MODERN INK BACKGROUNDS (TRUE PAPER).
WHEN IT WAS THAT TRUE PAPER WAS INVENTED--CITATIONS
FROM MUNSELL ABOUT CHINESE AND OTHER
ANCIENT PAPER--A SHORT CHRONOLOGY FROM THE
SAME AUTHOR--LINEN PAPER IN USE IN THE TWELFTH
CENTURY--BOMBYCINE PAPER--DEVELOPMENTS OF
THE MICROSCOPE--METHODS EMPLOYED IN ASCERTAINING
ORIGIN OF LINEN PAPER BY MEERMAN--SOME
OBSERVATIONS RELATIVE TO THE EVOLUTION OF PAPER
--RAPID IMPROVEMENT IN QUALITY AFTER INVENTION
OF PRINTING--CURIOUS CUSTOMS IN THE USE OF THE
WATER MARK--NO DISTINCTIONS IN QUALITY OF PAPER
USED FOR MSS. OR OTHER BOOKS--ANECDOTES AND
OBSERVATIONS ABOUT THE WATER MARK--ITS VALUE
IN DETECTING FRAUDS--INTERESTING ANECDOTE OF
ITS USE IN FABRICATING A FRAUD--FULLER'S CHARACTERIZATION
OF THE PAPERS OF DIFFERENT COUNTRIES--WHEN
THE FIRST PAPER MILL WAS ESTABLISHED
IN EUROPE FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF LINEN
PAPER--DATE OF THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE FIRST
PAPER MILL IN AMERICA--WHO FIRST SUGGESTED
WOOD AS A MATERIAL FOR MAKING PAPER--SOME
NAMES OF AUTHORS ON THE SUBJECT OF PAPER--STORY
OF RAG PAPER INSTRUCTIVE AS WELL AS INTERESTING.
WHEN it was that the great change occurred and
true paper made of fibrous matter or rags reduced to
a pulp in water was invented has been a subject of
considerable thought and investigation. Munsell, in
his "Chronology of Paper and Paper-Making," credits
it to the Chinese, and estimates its date to be
included in the first century of the Christian era. He
observes:
"The Chinese paper is commonly supposed to
be made of silk; but this is a mistake. Silk by
itself cannot be reduced to a pulp suitable for making
paper. Refuse silk is said to be occasionally
used with other ingredients, but the greater part
of the Chinese paper is made from the inner bark
of the bamboo and mulberry tree, called by them
the paper tree, hempen rags, etc. The latter are
prepared for paper by being cut and well washed
in tanks. They are then bleached and dried; in
twelve days they are converted into a pulp, which
is then made into balls of about four pounds
weight. These are afterwards saturated with
water, and made into paper on a frame of fine
reeds; and are dried by being pressed under large
stones. A second drying operation is performed
by plastering the sheets on the walls of a room.
The sheets are then coated with gum size, and
polished with stones. They also make paper from
cotton and linen rags, and a coarse yellow sort
from rice straw, which is used for wrapping. They
are enabled to make sheets of a large size, the
mould on which the pulp is made into paper being
sometimes ten or twelve feet long and very wide,
and managed by means of Pulleys.
"The Japanese prepare paper from the mulberry
as follows: in the month of December the twigs
are cut into lengths not exceeding thirty inches and
put together in bundles. These fagots are then
placed upright in a large vessel containing alkaline
ley, and boiled till the bark shrinks so as to allow
about a half an inch of the wood to appear free at
the top. After they are thus boiled they are exposed
to a cool atmosphere, and laid away for
future use. When a sufficient quantity has been
thus collected, it is soaked in water three or four
days, when a blackish skin which covered it is
scraped off. At the same time also the stronger
bark which is of a full year's growth is separated
from the thinner, which covered the younger
branches, and which yields the best and whitest
paper. After it has been sufficiently cleansed out
and separated, it must be boiled in clear ley, and
if stirred frequently it soon becomes of a suitable
nature.
"It is then washed, a process requiring much
attention and great skill and judgment; for if it
be not washed long enough, although strong and
of good body, will be coarse and of little value; if
washed too long it will afford a white paper, but
will be spongy and unfit for writing upon. Having
been washed until it becomes a soft and woolly
pulp, it is spread upon a table and beat fine with a
mallet. It is then put into a tub with an infusion
of rice and breni root, when the whole is stirred
until the ingredients are thoroughly mixed in a
mass of proper consistence. The moulds on which
sheets are formed are made of reeds cut into narrow
strips instead of wire, and the process of dipping
is like that of other countries. After being
allowed to remain a short time in heaps under a
slight pressure, the sheets are exposed to the sun,
by which they are properly dried.
