WHEN IT WAS THAT TRUE PAPER WAS INVENTED--CITATIONSFROM MUNSELL ABOUT CHINESE AND OTHER ANCIENT PAPER--A SHORT CHRONOLOGY FROM THE SAME AUTHOR--LINEN PAPER IN USE IN THE TWELFTHCENTURY--BOMBYCINE PAPER--DEVELOPMENTS OF THE MICROSCOPE--METHODS EMPLOYED IN ASCERTAININGORIGIN OF LINEN PAPER BY MEERMAN--SOME OBSERVATIONS RELATIVE TO THE EVOLUTION OF PAPER--RAPID IMPROVEMENT IN QUALITY AFTER INVENTIONOF PRINTING--CURIOUS CUSTOMS IN THE USE OF THEWATER MARK--NO DISTINCTIONS IN QUALITY OF PAPERUSED FOR MSS. OR OTHER BOOKS--ANECDOTES AND OBSERVATIONS ABOUT THE WATER MARK--ITS VALUE IN DETECTING FRAUDS--INTERESTING ANECDOTE OF ITS USE IN FABRICATING A FRAUD--FULLER'S CHARACTERIZATIONOF THE PAPERS OF DIFFERENT COUNTRIES--WHEN THE FIRST PAPER MILL WAS ESTABLISHED IN EUROPE FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF LINEN PAPER--DATE OF THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE FIRSTPAPER MILL IN AMERICA--WHO FIRST SUGGESTED WOOD AS A MATERIAL FOR MAKING PAPER--SOME NAMES OF AUTHORS ON THE SUBJECT OF PAPER--STORYOF RAG PAPER INSTRUCTIVE AS WELL AS INTERESTING.
WHEN it was that the great change occurred and true paper made of fibrous matter or rags reduced to a pulp in water was invented has been a subject of considerable thought and investigation. Munsell, in his "Chronology of Paper and Paper-Making," credits it to the Chinese, and estimates its date to be included in the first century of the Christian era. He observes:
"The Chinese paper is commonly supposed to be made of silk; but this is a mistake. Silk by itself cannot be reduced to a pulp suitable for making paper. Refuse silk is said to be occasionally used with other ingredients, but the greater part of the Chinese paper is made from the inner bark of the bamboo and mulberry tree, called by them the paper tree, hempen rags, etc. The latter are prepared for paper by being cut and well washed in tanks. They are then bleached and dried; in twelve days they are converted into a pulp, which is then made into balls of about four pounds weight. These are afterwards saturated with water, and made into paper on a frame of fine reeds; and are dried by being pressed under large stones. A second drying operation is performed by plastering the sheets on the walls of a room.
The sheets are then coated with gum size, and polished with stones. They also make paper from cotton and linen rags, and a coarse yellow sort from rice straw, which is used for wrapping. They are enabled to make sheets of a large size, the mould on which the pulp is made into paper being sometimes ten or twelve feet long and very wide, and managed by means of Pulleys.
"The Japanese prepare paper from the mulberry as follows: in the month of December the twigs are cut into lengths not exceeding thirty inches and put together in bundles. These fagots are then placed upright in a large vessel containing alkaline ley, and boiled till the bark shrinks so as to allow about a half an inch of the wood to appear free at the top. After they are thus boiled they are exposed to a cool atmosphere, and laid away for future use. When a sufficient quantity has been thus collected, it is soaked in water three or four days, when a blackish skin which covered it is scraped off. At the same time also the stronger bark which is of a full year's growth is separated from the thinner, which covered the younger branches, and which yields the best and whitest paper. After it has been sufficiently cleansed out and separated, it must be boiled in clear ley, and if stirred frequently it soon becomes of a suitable nature.
"It is then washed, a process requiring much attention and great skill and judgment; for if it be not washed long enough, although strong and of good body, will be coarse and of little value; if washed too long it will afford a white paper, but will be spongy and unfit for writing upon. Having been washed until it becomes a soft and woolly pulp, it is spread upon a table and beat fine with a mallet. It is then put into a tub with an infusion of rice and breni root, when the whole is stirred until the ingredients are thoroughly mixed in a mass of proper consistence. The moulds on which sheets are formed are made of reeds cut into narrow strips instead of wire, and the process of dipping is like that of other countries. After being allowed to remain a short time in heaps under a slight pressure, the sheets are exposed to the sun, by which they are properly dried.
"The Arabians in the seventh century appear to have either discovered or to have learned from the Chinese or Hindoos, quite likely from the latter, the art of making paper from cotton; for it is known that a manufactory of such paper was established at Samarcand about the year 706 A. D, The Arabians seem to have carried the art to Spain, and to have there made paper from linen and hemp as well as from cotton.
"The art of manufacturing paper from cotton is supposed to have found its way into Europe in the eleventh century. The first paper of that kind was made of raw cotton; but its manufacture was by the Arabians extended to old worn-out cotton, and even to the smallest pieces it is said. But as there are cotton plants of various kinds, it was natural that they should produce papers of different qualities; and it was impossible to unite their woolly particles so firmly as to form a strong substantial paper, for want of sufficient skill and proper machinery, using as they did mortars and rude horse-mills. The Greeks, it is said, made use of cotton paper before the Latins. It came into Germany through Venice and was called Greek parchment.
"The Moors, who were the paper-makers of Spain, having been expelled by the Spaniards, the latter, acquainted with water mills, improved the manufacture so as to produce a paper from cotton nearly equal to that made of linen rags."A chronology of paper relating to the earliest specimens of them can also be found in Munsell's work on that subject; several are here cited:
