrial Exhibition has been used to a considerable extent for more modern statistics of European countries. For the remainder, almost every availa-

2 Historical Account of the Substances which have been used to describe Events, and to convey Ideas, from the earliest Date to the Invention of Paper, London, 1801, 8vo.

iv Preface.

ble work has been consulted in English, French, German, and Nederdutch, and the news papers.

It will be seen by the number of experiments made for the attainment of the same object by the same means in England and America especially, that paper-makers have had but little intercommunication. There is great want of an American work, practical and experimental, on this most important art. An account of the modes that have been pursued by the experimenters who have so long and arduously sought after a substitute for rags in the manufacture of paper, would of itself form an instructive volume. These experiments began in Europe more than a century ago, and were induced by the same cause which has ever since given rise to efforts in the same direction, the scarcity of rags. They have continually exercised the minds of manufacturers and others in this country during the present century, and the records of the patent office attest the fertility of invention which has been expended in this field of discovery. The following list of substances which have been experimented upon, and of which it is claimed that paper has been produced of fair qualities, will show in a measure the extent of the effort which has been made to procurp material to meet the increasing demand for paper fabrics :

Preface.

Alga marina,

Aloe,

Animal substances,

Asbestos,

Asparagus,

Aspen,

Arroche,

Bagging,

Bamboo,

Banana leaves,

Bark,

Bass wood,

Bavarian peat,

Beech,

Beet root,

Blue grass,

Bracken,

Bran,

Brazilian grass,

Broom corn,

Bullen of plants,

Burdock,

Cabbage stumps,

Carduus nutans,

Clematite,

Cocoanut husks,

Conferva,

Coton du peuplier,

Corn husks,

Cotton seed,

Cotton stalks,

Cotton waste,

Couch grass,

Decayed wood,

Dwarf palm,

Elm,

Erigerone,

Esparto grass,

Fir,

Flag leaves,

Flax,

Floss silk,

Frog spittle,

Gnaphalium,

Grape vines,

Gutta percha,

Hay,

Hemp,

Hibiscus esculentus,

Hollyhock,

Hop vines,

Hornets' nests,

Ivory shavings,

Jute,

VI

Preface.

Leather cuttings,

Leaves,

Lily of the valley,

Lime,

Linden,

Liquorice wood,

Manures,

Marsh mallow,

Masse d'eau,

Moss,

Moth wort,

Mulberry,

Mummy cloth,

Muscovy mats,

Nettles,

Oak,

Oakum,

Old sacks,

Pappus,

Paste board scraps,

Peat,

Pine,

Pine shavings,

Plantain,

Poplar,

Printed waste,

Raw cotton,

Reeds,

Rice straw,

Ropes, Rushes, Satin, Saw dust, Scotch ferns, Sea weed, Seratula ervensis, Silk,

Sorghum, Southern cane, Spindle tree, Stone,

Sultana bark,

Swingle tow,

Tan,

Thistles,

Tow,

Turkish cornstalks.

Ulva marina,

Water broom,

Wayfaring tree,

Wheat straw,

White wood, Willow, Willow twigs, Wool.

Preface. vii

In short, almost every thing has undergone a test. Not only have numerous patents been procured for useless modes of producing paper from many of the above articles, for want of knowledge of what had already been done in the same line, but costly machinery has in some cases been erected to assist in bringing them into use, after they had been experimented upon repeatedly and condemned. This will continue to be done until something is published on the subject in such a shape as to be accessible to the trade. It is hardly necessary to say that this work does not aim to supply the desideratum, yet to a considerable extent it will serve as an index to those experiments. It also indicates what has been done towards bringing machinery to perfection, while those efforts were being made to discover new materials for paper stock. It is in this department that great results have been attained. In a little more than a quarter of a century, the machines have entirely superseded the diminutive hand-mills which sparsely dotted the country, and gigantic establishments have risen up in their places. Paper-mill villages, and banking institutions even, have grown out of this nourishing branch of industrial art, and we behold with satisfaction and amazement, what has been brought about by the aid of a commodity so insignificant in the eyes of the world as linen and cotton rags.

Papyrus.