"The Arabians in the seventh century appear
to have either discovered or to have learned from
the Chinese or Hindoos, quite likely from the latter,
the art of making paper from cotton; for it is
known that a manufactory of such paper was established
at Samarcand about the year 706 A. D, The
Arabians seem to have carried the art to Spain,
and to have there made paper from linen and hemp
as well as from cotton.
"The art of manufacturing paper from cotton
is supposed to have found its way into Europe in
the eleventh century. The first paper of that kind
was made of raw cotton; but its manufacture was
by the Arabians extended to old worn-out cotton,
and even to the smallest pieces it is said. But as
there are cotton plants of various kinds, it was natural
that they should produce papers of different
qualities; and it was impossible to unite their
woolly particles so firmly as to form a strong substantial
paper, for want of sufficient skill and
proper machinery, using as they did mortars and
rude horse-mills. The Greeks, it is said, made
use of cotton paper before the Latins. It came
into Germany through Venice and was called Greek
parchment.
"The Moors, who were the paper-makers of
Spain, having been expelled by the Spaniards,
the latter, acquainted with water mills, improved
the manufacture so as to produce a paper from
cotton nearly equal to that made of linen rags."
A chronology of paper relating to the earliest specimens
of them can also be found in Munsell's work on
that subject; several are here cited:
"A. D. 704. The Arabians are supposed to
have acquired the knowledge of making paper of
cotton, by their conquests in Tartary.
"A. D. 706. Casiri, a Spanish author, attributes
the invention of cotton paper to Joseph Amru, in
this year, at Mecca; but it is well known that the
Chinese and Persians were acquainted with its
manufacture before this period.
"A. D. 900. The bulls of the popes in the eighth and ninth
centuries were written upon cotton paper.
"A. D. 900. Montfaucon, who on account of
his diligence and the extent of his researches is
great authority, wrote a dissertation to prove that
charta bombycine, cotton paper, was discovered in
the empire of the east toward the end of the ninth
or beginning of the tenth century.
"A. D. 1007. The plenarium, or inventory, of
the treasure of the church of Sandersheim, is written
upon paper of cotton, bearing this date.
"A. D. 1049. The oldest manuscript in England
written upon cotton paper, is in the Bodleian collection
of the British Museum, having this date.
"A. D. 1050. The most ancient manuscript on
cotton paper, that has been discovered in the
Royal Library at Paris having a date, bears record
of this year.
"A. D. 1085. The Christian successors of Moorish
paper-makers at Toledo in Spain, worked the
paper-mills to better advantage than their predecessors.
Instead of manufacturing paper of raw
cotton, which is easily recognized by its yellowness
and brittleness, they made it of rags, in moulds
through which the water ran off; for this reason it
was called parchment cloth.
"A. D. 1100. The Aphorisms of Hippocrates, in
Arabia, the manuscript of which bears this date,
has been pronounced the oldest specimen of linen
paper that has come to light.
"A. D. 1100. Arabic manuscripts were at this
time written on satin paper, and embellished with
a quantity of ornamental work, painted in such
gay and resplendent colors that the reader might
behold his face reflected as if from a mirror.
"A. D. 1100. There was a diploma of Roger,
king of Sicily, dated 1145, in which be says that
he had renewed on parchment a charter that had
been written on cotton paper in 1100.
"A. D. 1102. The king of Sicily appears to
have accorded a diploma to an ancient family of
paper-makers who had established a manufactory
in that island, where cotton was indigenous, and
this has been thought to point to the origin of cotton
paper, quite erroneously.
"A. D. 1120. Peter the Venerable, abbot of
Clum, who flourished about this time, declared
that paper from linen rags was in use in his day.
"A. D. 1150. Edrisi, who wrote at this time,
tells us that the paper made at Xativa, an ancient
city of Valencia, was excellent, and was exported
to countries east and west.
"A. D. 1151. An Arabian author certifies that
very fine white cotton paper was manufactured in
Spain, and Cacim aben Hegi assures us that the best
was made at Xativa. The Spaniards being acquainted
with water-mills, improved upon the Moorish
method of grinding the raw cotton and rags; and
by stamping the latter in the mill, they produced a
better pulp than from raw cotton, by which various
sorts of paper were manufactured, nearly equal to
those made from linen rags.
"A. D. 1153. Petrus Mauritius (the Abbi de
Cluni), who died in this year, has the following
passage on paper in his Treatise against the Jews;
'The books we read every day are made of sheep,
goat, or calf skin; or of rags (ex rasauris veterum
pannorum),' supposed to allude to modern paper.
"A. D. 1178. A treaty of peace between the
kings of Aragon and Castile is the oldest specimen
of linen paper used in Spain with a date. It
is supposed that the Moors, on their settlement in
Spain, where cotton was scarce, made paper of
hemp and flax. The inventor of linen-rag paper,
whoever he was, is entitled to the gratitude of
posterity.
