THE ORIGIN AND EARLY HISTORY OF PAPER
♦Paper from mulberry bark♦
To the Chinese is now generally conceded the discovery of the art of
making paper, of the sort familiar to us, from fibrous matter reduced
to a pulp. According to the old saying, “Time and patience will change
the mulberry leaf into satin.” The ingenious, painstaking sons of
the Flowery Kingdom had been demonstrating its truth through some
centuries, when, about 150 A. D., they discovered that the mulberry
might be put to still another use. The tree that they chose for their
new manufacture was not identical with the one upon which they fed
their silkworms, and to which they were indirectly indebted for their
softly shimmering silks, but it belonged to the same family. From its
bark they made, by a process that must have seemed to them something
akin to magic, a material which, in its developed and improved form,
has been of priceless value to the world, far exceeding that of the
rich and costly stuffs woven from the cocoons of the silkworm.
♦Chinese methods♦
Compared with modern methods of paper-making, this primitive process,
which is said to be still in vogue in China, was fairly simple. The
branches of the tree were first boiled in lye to remove the bark. Then
followed maceration in water for several days, after which the outer
part was scraped off and the inner part boiled in lye, until it was
separated into fibers. These were washed in a pan or sieve, then worked
by hand into a pulp, which was spread on a table and beaten fine with
a mallet. The pulp was placed in a tub containing an infusion of rice
and a root called _oveni_, and thoroughly stirred to mix the materials.
The sheets were formed by dipping a “mold” made of strips of bulrushes,
confined in a frame, into the vat containing the pulp, which was taken
out in a thin layer, after the method followed in making paper by hand.
After molding, the sheets were laid one above another, with strips
of reeds placed between, weights were applied, and the sheets were
afterward dried in the sun.
♦Nature’s process♦
It has been suggested that in regions where the water-plant called the
_conferna_ grows, Nature herself teaches the method of making paper
from vegetable fibers beaten to a pulp. The plant consists of slender
green filaments, similar to what is called frog-spittle. The fibers are
disintegrated by the action of the water, and rise to the surface as
a scum. Driven hither and thither by the winds, tossed by the waves,
and carried on resistlessly by the currents, this scum is at last
beaten into pulp and matted together by the forces whose plaything it
has been. Bleached by the sun, it is finally, in some overflow of the
water, cast upon the shore to dry, as veritable sheets of paper. But if
Nature taught the process, man was slow to discover the teacher, or to
learn the lesson.
♦Crusaders learn paper-making♦
When the Arabs captured the splendid city of Samarcand from the
Chinese, about 704 A. D., they gained something more than material
booty, for the art of paper-making flourished there, and they carried
the secret back with them to their own towns and cities. Western
Europe in turn learned it from the Arabs, through the Crusaders, who
visited Byzantium, Palestine, and Syria. The followers of the Cross,
many of whom were grossly ignorant and superstitious, went east to
christianize, by conquest, the inhabitants of these ancient lands, and
to wrest from the infidels the tomb of the Savior, and found to their
surprise many arts and refinements of which they had been ignorant.
♦French and Dutch improvements♦
It was in 1189 A. D. that the art of making paper from pulp was
introduced into France. At that time the French people were far in
advance of the English in cultivation and in regard to the refinements
of life. They were energetic, and took great delight in construction,
manufacturing, and building. Profiting by their new knowledge, they
prosecuted this art with such zeal and industry that they were soon
in a position to supply not only the wants of France, but those of
surrounding countries as well. The people of the Netherlands were
stimulated by the example of France, and for a long period the French
and Dutch were the best, and indeed almost the only papers produced in
Europe.
[Illustration: THE SORTING AND SHREDDING ROOM--PAGE 57]
No reliable record can be established as to the first paper-making
in England. It is stated that in the personal expense account of
Henry VII. of England, in 1498, there appears the following entry:
“For a rewarde at the paper mylne, 16s. 8d.” This would indicate
that some kind of paper, which gave the name of “paper mylne” to
the establishment where it was handled or manipulated, existed in
England nearly two hundred years before any patent was issued for its
manufacture. It was almost two centuries later that the patent referred
to farther on in this chapter was granted, which stated that no such
industry had previously existed in the kingdom. In an old book, Wynken
de Worde’s “De Proprietatibus Rerum” (About the Properties of Things),
issued in 1498, appear these significant lines:
“And John Tate, the Younger, joye mote he brok!
