TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE
Italic text is denoted by _underscores_.
There are two instances of the letter c with a macron. Using the
Unicode combining diacritical, this will display on this device
as c̄.
The terms table and tablet (a small table) are used in reference to
ancient writing surfaces.
The term size as used in this book often refers to glutinous material
used in the paper-making process to make the paper surface smoother.
Some minor changes to the text are noted at the end of the book.
[Illustration: THE PAPER MAKING MACHINE.]
PAPER & PAPER MAKING,
ANCIENT AND MODERN.
BY
RICHARD HERRING:
WITH
AN INTRODUCTION,
BY THE
REV. GEORGE CROLY, LL. D.
LONDON:
LONGMAN, BROWN, GREEN, AND LONGMANS.
1855.
W. DEWICK, PRINTER, BARBICAN.
TO THE
RIGHT HONOURABLE
SIR FRANCIS GRAHAM MOON, BARONET,
LORD MAYOR OF LONDON:
THIS WORK,
WITH EVERY SENTIMENT OF RESPECT AND ESTEEM,
IS DEDICATED;
BY HIS LORDSHIP’S
OBLIGED AND FAITHFUL SERVANT,
THE AUTHOR.
CONTENTS.
PAGE.
PREFACE VII
INTRODUCTION ix
CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTION—Language—Origin of the Art of Writing—Various modes
of recording events which preceded it—Materials upon which
men first Wrote—Stones, Bricks, Metals, Skins and Intestines
of Animals, Tablets, Leaves, Bark, etc., etc.—The Egyptian
Papyrus, from which Paper (so called) was first made—Process
of Manufacture—Usual dimensions and extreme durability of
Papyri—Modern Paper—Its general advantages to mankind—Supposed
period of its Invention—The Introduction of Paper-making
into Europe—Historical incidents connected therewith—James
Whatman—The superiority of his manufacture—Adoption of the
Fourdrinier-Machine—General advantages of Machinery over the
Original Process, etc., etc. 1
CHAPTER II.
On the Materials employed in the Formation of Paper—Method of
Preparation—Processes of Comminution, Washing, Bleaching, etc.
described—Paper-making by Hand—Paper-making Machine—Sizing
Apparatus—Cutting-Machine, etc. explained—General Observations
on what are termed Water-Marks—Manner of effecting the
same—Importance frequently attached to them—Ireland’s Fabrication
of the Shakspeare MSS.—Difficulty in procuring suitable Paper
for the purpose—On the perfection to which Water-Marks have now
attained, especially with reference to the production of Light
and Shade, as seen in the New Bank Note, etc., etc. 49
CHAPTER III.
Anecdote of an over-curious enquirer—Its probable application
to many readers—Paper Making, when straightforward, extremely
simple, but ordinarily involving considerable chemical and
practical skill—Brief review of artificial aids—Anecdotes of
the deleterious effects of bleaching, and of imparting colour
to the “stuff”—Ultramarine, its use and abuse—Manufactured
Paper, its varieties and peculiarities—Excise Regulations—Paper
Duty—Conclusion. 91
PREFACE.
The present work is founded upon Lectures recently delivered at the
London Institution.
The subject of Paper and Paper Making is one which has been at all
times regarded with considerable interest, independently of that
attention to it which commercial pursuits, of necessity, demand.
The confidence, however, which originally prompted me to treat the
subject, has, been in no slight degree, augmented by the advantage
which I possess in the experience of my father, extending over a
period of nearly half a century.
In the illustration of the Lectures, (which here stand as CHAPTERS
1 and 2),—the syllabus furnished by the London Institution being
retained as a heading in each instance—I have the pleasing duty to
acknowledge myself much indebted to the kind assistance of many
friends in connection with the Royal Asiatic Society, the Hon.
East India Company, the Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew, the London
Missionary Museum, and the Bank of England.
So far as it has been found practicable to illustrate the present
work, no effort has been spared, and in order to sustain the interest
which was so strikingly exhibited at the delivery of the Lectures—the
remembrance of which throughout life will be to me a constant source
of gratification;—I have appended, amongst other specimens, a sheet
manufactured from the same mould as I then employed.
R. H.
WALBROOK, APRIL, 1855.
INTRODUCTION.
BY THE REV. GEORGE CROLY, LL. D.
Having been present at the delivery of these Lectures, and feeling
an interest in them, as the performance of my intelligent friend,
and parishioner, Mr. Herring, I have added, at his request, a few
preliminary observations, on the chief employment of paper in our
day, namely, in PRINTING.
It is a striking, and perhaps a significant, coincidence, that the
art of making paper from linen fibre, and the art of printing, were
discovered nearly at the same time, and were coeval with the first
preaching of the Reformation; by Huss and Jerome of Prague, of whom
Luther was only the more eminent successor—the whole three events
dating from the fifteenth century.
It is certain, that printing was the great instrument of the
Reformation in Germany, and of spreading it through Europe; and it is
equally certain, that the making of paper, by means of the cotton
or flaxen fibre, supplied the only material, which has been found
extensively available for printing. Whether this coincidence was
simply accidental, or was the effect of that high arrangement for
high purposes, which we so often find in the history of Providence,
may be left to the consideration of the Christian.
But, it is evident, that if printing had been invented in any of
the earlier ages, it would have been comparatively thrown away. The
Chinese bark of the bamboo, or the rice straw; the Egyptian papyrus,
and the Greek or Roman parchment, would have been too feeble, or
too expensive, for the rapid demands of the Press. But, at the
exact period, when Printing was given to the world, the fabric was
also given, which was to meet the broadest exigency of that most
illustrious invention.
That the Chinese, in ages almost beyond history, had made paper of
cotton, and even of hemp; and that the Arabians either borrowed, or
invented, the manufacture, in the eighth century, is known. But, the
discovery perished for want of the Press; as the Press would have
perished for want of the vigour, yet to be created in every faculty
of human advance, by the Reformation.
It should not be forgotten, that the _first_ printed works were
religious; as the “Biblia Pauperum,” a small folio, of forty leaves,
each with a picture, and a text of Scripture under it; and the
“Speculum humanæ Salvationis,” a similar work of pictures and texts,
in Latin; and that the last, and noblest, achievement of Printing,
has been the renewed publication of the Gospel, in nearly every
language of the globe!
The actual origin of Printing has been matter of learned controversy.
From the earliest ages, impressions had been taken from seals.
There are in the British Museum blocks of lead, impressed with the
name or stamp of the Roman authorities. The Chinese, who seem to
have had a glimpse of every invention of Europe, produced blocks of
wood-engraving, with which they multiplied copies, by impression at
least, so early as the tenth century; and even appear to have applied
it to a species of bank note. Whether the invention was introduced
into Europe by Marco Polo, (who visited China in the thirteenth
century), or by others, it is known, that printed playing cards and
devotional tracts, (though of the simplest structure, generally a
single page), were not infrequent, from the year A.D. 1400. Still,
the operation was so expensive, and, also, so insufficient, that the
Art of Printing cannot be said, to have been yet discovered. For this
discovery, the essential was the use of _moveable types_.
The honour of this most simple, yet most comprehensive, change, has
been warmly disputed by Holland, and Germany. But, though Coster, a
Hollander, adopted it early; general opinion gives it to Gutenburg, a
printer at Strasburg, between 1436 and 1442. Gutenburg was originally
a block-printer; at length the fortunate idea occurred to him,
of getting rid of the solid page, and making his types separate;
those, in the first instance, were cut out of wood. Returning to
Mayence, his native city, a partnership with Faust supplied him with
capital. Faust made a second step in the mechanical portion of the
art, by casting the types in metal. A subsequent partnership with
Schoeffer, Faust’s son-in-law, supplied all that was wanting to
the art, in his invention of the Punch for making the types. The
partners subsequently quarrelled, and Gutenburg, in 1458, formed a
new establishment in Mayence. The storming of the city by Adolphus
of Nassau, in 1462, dispersed the workmen, and thus spread the art
through Europe. It was thenceforth practised in Italy, in France, in
Spain, and in England, (at Westminster, in 1475.)
The _Cologne Chronicle_, printed in 1474, states, that the first
large volume produced by printing, was the Bible, (an edition of the
Vulgate,) a work which cost a preparation of ten years. This edition
is without date, or printer’s name, but is supposed to have been
completed in 1455.
In an age, when the European mind was only emerging from a thousand
years of darkness, everything was tinged with superstition.
The _printing_ of the Bible shared the general charge; and the
comparative cheapness, and still more, the singular fidelity of the
copies to each other, were attributed to sorcery. Faust, who probably
had no objection to a report, by which so much was to be gained,
and which was favoured by the absence of date and name; has since
been made the hero of German mysticism; and is immortalized, as the
philosopher, and master of magic, in the celebrated poem of Goethe.
The Newspaper, the most influential of all human works, is the
_creation_ of Printing. It is to the honour of England, that in
this country, it approaches nearest to excellence, in intellectual
vigour, in variety of knowledge, in extent of information, and in
patriotic principle. It has, like all the works of man, occasional
imperfections, and perhaps among the most prominent, are its too
minute details of offences against public purity. But, there is
scarcely a newspaper in this age, which would not have been regarded
as a triumph of ability, in the last. In fact, the newspaper of
England is the great practical teacher of the people. Its constant
and universal teaching alone accounts for the superior intelligence
of the population. Schools, lecture-rooms, and universities,
important as they all are, altogether fall behind it in public
effect, or find, that to retain their influence, they must follow
its steps. Those steps may now and then turn from the right road, but
their native tendency is, forwards and upwards! This intellectual
giant always advances, and carries the country with him to a height,
which no other country, ancient or modern, ever attained, or perhaps,
ever hoped to attain.
I speak of this form of publication, in no literary favoritism; but,
as a great instrument, offered to nations for the safety, the speed,
and the security of national progress; an intellectual railroad,
given to our era, to meet the increased exigencies of intellectual
intercourse; and equal to any weight, and any rapidity.
The most hopeless feature of foreign governments appears to me, their
hostility to the _press_. Thus, they prohibit the mental air and
exercise, which would rectify the “peccant humours” of their people;
thus, they aggravate popular stagnation into political disease; thus,
casual passion is darkened into conspiracy, and passing disgust is
compressed into rebellion.
England has her ill-humours, but the press ventilates them away; the
vapours are not suffered to lie on the ground, until they condense
into malaria. There may be folly, and even faction, among us, and the
press may be the trumpet of both; but, the width of the area is the
remedy. A _whole_ nation is always right. No sound can stir it, but
the sound which is in accord with its own feelings; the trumpet which
is overwhelming within four walls, is unheard at the horizon!
If, in an age of foreign convulsion, England has undergone no
catastrophe; if, in the fall of monarchies, she has preserved her
hereditary throne; if, in the mingled infidelity and superstition
of the Continent, which, like the mingled frenzy and fetters of a
lunatic hospital, have, in our day, exhibited the lowest humiliation
of human nature; she has preserved her freedom and her religion; I
attribute all, under God, to the vigour, and intelligence of public
investigation; the incessant urgency of appeal to the public mind;
the living organization, of which the heart is the PRESS of England!
PAPER AND PAPER MAKING,
ANCIENT AND MODERN.
CHAPTER I.
Introduction—Language—Origin of the Art of Writing—Various modes
of recording events which preceded it—Materials upon which
Men first Wrote—Stones, Bricks, Metals, Skins and Intestines
of Animals, Tablets, Leaves, Bark, etc., etc.—The Egyptian
Papyrus, from which Paper (so called) was first made—Process
of Manufacture—Usual dimensions and extreme durability of
Papyri—Modern Paper—Its general advantages to mankind—Supposed
period of its Invention—The Introduction of Paper-making
into Europe—Historical incidents connected therewith—James
Whatman—The superiority of his manufacture—Adoption of the
Fourdrinier-Machine—General advantages of Machinery over the
Original Process, etc., etc.
Amongst the numerous and diversified objects of human investigation
and research, it would, perhaps, be difficult to single out one, more
curious and interesting, than that of the medium which bears the
symbols of language; which retains the register of circumstances and
events of past ages, and which hands down to us the transactions of
primeval time, with its intervening periods.
Undoubtedly the noblest acquisition of mankind, perhaps the greatest
advantage which we possess, is that of the faculty of speech.
Without speech, man, in the midst of crowds, would be solitary. The
endearments of friendship, and the communications of wisdom, alike
would become unavailing; man, in fact, without speech, could hardly
be accounted a rational being.
That the use of speech or language was given to Adam immediately upon
his formation, we have no reason to doubt; for from the testimony
of Moses it appears, that he not only gave names to every living
creature, “to every beast of the field, and to every fowl of the
air,” as they were brought to him, but that also as soon as Eve was
made he could say—“This is now bone of my bone, and flesh of my
flesh,” the first sentence which is recorded of his uttering, and
which is sufficient to show, that even then, he possessed a competent
stock of words to declare the ideas or conceptions of his mind.
Thus was man at once rendered as superior to the brute creation, as
in after times by the aid of writing, or the art of drawing those
ideas into vision, he was especially distinguished from the condition
of uncivilized savages. For of all the arts that contribute to the
comfort and happiness of mankind, no one, perhaps, is more intimately
connected with our social habits, or more closely entwined with the
best and purest feelings of our nature, than that of writing. And yet
to conceive or to account for the origin of an art so invaluable in
its tendency to elevate and improve mankind, as that of exhibiting to
sight the various conceptions of the mind, which have no corporeal
forms, by means of hieroglyphics or legible characters, is still as
difficult and perplexing, as in past ages it has ever proved to the
sagacity of mankind. With the poet of old we have yet to enquire—
“Whence did the wondrous mystic art arise,
Of painting speech, and speaking to the eyes?
That we by tracing magic lines are taught
How to embody, and to colour thought.”
Notwithstanding the great and manifold blessings which men have
received from this curious and wonderful invention, it is very
remarkable, as a distinguished writer observes, that writing, which
gives a sort of immortality to all other things, should, by the
disposal of Divine Providence, be without any trace of the memory
of its first founders. Indeed, the invention of letters and their
various combinations in forming words, amounting, it is computed, to
620,448,401,733,239,439,360,000, without repeating any combination
capable of being made from so small a number of letters as that now
comprising our alphabet, has something so extremely ingenious and
surprising in its application, that most men who have treated the
subject, can hardly forbear attributing it to a divine original.
Many have conceived that the theatre of this important legacy to
man was Mount Sinai. But it is observable, that previously to the
arrival of the Israelites at Mount Sinai, Scripture makes mention of
writing as an art already understood by Moses: “And the Lord said
unto Moses, _write_ this for a memorial.” (Exodus, 17th ch. 14th v.)