"A. D. 1200. Casiri positively affirms that
there are manuscripts in the Escurial palace near
Madrid, upon both cotton and hemp paper, written
prior to this time."
Abdollatiph, an Arabian physician, who visited
Egypt in 1200, says that the linen mummy-cloths
were habitually used to make wrapping paper for the
shopkeepers.
A document with the seals preserved dated A. D.
1239 and signed by Adolphus, count of Schaumburg
is written on linen paper. It is preserved in the
university of Rinteln, Germany, and establishes the
fact that linen paper was already in use in Germany.
Specimens of flax paper and still extant are quite
numerous, a very few of them having dates included
in the eighth and ninth centuries.
The charta Damascena, so-called from the fact of
its manufacture in the city of Damascus, was in use in
the eighth century. Many Arabian MSS. on such a
paper exist dating from the ninth century.
The charta bombycina (bombyx, a silk and cotton
paper) was much employed during mediaeval periods.
The microscope, however, has demonstrated conclusively
many things formerly in doubt and relating
particularly to the matter of the character of fibre
used in paper-making. One of the most important
is the now established fact that there is no difference
between the fibres of the old cotton and linen papers,
as made from rags so named.
To ascertain the precise period and the particular
nation of Europe, when and among whom the use of
our common paper fabricated from linen rags first
originated, was a very earnest object of research
with the learned Meerman, author of a now exceedingly
rare work on this subject and published in 1767.
His mode of inquiry was unique. He proposed a
reward of twenty-five golden ducats, to whoever
should discover what on due examination should appear
to be the most ancient manuscript or public
document inscribed on paper manufactured from
linen rags. This proposal was distributed through
all parts of Europe. His little volume contains the
replies which Meerman received. The scholars who
remitted the result of their investigations were unable
to distinguish between what they estimated as
cotton or linen rags. They did, however, establish
the fact that paper made of linen rags existed before
1308, and some of them even sought to give the
honor of the invention to Germany. They also asserted
that the most ancient English specimen of
such a paper belonged to the year 1342.
The transformation of paper made from every conceivable
fibrous material into what is commonly
known as "linen" or true paper was of slow growth
until after the invention of printing. Following that
great event it is surprising, how, in so short a period,
the manufacturers of paper improved its quality and
the degree of excellence which it later attained.
They imitated the old vellum so closely that it was
even called vellum and is so known to this day.
This class of paper was employed both for writing
and printing purposes and has never been excelled,
surpassing any like productions of modern times.
A curious custom came into vogue during the
early infancy of the "linen" paper industry, which
is of so much interest and possesses so curious a
history as to be well worth mentioning. It is the
water mark as it is commonly but erroneously termed
in connection with paper manufacture.
Its origin dates back to the thirteenth century,
though the monuments indicating its use before the
time of printing are but few in number.
The real employment of the water mark may be
said to have commenced at the time when it was
a custom of the first printers to omit their names
from their works. Also, it is to be considered that at
this period comparatively few people could either
read or write and therefore pictures, designs or other
marks were employed to enable them to distinguish
the paper of one manufacturer from another. These
marks as they became common naturally gave their
names to the different sorts of paper.
The earliest known water mark on linen paper
represented a picture of a tower and was of the date
of 1293. The next known water mark which can be
designated is a ram's head and is found in a book of
accounts belonging to an official of Bordeaux which
was then subject to England. It is dated 1330.
In the fifteenth century there were no distinctions
in the quality of paper used for manuscripts or for
books. In the Mentz Bible of 1462 are to be found
no less than three sorts of paper. Of this Bible, the
water mark in some sheets is a bull's head simply,
and in others a bull's head from whose forehead rises
a long line, at the end of which is a cross. In other
sheets the water mark is a bunch of grapes.
In 1498 the water mark of paper consisted of an
eight pointed star within a double circle. The design
of an open hand with a star at the top which
was in use as early as 1530, probably gave the name
to what is still called hand paper.
It appears that even so high a personage as Henry
VIII of England in 1540 utilized the water mark in
order to show his contempt for and animosity to
Pope Paul III, with whom he had then quarreled,
gave orders for the preparation of paper, the water
mark of which was a hog with a miter: this he used
for his private correspondence.
A little later, about the middle of the sixteenth
century, the favorite paper mark was the jug or pot,
from which would appear to have originated the term
pot paper. Still another belonging to this period
was the device of a glove.
At the beginning of the seventeenth century, the
device was a fool's cap and which has continued by
name as the particular size which we now designate
fool's cap.
The water mark has continued to increase in popularity
and to-day may be found in almost any kind of
paper, either in the shape of designs, figures, numbers
or names.