“Whiche late hathe in England, doo make this paper Thynne
“That now in our Englysh, this book is printed Inne.”
♦English paper-mills♦
This mill is said to have been located at Hartford, England, and
the print of the watermark used is given in Herbert’s “Typographic
Antiquities,” Vol. I, page 20, as an eight-pointed star surrounded by a
circle. John Tate died in 1498.
♦Recognition by royalty♦
In the year 1558 appeared “Sparks of Friendship,” a book by Thomas
Churchyard, who was born in 1520 and died in 1604, and who bore the
title of “Nestor of the Elizabethan era.” This book mentions the
paper-mill of Spillman. A poem in a work entitled “Progress of Queen
Elizabeth,” in 1565, has the title, “A Description and Playne Discourse
of Paper and the whole Benefits that Paper Brings, with Rehearsal and
Setting forth in verse a Paper-myll Built near Darthforth, by a High
Germaine, called Master Spillman, Jeweler to the Queen’s Majestie.”
This is often said to have been the first mill in England, but if
the quotation with regard to John Tate is intended to imply that the
paper was made by him in England, then certainly there must have been
a paper-mill in operation in that country nearly a hundred years
before, and this, taking the entry of King Henry VII. as proof of an
English mill, must have been the second, if not the third, of its
kind. It is said that Spielman, or Spillman, was knighted by Queen
Elizabeth as a fitting honor and reward for the noble work of having
built a paper-mill at Dartford, England, in 1588. A lease recorded in
the Land Revenue Records of England, in 1591, reads, “Penlifton Co.,
Cambridge, lease of water, called paper-mills, late of Bishopric of Ely
to John George, dated 14th. July, 34th. Elizabeth,” which would seem to
indicate a third or fourth mill in 1592.
In 1649 watermark of the finest English paper (whether made in England
or not) bore the royal arms, but later on, in contempt of Charles I., a
fool with cap and bells was substituted for the king’s arms.
For some reason, the industry of paper-making languished in England,
and in 1670 the people of the “right little, tight little island”
were almost entirely dependent upon France for their supply of the
indispensable fabric, its manufacture, if carried on at all in their
own country, meeting with but slight success. In the “History of
Commeret,” by Anderson, published in 1690, it is claimed that this
was the date of the first manufacture of paper in England, and that
previous to this time England had bought paper of her neighbor across
the Channel to the amount of £100,000 annually. The war with France
occasioned such high duties on foreign products as to make the cost
of importation too great; but, as sometimes happens, the temporary
deprivation was in course of time transmuted into a permanent benefit.
The way was opened for the home manufacturer, and the opportunity
was soon improved by French Protestant refugees, who, fleeing from
persecution in their own land, settled in England and established
paper-mills. ♦White writing-paper♦ In 1687 appeared a proclamation for
the establishment of a mill for the making of white writing-paper;
in the following year it was stated, in an article in the “British
Merchant,” that hardly any but brown paper was manufactured, while in
1689, according to report, paper became so scarce and high that all
printing ceased. It is evident that up to the time when the patents
of 1675 and 1685 were granted, the industry was in anything but a
prosperous condition, existing only in brief and isolated attempts at
manufacture, and comprehended merely the crudest products.
♦Early English patents♦
The first British patent for paper-making was granted to Charles
Hildegard, February, 1665, for “the way and art of making blue paper
used by sugar bakers and others.” A decade later, in January, 1675, was
granted the second patent, already referred to in this chapter, which
was for the making of “white paper for the use of writing and printing,
being a new manufacture and never before practiced in any way in any
of our kingdoms or dominions.” Another decade intervened between the
second and the third patents, the latter bearing the date of July 4,
1685, and being “for the true art and way of making English paper for
writing, printing, and for other uses, both as good and serviceable in
all respects and as white as any French or Dutch paper.”
A seeming contradiction of the statement of the second patent is
found in Shakespeare’s Henry VI., where Jack Cade, in 1450, makes the
accusation against Lord Say: “Thou hast most traitorously corrupted 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 his dignity, thou hast built a paper-mill.” In the same act Cade
observes, “Is not this a lamentable thing, that, of the skin of an
innocent lamb should be made parchment; that parchment being scribbled
o’er should undo a man?” thus making it evident that parchment and not
paper was in general use. Since, however, Shakespeare delineated Cade
as a low, ignorant rebel, we are not compelled to believe that he was
necessarily truthful or historically correct in all his accusations.