Now, Moses seems to have expressed no difficulty of comprehension
when he received this command, nor does anything appear to induce
the slightest doubt; on the contrary, I think we may safely conclude
that Moses was even then well acquainted with the art of writing, or
otherwise he would have been instructed by God, as in the case of
Noah, when he was required to build the Ark. And further, we find
that Moses wrote all the words, and all the judgments of the Lord,
contained in the twenty-first and two following chapters of the
Book of Exodus, before the two written tables of stone were even so
much as promised. The delivery of the tables is not mentioned till
the 18th verse of the 31st chapter, after God had made an end of
communing with him upon the mount. Nevertheless, I am not prepared to
dispute the probability of a divine origin to so wonderful a medium,
any more than I am disposed to question the possibility of its
resulting merely from what Aristotle terms the Faculty of Imitation;
for which, says he, men are so remarkable, even in an uncivilized
state. I pass by all questions of the kind, satisfied for the present
with the simple fact, that such medium does exist; that through it
we become, as it were, introduced to the multitudinous throng of a
world’s tenantry, while we thus learn their words, works, and ways,
their History, Literature, and Arts, their Science, and Theology; and
while even the mummy, recovered from the subterranean recesses of the
Egyptian pyramids, may still be said to talk with us, by virtue of
the roll of papyrus and its pictured inscription which he holds in
his hand;
Writing’s art, which like a sovereign queen,
Amongst her subject sciences is seen;
As she in dignity the rest transcends,
So far her power of good, and harm extends.
In the earliest ages of mankind, very simple means were necessarily
adopted, to preserve the remembrance of any important event. During
many centuries, tradition, perhaps solely, served to represent that,
which in recent times has been more completely effected by the
introduction of printing.
At other periods we find trees were planted, heaps of stones,
altars or pillars, as we read in sacred history, were erected; and
even games and festivals ordered, to keep up the recollection of
important facts. Since, however, the art of writing was invented
(be the period when it may), various materials have from time to
time been made use of, for the purpose of transmitting to posterity
the discoveries and deeds of their ancestors. Thus, for instance,
the most ancient remains of writing which have been handed down to
us, are upon hard substances, such as bricks, stones, and metals,
which were used by the ancients for all matters of public notoriety;
abundant proofs of which we have in the recent discoveries of
Mr. Layard. And Josephus, in the third chapter of the first book
of Jewish Antiquities, tells us: that, “the descendants of Seth,
leading a happy and quiet life, found out by study and observation
the motions and distribution, or order, of the heavenly bodies; and,
that their discoveries might not be lost to men (knowing that the
destruction of the world had been foretold by Adam, which should be
once by fire, and once by water,) they made two pillars—one of brick,
and the other of stone, and wrote or engraved their discoveries
thereon; so that if the rains should destroy that of brick, the other
of stone might continue to show mankind their observations.”
In the sacred text we are further informed, that great stones were
directed to be set up by the children of Israel, after the passage
of the Jordan, and being “plastered with plaster,”—which appears
to have been a very common practice—“thereon were to be written all
the words of the law very plainly.” In the book of Job, which some
suppose to have been written by Moses, we have an obscure intimation
of the method employed in registering upon the rock, “graven with
an iron pen and lead in the rock for ever.” But, although there is
apparently a want of clearness in our translation of the passage, by
no means does it affect the idea of Job’s desire to give the greatest
possible permanence to the words he then uttered. He exclaims, “Oh
that my words were now written,” or, (though probably not an exact
translation,) “Oh that they were printed in a book;” and more (he
adds) “that they were even graven with an iron pen and lead in the
rock for ever;” which latter clause some take to be in reference to
the leaden tablets which are found to have been in very early use.
But I rather favour the interpretation, for which I am indebted, to
my much esteemed friend the Rev. Dr. Croly; that as a still more
indelible and effectual mode of perpetuating his thoughts, it was
Job’s conception that his words should be graven in the rock with an
iron pen, or tool, and the interstices afterwards filled with lead,
in order that the contrast occasioned thereby might render them the
more readily intelligible to those who happened to travel that way.
Herodotus also mentions a letter engraven on plates of stone, which
Themistocles, the Athenian general, sent to the Ionians, about five
hundred years before the birth of Christ. Lead, however, and similar
metals being less difficult to write upon, and more simple and
convenient, afterwards superseded to a great extent the use of such
unwieldy substances as bricks and stone. And subsequently we find
others of a still more pliable texture employed, such as the skins of
animals, bark, wood, and the leaves of trees. Solomon, for instance,
in the Book of Proverbs, in allusion to the practice of writing upon
thin slices of wood, advises his son to write his precepts upon
the _tables_ of his heart. And the prophet Habakkuk was commanded
to write a vision and make it plain upon _tables_, that he may run
that readeth it. Solomon, as you are aware, lived a thousand years,
and Habakkuk about six hundred and twenty six, before the Christian
era. At a later period, Zacharias, the father of John the Baptist,
when enquired of as to what he would have his child called, asked,
we are told, for “a _writing table_, and wrote, saying, his name is
John.” Amongst the Romans, it was customary for the public affairs
of every year to be committed to writing by the high priest, and
published on a table; such tables being exposed to view, either in
their market-places or temples, in order that the people might have
an opportunity of becoming acquainted with their contents.
At an early period in their history, both Greeks and Romans appear
to have commonly used either those plain wooden boards, or boards
covered with wax. It is probable, that at first the tables were
written upon just as they were planed, and that the overlaying
them with wax was an improvement on that invention. A very decided
advantage being thus obtained, in the facility afforded for erasing
any inaccuracies that might have occurred, and consequently of
correcting the manuscript. The practice of writing upon tablets of
one kind or another, appears not to have been entirely laid aside,
until the commencement of the fourteenth century; and, indeed, even
in our day, tablet books of ivory are occasionally used, for writing
upon with black lead pencils.
The use of _boards_ was in some measure superseded by that of the
leaves of palm, olive, poplar, and other trees. And, although in
Europe, all these disappeared upon the introduction of the papyrus
and parchments, in some countries the use of them remains even to
this day. Perhaps a record of this old custom may still be found in
the word _leaf_, which we continue to apply to sheets of paper, when
sewed up into the form of a book. According to the account of Pliny,
the Egyptians were the first to use the palm leaf, and books written
on it are still preserved in the East India Museum, as also in the
Library of the British Museum.
The mode of preparation, after cutting into strips of the length and
width required, is simply to soak them for a short time in boiling
water, after which they are rubbed backwards and forwards over a
smooth piece of wood to make them pliable, and then carefully dried.
The letters or characters being written or rather engraved thereon
with an iron style, which, piercing the outside covering, makes
indelible letters; and by afterwards rubbing the writing over with
some dark coloured substance, such as soot or charcoal, the parts
etched or scratched, have greater relief imparted to them: and the
writing is more easily read.
Notwithstanding many paper mills have been erected in India, the
natives, I understand, frequently prefer this method, not only for
the ordinary purposes of correspondence and accounts, but even in
some quarters for government documents of importance.
I must here express my sense of the kind assistance which has on
several occasions been afforded me by the Rev. Benjamin Bailey, late
of Cottyam, Allepie, Madras, who has not only given to the world a
translation in Malayalim of the entire Bible, but has also compiled
two voluminous dictionaries, for rendering assistance in the study of
that language. This gentleman has recently afforded me an opportunity
of inspecting many great curiosities of the kind: indeed, before me
is now lying a very neat little specimen written in Malayalim by him
(St. Paul’s Second Epistle to Timothy), which shows, in a remarkable
degree, the astonishing distinctness which may be produced by this
singular mode of writing.
The style with which the letters are engraven upon the leaf is
usually worn in the girdle as a prominent ornament of dress. The
case which protects it containing also a small knife, employed in
preparing the slips, and likewise a little instrument which is used
for piercing the leaves, in order that cords may be passed through
them for the purpose of securing the manuscript, as may be seen in
the instance of various documents both in the East India Company’s
Museum, and also in the Library of the British Museum.
A work which I possess, termed the _Kammavakyam_, written in the
Pali language, in Burmese character, upon palm leaf, is thus secured
between very handsome covers. It is a Catechism of Sacred Rites, used
by the Buddhist priesthood in the examination of a candidate for
admission to that order. A translation of it here, however, would be
no more consistent in point of matter contained, than it would be in
reference to the subject I am treating. Its character and language
throughout are truly humiliating to human nature.
