PAPER, MANUFACTURE OF

( Papeterie , Fr.; Papiermacherkunst , Germ.) This most useful substance, which has procured for the moderns an incalculable advantage over the antients, in the means of diffusing and perpetuating knowledge, seems to have been first invented in China, about the commencement of the Christian era, and was thence brought to Mecca, along with the article itself, about the beginning of the 8th century; whence the Arabs carried it, in their rapid career of conquest and colonization, to the coasts of Barbary, and into Spain, about the end of the 9th or beginning of the 10th century. By other accounts, this art originated in Greece, where it was first made from cotton fibres, in the course of the tenth century, and continued there in common use during the next three hundred years. It was not till the beginning of the 14th century that paper was made from linen in Europe, by the establishment of a paper-mill in 1390, at Nuremberg in Germany. The first English paper-mill was erected at Dartford by a German jeweller in the service of Queen Elizabeth, about the year 1588. But the busine was not very succe ful; in consequence of which, for a long period afterwards, indeed till within the last 70 years, this country derived its supplies of fine writing papers from France and Holland. Nothing places in a more striking light the vast improvement which has taken place in all the mechanical arts of England since the era of Ark wright, than the condition of our paper-machine factories now, compared with those on the Continent. Almost every good automatic paper mechanism at present mounted in France, Germany, Belgium, Italy, Ru ia, Sweden, and the United States, has either been made in Great Britain, and exported to these countries, or has been constructed in them closely upon the English models. Till within the last 30 years, the linen and hempen rags from which paper was made, were reduced to the pasty state of comminution requisite for this manufacture by mashing them with water, and setting the mixture to ferment for many days in close ve els, whereby they underwent in reality a species of putrefaction. It is easy to see that the organic structure of the fibres would be thus unnece arily altered, nay, frequently destroyed. The next method employed, was to beat the rags into a pulp by stamping rods, shod with iron, working in strong oak mortars, and moved by water-wheel machinery. So rude and ineffective was the apparatus, that forty pairs of stamps were required to operate a night and a day, in preparing one hundred weight of rags. The pulp or paste was then diffused through water, and made into paper by methods similar to those still practised in the small hand-mills. About the middle of the last century, the cylinder or engine mode, as it is called, of comminuting rags into paper pulp, was invented in Holland; which was soon afterwards adopted in France, and at a later period in England. The first step in the paper manufacture, is the sorting of the rags into four or five qualities. They are imported into this country chiefly from Germany, and the ports of the Mediterranean. At the mill they are sorted again more carefully, and cut into shreds by women. For this purpose a table frame is covered at top with wire cloth, containing about nine meshes to the square inch. To this frame a long steel blade is attached in a slanting position, against whose sharp edge the rags are cut into squares or fillets, after having their dust thoroughly shaken out through the wire cloth. Each piece of rag is thrown into a certain compartment of a box, according to its finene ; seven or eight sorts being distinguished. An active woman can cut and sort nearly one cwt. in a day. The sorted rags are next dusted in a revolving cylinder surrounded with wire cloth, about six feet long, and four feet in diameter, having spokes about 20 inches long, attached at right angles to its axis. These prevent the rags from being carried round with the case, and beat them during its rotation; so that in half an hour, being pretty clean, they are taken out by the side door of the cylinder, and transferred to the engine, to be first washed, and next reduced into a pulp. For fine paper, they should be previously boiled for some time in a caustic lye, to cleanse and separate their filaments. IMG:4147767755307473660_illo0924.png:Stuff-engine The construction of the stuff-engine is represented in figs. 785 , 786. Fig. 785. is the longitudinal section, and fig. 786. the plan of the engine. The large vat is an oblong cistern rounded at the angles. It is divided by the partition b , b , and the whole inside is lined with lead. The cylinder c , is made fast to the spindle d , which extends acro the engine, and is put in motion by the pinion p , fixed to its extremity. The cylinder is made of wood, and furnished with a number of blades or cutters, secured to its circumference, parallel to the axis, and projecting about an inch above its surface. Immediately beneath the cylinder a block of wood k is placed. This is mounted with cutters like those of the cylinder, which in their revolution pa very near to the teeth of the block, but must not touch it. The distance between these fixed and moving blades is capable of adjustment by elevating or depre ing the bearings upon which the necks e , e , of the shaft are supported. These bearings rest upon two levers g , g , which have tenons at their ends, fitted into upright mortises, made in short beams h , h , bolted to the sides of the engine. The one end of the levers g , g , is movable, while the other end is adapted to rise and fall upon bolts in the beams h , h , as centres. The front lever, or that nearest to the cylinder c , is capable of being elevated or depre ed, by turning the handle of a screw (not seen in this view), which acts in a nut fixed to the tenon of g , and comes up through the top of the beam h , upon which the head of the screw takes its bearing. Two bra es are let into the middle of the levers g , g , and form the bearings for the shaft of the engine to turn upon. The above-mentioned vertical screw is used to raise or lower the cylinder, and cause it to cut coarser or finer, by enlarging or diminishing the space between the fixed cutters in the block and those in the cylinder. To the left hand of i , fig. 785. , is a circular breasting made of boards, and covered with sheet lead; it is curved to fit the cylinder very truly, and leaves but very little space between the teeth and breasting; at its bottom, the block k is fixed. The engine is supplied with water from a pump, by a pipe, which delivers it into a small cistern, near to and communicating with the engine. A stopcock cuts off or regulates the supply of water at pleasure, and a grating covered with hair-cloth is fixed acro that small cistern, to intercept any filth that may be floating in the water; in other cases a flannel bag is tied round the nose of the stopcock, to act as a filter. The rags being put into the engine filled with water, are drawn by the rapid rotation of the cylinder between the two sets of cutters, whereby they are torn into the finest filaments, and by the impulsion of the cylinder they are floated over the top of the breasting upon the inclined plane. In a short time more rags and water are raised into that part of the engine vat. The tendency in the liquid to maintain an equilibrium, puts the whole contents of the cistern in slow motion down the inclined plane, to the left hand of i , and round the partition b , b , (see the arrow), whereby the rags come to the cylinder again in the space of about 20 minutes; so that they are repeatedly drawn out and separated in all directions till they are reduced to the appearance of a pulp. IMG:4147767755307473660_illo0925.png:Block with teeth This circulation is particularly useful, by turning over the rags in the engine, causing them to be presented to the cutter at different angles every time; otherwise, as the blades always act in one direction, the comminution would not be so complete. The cutting is performed as follows: The teeth of the block are set somewhat obliquely to the axes of the cylinder, as shown by fig. 787. ; but the teeth of the cylinder c itself are set parallel to its axis; therefore the cutting edges meet at a small angle, and come in contact, first at the one end, and then towards the other, by succe ive degrees, so that any rags coming between them, are torn as if between the blades of a pair of forceps. Sometimes the blades k in the block are bent to an angle in the middle, instead of being straight and inclined to the cylinder. These are called elbow plates; their two ends being inclined in opposite directions to the axis of the cylinder. In either case, the edges of the plates of the block cannot be straight lines, but must be curved, to adapt themselves to the curve which a line traced on the cylinder will nece arily have. The plates or blades are united by screwing them together, and fitting them into a cavity cut into the wooden block k . Their edges are bevelled away upon one side only. The block is fixed in its place by being made dovetailed, and truly fitted into the bottom of the cistern, so that the water will not leak through its junction. The end of it comes through the woodwork of the chest, and projects to a small distance on its outside, being kept in its place by a wedge. By withdrawing this wedge, the block becomes loose, and can be removed in order to sharpen the cutters, as occasion may be. This is done at a grindstone, after detaching the plates from each other. The cutters of the cylinder, are fixed into grooves, cut in the wood of the cylinder, at equal distances asunder, round its periphery, in a direction parallel to its axis. The number of these grooves is twenty, in the machine here represented. For the washer , each groove has two cutters put into it; then a fillet of wood is driven fast in between them, to hold them firm; and the fillets are secured by spikes driven into the solid wood of the cylinder. The beater is made in the same manner, except that each groove contains three bars and two fillets. In the operation of the cylinder, it is nece ary that it should be enclosed in a case, or it would throw all the water and rags out of the engine, in consequence of its great velocity. This case is a wooden box m , m , fig. 785. , enclosed on every side except the bottom; one side of it rests upon the edge of the vat, and the other upon the edge of the partition b , b , fig. 786. The diagonal lines m , r , represent the edges of wooden frames, which are covered with hair or wire cloth, and immediately behind