The charges put into his mouth are intended to exhibit his ignorance,
and his prejudice against all learning or refinement, extending even to
decency of dress and comportment.
♦Watermark of Henry VIII.♦
There is always some dispute as to exact dates. It is claimed that
about 1540, Henry VIII. of England used for his private correspondence,
a paper whose watermark represented a hog with a miter. This was to
show his contempt for the pope at Rome, with whom he had so bitterly
quarreled. It may have been manufactured for him by special order
in Germany or the Netherlands, or it may have been made by foreign
settlers who returned to their own country, so that the trade was
afterward lost for a time in England, and its manufacture was not known
to the authorities that granted the patents.
♦Spanish and Italian makers♦
Long before this, paper-making had been introduced into Spain by
the hordes of Saracenic invaders, who, coming over from Africa on
a plundering expedition, had ended by making conquest of the whole
peninsula. When, however, the long struggle between Christian and
Moor ended in the downfall of the latter, and his expulsion from
the land that had seemed to him the paradise of the prophet, the
industry declined in Spain, to be revived at Fabriano, in the province
of Ancona, in Central Italy, which soon rose into prominence as a
paper-making center. Later on, in 1340, a paper-mill was established in
Padua.
♦America’s first manufacturers♦
The beginning of the industry in America was almost coincident with
the granting of patents for the manufacture of paper in England. A
paper-mill was established by William Rittenhouse, a native of Holland,
at Germantown, Pennsylvania, in the year 1690, one of the builders
and owners being William Bradford, a Philadelphia printer, who was
afterward the owner of the first printing office in New York City. It
was through him that Benjamin Franklin, in 1723, received his first
introduction to a temporary home, and employment, in Philadelphia. The
paper at this first American mill was made from linen rags, and the
product was about two hundred and fifty pounds per day. The mill was
on a stream subsequently called Paper-mill Run, which empties into the
Wissahickon. In 1697, William Bradford, probably in preparation for his
intended removal to New York City, rented his quarter interest in this
paper-mill near Germantown to William and Nicholas Rittenhouse, for a
term of ten years, the annual rental being “ye full quantity of seven
reams of printing paper, two reams good writing paper and two reams of
blue paper.” William De Wees, a brother-in-law of Nicholas Rittenhouse,
in 1710 erected another mill in that part of Germantown called Crefeld,
this being also on the banks of a small stream that emptied into the
Wissahickon.
[Illustration: THE RAG CUTTERS--PAGE 59]
♦Russian mills♦
It is stated by several authorities that in the year 1712 Peter the
Great of Russia visited Dresden, and was so pleased with the process of
paper-making as he witnessed it there that he secured workmen and sent
them to Moscow, where they erected a paper-mill with many valuable
royal grants and privileges. The following year, 1713, saw a revival of
the industry in England, where it had again gone to decay, and where
Thomas Watkin, a stationer of London, brought it into great repute in a
short time.
♦Rapid advancement in America♦
In 1714 a Mr. Wilcox, who, it is stated, furnished paper to Benjamin
Franklin, erected a paper-mill in Delaware. The date of the erection of
this mill is given by another authority as 1729, and the place Chester
Creek, Delaware County, Pennsylvania, where paper was still made by
hand as late as 1870. It may possibly have been a second mill that was
built by Thomas Wilcox at that time, in which case there would be no
conflict of authorities. The manufacture made rapid strides in this
young and growing country, so that in 1770 there were forty paper-mills
in the states of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware. The advance
among the leading nations of Europe during the same period was equally
rapid. The manufacture was introduced into Massachusetts in 1717, and
into Norwich, Connecticut, in 1768, but the progress in New England was
not so rapid as in the states where it had been first established.
A bill which came before the New York Legislature in 1724, but failed
of passage, introduced the policy of protection for infant industries,
in an exceedingly narrow and discriminating sense. The beneficiary of
the bill was William Bradford, doubtless the same man who owned the
quarter interest in the first Pennsylvania mill, and by its provisions
he and his assigns were to be encouraged to make paper, while all other
persons were to be prohibited from manufacturing it in the province
during a period of fifteen years.
