MODERN INK BACKGROUNDS (WOOD PAPER AND "SAFETY"
PAPER).
SOME GENERAL OBSERVATIONS ABOUT PAPER-MAKING
MATERIALS--PROBABILITIES AS TO THE FUTURE OF
THE PUBLIC RECORDS--ESTIMATION OF SUCH MATTERS
BY THE LATE POPE--INVENTION OF WOOD-PULP PAPER
--ITS LASTING QUALITIES--THE THREE KINDS OF SUCH
PAPER DEFINED--DISCUSSION OF THE SUBJECT OF
FUNGI IN PAPER BY GLYDE--SOME TESTS TO ASCERTAIN
THE MATERIAL OF WHICH PAPER IS COMPOSED--
TESTS AS TO SIZING AND THE DETERMINATION OF THE
DIRECTION OF THE GRAIN--ABSORBING POWERS OF
BLOTTING PAPER--TESTS FOR GROUND WOOD--NEW
MODE OF ANALYSTS--WHEN THE FIRST "SAFETY"
PAPER WAS INVENTED--THE MANY KINDS OF "SAFETY"
PAPER AND PROCESSES IN THEIR MANUFACTURE--
CHRONOLOGICAL REVIEW COVERING THIS SUBJECT--
SURVEY OF THE VARIOUS PROCESSES IN THE TREATMENT
AND USE OF "SAFETY" PAPER--ONLY THREE
CHEMICAL "SAFETY" PAPERS NOW ON THE MARKET--
WHY IT IS POSSIBLE TO RAISE SOME MONETARY
INSTRUMENTS.
PAPER manufacturers have tried all the pulp-making
substances. This statement to the unlearned must
seem curious, because in the very early times they
were content with a single material and that did not
even require to be first made into the form of pulp.
When the supply of papyrus failed, it was rags which
they substituted. By the simplest processes they
produced a paper with which our best cannot compare.
In some countries great care is exercised in
selecting the quality of paper for official use, in others
none at all.
What will be the state of our archives a few hundred
years hence, if they be not continually recopied?
Some of the printed paper rots even more quickly
than written.
The late Pope at one time invited many of the
savants, chemists and librarians of Europe, to meet
at Einsiedlen Abbey in Switzerland. He requested
that the subject of their discussions should be both
ink and paper. He volunteered the information,
already known to the initiated, that the records of
this generation in his custody and under his control
were fast disappearing and unless the writing materials
were much improved he estimated that they
would entirely disappear. It is stated that at this
meeting the Pope's representative submitted a number
of documents from the Vatican archives which
are scarcely decipherable though dated in the nineteenth
century. In a few of those of dates later than
1873 the paper was so tender that unless handled
with exceptional care, it would break in pieces like
scorched paper.
These conditions are in line with many of those
which prevail with few exceptions in every country,
town or hamlet.
A contributory cause as we know is a class of poor
and cheap inks now in almost universal use. The
other is the so-called "modern" or wood-pulp paper
in general vogue.
Reaumur, as already stated, back in 1719 suggested
from information gathered in examinations of wasps'
nests, that a paper might be manufactured from
wood. This idea does not appear to have been acted
upon until many years later, although in the interim
inventors were exhausting their ingenuity in the
selection of fibrous materials from which paper might
be manufactured.
The successful introduction of wood as a substitute
for or with rags in paper manufacture until about
1870 was of slow growth; since which time vast
quantities have been employed. In this country
alone millions of tons of raw material are being imported
to say nothing of home products.
Its value in the cause of progress of some arts
which contribute greatly to our comfort and civilization
cannot be overestimated, but nevertheless the
wood paper is bound to disintegrate and decay, and
the time not very far distant either. Hence, its use
for records of any kind is always to be condemned.
There are three classes of wood pulp; mechanical
wood, soda process, and the sulphite. The first or
mechanical wood is a German invention of 1844,
where the logs after being cut up into proper blocks,
were then ground against a moving millstone against
which they were pressed and with the aid of flowing
water reduced to a pulpy form. This pulp was
transported into suitable tanks and then pumped to
the "beaters."