these the box is furnished with a bottom and a ledge towards the cylinder, so as to form a complete trough. The square figures under n , n , in fig. 785. , show the situation of two openings or spouts through the side of the case, which conduct to flat lead-pipes, one of which is seen near the upper g in fig. 786. , placed by the side of the vat; the beam being cut away from them. These are waste pipes to discharge the foul water from the engine; because the cylinder, as it turns, throws a great quantity of water and rags up against the sieves; the water goes through them, and runs down to the trough under n , n , and thence into the ends of the flat leaden pipes, through which it is discharged. o , o , fig. 785. , are grooves for two boards, which, when put down in their places, cover the hair sieves, and stop the water from going through them, should it be required in the engine. This is always the case in the beating engines, and therefore they are seldom provided with these waste pipes, or at most on one side only; the other side of the cover being curved to conform to the cylinder. Except this, the only difference between the washing engine and the beater, is that the teeth of the latter are finer, there being 60 instead of 40 blades in the periphery; and it revolves quicker than the washer, so that it will tear out and comminute those particles which pa through the teeth of the washer. In small mills, when the supply of water is limited, there is frequently but one engine, which may be used both for washing and beating, by adjusting the screw so as to let the cylinder down and make its teeth work finer. But the system in all considerable works, is to have two engines at least, or four if the supply of water be great. The power required for a 5 or 6 vat mill, is about 20 horses in a water-wheel or steam engine. In the above figures only one engine is shown, namely, the finisher ; there is another, quite similar, placed at its end, but on a level with its surface, which is called the washer , in which the rags are first worked coarsely with a stream of water, running through them to wash and open their fibres; after this washing they are called half-stuff , and are then let down into the bleaching engine, and next into the beating engine, above described. By the arrangements of the mill gearing, the two cylinders of the washer and beater engines make from 120 to 150 revolutions per minute, when the water-wheel moves with due velocity. The beating engine is always made to move, however, much faster than the washing one, and nearly in the ratio of the above numbers. The vibratory noise of a washing engine is very great; for when it revolves 120 times per minute, and has 40 teeth, each of which pa es by 12 or 14 teeth in the block at every revolution, it will make nearly 60,000 cuts in a minute, each of them sufficiently loud to produce a most grating growling sound. As the beater revolves quicker, having perhaps 60 teeth, instead of 40, and 20 or 24 cutters in the block, it will make 180,000 cuts in a minute. This astonishing rapidity produces a coarse musical humming, which may be heard at a great distance from the mill. From this statement, we may easily understand how a modern engine is able to turn out a vastly greater quantity of paper pulp in a day than an old mortar machine. The operation of grinding the rags requires nice management. When first put into the washing engine they should be worked gently, so as not to be cut, but only powerfully scrubbed, in order to enable the water to carry off the impurities. This effect is obtained by raising the cylinder upon its shaft, so that its teeth are separated considerably from those of the block. When the rags are comminuted too much in the washer, they would be apt to be carried off in part with the stream, and be lost; for at this time the water-cock is fully open. After washing in this way for 20 or 30 minutes, the bearings of the cylinder are lowered, so that its weight rests upon the cutters. Now the supply of water is reduced, and the rags begin to be torn, at first with considerable agitation of the ma , and stre upon the machinery. In about three or four hours, the engine comes to work very smoothly, because it has by this time reduced the rags to the state of half-stuff . They are then discharged into a large basket, through which the water drains away. The bleaching is usually performed upon the half-stuff . At the celebrated manufactory of Me rs. Montgolfier, at Annonay, near Lyons, chlorine gas is employed for this purpose with the best effect upon the paper, since no lime or muriate of lime can be thus left in it; a circumstance which often happens to English paper, bleached in the washing engine by the introduction of chloride of lime among the rags, after they have been well washed for three or four hours by the rotation of the engine. The current of water is stopped whenever the chloride of lime is put in. From 1 to 2 pounds of that chemical compound are sufficient to bleach 1 cwt. of fine rags, but more roust be employed for the coarser and darker coloured. During the bleaching operation the two sliders o , o , fig. 785. , are put down in the cover of the cylinder, to prevent the water getting away. The engine must be worked an hour longer with the chloride of lime, to promote its uniform operation upon the rags. The cylinder is usually raised a little during this period, as its only purpose is to agitate the ma , but not to triturate it. The water-cock is then opened, the boards m , m are removed, and the washing is continued for about an hour, to wash the salt away; a precaution which ought to be better attended to than it always is by paper manufacturers. The half-stuff thus bleached, is now transferred to the beating engine, and worked into a fine pulp. This operation takes from 4 to 5 hours, a little water being admitted from time to time, but no current being allowed to pa through, as in the washing engine. The softest and fairest water should be selected for this purpose; and it should be administered in nicely regulated quantities, so as to produce a proper spi itude of stuff for making paper. For printing paper, the sizing is given in the beating engine, towards the end of its operation. The size is formed of alum in fine powder, ground up with oil; of which mixture about a pint and a half are thrown into the engine at intervals, during the last half-hour’s beating. Sometimes a little indigo blue or smalt is also added, when a peculiar bloom colour is desired. The pulp is now run off into the stuff chest, where the different kinds are mixed; whence it is taken out as wanted. The chest is usually a rectangular ve el of stone or wood lined with lead, capable of containing 300 cubic feet at least, or 3 engines full of stuff. Many paper-makers prefer round chests, as they admit of rotatory agitators. When the paper is made in single sheets, by hand labour, as in the older establishments, a small quantity of the stuff is transferred to the working-vat by means of a pipe, and there diluted properly with water. This vat is a ve el of stone or wood, about 5 feet square, and 4 deep, with sides somewhat slanting. Along the top of the vat a board is laid, with copper fillets fastened lengthwise upon it, to make the mould slide more easily along. This board is called the bridge. The maker stands on one side; and has to his left hand a smaller board, one end of which is made fast to the bridge, while the other rests on the side of the vat. In the bridge opposite to this, a nearly upright piece of wood, called the a , is fastened. In the vat there is a copper, which communicates with a steam pipe to keep it hot; there is also an agitator, to maintain the stuff in a uniform consistence. The moulds consist of frames of wood, neatly joined at the corners, with wooden bars running acro , about an inch and a half apart. Acro these, in the length of the moulds, the wires run, from fifteen to twenty per inch. A strong raised wire is laid along each of the cro bars, to which the other wires are fastened; this gives the laid paper its ribbed appearance. The water-mark is made by sewing a raised piece of wire in the form of letters, or any figured device, upon the wires of the mould, which makes the paper thinner in these places. The frame-work of a wove mould is nearly the same; but instead of sewing on separate wires, the frame is covered with fine wire cloth, containing from 48 to 64 meshes per inch square. Upon both moulds a deckel , or movable raised edge-frame, is used; which must fit very neatly, otherwise the edges of the paper will be rough. A pair of moulds being laid upon the bridge, the workman puts on the deckel, brings the mould into a vertical position, dips it about half way down into the stuff before him, then turning it into a horizontal position, covers the mould with the stuff and shakes it gently. This is a very delicate operation; for if the mould be not held perfectly level, one part of the sheet will be thicker than another. The sheet thus formed has, however, no coherence; so that by turning the mould, and dipping the wire cloth surface in the vat, it is again reduced to pulp if nece ary. He now pushes the mould along the small board to the left, and removes the deckel. Here another workman called the coucher receives it, and places it at rest upon the a , to drain off some of the water. Meanwhile the vat-man puts the deckel upon the other mould, and makes another sheet. The coucher stands to the left side of the vat, with his face towards the vat-man or maker, on his right is the pre furnished with felt cloths, or porous flannels; a three-inch-thick plank lies before him on the ground. On this he lays a cushion of felts, and on this another felt; he then turns the paper wire mould, and pre es it upon the felt, where the sheet remains. He now returns the mould by pushing it along the bridge. The maker has by this time another sheet ready for the coucher; which, like the preceding, is laid upon the a , and then couched or inverted upon another felt, laid down for the purpose. In this way, felts and paper are alternately stratified, till a heap of six or eight quires is formed, which is from 15 to 18 inches high. This ma is drawn into the pre , and exposed to a force of 100 tons or upwards. After it is sufficiently compre ed, the machine is relaxed, and the elasticity of the flannel makes the rammer descend (if a hydraulic pre be used) with considerable rapidity. The felts are then drawn out on the other side by an operative called a layer , who places each felt in succe ion upon one board, and each sheet of paper upon another. The