In the British Museum there are many very singular documents of the
kind, one in particular, which is written upon 390 leaves, bound, as
it were, in a frame of gilt copper in the form of a tortoise, screws
being passed through the strips instead of cords, the fastenings,
with some addition, representing the limbs of the animal. And in
the East India Museum may be seen a smaller one, protected by stout
wooden covers, which has been carved to represent some animal,
apparently a pig. The custom of writing upon leaves of trees, appears
to have given rise to the adoption also of the interior bark; the
outer being seldom made use of, in consequence of its extreme
coarseness. When employed, it is customarily folded over, to admit of
its being written upon both sides. The only documents of this kind,
which have come under my notice, have been Batta manuscripts, from
the island of Sumatra.
Before the art of making paper was known to the Chinese, they appear
to have cut pieces of silk to such sizes as they wished to make their
books, and thereupon painted the letters with pencils; the silk being
first steeped in a kind of size, to prevent the colour from running.
But such material being liable to decay, various animal substances
were afterwards employed, as being of a more durable nature. Of
course the skins were principally used, after being tanned; but
their bones, and even entrails, were also made use of for the like
purpose. Thus, in the “History of Mahomet,” we read that the Arabians
used the shoulder bones of sheep, on which they carved remarkable
events with a knife, when, after tying them with a string, they hung
those chronicles up in their cabinets. And in the library of Ptolemy
Philadelphus, which is said to have contained 700,000 volumes, were
the works of Homer, written in golden letters, on the skins of
serpents. I might mention, that the term volume here, should not be
understood in the sense which it is now customary to receive it, but
in its derivation from the Latin; signifying simply a roll, which was
the most ancient form of book.
Parchment, or the skins of beasts, dressed and prepared in a manner
rendering them fit for writing upon, appears to have been employed
at a very early period. Diodorus Siculus informs us, that the
Persians of old wrote all their records on skins; and Herodotus also
alludes to sheep skins, and goat skins, as in general use among
the Ionians about 440 years before the Christian Era. The word
Parchment is a corruption of the Latin _Pergamena_, from _Pergamus_,
which some allege to have been the place of its invention. But
it is very probable that in the time of Eumenes, who was king
of Pergamus, (about 200 years before Christ,) the circumstance
of increased consumption merely occasioned the discovery of a
better method of dressing the skins; from which fact alone, and
perhaps with sufficient reason, the origin of the present term was
derived. Eumenes, about that period, appears to have endeavoured to
form a library at Pergamus, which should surpass that of Ptolemy
Philadelphus at Alexandria, and in so doing enraged Ptolemy to that
degree, that he immediately prohibited any further exportation from
Egypt, of the papyrus which by that time was coming into very general
use, and thus effectually put a stop to Eumenes’ emulation in that
particular. It may be, however, that this prohibition was not solely
occasioned by jealousy, but by Ptolemy’s fearing that his dominions,
which were so much improved in arts, sciences, and civilization,
since the discovery and adoption of the papyrus, (of which we shall
presently speak), would be again reduced to a state of ignorance for
want of it; the plant sometimes failing in unfavourable weather,
while the supply invariably proved unequal to the demand. The
people of Pergamus, therefore, were obliged to devise other means,
and the improved manufacture of parchment would seem to have been
the result. But, that Eumenes on this occasion invented the art of
making parchment is exceedingly dubious; for in the books of Isaiah,
Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and other parts of Scripture, we find mention made
of rolls of writing: in all probability rolls of parchment.
The manner of reading such rolls may be gathered from a passage
extracted from Hartley’s “Travels in Greece,” which serves also to
elucidate the peculiar scriptural expression of their being “written
within and without.” You began, (says he) to read by unfolding, and
you continued to read and to unfold, till, at last, you arrived
at the stick to which the roll was attached; then you turned the
parchment round, and continued to read on the other side of the roll,
folding it gradually up until you completed the writing, thus were
they “written within and without.”
Papyrus, from which the term paper was derived, is the name of a
celebrated plant, once extensively used by the Egyptians for making
various articles of utility, such as baskets, shoes, cordage, and
the like. Some writers state that of this plant the little ark was
made, in which the parents of Moses exposed him upon the banks
of the Nile, and of this it was that the most ancient paper was
manufactured. Not as would now be customary, by first reducing it to
a pulp, nor, indeed, in any way as resembling modern paper, except
that in both, vegetable fibre is the basis. That a plant once so
useful, and for ages in Egypt so commercially valuable, should have
totally disappeared, being altogether unknown to modern botanists,
appears scarcely credible; yet so it is. For the ancient descriptions
of the papyrus, as a flag or bulrush, with a triangular stem that
could barely be spanned, and which grew to the height of ten feet,
or even considerably more, in the immense marshes occupying a large
part of the surface of lower Egypt; a leafless wood, as it were, or
as one writer describes it, a forest without branches, the bare stem
being surmounted only by a head of long, thin, straight fibres, is
certainly quite irreconcilable with the nature of the plant which
now bears that name, and of which one of the stoutest growth has been
very kindly furnished me by Sir W. J. Hooker, from the Royal Gardens
at Kew.
In the prophecy of Isaiah a very remarkable prediction occurs with
reference to this plant. “The paper reeds by the brooks, by the mouth
of the brooks, and everything sown by the brooks, shall wither, be
driven away, and be no more.” Doubtless, we may believe that this
prophecy has literally received its fulfilment.
With reference to the mode in which the paper was manufactured from
this plant, two distinct opinions have been handed down to us. One,
that the epidermis being removed, the spongy part was cut into thin
slices, which were steeped in the waters of the Nile, or in water
slightly imbued with gum; after which two layers were placed one
above another, carefully arranged in contrary directions, that is,
lengthwise and breadthwise, which, after being dried, were finally
smoothed and brought to a fit surface for receiving writing, by being
rubbed with a tooth or piece of polished ivory.
Another method said to have been adopted in preparing this material,
was simply that of separating the thin concentric coats, or pellicles
of the plant which surrounded the stock, by means of a needle or
pointed shell (on an average about twenty from each stalk), and
afterwards extending them longitudinally side by side on a table,
a similar layer being placed across them at right angles; in which
state they were moistened with water, and while wet put under
pressure, being afterwards exposed to the rays of the sun, and
finally polished as in the former case, with some hard substance,
such as a tooth or shell, not merely for the purpose of improving
the surface, but to prevent its absorbing the ink. The saccharine
matter with which the whole juice of the plant is said to have been
impregnated, being usually sufficient to cause the adhesion of the
strips together.
So great was the importance of this manufacture at some periods, that
Gibbon informs us of one Firmus, who raised the standard of revolt in
Egypt against the Emperor Aurelian; that he boasted he would maintain
an army solely from the profits of his paper trade. At another time,
in the reign of Tiberius, there happened such a scarcity of paper,
from causes that are not mentioned, that the Senate, in order to
prevent a riot, were obliged to appoint commissioners to distribute
paper to the applicants according to their respective demands.
Papyri vary much more in length than in breadth, and upon this fact
I would dwell, as decidedly favouring the conception that the outer
coat merely was employed in preparing the writing material. Indeed,
in every specimen which I have examined, I have found the slips of
which it is composed rarely exceeding twelve or fifteen inches even
lengthwise. Whereas, if they had been produced from the pithy part
of the stem, after being cut into slices, there would have been no
difficulty whatever in manufacturing the paper of the entire length,
which, as I have already stated, sometimes exceeded ten feet.