The soda process wood and sulphite wood pulp are
both made by chemical processes. The first was
invented by Meliner in 1865. The preparation of
pulp by this process consists briefly in first cutting up
the logs into suitable sections and throwing them
into a chipping machine. The chips are then introduced
into tanks containing a strong solution of
caustic soda and boiled under pressure.
The sulphite process is substantially the same except
that the chips are thrown into what are called
digesters and fed with the chemicals which form an
acid sulphite. The real inventor of this latter process
is not known.
The chemicals employed in both of these processes
compel a separation of the resinous matters from the
cell tissues or cellulose. These products are then
treated in the manufacturing of paper with few variations,
the same as the ordinary rag pulp.
These now perfected processes are the results of long
and continuing experimentations made by many inventors.
The following paper was read before the London
Society of Arts by Mr. Alfred Glyde, in May, 1850,
and is equally applicable to some of the wood paper
of the present day:
"Owing to the imperfections formerly existing
in the microscope, little was known of the real nature
of the plants called fungi until within the last
few years, but since the improvements in that instrument
the subject of the development, growth,
and offices of the fungi has received much attention.
They compose, with the algae and lichens,
the class of thallogens (Lindley), the algae existing
in water, the other two in air only. A fungus
is a cellular flowerless plant, fructifying solely by
spores, by which it is propagated, and the methods
of attachment of which are singularly various and
beautiful. The fungi differs from the lichens and
algae in deriving their nourishment from the
substances on which they grow, instead of from the
media in which they live. They contain a larger
quantity of nitrogen in their constitution than vegetables
generally do, and the substance called 'fungine'
has a near resemblance to animal matter.
Their spores are inconceivably numerous and minute,
and are diffused very widely, developing
themselves wherever they find organic matter in a
fit state. The principal conditions required for
their growth are moisture, heat, and the presence
of oxygen and electricity. No decomposition or
development of fungi takes place in dry organic
matter, a fact illustrated by the high state of
preservation in which timber has been found after the
lapse of centuries, as well as by the condition of
mummy-cases, bandages, etc., kept dry in the hot
climate of Egypt. Decay will not take place in a
temperature below that of the freezing point of
water, nor without oxygen, by excluding which, is
contained in the air, meat and vegetables may be
kept fresh and sweet for many years.
"The action which takes place when moist vegetable
substances are exposed to oxygen is that of
slow combustion ('eremacausis'), the oxygen
uniting with the wood and liberating a volume of
carbonic acid equal to itself, and another portion
combining with the hydrogen of the wood to form
water. Decomposition takes place on contact with
a body already undergoing the same change, in the
same manner that yeast causes fermentation. Animal
matter enters into combination with oxygen in
precisely the same way as vegetable matter, but as,
in addition to carbon and hydrogen, it contains nitrogen,
the products of the eremacausis are more
numerous, being carbon and nitrate of ammonia,
carburetted and sulphuretted hydrogen, and water,
and these ammoniacal salts greatly favor the growth
of fungi. Now paper consists essentially of woody
fibre, having animal matter as size on its surface.
The first microscopic symptom of decay in paper is
irregularity of surface, with a slight change of color,
indicating the commencement of the process just
noticed, during which, in addition to carbonic acid,
certain organic acids are formed, as crenic and ulmic
acids, which, if the paper has been stained by
a coloring matter, will form spots of red on the
surface. The same process of decay goes on in
parchment as in paper, only with more rapidity,
from the presence of nitrogen in its composition.
When this decay has begun to take place, fungi are
produced, the most common species being
Penicilium glaucum. They insinuate themselves between
the fibre, causing a freer admission of air, and
consequently hasten the decay. The substances most
successfully used as preventives of decay are the
salts of mercury, copper, and zinc. Bichloride of
mercury (corrosive sublimate) is the material employed
in the kyanization of timber, the probable
mode of action being its combination with the albumen
of the wood, to form an insoluble compound
not susceptible of spontaneous decomposition, and
therefore incapable of exciting fermentation. The
antiseptic power of corrosive sublimate may be
easily tested by mixing a little of it with flour
paste, the decay of which, and the appearance of
fungi, are quite prevented by it. Next to corrosive
sublimate in antiseptic value stand the salts of
copper and zinc. For use in the preservation of
paper the sulphate of zinc is better than the chloride,
which is to a certain extent delinquescent."