coucher takes immediate po e ion of the felts for his further operations. Two men at a vat, and a boy as a layer or lifter, can make about 6 or 8 reams in 10 hours. In the evening the whole paper made during the day, is put into another pre , and subjected to moderate compre ion, in order to get quit of the mark of the felt, and more of the water. Next day it is all separated, a proce called parting, and being again pre ed, is carried into the loft. Fine papers are often twice parted and pre ed, in order to give them a proper surface. The next operation is the drying, which is performed in the following way. Posts about 10 or 12 feet high are erected at the distance of ten feet from each other, and pierced with holes six inches apart; two spars with ropes stretched between them, at the distance of 5 inches from one another, called a treble or tribble, are placed about 5 feet high between these posts, supported by pins pushed into the holes in the posts. The workman takes up 4 or 8 sheets of paper, and puts them upon a piece of wood in the form of a T; pa ing this T between the ropes, he shifts the sheets upon them, and proceeds thus till all the ropes are full. He then raises the treble, and puts another in its place, which he fills and raises in like manner. Nine or ten trebles are placed in every set of posts. The sides of the drying-room have proper shutters, which can be opened to any angle at pleasure. When the paper is dry, it is taken down, and laid neatly in heaps to be sized. Size is made of pieces of skin, cut off by the curriers before tanning, or sheep’s feet, or any other matter containing much gelatine. These substances are boiled in a copper to a jelly; to which, when strained, a small quantity of alum is added. The workman then takes about 4 quires of paper, spreads them out in the size properly diluted with water, taking care that they be equally moistened. This is rather a nice operation. The superfluous size is then pre ed out, and the paper is parted into sheets. After being once more pre ed, it is transferred to the drying-room, but must not be dried too quickly. Three days are required for this purpose. When the paper is thoroughly dry, it is carried to the finishing-house, and is again pre ed pretty hard. It is then picked by women with small knives, in order to take out the knots, and separate the perfect from the imperfect sheets. It is again pre ed, given to the finisher, to be counted into reams, and done up. These reams are compre ed, tied up, and sent to the warehouse for sale. A good finisher can count 200 reams, or 96,000 sheets in a day. Hot pre ing is executed by placing a sheet of paper between two smoothed pasteboards, alternately, and between every 50 pasteboards a heated plate of iron, and subjecting the pile to the pre . This communicates a fine smooth surface to writing-paper. The grain of the paper is often disfigured by the felts, when they are too much used, or when the loose fibres do not cover the twisted thread. The two sides of the felt are differently raised, and that on which the fibres are longest is applied to the sheets which are laid down. As the felts have to resist the reiterated action of the pre , their warp should be made stout, of long combed wool, and well twisted. The woof, however, should be of carded wool, and spun into a soft thread, so as to render the fabric spongy, and capable of imbibing much water. This operose and delicate proce of moulding the sheets of paper by hand, has for nearly thirty years past been performed, in many manufactories, by a machine which produces it in a continuous sheet of indefinite length which is afterwards cut into suitable sizes, by the Paper-cutting Machine . In 1799, Louis Robert, then employed in the paper works of E onne in France, contrived a machine to make paper of a great size, by a continuous motion, and obtained for it a patent for 15 years, with a sum of 8000 francs from the French government, as a reward for his ingenuity. The specification of this patent is published in the second volume of Brevets d’Invention expirés . M. Leger-Didot, then director of the said works, bought Robert’s machine and patent for 25,000 francs, to be paid by instalments. Having become proprietor of this machine, which, though imperfect, contained the germ of a valuable improvement in paper-making, M. Didot came over with it to England, where he entered into several contracts for constructing and working it. Meanwhile M. L. Didot having failed to fulfil his obligations to Robert, the latter instituted a law-suit, and recovered po e ion of his patent by a decision dated 23d June, 1810. Didot then sent over to Paris the Repertory of Arts, for Sept. 1808, which contained the specification of the English patent, with instructions to a friend to secure the improved machines described in it, by a French patent. The patent was obtained, but became inoperative in consequence of M. L. Didot failing to return to France, as he had promised, so as to mount the patent machine within the two years required by the French patent law. It was not till 1815, that M. Calla, machine-maker at Paris, constructed the paper apparatus known in England by the name of Fourdrinier’s, and which, on the authority of the Dictionnaire Techno log i que , was very imperfect in comparison of an English-made machine imported about that time into France. La construction de ces machines, qui n’offre pourtant rien de difficile, est restée jusqu’à ce jour exclusive ment dans les mains des Anglais , is the painful acknowledgment made in 1829, for his countrymen, by the author of the elaborate article Papeterie in that national work. If there be nothing difficult in the construction of these machines, the French mechanicians ought to be ashamed of forcing their countrymen to seek the sole supply of them in England; for the principal paper works in France, as those of MM. Canson, Montgolfier, Thomas Varenne, Firmin Didot, Delcambre, De Maupeon, ., are mounted with English-made machines. The following, for example, are a few of the paper-mills in France which are mounted with the self-acting machines of Me rs. Bryan Donkin & Co. :— Me rs. Canson, at Annonay. M. de la Place, at Jean d’Heures, Bar-le-duc. Société anonyme, at Sainte Marie, under M. Del a touche. Echarcon près Mennecy, (Seine et Oise). Firmin Didot, Mesnil sur l’Estrée. M. F. M. Montgolfier, à Annonay. Muller, Bouchard, Ondin and Co’s., at Gueures, near Dieppe. MM. Richard et Comp. à Plainfoing. M. Callot-Bellisle; Vieuze et Chan to is eau. M. Bechétaile, near St. Etienne, at Bourg Argental. It deserves particularly to be remarked, to the honour of English mechanism, that the proprietors of the first five of the above works received gold medals at the last exposition of their papers at the Louvre, and all the rest received medals either of silver or bronze. [37] [37] Rapport de Jury Central, par M. Le Baron Charles Dupin, vol. ii. p. 278; Paris, 1836. The following is a true narrative of the rise and progre of the paper automaton. M. Leger Didot, accompanied by Mr. John Gamble, an English man who had resided for several years in Paris, obtained permi ion from the French government, in 1800, to carry over the small working model of Robert’s continuous machine, with the view of getting the benefit of English capital and mechanical skill to bring it into an operative state upon the great scale. Fortunately for the vigorous development of this embryo project, which had proved an abortion in France, they addre ed themselves on the one hand, to a mercantile firm equally opulent and public spirited, and on the other, to engineers distinguished for persevering energy and mechanical resource. A first patent was granted to Mr. Gamble on the 20th of April 1801, and a second, for certain improvements upon the former, on the 7th of June 1803. In January 1804, Mr. Gamble, for certain considerations, a igned these two patents to Me rs. Henry and Sealy Fourdrinier, the house above alluded to, who were at that period, and for several years afterwards, the most considerable stationers and paper-makers in Great Britain. By an act of parliament pa ed on the 4th of August 1807, Mr. Gamble’s privilege of 14 years from April 1801, was prolonged to 15 years after the date of the act, being an extension of about 7 years upon the original patent. The proprietors showed good reasons, in the enormous expense of their experiments, and the national importance of the object, why the patent should have been extended 14 years from the latter date, and would have obtained justice from parliament in this respect, but for an unworthy artifice of Lord Lauderdale in the House of Lords. “He, and he only, was the person who took the objection,” and, by introducing a regulation in a standing order of the House of Lords, that none but the original inventor should have an extension, though Mr. H. Fourdrinier was the inventor substantially of the operative machine, he defeated the honourable intentions of his brother peers, whose committee said, “We will give seven years, and Mr. Fourdrinier may apply again, if it should turn out that the seven years that we propose to give to Mr. Fourdrinier should not give sufficient time to afford any chance of his receiving any remuneration for the expense that he has incurred in introducing this invention.” The bill pa ed in the House of Commons for 14 years, but it was limited by this ruse of Lord Lauderdale to 7, “who put the standing order upon the books (of the upper house) which prevented Me rs. Fourdrinier from having any benefit from the invention.” [38] [38] See this shabby piece of diplomacy unveiled in the Minutes of Evidence taken before the Select Committee of the House of Commons on Fourdrinier’s patent; May, 1837. In February 1808, Mr. Gamble, after losing both his time and money savings during eight years of irksome diligence, a igned over to Me rs. Fourdrinier the whole right of his share in the patent to which he was entitled under the act of parliament. Dartford in Kent, which had been long conspicuous as the seat of a good manufactory of paper and paper moulds, was selected by the proprietors of the patent as the fittest place for realizing their plans; and happily for them it po e ed, in Mr. Hall’s engineering establishment, every tool requisite for constructing the novel automaton, and in his a istant Mr. Bryan Donkin, a young and zealous mechanist, who, combining precision of workmanship with fertility of invention, could turn his local advantages to the best account. To this gentleman, aided by the generous confidence of Me rs. Fourdrinier, the glory of rearing to a stately