The breadth of papyri seldom exceeds eighteen inches, sometimes they
are not more than four inches in width, which I imagine to have been
determined by the length of the outer coats or pellicles taken from
the plant; the length, of course, being carried to any extent, simply
by fastening one sheet to another. The largest specimen of which I
have heard is one at Paris, measuring thirty feet in length. The most
interesting which we possess in this country is one which may be seen
in the Manuscript Department of the British Museum, which appears to
have been written in Latin in the year 572, upon a roll of papyrus,
eight feet and a half long, and twelve inches wide. It is a deed
relating to the sale of a house and land at Ravenna.
Though papyri found on mummies are often in a good state of
preservation, it is necessary to be very careful in handling them.
The roll, owing to its being pressed under the swathings of the
mummy, being completely flattened, and from the unvarying high
temperature of the tomb to which it has for so long a time been
subjected, is frequently so dry and brittle, that if any attempt be
made to unroll it without previous precaution, small pieces will
continually fall off. Still, the durability of this writing material
is one of its best qualities. It can, in some instances, be rolled
and unrolled after the lapse of many centuries without any detriment
to it; but the complete preservation of such specimens is generally
to be attributed to their being kept from the air either in wooden
or earthen vessels, frequently in the interior of the Idol to which
the mummy was once wont to present his offering, which is usually
of some grotesque, or even hideous form, altogether unworthy of
mention as representing any created thing, either upon the face of
the earth, or in the waters beneath. Not long since I was shown one,
containing a roll of papyrus, which had been roughly carved out of
wood, somewhat resembling an overgrown _cat_ in a sitting posture.
And this so called god, as appears to have been customarily the case,
was taken from the tomb, where it stood over the mummy, with two
very beautiful vases, which at one time contained fragrant oils,
believed to be acceptable to the Idol, placed in front. The papyri
thus curiously preserved, usually contain an account of the rank or
station which the dead once filled, and occasionally some description
of the particular rites and ceremonies observed with reference to the
worship.
With respect to the period at which the ancients began to make a
writing substance of the papyrus, or, indeed, of the name of the
originator, nothing decisive is known. It would, however, appear
from the prophecy in Isaiah, which has been already referred to, in
which mention is made of paper reeds by the brooks, that paper made
of such reeds was actually in use when that prophecy was written.
And in accordance with this conception, the learned Dr. Gill, in his
commentary says, “On the banks of the Nile grew a reed, or rush,
called by the Greeks papyrus, or byblus, from whence come the words
paper and bible, or book, of which paper was anciently made, even as
early as the time of Isaiah,” now nearly 3000 years ago.
The kind of pen ordinarily used for writing upon this material was
simply _a reed_, cut and split just as our quill pens at present
are, but with a point not quite so sharp.
I have in my possession some very fine specimens of what is usually
called Bark Cloth, which, in its manufacture, approximates more
nearly to that of modern paper than any other substance with which I
am acquainted. It is formed from the bark of a small tree, or shrub,
called the Paper Mulberry (_morus papyrifera_), which grows wild in
the southern provinces of China, in Ava, in the Burmese country, and
in India, as well as in all the Asiatic and Polynesian islands from
Japan to Otaheite. If a strip of this bark, which is remarkable for
the fineness of its texture, after being soaked in water, be laid
on a smooth stone, and then carefully beaten with a bat or mallet,
the surface of which is cut into fine ribs, the fibres will become
separated more or less from one another, and if the beating be
carefully conducted, the bark will ultimately assume the appearance
of a web of fine linen, two pieces of bark being made to incorporate
with one another simply by laying them so as to overlap a little,
and then beating again. In this simple way the material is formed;
and by a short exposure to the sunshine when wet, becomes perfectly
white. To render it fit for writing, it is afterwards polished in a
manner similar to the papyrus, by rubbing it with a shell or other
hard substance until it has very much the appearance of parchment;
and that it bears ink perfectly well, may be seen by an inspection of
some Javanese Works, which are contained in the library of the Hon.
East India Company.
The bat or mallet employed by the natives in preparing this material
is usually about 15 inches in length, and from two and a half to
three inches square, one side being grooved very coarsely, another
somewhat finer, a third exceedingly fine, and the fourth generally
cut in chequers or small squares. The bark is first beaten with the
coarsest side of the instrument, and then, in turn, with those parts
which are finer, the resinous matter contained in it being usually
found sufficiently adhesive.
Without, however, dwelling longer upon this portion of our subject,
which time will not permit, let us now proceed to trace out, in
some measure, the history and progress of that more perfect and
ingenious invention, MODERN PAPER; and in so doing, I can hardly
forbear making some allusion to the incalculable advantages which
have resulted to mankind from the introduction of so ingenious
and extraordinary a discovery. It certainly would appear very
remarkable, that not only amongst mankind generally, but even with
those intimately associated with that branch of commerce, so little
interest should be found to exist in an acquaintance with its origin
and advancement, beyond the bare knowledge which directly concerns
them. It is true that with them, no less than with people in general,
the very indispensableness of the material renders familiarity
at once an unconscious stumbling-block, to any conception of the
grandeur of its importance, or its vastly interesting, and varied
associations. Yet what infinite trouble and labour, what fruitless
consumption of time, has not been saved by the invention of paper.
How many toilsome and dangerous experiments have not philosophical
projectors been spared. What laborious investigations and study have
not thus been abridged, by the facts of others’ researches being
so conveyed to posterity—knowledge, more than any one man could
have attained to in a thousand years, though born with faculties in
maturity. To enumerate all the advantages which the invention of
paper has afforded mankind, it were, indeed, useless to attempt; for,
whether we look at the traveller, traversing sea and land, without
the knowledge of geography, and navigation; without those beautiful
charts of the ocean, by which he is now enabled to proceed with
safety, and even to predict with certainty, his arrival at the most
distant ports: or, whether we look at the man of science, who being
neither artist, nor manufacturer, is thus enabled to communicate his
plans and projects with accuracy and ease, for mechanics afterwards
to improve and perfect: or, indeed, whether we view the growing
youth, educated with such facility in the principles of their duty,
backward even to barbarous states, softened and enlightened by means
of the discovery; its value, in the applicability of its purposes,
stands out alike in each, declaring it distinctly above all other
inventions, as truly the most wonderful, useful, and important,
which has ever yet transpired in any age of the world; inasmuch, as
without it, every other discovery must necessarily have continued
comparatively useless to society. For, be it remembered, that in
contrasting the results of this invention, with the productions of
former periods, we are, in fact, arraying in our train, the mighty
arm of the press against the feeble efforts of an unwieldy style,
or the tedious and uncertain process of the slow-paced pen, which
prior to an acquaintance with the art of printing, were the only
means mankind possessed for spreading the influence and advantages
of learning amongst their fellow-creatures. And, again, how highly
interesting is it, to observe the prodigious advancement resulting
from an ingenious and successful application of machinery in the one
case, serving at the same time to develop to our wonder and amazement
the extraordinary capabilities of production which have since been
revealed by the Printing Machine. Truly may we now pronounce—
The Press! the venerated Press!
Freedom’s impenetrable shield—
The sword that wins her best success,
The only sword that man should wield.
It is stated that the daily aggregate printed surface of the _Times_
alone, actually exceeds that of thirty acres, and the _Illustrated
London News_, on one occasion, sent forth no less than 500,000 double
numbers, or one million sheets. In fact, 2000 reams, exceeding
seventy tons in weight.
The manufacture of four or five hundred square feet of paper per
minute, and 12,000 impressions per hour, are now matters of every day
occurrence, although it should be borne in mind, that without the
_paper machine_, pouring forth its miles of web, these corresponding
advantages in printing could not have been developed.
We may take as an instance, that book of books, which Pollok very
beautifully describes as—
“The only star
By which the bark of man could navigate
The sea of life, and gain the coast of bliss
Securely!”