There are numerous paper tests which include the
matter of sizing, direction of the grain, absorbing
powers, character of ingredients, etc. A few of them
are cited.
SIZING.--The everyday tests as to hardness of
sizing answer every ordinary purpose: Moisten with
the tongue, and if the paper is slack-sized you can
detect it often by the instant drawing or absorption
of the moisture. Watch the spot moistened, and the
longer it remains wet the better the paper is sized.
Look through the spot dampened--the poorer the
sizing the more transparent is the paper where it is
wet. If thoroughly sized no difference will be apparent
between the spot dampened and the balance
of the sheet. When there is a question as to whether
a paper is tub or engine sized, it can be usually decided
by wetting the forefinger and thumb and pressing
the sheet between them. If tub-sized, the glue
which is applied to the surface will perceptibly cling
to the fingers.
TO TEST THE INK RESISTING QUALITY OF PAPER.--
Draw a heavy ink line across the sheet. If the paper
is poorly sized, a feathery edge will appear, caused
by spreading of the ink. Slack-sized paper will be
penetrated by the ink, which will plainly appear on
the reverse side of the sheet.
TO DETERMINE THE DIRECTION OF THE GRAIN.--
An easy but sure test to determine the direction of
the grain in a sheet of paper, which will be found
useful and worth remembering, is as follows:
For instance, the size of sheet is 17x22 inches.
Cut out a circular piece as nearly round as the eye
can judge; before entirely detaching from the sheet,
mark on the circle the 17-inch way and the 22-inch
way; then float the cut out piece on water for a few
seconds; then place on the palm of the hand, taking
care not to let the edges stick to the hand, and the
paper will curl until it forms a cone; the grain of the
paper runs the opposite way from which the paper
curls.
ABSORBING POWERS OF BLOTTING PAPER.--Comparative
tests as to absorbing powers of blotting
can be made between sheets of same weight per
ream by allowing the pointed corner of a sheet to
touch the surface of a drop of ink. Repeat with each
sheet to be tested, and compare the height in each to
which the ink has been absorbed. A well-made
blotting paper should have little or no free fibre dust
to fill with ink and smear the paper.
TEST FOR GROUND WOOD.--Make a streak across
the paper with a solution of aniline sulphate or with
concentrated nitric acid; the first will turn ground
wood yellow, the second will turn it brown. I give
aniline sulphate the preference, as nitric acid acts
upon unbleached sulphite, if present in the paper, the
same as it acts upon ground wood, viz., turning it
brown.
Phloroglucin gives a rose-red stain on paper containing
(sulphite) wood pulp, after the specimen has been
previously treated with a weak solution of hydrochloric
acid.
About the end of the eighteenth century it became
necessary to make special papers denominated "safety
paper." Their manufacture has continued until the
present day although much limited, largely because
of the employment of mechanical devices which seek
to safety monetary instruments. Such safety papers
are of several kinds.
1. Paper made with distinguishing marks to indicate
proprietorship, as with the Bank of England
water mark, to imitate which is a felony. Or the
paper of the United States currency, which has silk
fibers united with the pulp, the imitation of which is
a felony.
2. Paper made with layers or materials which are
disturbed by erasure or chemical discharge of written
or printed contents, so as to prevent fraudulent
tampering.
3. Paper made of peculiar materials or color, to
prevent copying by photographic means.
A number of processes may be cited:
One kind is made of a pulp tinged with a stain
easily affected by chlorine, acids, or alkalis, and is
made into sheets as usual.
Water marks made by wires twined among the
meshes of the wire cloth on which the paper is
made.
Threads embodied in the web of the paper.
Colored threads systematically arranged were formerly
used in England for post-office envelopes and exchequer
bills.
Silken fibers mixed with the pulp or dusted upon
it in process of formation, as used in the United
States currency.
Tigere, 1817, treated the pulp of the paper, previous
to sizing, with a solution of prussiate of potash.