♦Pulp from stone♦
Man’s untiring endeavor, his constant effort through the centuries to
find something better suited to his needs, had in a figurative sense
succeeded in turning stone into paper. It remained for two apprentices
of Rittenhouse, who erected a third paper-mill in Pennsylvania in 1728,
to advance the claim that this could be done literally, that stone,
the primitive material on which had been carved the first written
characters of the race could be converted into a paper resembling
asses’ skins. We have no means of knowing what the so-called stone
was, nor what process was followed, but it is safe to assume that both
material and methods were similar to those employed at the present time
in the manufacture of asbestos papers.
♦A state grant♦
The year 1728, which marked the establishment of the third mill
in Pennsylvania, was a notable one in the annals of paper-making.
It is stated that in that year William Bradford owned a mill at
Elizabethtown, New Jersey, which is supposed to have been the first one
in the state, while in the same year the General Court or Legislature
of Massachusetts granted a ten-year patent to a company for the
exclusive right to manufacture paper. By the terms of this grant the
company was to make at least 115 reams of brown and 60 reams of writing
paper in the first fifteen months, and to increase a certain amount
each year until the annual product of the various qualities should be
not less than 500 reams a year. The mill established under this patent
went into operation at Milton, one of the small towns near Boston, in
1730. It was erected by Daniel Henchman, an enterprising stationer
of Boston, and is supposed to have been discontinued owing to the
impossibility of securing a skilled workman, though in 1731 Henchman
produced before the General Court samples of paper made at the mill. In
the following year another stationer of Boston, Richard Fry, who was
also bookseller, paper-maker and rag merchant, returned thanks to the
people for gathering rags, of which he had already received several
pounds weight, in response to a request in a previously published
advertisement.
♦Crude methods and machines♦
During these early days of the industry both methods and machinery were
crude. It was not until 1750 that wove molds came into use and did
away with the roughness of laid paper. Six years later engines were
introduced to facilitate the process of reducing the rags to pulp,
which had previously been accomplished by pounding, while in 1759
cylinders provided with sharp steel blades were invented in Holland for
the same purpose, and soon came into general use, taking the place of
the heavy stampers, which had required a great expenditure of power in
their operation.
The mill at Milton, Massachusetts, established in 1730, and
discontinued for lack of workman, was put into operation again by
a citizen of Boston. Finding among the British troops stationed in
the city a soldier who was also a paper-maker, he obtained for him
a furlough of sufficient duration to enable him to get the mill
into running order once more. The state of Connecticut showed its
appreciation of the important industry by issuing a special charter
to the mill at Norwich, already mentioned as having been built in
1768, and by the payment of a bounty to the manufacturer, Christopher
Leffingwell.
♦Scarcity of rags♦
There were constant appeals for rags in this early stage of the
industry. The Boston News Letter in 1769 published an article stating
that “the bell cart will go through Boston before the end of next month
to collect rags for the paper-mills at Milton, when all the people that
will encourage the paper manufactory may dispose of them,” and followed
with an appeal in “rime.” Apparently the people of New England did
not “encourage the paper manufactory” to any great extent, for at the
outbreak of the Revolution there were only three paper-mills in that
section of the country, and as a consequence, paper became exceedingly
scarce during the war.
Connecticut gave state aid to the mill at Norwich for two years, but
withdrew its special encouragement in 1770, having paid Leffingwell a
bounty of 2d. per quire on 4,020 quires of writing-paper, and 1d. a
quire on 10,600 quires of printing-paper.
♦Mills in the South♦
In the South, the industry was not established as early as in New
England and the Middle States, and the first mills were encouraged by
loans and rewards. The Maryland convention in 1775 resolved that £400
granted and advanced to James Dorsey for starting a paper-mill, he
to repay the same within two years, without interest, either in cash
or in writing or cartridge paper. In the same year, South Carolina
offered £500 currency to the first one who should erect and establish a
paper-mill in the colony, the money to be paid upon the production of
three reams of good writing-paper made at the mill.
In the year 1776, a paper-mill at East Hartford, Connecticut, supplied
the press at Hartford, which issued about 8,000 papers a week, and
manufactured also the writing paper used in the state, together with
much of that used by the Continental Congress.