Although now a handsome copy, printed on tolerably fine paper, gilt
edged, and bound in embossed roan, may be purchased for one shilling,
in the reign of Henry the Third, it is recorded that two arches of
London Bridge were built for a less sum than that for which a Bible
could be procured. And, as we continue the search still further
back, the contrast becomes increasingly interesting. For let it be
remembered, that the sixty-six books of which the Bible is composed,
were not always contained in so convenient a form. During the sixteen
centuries which were occupied in making known this revelation to man,
not only were the advantages which we possess altogether unknown,
even in their rudest form, but substitutes, apparently far less
promising than many we have referred to, were also at one period
and another directed to be employed. As for instance, to Ezekiel,
Jehovah once said, “Thou also son of man, take thee a _tile_, and
lay it before thee, and pourtray upon it the city, even Jerusalem.”
And elsewhere, “Moreover, thou son of man, take thee one _stick_,
and write upon it, for Judah, and for the children of Israel, his
companions.”
Of course there have been occasions when certain portions of the
Scriptures were very beautifully inscribed (more particularly of
the New Testament) sometimes in letters of gold, on parchment of
the richest purple. Still they were _manuscript_, and as such, not
unfrequently occupied the labour of individuals for years. Instances
are upon record, of fifty years in the life of one man being engaged
in the execution of a single copy of the Scriptures. In the present
day it is, perhaps, impossible for us properly to appreciate the
skill, the labour, and the immense expenditure employed in such
productions.
For now, by the aid of the printing machine, we have an entire copy
struck off in the space of one minute; and such were the almost
miraculous efforts of the British and Foreign Bible Society last
year, that they actually issued, in nearly 150 known languages, an
average circulation of a copy for every minute throughout the year.
It is much to be regretted that in tracing the origin of so curious
an art as that of the manufacture of modern paper, any definite
conclusion as to the precise time or period of its adoption should
hitherto have proved altogether unattainable. The Royal Society
of Sciences at Gottingen, in 1755 and 1763, offered considerable
premiums for that especial object, but unfortunately all researches,
however directed, were utterly fruitless. The most ancient manuscript
on _cotton paper_ appears to have been written in 1050, while
Eustathius, who wrote towards the end of the 12th century, states
that the Egyptian papyrus had gone into disuse but a little before
his time. To reconcile, however, in some measure contradictory
accounts, it may be observed, that on some particular occasions,
and by some particular persons, the Egyptian paper might have been
employed for several hundred years after it ceased to be in general
use, and it is quite certain, that although the new invention must
have proved of great advantage to mankind, it could only have been
introduced by degrees. Amongst the records which are preserved at the
Tower of London I have seen a letter addressed to Henry the Third,
and written previously to 1222, which appears to be upon strong
paper, of mixed materials. Several letters of the following reign,
which are there preserved, are evidently written on _cotton_ paper.
Were we able to determine the precise time when paper was first made
from cotton, we should also be enabled to fix the invention of the
art of paper making as it is now practised. For the application
of cotton to the purposes of paper making, requires almost as much
labour and ingenuity as the use of linen rags. Some have conceived,
and I think with sufficient reason, that China originally gave birth
to the invention. Certain it is, that the art of making paper from
vegetable matter reduced to pulp was known and understood there long
before it was practised in Europe, which did not take place until
the 11th century, and the Chinese have carried it to a high degree
of perfection. Several kinds of their paper evince the greatest art
and ingenuity, and are applied with much advantage to many purposes.
One especially, manufactured from the inner bark of the bamboo, is
particularly celebrated for affording the clearest and most delicate
impressions from copper plates, which we ordinarily term _india
proofs_. The Chinese, however, make paper of various kinds, some of
the bark of trees, especially the mulberry tree, and the elm, but
chiefly of the bamboo and cotton tree, and occasionally from other
substances, such as hemp, wheat, or rice straw. To give an idea of
the manner of fabricating paper from these different substances, it
will suffice, (the process being nearly the same in each,) to confine
our observations to the method adopted in the manufacture of paper
from the bamboo,—a kind of cane or hollow reed, divided by knots,
but larger, more elastic, and more durable than any other reed. The
whole substance of the bamboo is at times employed by the Chinese
in this operation, but the younger stalks are preferred. The canes
being first cut into pieces of four or five feet in length, are made
into parcels, and thrown into a reservoir of mud and water for about
a fortnight, to soften them; they are then taken out, and carefully
washed, every one of the pieces being again cut into filaments, which
are exposed to the rays of the sun to dry, and to bleach. After
this they are boiled in large kettles, and then reduced to pulp in
mortars, by means of a hammer with a long handle; or as is more
commonly the case, by submitting the mass to the action of stampers,
raised in the usual way by cogs on a revolving axis. The pulp being
thus far prepared, a glutinous substance, extracted from the shoots
of a certain plant, is next mixed with it in stated quantities, and
upon this mixture chiefly depends the quality of the paper. As soon
as this has taken place the whole is again beaten together until it
becomes a thick viscous liquor, which, after being reduced to an
essential state of consistency, by a further admixture of water, is
then transferred to a large reservoir or vat, having on each side
of it a drying stove, in the form of the ridge of a house, that is,
consisting of two sloping sides touching at top. These sides are
covered externally with an exceedingly smooth coating of stucco,
and a flue passes through the brickwork, so as to keep the whole of
each side equally and moderately warm. A vat and a stove are placed
alternately in the manufactory, so that there are two sides of two
different stoves adjacent to each vat. The workman dips his mould,
which is sometimes formed merely of bulrushes, cut in narrow strips,
and mounted in a frame, into the vat, and then raises it out again,
the water passing off through the perforations in the bottom, and the
pulpy paper-stuff remaining on its surface. The frame of the mould is
then removed, and the bottom is pressed against the side of one of
the stoves, so as to make the sheet of paper adhere to its surface,
and allow the sieve, (as it were) to be withdrawn. The moisture, of
course, speedily evaporates by the warmth of the stove, but before
the paper is quite dry, it is brushed over on its outer surface with
a size made of rice, which also soon dries, and the paper is then
stripped off in a finished state, having one surface exquisitely
smooth, it being seldom the practice of the Chinese to write or
print on both sides of the paper. While all this is taking place,
the moulder has made a second sheet, and pressed it against the side
of the other stove, where it undergoes the operation of sizing and
drying, precisely as in the former case.
The very delicate material, which is brought from China in pieces
only a few inches square, and commonly, but erroneously, termed
_rice paper_, is in reality but a membrane of the breadfruit tree,
obtained by cutting the stem spirally round the axis, and afterwards
flattening it by pressure. That it is not an artificial production
may very readily be perceived by contrasting one of the more
translucent specimens with a piece of the finest manufactured paper,
by the aid of the microscope.
The precise period at which the manufacture of paper was first
introduced into Europe appears to be rather a matter of uncertainty.
Paper mills, moved by water power, were in operation in Tuscany
at the commencement of the fourteenth century; and at Nuremberg,
in Germany, one was established in 1390, by Ulman Stromer, who
wrote the first work ever published on the art of paper making. He
seems to have employed a great number of persons, all of whom were
obliged to take an oath that they would not teach any one the art
of paper making, or make it on their own account. In the following
year, when anxious to increase the means of its production, he met
with such strong opposition from those he employed, who would not
consent to any enlargement of the mill, that it became at length
requisite to bring them before the magistrates, by whom they were
imprisoned, after which they submitted, by renewing their oaths.
Two or three centuries later, we find the Dutch in like manner, so
extremely jealous with respect to the manufacture, as to prohibit the
exportation of moulds, under no less severe a penalty than that of
death.