Sir Win. Congreve, 1819, prepared a colored layer
of pulp in combination with white layers, also by
printing upon one sheet and covering it with an
outer layer, either plain or water-marked.
Glynn and Appel, 1821, mixed a copper salt in the
pulp and afterward added an alkali or alkaline salt to
produce a copious precipitate. The pulp was then
washed and made into paper and thereafter dipped in
a saponaceous compound.
Stevenson, 1837, incorporated into paper a metallic
base such as manganese, and a neutral compound like
prussiate of potash, to protect writing from being tampered
with.
Varnham, 1845, invented a paper consisting of a
white sheet or surface on one or both sides of a colored
sheet.
Stones, 1851. An iodide or bromide in connection
with ferrocyanide of potassium and starch combined
with the pulp.
Johnson, 1853, employed the rough and irregular
surface produced by the fracture of cast iron or other
brittle metal to form a water mark for paper by taking
an impression therefrom on soft metal, gutta-
percha, etc., and afterward transferring it to the wire
cloth on which the paper is made.
Scoutteten, 1853, treated paper with caoutchoue
dissolved in bisulphide of carbon, in order to render
it impermeable and to prevent erasures or chemical
action.
Ross, 1854, invented water-lining or printing the
denomination of the note in colors while the pulp was
yet soft.
Evans, 1854, commingled a lace or open-work fabric
in the pulp.
Courboulay, 1856, mixed the pulp and applied to
the paper salts of iodine or bromine.
Loubatieres, 1857, manufactured paper in layers,
any or all of which might be colored, or have impressions
or conspicuous marks for preventing forgery.
Herapath, 1858, saturated paper during or after its
manufacture with a solution of a ferrocyanide, a ferriccyanide,
or sulphocyanide of potassium, sodium, or
ammonium.
Seys and Brewer, 1858, applied aqueous solutions
of ferrocyanide of potassium or other salts, which
formed an indelible compound with the ferruginous
base of writing ink.
Sparre, 1859, utilized opaque matter, such as prussian
blue, white or red lead, insoluble in water and
stenciled on one layer of the paper web, forming a
regular pattern; this was then covered by a second
layer of paper.
Moss, 1859, invented a coloring matter prepared
from burned china or other clay, oxide of chromium
or sulphur, and combined it with the pulp.
Barclay, 1859, incorporated with the paper:
1. Soluble ferrocyanides, ferricyanides, and sulphocyanides
of various metals, by forming dibasic salts
with potassium, sodium, or ammonium, in conjunction
with vegetable, animal, or metallic coloring matters.
2. Salts of manganese, lead, or nickel not containing
ferrocyanogen.
3. Ferrocyanides, etc., of potassium, sodium, and
ammonium, in conjunction with insoluble salts of
manganese, lead, or nickel.
Hooper, 1860. Employed oxides of iron, either
alone or dissolved in an acid, and mixed with the
pulp.
Nissen, 1860. Treated paper with a preparation of
iron, together with ammonia, prussiate of potash and
chlorine, while in the pulp or being sized.
Middleton, 1860. Joined together one portion of a
bank note printed upon one sheet of thin paper and
the other part on another; the two were then cemented
together by india-rubber, gutta-percha, or other compound.
The interior printing could be seen through
its covering sheet, so that the whole device on the
note appeared on its face.
Olier, 1861. Employed several layers of paper of
various materials and colors; the middle one was
colored with a deleble dye, whose color was changed
by the application of chemicals to the outer layer.
Olier, 1863. Prepared a paper of three layers of
different thicknesses, the central one having an easily
removable color, and the external layers were charged
with silicate of magnesia or other salt.
Forster and Draper, 1864. Treating paper during
or after manufacture with artificial ultramarine and
Prussian blue or other metallic compound.
Hayward, 1864. Incorporated threads of fibrous
materials of different colors or characters into and
among the pulp.
Loewenberg, 1866. Introduced prussiate of potash
and oxalic acid or such other alkaline salts or acids
into the pulp, in order to indicate fraud in the removal
of cancellation stamps or written marks.