♦Paper-makers exempt from military service♦
With the outbreak of hostilities came a keener realization of the
importance of the paper interest, and the greatest care was exercised
in providing for all details of the manufacture. In 1776 Massachusetts
provided by law for the appointment of a suitable person in each
town to receive rags for the paper-mills; and the inhabitants were
admonished to be careful to save even the smallest quantity of rags.
In anticipation of the coming conflict, New York, in the same year, by
special enactment, exempted from military service the master workman
and two attendants at each paper-mill. The Council of Public Safety
of Pennsylvania went a step further. The Continental Congress having
resolved on the retention of paper-makers, the Council took measures to
prevent them from joining the volunteers who were about to march to New
Jersey.
♦A sermon effectively delivered♦
These various provisions and enactments furnish a striking
object-lesson as to the value of paper, even to the public safety.
The wisdom of these precautions soon became evident. Notwithstanding
all the care that had been exercised, the supply ran low, and after
advertising for paper, and ordering the people to produce all they had,
it was found necessary, just before the battle of Monmouth, to send
files of soldiers to search for the indispensable article wherever
there was a likelihood of finding it. In the garret of a house in which
Benjamin Franklin had once lived and had his printing-office were
found about twenty-five hundred copies of a sermon by Rev. Gilbert
Tenant, upon “Defensive War,” which had been printed by Franklin. These
were used for musket cartridges and “wadding,” and in the battle that
raged about old Tenant church, where fought representatives from every
one of the thirteen colonies, mingling their patriotic blood upon
the historic field, the sermon proved one of the most effective ever
delivered. The Rev. Mr. Tenant, when he penned his discourse, probably
had no idea that it would ever be delivered in so forceful a manner,
just outside the doors of his church. The fact that these sermons
were stored in the garret of Benjamin Franklin, printer, and held
for payment, will perhaps call forth a rueful smile from the modern
printer, who has himself had some experience of similar sort, the final
outcome of which was not so satisfactory as this use of these old
sermons must have proved to the patriot printer Franklin.
[Illustration: THE WASHERS AND BEATERS--PAGES 62 AND 64]
♦Great scarcity of paper♦
As the war advanced, the scarcity of paper caused much inconvenience.
It was on this account that the journal of the second session of the
New York Assembly, in 1781, was not printed. In 1789, so it is stated,
the paper-mill nearest to Albany, New York, was one at Bennington, in
the state of Vermont. The product was frequently brought from the mill
on horseback, and although it was very coarse and unbleached compared
with the paper of to-day, it was so valuable that every torn or broken
sheet was repaired with paste. This work was so neatly and deftly
done that in old copies of the “Register,” preserved in the Albany
Institute, the patching can be seen only by holding the paper to the
light.
♦Appeal for rags♦
The first mill to be established in the northern part of New York was
erected at Troy in 1793. About that time, or in 1801, the postmaster
of the city issued a special plea under the heading, “Please save
your rags,” in which he said: “The press contributes more to the
diffusion of knowledge and information than any other medium; rags are
the primary requisite in the manufacture of paper, and without paper
the newspapers of our country, those cheap, useful, and agreeable
companions of the citizen and the farmer, which in a political and
moral view are of the highest national importance, must decline.” He
then went on to show how, with sufficient rags, the paper-mills of the
state could meet all demands; how the patriotic saving of rags had been
inculcated and was practiced in New England, saving to Connecticut
alone $50,000 a year, and how the thrifty New England housewife had
reduced the methods of saving to a science, or rather to a fine art,
and closed as follows: “The rich, who regard the interest of their
country, will direct their children or domestics to place a bag or
box in some convenient place as a deposit for rags, that none may be
lost by being swept into the street or fire; the sales of which saving
will reward the attention of the faithful servant, and encourage the
prosperous enterprise of prudence.”
♦The establishment of the Crane mills♦
Zenas Crane, of Worcester, Massachusetts, seeking a favorable site for
a paper-mill, visited Berkshire County in 1799, and finally decided
upon a location on the south branch of the Housatonic, at Dalton. That
small beginning was like the acorn from which springs the giant oak. It
was the foundation of the great paper interest of that region, which
has made the name of the beautiful hill county famous, both for the
importance and extent of the manufacture and for the excellence and
fineness of its products.