Fuller makes some exceedingly curious observations respecting the
paper of his time, which may, perhaps, be introduced here with
advantage. He says—“Paper participates in some sort of the character
of the country which makes it; the Venetian being neat, subtile, and
court like; the French light, slight, and slender; and the Dutch
thick, corpulent, and gross, sucking up the ink with the sponginess
thereof.” He complains that the paper manufactories were not then
sufficiently encouraged, considering the vast sums of money expended
in our land for paper out of Italy, France, and Germany, which might
be lessened, were it made in our nation. “To such who object,”
says he, “that we can never equal the perfection of Venice paper,
I return, neither can we match the purity of Venice glasses, and
yet many green ones are blown in Sussex, profitable to the makers,
and convenient to the users, our home-spun paper might be found
beneficial.”
With reference to any particular _time_ or _place_ at which this
inestimable invention was first adopted in England, all researches
into existing records contribute little to our assistance. The first
paper mill erected here is commonly attributed to Sir John Spielman,
a German, who established one in 1588, at Dartford, for which the
honour of knighthood was afterwards conferred upon him by Queen
Elizabeth, who was also pleased to grant him a license “for the sole
gathering for ten years of all rags, &c., necessary for the making of
such paper.” It is, however, quite certain that paper mills were in
existence here long before Spielman’s time. Shakspeare, in the second
part of his play of Henry the Sixth, the plot of which appears laid
at least a century previously, refers to a paper mill. In fact, he
introduces it as an additional weight to the charge which Jack Cade
is made to bring against Lord Saye, “Thou hast most traitorously
corrupted,” says he, “the youth of the realm, in erecting a grammar
school, and whereas, before, our forefathers had no other books but
the score and the tally, thou hast caused printing to be used, and
contrary to the king, his crown and dignity, thou hast built a paper
mill.”
Understanding that some five-and-thirty or forty years since it was
asserted by the then occupier of North Newton mill, near Banbury,
in Oxfordshire, which at that time was the property of Lord Saye
and Sele, that such was the first erected in this country for the
manufacture of paper, and also that it was to that mill Shakspeare
referred in the passage just quoted, I recently communicated with
Lord Saye and Sele as to the plausibility of the supposition;
remarking at the same time as I would now, that although it was of
course quite impossible to award the immortal bard great credit for
chronological accuracy, it must, I thought, be admitted, that so
marvellous an invention, unless really in existence, could not by any
possibility of conception have been conjured up even to supply the
unlimited necessities of the poet’s strain. His Lordship, however, at
once terminated the probability of this mill taking the precedence,
even of Sir John Spielman’s, by informing me that the first nobleman
succeeding to that title who had property in Oxfordshire, which he
acquired by marriage, was the _son_ of the first Lord Saye, to whom
Shakspeare makes reference.
The earliest trace of the manufacture in this country occurs in a
book printed by Caxton, about the year 1490, in which it is said of
John Tate—
“Which late hathe in England doo make thys paper thynne,
That now in our Englyssh thys booke is prynted inne.”
His mill was situate at or near Stevenage, in Hertfordshire, and
that it was considered worthy of especial notice is evident from an
entry made in Henry the Seventh’s Household Book, on the 25th of May,
1498—“For a rewarde geven at the paper-mylne, 16s. 8d.” And again in
1499—“Geven in rewarde to Tate of the mylne, 6s. 8d.”
Still, it appears to me far less probable that Shakspeare alluded to
this mill, although established at a period corresponding in many
respects with that of occurrences referred to in connection, than
to that of Sir John Spielman’s, which, standing as it did in the
immediate neighbourhood of Jack Cade’s rebellion, and being esteemed
so important at the time, as to call forth the marked patronage
of Queen Elizabeth; while the extent of the operations carried on
there, if we may judge from the remarks of a poet of the time, were
equally calculated to arouse undivided national interest; one can
hardly help thinking, that the prominence to which Shakspeare assigns
the existence of a paper mill, coupled as such allusion is with an
acknowledged liberty, inherent in him, of transposing events, to add
force to his style, as also with very considerable doubt as to the
exact year in which he wrote the play, that the reference made was to
none other than that of Sir John Spielman’s establishment of 1588,
concerning which we find it said—
“Six hundred men are set to work by him,
That else might starve or seek abroad their bread,
Who now live well, and go full brave and trim,
And who may boast they are with paper fed.”
Be the introduction or establishment of the invention, so far as
this country is concerned, when it may; little progress appears to
have resulted therefrom, even so late as the middle of the 17th
century. In 1695, a company was formed in Scotland “for manufacturing
white writing and printing paper,” relating to which, “Articles
concluded and agreed upon at a general meeting at Edinburgh, the
19th day of August,” in the same year, may still be seen by those
who are sufficiently curious, in the Library of the British Museum.
It is also recorded in the Craftsman (910), that William the Third
granted the Huguenots refuged in England a patent for establishing
paper manufactories, and that Parliament likewise granted to them
other privileges, amongst which, in all probability, that very
unsatisfactory practice of putting up each ream with two quires
composed entirely of sheets spoiled in course of production. Their
undertaking, however, like that of many others, appears to have met
with very little success.
In fact, the making of paper here scarcely reached any high degree of
perfection until about 1760-5, at which period the celebrated James
Whatman established his reputation at Maidstone.
The report of the Juries of the Great Exhibition of 1851—a work
from whence information might very naturally be sought, and
which one would have supposed to be unexceptionable in point
of authenticity,—contains, I regret to say, a very unfortunate
misstatement with reference to the position of Mr. Whatman at
that time. It is there stated that he gained his knowledge of the
manufacture prior to establishing these well-known mills “by working
as a journeyman in most of the principal paper manufactories of the
Continent,” which is altogether an erroneous assertion; for Mr.
Whatman previously to his being engaged as a manufacturer, was an
officer in the Kent Militia, and acquired the information, which
eventually rendered him so successful, by travelling in the suite of
the British Ambassador to Holland, where the best papers were then
made, and the insight thus obtained enabled his genius to effect the
great improvements afterwards so universally admitted.
At the present time, Whatman’s papers (so called) are manufactured at
two mills, totally distinct, both of which are still worked by the
descendants of Mr. Whatman’s successors; the paper in the one case
being readily distinguished by the water-mark, “J. Whatman, Turkey
Mill,” and in the other, by the water-mark simply “J. Whatman,”
but bearing upon the upper wrapper of each ream the original and
well-known stamp, containing the initials L. V. G., which are those
of L. V. Gerrevink, as celebrated a Dutch manufacturer prior to Mr.
Whatman’s improvements, as Mr. Whatman’s name has since become in all
parts of the world.
In making so marked an allusion to this particular manufacture, I am
bound, perhaps, to qualify it in some measure by directing attention
to the comparatively recent application of continuous or rotatory
motion which has, indeed, effected no more wonderful or extraordinary
results than in the singular conversion of pulp into paper.
The largest paper now made by hand, which is termed Antiquarian,
measures 53 inches by 31, and so great is the weight of liquid pulp
employed in the formation of a single sheet, that no fewer than nine
men are required, besides additional assistance in raising the mould
out of the vat by means of pulleys; while by the aid of the _paper
machine_, the most perfect production may be ensured, of a continuous
length, and eight feet wide, without any positive necessity for
personal superintendence.
The principle of paper making by machinery is simply this, instead of
employing moulds and felts of limited dimensions, as was originally
the practice, the peculiar merit of the invention consists in the
adaptation of an endless wire-gauze to receive the paper pulp, and
again an endless felt, to which in progress the paper is transferred;
and thus by a marvellously delicate adjustment, while the wire at
one end receives but a constant flow of liquid pulp, in the course
of two or three minutes we may have, carefully wound on a roller at
the other extremity, the most beautiful and serviceable of fabrics.