manhood the helple bantling of M. L. Didot is entirely due. In 1803, after nearly three years of intense application, he produced a self-acting machine for making an endle web of paper, which was erected at St. Neot’s, under the superintendence of Mr. Gamble, and performed in such a manner as to surprise every beholder. Since that important era Mr. Donkin has steadily devoted his whole mind and means to the progre ive improvement of this admirable apparatus; and has, by the unfailing regularity, precision, promptitude, and productivene of its work, earned for himself a place along with Watt, Wedge wood, and Ark wright, in the temple of mechanical fame. “ La France ,” says a late official eulogist of her arts, and interpreter of her sentiments, “ne craint plus la rival ité des autres peuples pour la fabrication des divers genres de papiers et de cartons.” [39] After this boast, one would not expect to hear him immediately confe that in 1823 his country po e ed only one manufactory of the papier continu , containing one of the Fourdrinier machines made at London by Mr. Donkin, for M. Canson, at Vidalon-les-Annonay; that in 1827 there were only 4 of these machines in France, and that in 1834 there were not many more than a dozen. He justly observes, that “this mode being more economical, more rapid, and more powerful, will become henceforth the only one which can be practised without lo . Then will disappear the antient system of hand-work, which likewise involved the inconveniences, we may say dangers, resulting from combinations among the operatives. The machine-made papers po e many advantages: they can receive, so to speak, unlimited dimensions; they preserve a perfectly uniform thickne throughout all their length; they may be fabricated in every season of the year; nor do they require to be sorted, trimmed, and hung up in the drying-house, operations which occasioned great waste, amounting to no le than one defective sheet out of every five. The continuous paper at one time retained the impre ion of the wire-wove web on its under side; a defect from which it has been freed by a pre ure apparatus of Mr. Donkin, recently imported from England by M. Del a touche.” [39] Rapport de Jury Central, sur les Produits de l’Industrie Française exposé en 1834, par Le Baron Charles Dupin, Membre de l’Institut, Rapporteur-général et Vice President du Jury Central; ii. 278. It appears from documents presented to a committee of the House of Lords in 1807, that the Me rs. Fourdrinier had, by that time, withdrawn from their stationery busine the large sum of 60,000 l. , to further the object of their patent; so many difficulties did they encounter in bringing the machinery to its then comparatively complete state, and so little encouragement or support did they receive from the paper manufacturers throughout the kingdom. The patentees laid a statement before the public in 1806, containing the following comparative estimate of the expense attending seven vats, and that attending a machine employed upon paper sized in the engine, performing the same quantity of work as seven vats, at the rate of 12 hours daily. A MACHINE. | Day. | Week. | Month. | Year. | | s. | d. | £ | s. | d. | £ | s. | d. | £ | s. | d. | | 2 | Journeymen | 3 | 6 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 8 | 8 | 0 | 109 | 4 | 0 | | 2 | Ditto | 2 | 6 | 1 | 10 | 0 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 78 | 0 | 0 | | 2 | Finishers | 3 | 6 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 8 | 8 | 0 | 109 | 4 | 0 | | 2 | Dry workers | 3 | 6 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 8 | 8 | 0 | 109 | 4 | 0 | | Parters (none) | | | | | | Fire (none) | | | | | | Felting | | | | 24 | 0 | 0 | | Washing, ditto | | | | 5 | 0 | 0 | | Wire | | | | 200 | 0 | 0 | | 1 | Man, to keep in repair the mill and machine | | | | 100 | 0 | 0 | | Total | 9 | | | 7 | 16 | 0 | 31 | 4 | 0 | 734 | 12 | 0 | | £ | s. | d. | | Expense of 7 vats per annum (see next page ), is | 2,604 | 12 | 0 | | A machine doing 7 vats’ work, is, per annum | 734 | 12 | 0 | | Balance saved by the machine per annum | £ 1,870 | 0 | 0 | | N. B. —There are other advantages, to the amount of full 400 l. per annum, of which manufacturers are well aware, although not taken into this calculation. | SEVEN VATS. | Day. | Week. | Month. | Year. | | s. | d. | £ | s. | d. | £ | s. | d. | £ | s. | d. | | 7 | Vatmen, at | 3 | 3 | 6 | 16 | 6 | 27 | 6 | 0 | 354 | 18 | 0 | | 7 | Couchers | 3 | 1 | 6 | 9 | 6 | 25 | 18 | 0 | 336 | 14 | 0 | | 7 | Layers | 3 | 1 | 6 | 9 | 6 | 25 | 18 | 0 | 336 | 14 | 0 | | 3 | Finishers | 4 | 0 | 3 | 12 | 0 | 14 | 8 | 0 | 187 | 4 | 0 | | 6 | Dry-workers | 3 | 1 | 5 | 11 | 0 | 22 | 4 | 0 | 288 | 12 | 0 | | 3 | Men to go to pre , . | 2 | 6 | 2 | 5 | 0 | 9 | 0 | 0 | 117 | 0 | 0 | | 7 | Parters (women) | 1 | 4 | 2 | 16 | 0 | 11 | 4 | 0 | 145 | 12 | 0 | | Fire | | 7 | 0 | 0 | 28 | 0 | 0 | 364 | 0 | 0 | | Felting | | | | 140 | 0 | 0 | | Washing ditto, oil, soap, fire, . | | 1 | 11 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 0 | 81 | 18 | 0 | | Moulds | | | | 140 | 0 | 0 | | 1 | Man, and expenses of repairing, in keeping in order 7 vats, vat-pre es, . | | | | 112 | 0 | 0 | | Total | 41 | persons. | | 42 | 11 | 0 | 170 | 4 | 0 | 2,604 | 0 | 0 | In the same statement, it was shown that the expense of making paper by hand is 16 s. per cwt., whereas by their machine it is only 3 s. 9 d. ; so that upon 432,000 cwts. the quantity annually made in Great Britain and Ireland (as founded upon the fact that one vat can make 480 cwts. of paper, and that there were 900 vats in the kingdom), the annual saving by the machine would be 264,600 l. , or 345,600 l.  - 81,000 l. In a second statement laid before the public in 1807, the patentees observe that their recently improved machine, from its greater simplicity, may be erected at a considerably reduced expense. “Mr. Donkin, the engineer, will engage to furnish machines of the dimensions specified below, with all the present improvements, at the prices specified below. | Inches. | If driven by straps. | £ | | 3 or 4 | vats | 30 | between | the | deckles | 715 | | 6 | ditto | 40 | ditto | | ditto | 845 | | 8 | ditto | 44 | ditto | | ditto | 940 | | 12 | ditto | 54 | ditto | | ditto | 995 | | If driven by wheels. | | | 3 or 4 | vats | 30 | between | the | deckles | 750 | | 6 | ditto | 40 | ditto | | ditto | 880 | | 8 | ditto | 44 | ditto | | ditto | 980 | | 12 | ditto | 54 | ditto | | ditto | 1,040 | “Instead of 5 men, formerly employed upon 1 machine, 3 are now (in 1813) fully sufficient, without requiring that degree of attention and skill which were formerly indispensable. “In 1806 the machine was capable of doing the work of 6 vats in twelve hours; it is, however, now capable of doing double that quantity, at one-fourth of the expense. For by the various improvements enumerated above, the consumption of wire is reduced nearly one-half, and lasts above double the time; the quantity of paper produced is doubled; and, taking into consideration the work which is now performed by the men over and above their immediate attendance upon the machine, it may be fairly stated, that the number of men is reduced to one-half; consequently the expense of wire and labour is reduced to one-fourth of what it was. “The other advantages incidental to the nature of the proce of making paper by this machine, may be cla ed in the following order :— “1st. That the paper is much superior in strength, firmne , and appearance, to any which can be made by hand of the same material. “2d. It requires le drying, le pre ing and parting, and consequently comes sooner to market; for it receives a much harder pre ure from the machine than can po ibly be given by any vat pre , and is therefore not only drier, but, on account of the closene and firmne of texture, even the moisture which remains is far sooner evaporated, on exposure to the air, than it would be from the more spungy or bibulous paper made by hand. “The superior pre ure, and the circumstance of one side of the paper pa ing under the polished surface of one of the pre ing rollers, contribute to that smoothne which in hand-made papers can only be obtained by repeated parting and pre ing; consequently a great part of the time nece arily spent in these operations is saved, and the paper sooner finished and ready for market. “3dly. The quantity of broken paper and retree is almost nothing compared with what is made at the vats. “4th. The machine makes paper with cold water. “5th. It is durable, and little subject to be out of repair. The machine at Two Waters, in Hertfordshire, for the last three years, has not cost 10 l. a year in repairs. “6th. As paper mills are almost universally wrought by streams, which vary considerably in their power from time to time, there will result from this circumstance a very important advantage in the adoption of the machine. The common paper mill being limited by its number of vats, no advantage can be taken of the frequent acce ions of power which generally happen in the course of the year, but, on the contrary, as scarcely any mills are capable of preparing stuff for twelve vats, every acce ion of power to the mill, where a machine is employed, will increase its produce without any additional expense. “7th. The manufacturer can suspend or resume his work at pleasure; and he is besides effectually relieved from the perplexing difficulties and lo consequent upon the perpetual combinations for the increase of wages.” It is a lamentable fact, that the attention required to mature this valuable invention, and the large capital which it absorbed, led ultimately to the bankruptcy of this opulent and public-spirited company; after which disaster no patent dues were collected, though twelve suits in Chancery were instituted; these being mostly unsucce ful, on account of some paltry technical objections made to their well-specified patent, by that unscientific judge Lord Tenter den. The piratical tricks practised by many considerable paper-makers against the patentees are humiliating to human nature in a civilized and soi disant Christian community. Many of them have owned, since the bankruptcy of the house removed the fear of prosecution, that they owed them from 2000 l. to 3000 l. apiece. Nothing can place the advantage of the Fourdrinier machine in a stronger point of view, than the fact of there being 280 of them now at work in the United Kingdom, making collectively 1600 miles of paper, of from 4 to 5 feet broad, every day; that they have lowered the price of paper 50 per cent., and that they have increased the revenue, directly and indirectly, by a sum of