As we have already seen, the early paper-mills were greatly hampered by
the scarcity of rags, and matters grew worse instead of better during
the last fifteen years of the century. But the year 1800 brought some
relief. Matthew Kooper, of France, who in the following year succeeded
in making paper from straw and wood, invented a process by which 700
reams of clean, white paper were turned out weekly from such old
written, printed, and waste paper as had previously been thrown away.
In the face of a rag famine, such a process was a great boon to the
paper manufacturer.
The following appeal, issued by Zenas Crane and his associates to the
people of Worcester in 1801, shows how great was the scarcity of rags
at that time, and helps to complete the history leading up to the
erection of the new mill at Dalton:
♦A rag famine♦
AMERICANS!
ENCOURAGE YOUR OWN MANUFACTORIES, AND THEY WILL IMPROVE.
LADIES, SAVE YOUR RAGS.
As the subscribers have it in contemplation to erect a
paper-mill in Dalton the ensuing spring; and the business
being very beneficial to the community at large, they flatter
themselves that they shall meet with due encouragement. And
that every woman who has the good of her country and the
interest of her own family at heart, will patronize them by
saving their rags and sending them to their Manufactory, or to
the nearest Storekeeper--for which the Subscribers will give a
generous price.
HENRY WISWALL,
ZENAS CRANE,
JOHN WILLARD.
Worcester, Feb. 8, 1801.
♦The Butler mills of early days♦
A few years later, but yet early in the life of the nineteenth
century, Zebediah Butler, Sr., and his son, Zebediah Butler, Jr., were
interested in a paper-mill at Hubbell’s Falls, Vt., and it was here
that Oliver Morris Butler, elder brother of J. W. Butler, learned his
trade--here, too, J. W. Butler was born. The paper made was of the
kind now known as Straw Wrapping. Later this mill became the property
of James I. Cutler, and Oliver Morris Butler went south to Lee,
Massachusetts, to perfect his knowledge of the paper industry, there
having been erected at Lee a large and modern plant representative
of the latest and best ideas then known to the art of paper-making.
In 1840 Oliver Morris Butler returned to Hubbell’s Falls, and, being
unable to collect certain obligations due him, took paper in part
payment--this particular invoice of finished paper he brought west to
Chicago. The venture, while not profitable, is yet of much interest, as
it practically marks the beginning of the present J. W. Butler Paper
Company.
♦The Butler mills the first in the West♦
In 1841 Oliver Morris Butler moved west into Illinois, locating at St.
Charles, a town about thirty miles from Chicago and situated upon the
Fox River. Here he immediately built a wrapping-paper mill; later, and
upon the opposite bank of the same stream, he erected a print-paper
plant, the first of its kind west of Pittsburg. It is also recorded in
the Atlas Biographical Dictionary that Simeon and Asa Butler, members
of another branch of the Butler family, made the first letter-paper,
the product of an American mill, that was used in the Senate of the
United States.
♦The great Fourdrinier machine♦
The desire for improvement in material conditions, for better
implements and better methods, has marked every stage of man’s
advance. The same spirit that led primitive man to seek a better and
more convenient medium of expression than the cumbersome bowlder or
the carved obelisk, manifested itself again, centuries later, in the
untiring zeal with which manufacturers sought to improve a product that
may be considered the final successor of the bowlder and the obelisk.
The beginning of the century saw many improvements in the methods of
paper-making. In 1804 Messrs. Henry and Seely Fourdrinier, enterprising
and public-spirited stationers doing business in England, brought to
a good degree of perfection the great machine which bears their name,
and which is described at some length in a subsequent chapter dealing
with the methods of modern paper manufacture. The machine had been
invented, though not perfected, a year or two previously, by a Mr.
Roberts in France; in 1805, Mr. Donkin, the engineer of the Fourdrinier
Brothers, who had built the machine, further improved it by altering
the position of the cylinders so as to dispense with an upper web.
By this change the process was so simplified that the work of six
vats could be done in twelve hours. These improvements were made in a
paper-mill at Two Waters, England; but the machine that can now do in
a day the work that formerly required three months was not immediately
introduced into this country.
♦Many new mills♦
The increase of paper-mills in the United States had been so rapid
that in 1810 the number in the country was stated to be 185. In 1811,
Zenas Crane, who had built the first mill at Dalton, since known as
the Berkshire Mills, erected a new mill at the lower falls of the
Housatonic. These pioneers gave a great impetus to the manufacture,
and paper-mills sprang up as if by magic along all the swift-flowing
mountain streams of New England.