The circumstance of the water mark has at various
times been the means of detecting frauds, forgeries
and impositions in our courts of law and elsewhere.
The following is introduced as a whimsical example
of such detections and is said to have occurred in the
fifteenth century, and is related by Beloe, London,
1807:
"The monks of a certain monastery at Messina
exhibited to a visitor with great triumph, a letter
which they claimed had been written in ink by the
Virgin Mary with her own hand, not on the ancient
papyrus, but on paper made of rags. The visitor
to whom it was shown observed with affected
solemnity, that the letter involved also a miracle
because the paper on which it was written could
not have been in existence until over a thousand
years after her death."
An interesting example of the use of water marks
on paper for fraudulent purposes is to be found in a
pamphlet entitled "Ireland's Confessions." This person,
a son of Samuel Ireland, who was a distinguished
draughtsman and engraver, about the end of the
eighteenth century fabricated a pretended Shakespeare
MSS., which as a literary forgery was the
most remarkable of its time. Previous to his confessions
it had been accepted by the Shakespearean
scholars as unquestionably the work of the immortal
bard. The following is a citation from his Confessions:
"Being thus urged forward to the production of
more manuscripts, it became necessary that I
should posses; a sufficient quantity of old paper to
enable me to proceed; in consequence of which I
applied to a book-seller named Verey, in Great
May's buildings, St. Martin's Lane, who, for the
sum of five shillings, suffered me to take from all
the folio and quarto volumes in his shop the fly
leaves which they contained. By this means I was
amply stored with that commodity--nor did I fear
any mention of the circumstance by Mr. Verey,
whose quiet, unsuspecting disposition, I was well
convinced, would never lead him to make the transaction
public; in addition to which, he was not
likely even to know anything concerning the supposed
Shakespearean discovery by myself, and even
if he had, I do not imagine that my purchase of
the old paper in question would have excited in
him the smallest degree of suspicion. As I was
fully aware, from the variety of water-marks, which
are in existence at the present day, that they must
have constantly been altered since the period of
Elizabeth and being for some time wholly unacquainted
with the water-marks of that age, I very
carefully produced my first specimens of the
writing on such sheets of old paper as had no
marks whatever. Having heard it frequently stated
that the appearance of such marks on the papers
would have greatly tended to establish their validity,
I listened attentively to every remark which
was made upon the subject, and from thence I at
length gleaned the intelligence that a jug was the
prevalent water-mark of the reign of Elizabeth; in
consequence of which I inspected all the sheets of
old paper then in my possession, and having selected
such as had the jug upon them, I produced the
succeeding manuscripts upon these, being careful,
however, to mingle with them a certain number of
blank leaves, that the production on a sudden of so
many water-marks might not excite suspicion in
the breasts of those persons who were most conversant
with the manuscripts."
Fuller, writing in 1662, characterizes the paper of
his day:
"Paper participates in some sort of the character
of the country which makes it; the Venetian
being neat, subtle, and court-like; the French
light, slight, and slender; and the Dutch thick,
corpulent, and gross, sticking up the ink with the
sponginess thereof. And he complains of 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.' "
Ulman Strother in 1390 started his paper mill at
Nuremberg in Bavaria which was the first paper
mill known to have been established in Germany, and
is said to have been the only one in Europe then
manufacturing paper from linen rags.
Among the privy expenses of Henry VII of the
year 1498 appears the following entry: "A reward
given to the paper mill, 16s. 8d." This is probably
the paper mill mentioned by Wynkin de Worde, the
father of English typography. It was located at
Hertford, and the water mark he employed was a star
within a double circle.
The manufacture of paper in England previous to
the revolution of 1688 was an industry of very small
proportions, most of the paper being imported from
Holland.
The first paper mill established in America was by
William Rittenhouse who emigrated from Holland
and settled in Germantown, Pa., in 1690. At Roxborough,
near Philadelphia, on a stream afterwards
called Paper Mill run, which empties into the Wissahicken
river, was located the site which in company
with William Bradford, a printer, he chose for
his mill. The paper was made from linen rags,
mostly the product of flax raised in the vicinity and
made first into wearing apparel.
It was Reaumer, who in 1719 first suggested the
possibility of paper being made from wood. He
obtained his information on this subject from examination
of wasps' nests.
Matthias Koops in 1800 published a work on
"Paper" made from straw, wood and other substances.
His second edition appeared in 1801 and
was composed of old paper re-made into new. Another
work on the subject of "Paper from Straw, &c.,"
by Piette, appeared in 1835, which said work contains
more than a hundred pages, each one of which
was made from a different kind of material.
Many other valuable works are obtainable which
treat of rag paper manufacture and the stories they
tell are instructive as well as interesting.