probably 400,000 l. per annum. The ti ue paper made by the machine is particularly useful for communicating engraved impre ions to pottery ware; before the introduction of which there was but a miserable substitute. Me rs. R. and J. Clewes, of Cobridge potteries, in a letter to Me rs. Fourdrinier, state, “that had not an improvement taken place in the manufacture of paper, the new style of engraving would have been of no use, as the paper previously used was of too coarse a nature to draw from the fair engravings any thing like a clear or perfect impre ion; and the Staff ords hire potteries, in our opinion, as well as the public at large, are deeply indebted to you for the astonishing improvement that has recently taken place, both as regards china and earthenware, more particularly the latter.” The following rates of prices justify the above statement :— | 1814. | 1822. | 1833. | | s. | d. | s. | d. | s. | d. | | Demy pottery ti ue | 12 | 0 | 9 | 6 | 7 | 0 | | Royal | 16 | 3 | 12 | 0 | 8 | 9 | “We have adopted a new mode of printing on china and earthenware, which, but for your improved system of making ti ue paper, must have utterly failed; our patent machine requiring the paper in such lengths as were impo ible to make on the old plan. On referring to our present stock, we find we have one sheet of your paper more than 1200 yards long. Signed, Machin and Potts; Burslem, February 25th, 1834.” I have had the pleasure of visiting more than once the mechanical workshops of Me rs. Bryan Donkin and Co. in Bermondsey, and have never witne ed a more admirable a ortment of exquisite and expensive tools, each adapted to perform its part with despatch and mathematical exactne , though I have seen probably the best machine factories of this country and the Continent. The man of science will appreciate this statement, and may perhaps be surprised to learn that the grand mural circle of 7 feet diameter, made by Trough ton, for the Royal Observatory of Green wich, was turned with final truth upon a noble lathe in the said establishment. It has supplied no fewer than 133 complete automatic paper machines, each of a value of from 1200 l. to 2000 l. , to different manufactories, not only in the United Kingdom, but in all parts of the civilized world; as mentioned in the second paragraph of the present article. Each machine is capable of making, under the impulsion of any prime mover, all unmatched by a human eye, and unguided by a human hand, from 20 to 50 feet in length, by 5 feet broad, of most equable paper in one minute. Of paper of average thickne , it turns off 30 feet. IMG:4147767755307473660_illo0933.png:Paper making machine Fig. 788 enlarged (288 kB) Fig. 788. is an upright longitudinal section, representing the machine in its most complete state, including the drying steam cylinders, and the compound channelled rollers of Mr. Wilks, subsequently to be described in detail. The figure in the upper line shows it all in train, when the paper is to be wound up wet upon the reels E , E , which being movable round the centre l of a swing-bar, are presented empty, time about, to receive the tender web. The figure in the under line contains the steam or drying cylinders; the points O , O , of whose frame, replace, at the points P , P , the wet-reel frame, F , F , P . A is the vat, or receiver of pulp from the stuff-chest. B is the knot strainer of Ibotson ( p. 936. ), to clear the pulp before pa ing on to the wire. G is the hog, or agitator in the vat. The arrows show the course of the currents of the pulp in the vat. I is the apron, or receiver of the water and pulp which escape through the endle wire, and which are returned by a scoop-wheel into the vat. b is the copper lip of the vat, over which the pulp flows to the endle wire, on a leathern apron extending from this lip to about 9 inches over the wire, to support the pulp and prevent its escaping. c , c are the bars which bear up the small tube rollers that support the wire. d , d are ruler bars, to support the copper rollers over which the wire revolves. K is the breast roller, round which the endle wire turns. N is the point where the shaking motion is given to the machine. M is the guide roller, having its pivots movable laterally to adjust the wire and keep it parallel. L is the pulp roller, or “dandy,” to pre out water, and to set the paper. r , is the place of the second, when it is used. H is the first or wet pre , or couching rollers; the wire leaves the paper here, which latter is couched upon the endle felt p ; and the endle wire o returns, pa ing round the lower couch roller. By Mr. Donkin’s happy invention of placing these rollers obliquely, the water runs freely away, which it did not do when their axes were in a vertical line. e , e are the deckles, which form the edges of the sheet of paper, and prevent the pulp pa ing away laterally. They regulate the width of the endle sheet. f , f are the revolving deckle straps. R is the deckle guide, or driving-pulley. g , g are tube rollers, over which the wire pa es, which do not partake of the shaking motion; and, h , h are movable rollers for stretching the wire, or bra carriages for keeping the rollers g , g in a proper position. C is the second pre , or dry pre , to expel the water in a cold state. K , K , ., in the view of the lower line, are the steam cylinders for drying the endle sheet. i , i are rollers to convey the paper. j , j are rollers to conduct the felt; which serves to support the paper, and prevent it wrinkling or becoming cockled. D , D are the hexagonal expanding reels for the steam-dried paper web, one only being used at a time, and made to suit different sizes of sheets. l is their swing fulcrum. F , F , F , F , is the frame of the machine. The deckle straps are worthy of particular notice in this beautiful machine. They are composed of many layers of cotton tape, each one inch broad, and together one half-inch thick, cemented with caoutchouc, so as to be at once perfectly flexible and water-tight. The upper end of each of the two carriages of the roller L is of a forked shape, and the pivots of the roller are made to turn in the cleft of the forked carriages in such a manner, that the roller may be prevented from having any lateral motion, while it po e es a free vibratory motion upwards and downwards; the whole weight of the roller L being borne by the endle web of woven wire. IMG:4147767755307473660_illo0934a.png:Ends of rollers The greatest difficulty formerly experienced in the paper manufacture upon the continuous system of Fourdrinier, was to remove the moisture from the pulp, and condense it with sufficient rapidity, so as to prevent its becoming what is called water-galled , and to permit the web to proceed directly to the drying cylinders. Hitherto no invention has answered so well in practice to remove this difficulty as the channelled and perforated pulp rollers or dandies of Mr. John Wilks, the ingenious partner of Mr. Donkin; for which a patent was obtained in 1830. Suppose one of these rollers (see L , in fig. 788. , and M , M , in fig. 793. ,) is required for a machine which is to make paper 54 inches wide, it must be about 60 inches long, so that its extremities (see figs. 789. and 790. ) may extend over or beyond each edge of the sheet of paper upon which it is laid. Its diameter may be 7 inches. About 8 grooves, each 1-16th of an inch wide, are made in every inch of the tube; and they are cut to half the thickne of the copper, with a rectangularly shaped tool. A succe ion of ribs and grooves are thus formed throughout the whole length of the tube. A similar succe ion is then made acro the former, but of 24 in the inch, and on the opposite surface of the metal, which by a peculiar mode of management had been prepared for that purpose. As the latter grooves are cut as deep as the former, those on the inside meet those on the outside, cro ing each other at right angles, and thereby producing so many square holes; leaving a series of straight copper ribs on the interior surface of the said tube, traversed by another series of ribs coiled round them on the outside, forming a cylindrical sieve made of one piece of metal. The rough edges of all the ribs must be rounded off with a smooth file into a semicircular form. Figs. 789. and 790. , A A , are portions of the ribbed copper tube. Fig. 789. shows the exterior, and fig. 790. the interior surface; b , b and b , b show the plain part at each of the ends, where it is made fast to the bra rings by rivets or screws; C , C are the rings with arms, and a centre piece in each, for fixing the iron pivot or shaft B ; one such pivot is fixed by riveting it in each of the centre pieces of the rings, as shown at c , fig. 790. ; so that both the said pieces shall be concentric with the rings, and have one common axis with each other, and with the roller. At a , a , a groove is turned in each of the pivots, for the purpose of suspending a weight by a hook, in order to increase the pre ure upon the paper, whenever it may be found nece ary. IMG:4147767755307473660_illo0934b.png:End of rollers Fig. 791. is an end view, showing the copper tube and its internal ribs A , A ; the bra rings C , C ; arm D , D , D ; centre piece E , and pivot B . Fig. 792. is a section of the said ring, with the arms, . The roller is shown at L , fig. 788. , as lying upon the surface of the wire-web. The relative position of that perforated roller, and the little roller b , over which it lies, is such that the axis of L is a little to one side of the axis of b , and not in the same vertical plane, the latter being about an inch nearer the vat end. Hence, whenever the wire-web is set in progre ive motion, it will cause the roller L to revolve upon its surface; and as the paper is progre ively made, it will pa onwards with the web under the surface of the roller. Thus the pulpy layer of paper is condensed by compre ion under the ribbed roller; while it transmits its moisture through the perforations, it becomes sufficiently compact to endure the action of the wet pre rollers H , H , and also acquires the appearance of parallel lines, as if made by hand in a laid mould. Mr. Wilks occasionally employs a second perforated roller in the same paper machine, which is then placed at the dotted lines i , i , i . The patentee has described in the same specification a most ingenious modification of the said roller, by which he can exhaust the air from a hollowed portion of its periphery, and cause the paper in its pa age over the roller to undergo the sucking operation of the partial void, so as to be remarkably condensed; but he has not been called upon to apply this