_MAKING PAPER BY HAND._
The Vat and Mould.--Making the Paper.--Sizing and Finishing.
Under the old system of making paper by hand, the rags were
reduced to a fine state of division by a process of _retting_, or
slow putrefaction. The rags were first washed in water, and then
piled in heaps, in which condition they were allowed to remain
until they became tender, that is, readily pulled asunder by the
fingers. During the decomposition the rags not unfrequently became
rotten in some portions of the heaps, thus involving considerable
loss of fibre. The rags were next placed in a strong chest, in
which iron-shod stamping rods were fitted, and these by their
continued action gradually reduced them to a pulp. The stampers
were eventually superseded by the beating-engine, the invention
of a Dutchman, which received and still retains the name of the
"Hollander." Other machines, as the duster, washing and breaking
engines, and the beating engine, have entirely taken the place of
the older system, which required the work of forty pairs of stamps
for twenty-four hours to produce one hundredweight of paper.
=The Vat and Mould.=--The pulp being prepared, is conveyed from
the beaters to the working vat, where it is diluted with water.
The vat is a wooden or stone vessel about 5 feet square and 4
feet deep, being somewhat wider at the top than at the bottom. A
steam-pipe is supplied to the vat, so that the pulp and water may
be heated to a convenient temperature for working, and an agitator
is also furnished to keep the pulp and water uniformly mixed. The
mould in which the pulp is raised from the vat to form a sheet of
paper, consists of a wooden frame, neatly joined at the corners,
with wooden bars running across, about 1½ inch apart, and flush
with the top edge of the frame. Across these again, in the length
of the frame, wires are laid, about fifteen or twenty in an inch,
which are placed parallel to each other. A series of stronger
wires are laid along the cross-bars, to which the other wires are
fastened; these give to what is termed "laid" paper, the ribbed or
"water-marked" lines noticeable in hand-made paper. Upon the mould
is fitted a movable frame, called the _deckle_ or _deckel_, which
must fit very neatly or the edges of the paper will be rough. The
mould and deckle form together a kind of shallow tray of wire.
Sometimes the mould is divided by narrow ribs of wood, so that two
or four sheets of paper may be made in one operation. Connected
with the vat is a slanting board, called the _bridge_, with copper
fillets attached lengthwise upon it, so that the mould may slide
easily along the bridge.
=Making the Paper.=--When preparing for work, the vat-man stands
on one side of the vat, and has on his left hand a smaller board,
one end of which is fastened to the bridge, while the other rests
on the side of the vat. An assistant, called the _coucher_, is at
hand, whose duty it is to handle the frames or moulds containing
the pulp after they have passed through the hands of the vat-man or
maker. The latter now takes in his hand a mould, and lays it upon
the deckle; he then dips the mould, with its deckle in its proper
place, into the vat of agitated pulp, and lifts up as much of the
pulp as will form a sheet of paper. This, as will be readily seen,
requires the greatest dexterity, since the workman has nothing
but his sense of feeling to guide him. It is said, however, that
practice gives him such a nicety of feeling in this respect that
he can make sheet after sheet of the largest-sized drawing papers
with a difference in weight of not more than one or two grains in
any two of them. Great skill is also required to hold the mould in
a perfectly horizontal position, otherwise during the felting and
settling of the pulp the sheet of paper would be thicker on one
part than another. The mould being held lengthwise, that is, with
the long parallel wires running from right to left hand, he gives
the mould a gentle shake from his chest forward and back again,
which is called the _fore-right shake_; this shake takes place
across the wires, not in the direction of their length. He next
gives a shake from right to left, and back again, the respective
movements thus propelling the pulp in four directions. The vat-man
now pushes the mould along the small board on his left, and removes
the deckle, which he connects to another mould and proceeds to
form another sheet of paper, and so on. The coucher, taking the
first mould in hand, turns it upside down upon a piece of woollen
felt-cloth, then removing the mould, he takes another piece of
felt and lays it over the sheet and returns the mould by pushing
it along the bridge to the vat-man, when he receives in return a
second mould to be treated as before.
In the above way felts and paper are laid alternately until a
pile of six or eight quires is produced, which is afterwards
submitted to pressure in a very powerful press. When sufficiently
compressed, the machine is relaxed, and the felts are then drawn
out, on the opposite side, by an operative, called a _layer_, who
places the felts one by one upon a board, and the sheets of paper
upon another board. The coucher then uses the felts again for
further operations. Two men and a boy only are employed in this
part of the work. In the evening all the paper made during the
day is put into another press, and subjected to moderate pressure
to obliterate the felt marks and expel a further portion of the
water. On the following day the paper is all separated, which is
called _parting_, again pressed, and is then transferred to the
drying-loft. The drying is effected by suspending the sheets of
paper upon a series of ropes, attached to wooden supports; ropes
of cow-hair are used for the purpose, as this material does not
stain the paper.
=Sizing and Finishing.=--When the paper is dry, it is taken down
and laid carefully in heaps ready for sizing, which is the next
operation to which the paper is subjected. The preparation of the
size from animal skins, etc., is described in Chapter XI. When
preparing to size the paper, the workman takes several quires of
the paper, and carefully spreads the sheets out in the liquid size,
which is placed in a large tub, taking care that each sheet is
uniformly moistened before introducing the next. The superfluous
size is afterwards pressed out, and the paper then "parted" into
separate sheets, which are again subjected to pressure, and finally
transferred to the drying-room, where they are allowed to dry
slowly. When dry, the paper is conveyed to the finishing-house, to
be again pressed and looked over by women, who, being furnished
with small knives, pick out knots and other imperfections and
separate the perfect from the imperfect sheets. The paper is now
again pressed, and then handed to the finisher, to be counted into
reams and packed, the reams being afterwards pressed and finally
tied up and conveyed to the warehouse for sale. When the paper is
required to be hot-pressed, this is done by placing each sheet of
paper alternately between two smoothed sheets of pasteboard, and
between each group of fifty pasteboards is placed a hot plate of
iron, and the pile then submitted to heavy pressure, whereby the
surface of writing paper acquires a fine, smooth surface.