Instead of counting sheets in course of production as formerly,
or even measuring the length by yards, we may actually have the
paper drawn out as it were, and wound up, miles in length. In the
recent Dublin Exhibition, a sheet was exhibited which was said to
have been of sufficient length to wrap round the world; but, I must
confess, that I am not in a position to vouch for the accuracy of the
statement. An anecdote, however, is told, (the truth of which I have
no reason to doubt,) of the patentee of this machine, and a relative
or friend of his, of some considerable standing and influence in
the pottery district, who were dining together about the period
at which this machine was first adopted; when the one speaking of
the advantages which he conceived the new mode would prove to his
friend, alluded above all others to the remarkable capability which
it possessed of producing paper of any length that could possibly
be required. “Well,” said his friend, “I very much doubt that, but
if you can make me _five miles_ of the quality I require, I shall
certainly have little hesitation in admitting all the perfection
and suitability which you have laboured to impress upon me.” The
very next day the machine was set to work, and timed, in order to
ascertain the required length wound upon the reel, which, after
being charged with Excise duty, was forwarded without delay to its
destination; and, as may be conceived, to the utter astonishment of
his incredulous friend.
It is a fact, which certainly deserves to be noticed for its
singularity as well as for the strong point of view in which it
places the merits of this invention, that an art of such great
importance to society as that of the manufacture of paper, should
have remained for at least eight centuries since paper is first
believed to have been in use, and that upwards of 200 of those years
should have elapsed since its first introduction into England,
without any mechanical improvement whatever as regards the processes
which were then employed. It is true, that various attempts from time
to time were made, but in every instance they appear to have met
with very little success. In France, an ingenious artist contrived
three figures in wood to do the work of the vatman, the coucher,
and the layer; but, after persevering for six months, and incurring
considerable expense, he was at length compelled to abandon his
scheme. And although paper was previously manufactured in China, in
Persia, and indeed throughout all Asia, sometimes of considerable
length, I might mention that it was so, not by machinery, but by
means of a mould of the size of the paper intended to be made,
suspended like a swing, and having men placed at the distance of
about every four feet, for the purpose of producing an uniform
shaking motion, after the mould had been immersed in the vat, in
order to compact the pulp.
Such then was the rude state of this important manufacture, even up
to the commencement of the present century, when another ingenious
Frenchman, named Didot, brought over to this country a small model
of a continuous machine, with the view of getting the benefit of
English capital and mechanical skill to bring it into an operative
state; and fortunately for the vigorous development of this embryo
project, which had proved an abortion in France, he communicated
his ideas of the practicability of the measure to a mercantile firm
of considerable opulence, who, with great public spirit, at once
concluded an agreement with him for the purchase of a principle which
might be said at that period never to have been tried. The firm
alluded to was that of the Messrs. Fourdrinier, who at that time, and
for several years afterwards, were the principal stationers and paper
manufacturers in Great Britain.
In order to accomplish the arduous object which those gentlemen
then had in view, they appear to have laboured without intermission
for nearly six years, when, after incurring an expense which would
have exhausted any fortune of moderate extent (upwards of £60,000),
they at length succeeded in giving some sort of organization and
connection to the mechanical parts, for which they obtained a patent,
and finding eventually that there was little prospect of being
recompensed for labour and risk, or even reimbursed their expenses,
unless Parliament should think proper to grant an extension of their
patent, they determined upon making a fresh application to the
Legislature for that purpose. But, it would appear that although in
the Bill as it passed the House of Commons, such prolonged period
extended to fourteen years; in the Lords it was limited to seven,
with an understanding that such term should be extended to seven
years more in the event of the patentees proving, upon a future
application, that they had not been sufficiently remunerated. No such
application, however, was made, in consequence of a Standing Order
of the House of Lords, placed on their journal subsequently to the
passing of the said act; which regulation had the effect of depriving
the Messrs. Fourdrinier of any benefit whatever from the invention;
and ultimately, so great were the difficulties they had to encounter,
and so little encouragement or support did they receive, that the
time and attention required to mature this valuable invention, and
the large capital which it absorbed, were the means of reducing that
wealthy and liberal firm to the humiliating condition of bankruptcy;
and only within the past few months the surviving partner, Mr.
Henry Fourdrinier, to whom mainly we owe the success of the
invention, and as unquestionably our present high position in the
scale of nations, was carried to his grave, in his ninetieth year,
comparatively a beggar. A leading article in the _Times_, June 17,
1847, speaking of Mr. Henry Fourdrinier, thus concludes by advocating
his claims:—“Three days only are past since an assembly, illustrious
for rank and station, met to celebrate and immortalize the memory of
Caxton. What more fitting or graceful opportunity of paying a tribute
of respect and justice to his fellow-labourer in an adjoining field?
the one the father of printing, the other the inventor of a process
by which the full benefits of printing have been realized to the
civilized world. And in the case of Mr. Fourdrinier this advantage
is found, that he can receive in person the tribute of a nation’s
gratitude; an octogenarian, he still lives; unlike Caxton, he is not
yet a subject for posthumous honours. It is not a monument he wants,
but justice. The world, no doubt, according to ancient precedent,
would rather pay its tribute of admiration, if we should not rather
say its debt of homage, after death. But it is fortunately in the
power of the present age to point to a modern example of tardy but
full reparation made to a living man, a great improvement upon the
old rule, the mockery of a national funeral, and Westminster Abbey.
Lord Dundonald’s case will always stand as a brilliant exception to
the common neglect of contemporary merit, and by his side it would
be well to place, at no great interval, the man who in a humbler
sphere, but better suited to an age of peace, has benefitted humanity
by facilitating the diffusion of letters, and the acquisition of
knowledge.” Powerful and influential as is that journal, however,
this worthy man was still left to combat so bitter a reverse, without
even the means of procuring comfort in his declining years.
But I am happy to say that an appeal has lately been made to that
particular branch of trade so materially benefitted by the invention,
the paper manufacturers, in the hope that thus a sufficient fund may
be raised to furnish his surviving daughters with a competent annuity
for the remainder of their days. And I sincerely hope that the
results of this laudable effort may speedily prove to be as worthy
the spirit of its originators, as on the part of the public generally
it deserves consideration, as being supremely a national duty. For,
be it remembered, that while the value and importance of such an
invention to the paper maker is sufficiently clear and conclusive,
from the fact of its general adoption throughout the united kingdom,
by no less than 700 manufacturers (averaging, probably, twice
that number of machines); so on the other hand, we surely cannot
remain unmindful of its effects and benefits upon ourselves, when
in contrasting the results of the paper-making-machine with the
productions of a former period, we find the cost reduced to the
consumer considerably more than one-half, in some instances to
actually a fourth.
Thus then, it will be seen that as civilization has advanced, the
facilities for recording and transmitting facts have uniformly
improved and multiplied until now, instead of oral tradition,
necessarily uncertain; instead of the bark and leaf, perishable
or fragile; instead of the papyrus, so brittle; the parchment, so
costly; the raw cotton paper, so expensive; instead of inscriptions
by the unwieldy style and by the slow-paced pen, we have now a cheap,
serviceable material, manufactured from the most useless of fabrics,
and even from the very refuse of our clothing, which, conjointly with
that art which preserves all other arts, enables us far to surpass in
recording and transmitting power, even the greatest demands in the
world’s history.
NOTE.—Since the “proof” sheet was put into my hands, I have heard
with very great satisfaction, that some interest has at length
been awakened in the case of the Fourdriniers, and that a list has
been commenced, headed with liberal subscriptions from his Grace
the Duke of Sutherland, the Right Hon. the Earl of Harrowby, the
Proprietors of _The Times_, _Illustrated London News_, and several
leading firms connected with the Paper Trade.—R. H.