second invention, in consequence of the perfect succe which he has experienced in the working of the first. The following is a more detailed illustration of Mr. Wilks’ improved roller. IMG:4147767755307473660_illo0935.png:Wilks Fig. 793. represents two parts of his double-cased exhausting cylinder. This consists of two copper tubes, one nicely lining the other; the inner being punched full of round holes, as at K , K , where that tube is shown uncovered: a portion of the inner surface of the same tube is shown at L , L . In this figure also, two portions of the outer tube are shown at M , M , and N , N ; the former being an external, and the latter an internal view. Here we see that the external tube is the ribbed perforated one already described; the holes in the inner tube being made in rows to correspond with the grooves in the outer. The holes are so distributed that every hole in one row shall be opposite to the middle of the space left between two holes in the next row, as will appear from inspection of the figure. The diameter of each of the punched holes somewhat exceeds the width of each rib in the inside of the outer cylinder, and every inside groove of this tube coincides with a row of holes in the former, which construction permits the free transudation or percolation of the water out of the pulp. At each end of this double-case cylinder, a part is left at N , N , plain without, and grooved merely in the inside of the outer tube. The smooth surface allows the bra ends to be securely fixed; the outer edge of the bra ring fits tight into the inside of the end of the cylinders. On the inside of each of these rings there are four pieces which project towards the centre or axis of the cylinder; two of which pieces are shown at a , a , fig. 793. in section. b , b , is a bra ring with four arms c , c , c , c , and a bo or centre piece d , d . The outer edge of the last-mentioned ring is also turned cylindrical, and of such a diameter as to fit the interior of the former ring o , o . The two rings are securely held together by four screws. e , e is the hollow iron axle or shaft upon which the cylinder revolves. Its outside is made truly cylindrical, so as to fit the circular holes in the bo es d , d , of the rings and arms at each end of the cylinder. Hence, if the hollow shaft be so fixed that it will not turn, the perforated cylinder is capable of having a rotatory motion given to it round that shaft. This motion is had recourse to, when the vacuum apparatus is employed. But otherwise the cylinder is made fast to the hollow axle by means of two screw clamps. To one end of the cylinder, as at p , a toothed wheel is attached, for communicating a rotatory motion to it, so that its surface motion shall be the same as that of the paper web; otherwise a rubbing motion might ensue, which would wear and injure both. The paper stuff or pulp is allowed to flow from the vat A , fig. 788. , on to the surface of the endle wire-web, as this is moving along. The lines o , o , fig. 788. show the course of the motion of the web, which operates as a sieve, separating to a certain degree the water from the pulp, yet leaving the latter in a wet state till it arrives at the first pair of pre ing rollers H , H , between which the web with its sheet of paper is squeezed. Thick paper, in pa ing through these rollers, was formerly often injured by becoming water-galled, from the greater retention of water in certain places than in others. But Me rs. Donkin’s cylinder, as above described, has facilitated vastly the discharge of the water, and enabled the manufacturer to turn off a perfectly uniform smooth paper. In fig. 788. , immediately below the perforated cylinder, there is a wooden water-trough. Along one side of the trough a copper pipe is laid, of the same length as the cylinder, and parallel to it; the distance between them being about one fourth of an inch. The side of the pipe facing the cylinder is perforated with a line of small holes, which transmit a great many jets of water against the surface of the cylinder, in order to wash it and keep it clean during the whole continuance of the proce . The principle adopted by John Dick in son, Esq., of Nash Mill, for making paper, is different from that of Fourdrinier. It consists in causing a polished hollow bra cylinder, perforated with holes or slits, and covered with wire cloth, to revolve over and just in contact with the prepared pulp; so that by connecting the cylinder with a ve el exhausted of its air, the film of pulp, which adheres to the cylinder during its rotation, becomes gently pre ed, whereby the paper is supposed to be rendered drier, and of more uniform thickne , than upon the horizontal hand moulds, or travelling wire cloth of Fourdrinier. When subjected merely to agitation, the water is sucked inwards through the cylindric cage, leaving the textile filaments so completely interwoven as, if felted among each other, that they will not separate without breaking, and, when dry, they will form a sheet of paper of a strength and quality relative to the nature and preparation of the pulp. The roll of paper thus formed upon the hollow cylinder is turned off continuously upon a second solid one covered with felt, upon which it is condensed by the pre ure of a third revolving cylinder, and is thence delivered to the drying rollers. Such is the general plan of Mr. Dick in son’s paper machines, into which he has introduced numerous improvements since its invention in 1809, many of them secured by patent right; whereby he has been enabled to make papers of first-rate quality, more particularly for the printing-pre . See infrà . In July 1830, Mr. Ibotson of Poyle, paper manufacturer, obtained a patent, see B , fig. 788. , which has proved very succe ful, for a peculiar construction of a sieve or strainer. Instead of wire meshes, he uses a series of bars of gun-metal, laid in the bottom of a box, very closely together, so that the upper surfaces or the flat sides may be in the same plane, the edge of each bar being parallel with its neighbour, leaving parallel slits between them of from about 1-70th to 1-100th of an inch in width, according to the finene or coarsene of the paper-stuff to be strained. As this stuff is known to consist of an a emblage of very fine flexible fibres of hemp, flax, cotton, ., mixed with water, and as, even in the pulp of which the best paper is made, the length of the said fibres considerably exceeds the diameter of the meshes of which common strainers are formed, consequently the longest and most useful fibres were formerly lost to the paper manufacturer. Mr. Ibotson’s improved sieve is employed to strain the paper-stuff previously to its being used in the machine above described. (see its place at B in the vat.) When the strainer is at work, a quick vertical and lateral jogging motion is given to it, by machinery similar to the joggling-screens of corn mills. Since the lateral shaking motion of the wire-web in the Fourdrinier machine, as originally made, was injurious to the fabric of the paper, by bringing its fibres more closely together breadthwise than lengthwise, thus tending to produce long ribs, or thick streaks in its substance, Mr. George Dick in son, of Buck land Mill, near Dover, proposed, in the specification of a patent obtained in February, 1828, to give a rapid up-and-down movement to the travelling web of pulp. He does not, however, define with much precision any proper mechanism for effecting this purpose, but claims every plan which may answer this end. He proposes generally to mount the rollers, which conduct the horizontal endle web, upon a vibrating frame. The forepart of this frame is attached, to the standards of the machine, by hinge joints, and the hinder part, or that upon which the pulp is first poured out, is supported by vertical rods, connected with a crank on a shaft below. Rapid rotatory motion being given to this crank-shaft, the hinder part of the frame nece arily receives a quick up-and-down vibratory movement, which causes the water to be shaken out from the web of pulp, and thus sets the fibres of the paper with much greater equality than in the machines formerly constructed. A plan similar to this was long ago introduced into Mr. Donkin’s machines, in which the vibrations were actuated in a much more mechanical way. John Dick in son, Esq., of Nash Mill, obtained a patent in October, 1830, for a method of uniting face to face two sheets of pulp by means of machinery, in order to produce paper of extraordinary thickne . Two vats are to be supplied with paper stuff as usual; in which two hollow barrels or drums are made to revolve upon axles driven by any first mover; an endle felt is conducted by guide rollers, and brought into contact with the drums; the first drum gives off the sheet of paper pulp from its periphery to the felt, which pa ing over a pre ing roller, is conducted by the felt to that part of a second drum which is in contact with another pre ing roller. A similar sheet of paper pulp is now given off from the second drum, and it is brought into contact with the former by the pre ure of its own roller. The two sheets of paper pulp thus united are carried forward by the felt over a guide roller, and onward to a pair of pre ing rollers, where by contact the moist surfaces of the pulp are made to adhere, and to constitute one double thick sheet of paper, which, after pa ing over the surfaces of hollow drums, heated by steam, becomes dry and compact. The rotatory movements of the two pulp-lifting drums must obviously be simultaneous, but that of the pre ing rollers should be a little faster, because the sheets extend by the pre ure, and they should be drawn forward as fast as they are delivered, otherwise creases would be formed. Upon this invention is founded Mr. Dick in son’s ingenious method of making safety-paper for Post-office stamps, by introducing silk fibres, ., between the two lam inæ. The following contrivance of the same inventive manufacturer is a peculiarly elegant mechanical arrangement, and is likely to conduce to the perfection of machine-made paper. I have already described Mr. Ibotson’s excellent plan of parallel slits, or gridiron strainers, which has been found to form paper of superior quality, because it permits all the elongated tenacious fibres to pa , which give strength to the paper, while it intercepts the coarser knots and lumps of the paste, that were apt to spoil its surface. Mr. Turner’s circular wire sieves, presently to be noticed, may do good work, but they cannot compete with Mr. Dick in son’s present invention, which consists in causing the diluted paper