Casilear, 1868. Printed numbers on a fugitive
ground, tint or color in order to prevent alteration of
figures or numbers.
Jameson, 1870. Printed on paper, designs with
ferrocyanide of potassium and then soaked the paper
when dry in a solution of oxalic acid in alcohol.
Duthie, 1872. Made a ground work of writing ink
of different colors by any known means of pen ruling.
Syms, 1876. Produced graduated colored stains,
which were made to partially penetrate and spread in
the pulp web.
Van Nuys, 1878. Colored the Paper with a pigment
and then printed designs with a soluble sulphide.
Casilear, 1878. United two distinctive colored
papers, one a fugitive and the other a permanent
color.
Hendrichs, 1879. Dipped ordinary paper in an
aqueous solution of sulphate of copper and carbonate
of ammonia and then added alkaline solutions of
cochineal or equivalent coloring matter.
Nowlan, 1884. Backed the ordinary chemical paper
with a thin sheet of waterproof paper.
Menzies, 1884. Introduced iodide and iodate of
potassium or their equivalents into paper.
Clapp, 1884. Saturated paper with gallo-tanic acid,
but the ink used on this paper contained ferri-sesquichloride
or other similar preparation of iron.
Hill, 1885. Introduced into paper, ferrocyanide of
manganese and hydrated peroxide of iron.
Schreiber, 1885. Colored paper material with indigo
and with a subsequent treatment of chromates
soluble only in alcohol.
Schreiber, 1885. Treated finished paper with ferric-
oxide salts and with ferrocyanides insoluble in water
but soluble in acids.
Schlumberger, 1890. Impregnated white paper with
a resinated ferrous salt, a resin compound of plumbic
ferrocyanide, and a resin compound of ferrocyanide
of manganese in combination with a salt of molybdenum
and a resin compound of zinc sulphide.
Schlumberger, 1893. Dyed first the splash fibers
and mixed them with the paper pulp. Second. He also
treated portions of the surface with an alkali, so as to
form lines or characters thereon, then immersed the
same in a weak acid, in order to produce water-mark
lines.
Carvalho, 1894. 1. Charged the paper with bismuth
iodide and sodium iodide. 2. Charged the paper with
a bismuth salt and iodide of soda in combination with
primulin, congo red or other pigment. 3. Charged the
paper with a benzidine dye and an alkaline iodide.
1895. Applied a compound, sensitive to ink erasing
chemicals, AFTER the writing has been placed on the
paper.
Hoskins and Weis, 1895, a safety paper having
added thereto a soluble ferrocyanide and a per-salt of
iron insoluble in water but decomposable by a weak
acid in the presence of a soluble ferrocyanide, as and
for the purpose described. (2) A safety paper having
added thereto a ferrocyanide soluble in water, a
per-salt of iron insoluble in water but easily decomposed
by weak acids in the presence of a ferrocyanide
soluble in water, and a salt of manganese easily decomposed
by alkalis or bleaching agents, substantially
as described.
A review of the various processes for treatment of
paper in pulp or when finished, demonstrates that
time, money and study has been devoted to the
production of a REAL safety paper. Some compositions
and processes have in a measure been successful. It
is found, however, that the ingenuity of those evil-minded
persons, to the detection of whose efforts to
alter the writing in documents this class of invention
has more particularly been directed, finds a ready way
of removing in some cases the evidence which the
chemical reagent furnishes. This being true most of
them have become obsolete, having entirely failed to
accomplish the purposes for which they were invented.
There are but three so-called safety papers now on
the market, if we exclude those possessing printed designs
in fugitive colors.
It is a strange anomaly, nevertheless it is true, that
90 per cent or more of the "raised" checks, notes,
or other monetary instruments which were in their
original condition written on ordinary or so-called
safety paper, never could have been successfully "put
through" but for the gross and at times criminal negligence
of their writers by the failure to adopt precautions
of the very simplest kinds, and thereby
avoided placing temptation in the way of many who
under other circumstances would never have thought
of becoming forgers.
There is no safety paper, safety ink, or mechanical
appliance which will prevent the insertion of words or
figures before other words or figures if a blank space
be left where the forger can place them.