A paper-mill, the first built in the British American provinces, was
erected at what is now Bedford, and in the same year, 1816, a paper
factory was put into operation at Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. It was
operated by a 16 horse-power steam-engine, employed forty persons, and
with an annual output valued at only $20,000 required the consumption
of 10,000 bushels of coal and the use of 120,000 pounds of rags,
showing that the method must have been slow and cumbersome, and the
margin of profit small.
♦Duty on books♦
It is believed that the Gilpins, who were celebrated paper-makers
on the Brandywine, near Philadelphia, were the first to introduce
paper machinery from France and England, about the year 1820, but the
experiment proved so expensive that it met with little encouragement
at that time. Some interesting facts were brought out during this
year by a petition to Congress from the paper-makers of Pennsylvania
and Delaware, who asked for a duty on paper, claiming that seventy
paper-mills, with ninety vats, employing 950 persons, and using 2,600
tons of rags, with an annual output of $500,000 in value, had by
foreign competition been reduced to seventeen vats. The allied trades
of printing and publishing were so closely connected with paper-making
that what affected one affected all; it was this community of interests
that led representatives of the three industries to unite, in 1822, in
a memorial to Congress, urging that the duty on books should not be
reduced, as the books, entirely of American products and manufacture,
which were issued in the country, amounted in value to more than
$1,000,000 per annum.
[Illustration:
CUT--PAGE 59 WASHED--PAGE 62 BLEACHED--PAGE 63
RAGS IN VARIOUS STAGES]
♦The calender invented♦
Notwithstanding foreign competition, possibly because of that
stimulus, improvements were constantly being made in methods and
machinery. The agitator now used on paper machines, consisting of a
semi-cylindrical cradle vibrating so as to prevent the fibers from
being arranged parallel one to another, the result of which would
be to make the paper weaker in one direction than in the other, was
patented by Reuben Fairchild of Trumbull, Connecticut, in 1829. In
the following year Thomas Gilpin of Philadelphia invented what are
called “calenders,” for giving the polished surface to paper. These are
described later, in Chapter V. True cylinders were first made in this
same year by an inventor in England. The result was gained by grinding
the rollers together while a stream of water flowed over them, this
operation requiring many weeks. Through these various inventions and
improvements, and through the introduction of machinery from Europe,
by means of which the coarsest of rags and other materials were
cleaned, bleached, and purified, and increased three hundred per cent
in value, a decided impetus was imparted to the manufacture. ♦Improved
machinery♦ The advance in the industry during the following years was
so marked that in 1842, according to an estimate made at a meeting
of paper-makers held in New York City in that year, the paper-mill
property of the United States was valued at $16,000,000, and the annual
output at $15,000,000, while the value of rags imported from Europe
amounted to $468,230, and the raw stock, rags, and other material
collected in the United States to $6,000,000. With the adoption, in
1843, of the devices for a rotating strainer, for draining water from
the pulp in the washing or beating vats, came another advance in the
process of paper-making.
♦The first paper-house in Chicago♦
In 1844 a jobbing house was opened in Chicago by Oliver Morris Butler
to dispose of the paper made at his St. Charles Mill. Several years
later J. W. Butler, the present head of the J. W. Butler Paper Company,
was placed in sole charge of the Chicago branch. Oliver Morris Butler
was also a part owner and president of the Lockport Paper Company, of
Lockport, Illinois, a successful plant erected for the manufacture
of Straw Board, and he remained active in the trade up to the time
of his death, which occurred in 1888. ♦Genealogy of the Butlers as
paper-makers♦ The store which he established in 1844 and put under
the management of his younger brother, J. W. Butler, touches closely,
through him, his ancestors, and their earlier years as paper-makers,
nearly the whole of the nineteenth century in the line of the paper
industry in this country. That this direct branch of the Butler
family may have had even earlier identification with paper-making is
not improbable; the family line is clearly and directly traceable
as continuous residents in America back to the earlier half of the
seventeenth century, only a few years subsequent to the Pilgrims’
landing, but the meager records of our earliest settlers seldom speak
of their vocations, and our first positive knowledge of the Butler
family’s connection with the paper industry is early in the nineteenth
century.