pulp to pa between longitudinal apertures, about the hundred-and-fifteenth part of an inch wide, upon the surface of a revolving cylinder. The pulp being diluted to a consistency suitable for the paper machine, is delivered into a vat, of which the level is regulated by a waste pipe, so as to keep it nearly full. From this vat there is no other outlet for the pulp, except through the wire-work periphery of the revolving cylinder, and thence out of each of its ends into troughs placed alongside, from which it is conducted to the machine destined to convert it into a paper web. The revolving cylinder is constructed somewhat like a squirrel cage, of circular rods, or an endle spiral wire, strengthened by transverse metallic bars, and so formed that the spaces between the rings are sufficient to allow the slender fibres of the pulp to pa through, but are narrow enough to intercept the knots and other coarse impurities, which must of course remain, and accumulate in the vat. The spaces between the wires of the squirrel cage may vary from the interval above stated, which is intended for the finest paper, to double the distance for the coarser kinds. It has been stated that the pulp enters the revolving cylinders solely through the intervals of the wires in the circumference of the cylinder; these wires or rods are about three-eighths of an inch broad without, and two-eighths within, so that the circular slits diverge internally. The rods are one quarter of an inch thick, and are riveted to the transverse bars in each quadrant of their revolution, as well as at their ends to the necks of the cylinder. During the rotation of the cylinder, its interstices would soon get clogged with the pulp, were not a contrivance introduced for creating a continual vertical agitation in the inside of the cylinder. This is effected by the up-and-down motion of an interior agitator or plunger, nearly long enough to reach from the one end of the cylinder to the other, made of stout copper, and hollow, but water-tight. A metal bar pa es through it, to whose projecting arm at each end a strong link is fixed; by these two links it is hung to two levers, in such a way that when the levers move up and down, they raise and depre the agitator, but they can never make it strike the sides of the cylinder. Being heavier than its own bulk of water, the agitator, after being lifted by the levers, sinks suddenly afterwards by its weight alone. The agitator’s range of up-and-down movement should be about one inch and a quarter, and the number of its vibrations about 80 or 100 per minute; the flow of the pulp through the apertures is suddenly checked in its descent, and promoted in its ascent, with the effect of counteracting obstructions between the ribs of the cylinder. The sieve cylinder has a toothed wheel fixed upon the tubular part of one of its ends, which works between two metal flanches made fast to the wooden side of the vat, for the purpose of keeping the pulp away from the wheel; and it is made to revolve by a pinion fixed on a spindle, which going acro the vat, is secured by two plummer blocks on the outside of the troughs, and has a rotatory motion given to it by an outside rigger or pulley, by means of a strap from the driving shaft, at the rate of 40 or 50 revolutions per minute. This spindle has also two double eccentrics fixed upon it, immediately under the levers, so that in every revolution it lifts those levers twice, and at the same time lifts the agitator. The diameter of the sieve cylinder is not very material, but 14 inches have been found a convenient size; its length must be regulated according to the magnitude of the machine which it is destined to supply with pulp. One, four feet long in the cage part, is sufficient to supply a machine of the largest size in ordinary use, viz., one capable of making paper 4 feet 6 inches wide. When the cylinder is of this length, it should have a wheel and pinion at each end. Metal flanches are firmly fixed to the sides of the vat, with a water-tight joint, and form the bearings in which the cylinder works. Mr. Turner of Bermondsey, paper-maker, obtained a patent in March, 1831, for a peculiar strainer, designed to arrest the lumps mixed with the finer paper pulp, whereby he can dispense with the usual vat and hog in which the pulp is agitated immediately before it is floated upon the endle wire-web of the Fourdrinier apparatus. His strainer may also be applied advantageously to hand paper machines. He constructs his sieves of a circular form, by combining any desirable number of concentric rings of metal, with small openings between them, from the 50th to the 100th part of an inch wide. In order to facilitate the pa age of the fine pulp and water, the sieves receive a vibratory motion up and down, which supersedes the hog employed in other paper-making machines. A mechanism to serve the same purpose as the preceding, in which Mr. Ibotson’s plan of a parallel rod-strainer is modified, was made the subject of a patent by Mr. Henry Brewer, of Surrey Place, South wark, in March, 1832. He constructs square boxes with gridiron bottoms, and gives a powerful up-and-down vibration in the pulp tub, by levers, rotatory shafts, and cranks. As the contrivance is not deficient in ingenuity, and may be useful, I shall describe this mode of adapting his improved strainers to a vat in which paper is to be made by hand moulds. A hog (or churning rotator) is employed for the purpose of agitating the pulp at the bottom of the vat, in which the sieve is suspended from a crank-shaft, or in any other way, so as to receive the up-and-down vibratory motion for the purpose of straining the pulp. The pulp may be supplied from a chest, and pa ed through a cock into a trough, by which it is conveyed to the strainers. A pipe from the bottom of the vat leads into a lifter-box, which is designed to convey thin pulp into the sieve, in order to dilute that which is delivered from the chest. This pipe also allows the small lumps, called rolls, to be re-sifted. The pre ure of the pulp and water in the vat forces the pulp up the pipe into the lifter-box, whence it is taken by rotatory lifters, and discharged into a trough, where it runs down and mixes with the thick pulp from the chest, as before mentioned. By these means the contents of the vat are completely strained or sifted over again in the course of almost every hour. A patent was obtained for a paper-pulp strainer by Mr. Joseph Amies, of Loose, in the county of Kent, paper manufacturer, who makes the bottoms of his improved strainers with plates of bra or other suitable metal, and forms the apertures for the fine fibres of pulp to pa through, by cutting short slits through such plates, taking care that as much metal is left between the ends of each short slit and the next following as will properly brace or stiffen the ribs of the strainer; and he prefers that the end of one slit shall be nearly opposite to the middle of the two slits next adjoining it, which is commonly called blocking the joints. This is for giving rigidity to the bottom of the strainer, and constitutes the main feature of his improvement. The bottoms of sieves previously constructed with long metallic rods, he considers to be liable to lateral vibration in use, and thus to have permitted knots and lumps to pa through their expanded intervals. This objection is not applicable to Mr. Dick in son’s squirrel-cage strainer, of which the ribs may be made rigid by a sufficient number of transverse bars; nor in fact is it applicable to Mr. Ibotson’s original strainer, as it is admirably constructed by Me rs. Donkin and Co. Each bar which they make being inflexible by a feathered rib, is rendered perfectly straight in its edge by grinding with emery upon a flat disc-wheel of block tin, and of invariable length, by a most ingenious method of turning each set of bars in a lathe. The bars are afterwards adjusted in the metallic sieve-frame, or chest, at any desired distance apart, from the 120th to the 60th of an inch, in such a manner as secures them from all risk of derangement by the vibratory or jogging motion in shaking the pulpy fibres through the lineal intervals between them. Mr. James Brown, paper manufacturer, of Esk mills, near Edinburgh, obtained a patent in May, 1836, for a particular mode of applying suction to the pasty web in the Fourdrinier’s machine. He places a rectangular box transversely beneath the horizontal wire cloth, without the interposition of any perforated covering, such as had been tried in the previously constructed vacuum machines, and which he considers to have impeded their efficacy in condensing the pulp and extracting the water. Upon this and all similar contrivances for making a partial vacuum under the pulpy paper web, it may be justly remarked, that they are more apt to injure than improve the texture of the article; since when the suction is unequally operative, it draws down not only the moisture, but many of the vegetable fibres, causing roughne es, and even numerous small perforations in the paper. A modification of Mr. Dick in son’s cylinder-mould continuous paper machine was made the subject of a patent in Nov. 1830, by Mr. John Hall, jun., of Dartford, as communicated to him by a foreigner residing abroad. The leading feature of the invention is a mode of supplying the vat in which the wire cylinder is immersed with a copious flow of water, for the purpose of creating a considerable pre ure upon the external surface of the cylinder, and thereby causing the fibres of the paper pulp to adhere to the mould. There is a semi-cylindrical trough, in which the mould is immersed, and made to revolve by any convenient means. The pulp is transferred from the vat into that ve el at its bottom part. On the side of the drum-mould opposite to the vat, there is a cistern into which a copious flow of water is delivered, which pa es thence into the semi-cylindrical trough. In the interior of the cylindrical mould, a bent or syphon tube is introduced, on the horizontal part of which tube, inside, the mould revolves. This tube is connected at the outside to a pump, by which the water is drawn from the interior of the cylindrical mould. Thus the water in the semi-cylindrical trough, on the outside of the drum, is kept at a considerably higher level than it is within; and consequently the pre ure of the water, as it pa es through the wire gauze, will, it is supposed, cause the fibres of the paper pulp to adhere to the circumference of the mould. The water which is withdrawn from the interior of the drum by the recurved tube, is conducted round into the cistern, where its discharge is impeded by several vertical partitions, which make the water flow in a gentle stream into the semi-cylindrical mould vat. In order to keep the pulp properly agitated in the mould vat, a segment frame, having rails extended acro the vat, is moved to and fro; as the drum mould goes round, the fibres of the pulp are forced against its circumference, and as the water pa es through, the fibres adhere, forming the sheet of paper, which, on arriving at a couching roller above, is taken up as usual by an endle felt, conducted away to the drying apparatus, and thence to the reel to be wound up. The patentee claims merely the application of a pump to draw the water from the interior of the mould drum, and to throw it upon its external surface. A rag-cutting and lacerating machine was patented by Mr. Henry Davy, of Camber well, in September, 1833, being a communication from a foreigner residing abroad. The machine consists of an endle feeding-cloth, by which the rough rags supplied by the attendants are progre ively conducted forwards to a pair of feed-rollers (see Cotton , spinning ), and on pa ing through these rollers, the rags are subjected to the operation of rotatory cutters, acting against a fixed or ledger blade, which cut and tear them to pieces. Thence the rags pa down an inclined sieve, upon which they are agitated to separate the dust. The cleaned fragments are delivered on to a horizontal screen or sorting table, to suffer examination. When picked here, they are ready for the pulp-engine. A distinct representation of this machine is given in Newton’s Journal, conjoined series, vol. iv. pl. IX. fig. 1. Mr. Jean Jacques Jequier obtained a patent in August, 1831, for a mode of making paper on the continuous machine with wire-marks. The proposed improvement consists merely in the introduction of a felted pre ing roller, to act upon the paper after it has been discharged from the mould, and need not therefore be particularly described. In August, 1830, Mr. Thomas Barratt, paper-maker, of St. Mary Cray, in the county of Kent, obtained a patent for an apparatus by which paper may be manufactured in a continuous sheet, with the water-mark and maker’s name, so as to resemble in every respect paper made by hand, in moulds the size of each separate sheet. On the wire web, at equal distances apart, repetitions of the maker’s name or other device is placed, according to the size of the paper when cut up into single sheets. In manufacturing such paper, the ordinary method of winding upon a reel cannot be employed; and therefore the patentee has contrived a compensating reel, whose diameter diminishes at each revolution, equal to the thickne of a sheet of paper. See Newton’s Journal, C. S. vol. vii. p. 285. For Mr. Lemuel Well man Wright’s series of improvements in the manufacture of paper, specified in his patent of November, 1834, I must refer to the above Journal, C. S., vol. viii. p. 86. A committee of the Société d’Encouragement , of Paris, made researches upon the best composition for sizing paper in the vat, and gave the following recipe :— | 100 | kilogrammes | of | dry paper stuff. | | 12 | — | | starch. | | 1 | — | | rosin, previously di olved in 500 grammes of carbonate of soda. | | 18 | pails of water. | M. Bra con not proposed the following formula in the 23d volume of the Annales de Chimie et de Physique :—To 100 parts of dry stuff, properly diffused through water, add a boiling uniform solution of 8 parts of flour, with as much caustic potash as will render the liquor clear. Add to it one part of white soap previously di olved in hot water. At the same time heat half a part of rosin with the requisite quantity of weak potash lye for di olving the rosin; mix both solutions together, and pour into them one part of alum di olved in a little water. Those who colour prints, size them previously with the following composition:—4 ounces of glue, and 4 ounces of white soap di olved in 3 English pints of hot water. When the solution is complete, two ounces of pounded alum must be added, and as soon as the composition is made homogeneous by stirring, it is ready for use. It is applied cold with a sponge, or rather with a flat camel’s hair brush. Ackermann’s liquor, as analyzed by Vauquelin, may be made for sizing paper as follows :— | 100 | kilogrammes | of | dry stuff. | | 4 | — | | glue. | | 8 | — | | resinous soap. | | 8 | — | | alum. | The soap is made from 4·8 kilos. of pounded rosin, and 2·22 crystals of carbonate of soda, di olved in 100 litres of water. It is then boiled till the mixture becomes quite uniform; the glue, previously softened by 12 hours’ maceration in cold water, is to be next added; and when this is totally di olved, the solution of alum in hot water is poured in. Three quarts of this size were introduced into the vat with the stuff, and well mixed with it. The paper manufactured with this paste seemed to be of excellent quality, and well sized. The Chinese, in manufacturing paper, sometimes employ linen rags, as we do; at other times, the fibres of the young bamboo; of the mulberry; the envelope of the silk-worm cocoon; also a tree, unknown to our botanists, which the natives call chu or ko-chu ; cotton down, and especially the cotton tree. The proce es pursued in China to make paper with the inner bark of their paper-tree ( Bro us so net i a-papyri fer a ,) or Chinese mulberry, have been described at great length in the bulletin of the Société d’Encouragement, for 1826, p. 226; but they will hardly prove serviceable to a European manufacturer. That tree has been acclimated in France. Chinese paper is not so well made as the good paper of Europe; it is not so white, it is thinner, and more brittle, but extremely soft and silky. The longitudinal tenacity of its filaments, however, renders it fitter for the engraver than our best paper. The Chinese, after triturating, grinding, and boiling the bamboo, set the paste to ferment in a heap covered with mats. Chinese paper is readily recognised, because it is smooth on one side, and bears on the other, the marks of the brush with which it is finished, upon smooth tables, in order to dry it flat. The kind employed for engravings is in sheets four feet long, and two broad. It is made of the bamboo; their myrtle-tree paper would be too strong for this purpose. Tracing Paper. The best paper of this kind, sometimes superfluously called vegetable paper, is made of the refuse of the flax mills, and prepared by the engine without fermentation. It thus forms a semi-transparent paste, and affords a transparent paper. Bank-note paper is made of the same materials, but they always undergo a bleaching with chloride of lime. Great nicety is required in drying this kind of paper. For this purpose, each sheet must be put between two sheets of gray paper in the pre ; and this gray paper must be renewed several times, to prevent the bank-note paper from creasing. Paper of Safety or Surety; Papier de Sureté. This subject has occupied the attention of the French Academy for many years, in consequence of the number of frauds committed upon the stamp revenue in France. One of the best methods of making a paper which would evince whether any part of a writing traced upon it had been tampered with or discharged, is to mix in the vat two kinds of pulp, the one perfectly white, the other dyed of any colour easily affected by chlorine, acids, and alkalis. The latter stuff being mingled with the former in any desired proportion, will furnish a material for making a paper which will contain coloured points distributed throughout all its substance, ready to show, by the changes they suffer, whether any chemical reaction has been employed. Quantity of Paper charged with Duties of Excise, in the United Kingdom, in | 1834. | 1835. | 1836. | | lbs. | lbs. | lbs. | | First cla | 54,053,721 | 56,179,555 | 66,202,689 | | Second cla | 16,552,168 | 7,863,095 | 15,906,258 | | Pasteboard, millboard, . | 49,392 | 49,772 | 36,340 | | yards. | yards. | yards. | | Stained | 8,749,144 | 8,247,931 | 8,032,577 | | £ | s. | d. | £ | s. | d. | £ | s. | d. | | Amount of duty, | first cla | 675,671 | 10 | 0 | 702,244 | 9 | 0 | 651,699 | 0 | 0 | | — | second cla | 103,451 | 0 | 0 | 111,644 | 0 | 0 | 99,414 | 0 | 0 | | — | pasteboard, . | 54,689 | 0 | 0 | 54,548 | 15 | 0 | 39,557 | 0 | 0 | | — | stained | 63,795 | 16 | 0 | 60,141 | 0 | 0 | 22,112 | 0 | 0 | The late reduction of the duty, from 3 d. to 1 1 ⁄ 2 d. per lb., upon paper of the first cla , viz., on all descriptions of it, except that made out of tarred ropes only, has been already attended with considerable benefit to the manufacture, and would have acted with much greater effect, but for the American crisis. The gro amount of the paper duty in the year ending 5th January, 1836, was 831,057 l. , and in the year ending 5th January, 1838, it was 554,497 l. ; instead of being little more than one half, as might have been the case from the reduction of the duty, which only came into full operation in the year 1837. At the same time that the tax on common paper was reduced, that upon stained paper was repealed altogether. The effect of the diminution consequently made in the price of paper-hangings, has been so great as nearly to double the consumption of the country, while the manufacture appears to be still rapidly on the increase. Declared Value of Stationery and Printed Books exported in | Years. | Stationery. | Printed Books. | Total. | | 1827 | £ 195,110 | £ 107,199 | £ 302,309 | | 1828 | 208,532 | 102,874 | 311,406 | | 1829 | 190,652 | 109,878 | 300,530 | | 1830 | 171,848 | 95,874 | 267,722 | | 1831 | 179,216 | 101,110 | 280,326 | | 1832 | 177,718 | 93,038 | 270,756 | | 1833 | 211,518 | 124,535 | 336,053 | | 1834 | 211,459 | 122,595 | 334,054 | | 1835 | 259,105 | 148,318 | 407,423 | | 1836 | 301,121 | 178,945 | 480,066 | Till the paper trade shall escape entirely from the clutches of its antient dry-nurse, the excise, neither it nor the book trade can acquire the same ascendancy in exportation which all other articles of British manufactures have over the French. The Value of Stationery exported in France, from 1833, was ,— | Cartons lustrés (polished pasteboards for the cloth manufacture) | 18,992 | francs | | Cartons en feuilles (pasteboard in sheets) | 6,352 | — | | Cartons moulés (papier-maché) | 215,376 | — | | Cartons coupés et a emblés | 54,184 | — | | Wrapping paper | 178,544 | — | | White paper, and rayé (ruled) pour musique | 2,903,075 | — | | Coloured paper in reams | 58,541 | — | | Stained paper (paper hangings) in rouleaux, | 1,885,387 | — | | Silk paper | 3,240 | — | | Total (= £ 208,000) | 5,323,621 | francs. |