Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Volume 2.djvu/1071

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Books in large paper, are thofe which have wider margins than thofe on fmall paper, though otherwife of the fame im- preffion. See Book, Impression, £aV. The manufacture of paper, has got footing in moft coun- tries ; though France, Holland, and Genoa, are the places where it fucceeds beft. In the general, it depends much on the quality of the linen worn in the country where it is made : where that is fine, or coarfe, and brown, &c. the rags, and confequently the paper made thereof, muft be fo too. Hence the whitenefs of the Dutch and Flemifh papers, beyond the Italian and French, and much more the Ger- man papers. The Englifh manufacture hitherto has been in no great reputation j but it is every day improving ; infomuch that we now import little of the ordinary forts, which were formerly all brought from abroad. Yet paper-mills are of fome ftanding among us. "We find one erected at Dartford as early as the year 1588, which we believe was the firft, and which is celebrated by a noted poet of that age, Tho. Churchyard, in a work in verfe, intitled, A defcription and difcourfe of paper, and the benefits it brings ; with the Jetting forth of a paper-mill built near Dartford, by a High-German, called Mr. Spilman, jeweller to the queen, Lond. 1588, 4 . In reality, the deficiency of the Englifh paper -manufacture, does not feem owing fo much to the quality of our rags, as the want of fkill and attention in the makers. The encou- ragement given it by the legislature, in the high duty laid on foreign paper imported, we hope it will in time deierve. How confiderable this is, will appear from the following ftate. — Genoa royal fine paper, pays per ream, js. yd. £.— Genoa royal fecond, 6j. lod. £, — Fine Holland royal js. jd.i. — Fine Holland fecond, 5s. — Ordinary royal, is. td. —Genoa demy fine, 3*. lod. j. — Genoa demy fecond, 31. id. j. — Dutch printing demy, 31. \d. j. — Genoa crown fine, 3J. id. j. — Genoa crown fecond, 2 s. 4<r/. £.■ — Dutch crown fine, 2s, \d. £, — Dutch crown fecond, is. — Genoa fool's cap fine, 3J, id. \. — Genoa fool's cap fecond, is. $d. £. — Dutch printing fool's cap, is. — Atlas fine, 28$. lod. When and by whom linen paper was invented, is a fecret, which Polydore Virgil owns he could never trace 3. Scali- ger will have it to have been found out by the Germans b : Maffei affirms it certain, that the invention is owing to the Italians c. Others afcribe it to fome refugee Greeks at Ba- fil, who took the hint from the manner of making cotton paper in their own country d. Conringius takes the Arabs to have firft brought it among us e. Perhaps the Chinefe have the beft title to the invention; who for many ages have made paper much after the fame manner f, and even in fome provinces of the fame materials, viz. hemp, Wf. &. a Fid. Polyd. Virg. de Inventor. Rer. 1. 2. C. 8. — b Fid. Secund.

Scaliger, p. 7. Fabric. Bib/, dtttiq. c. 9. §. 21. — c Ifior.

Diplom. 1. 2. Bib/. Ital. T. 2. p. 253.—" Fid. Phil. Tranf.

N° 288. p. 1515. — e Fid. Conringian. Epifi. ap. Aft. Erud.

Lip/. An. 1720, p. 94. — f Savar. D. Comm. T. 2. p. 963. —

e Du Hald. Defer. Chin. T. 1. p. 367. Linen paper appears to have been firft introduced among us towards the beginning of the XlVth century. — The learned Conringius denies that there are many manufcripts of this paper above 400 years old h ; with whom agrees the count Maffei, who finds no marks of its ufe before the year 1300 '. h Fid. Conring. Epifi. ap. Aft. Erud. Lipf. An. 1720, p. 94. —

1 Maffei Iftor. Diplom. 1. 2. Bibl. Ital. T. 2. p. 253. Some indeed go much further back ; and take the libri lintei mentioned by Livy, and other Roman writers, to have been written on linen paper k : but Guilandinus, and after him ' Allatius and others, have fufficiently refuted this notion ; and fhewn, that the libri lintei were written on actual pieces of linen cloth, or canvas, prepared for this purpofe, fuch as painters ftill ufe ; and not on paper made of linen rags '. k Fid. Liv. Dec. 1. 1. 4. Plin. Hiji. Nat. 1. 13. c. 11. Pitifc.

L. Ant. T. 2. p. 85.— 1 Guiland. Papyr. Memb. 25. Salmuth

adPaneirol. 1. 2. tit. 13. p. 253. Others run into the contrary extreme, and make paper the invention but of yefterday. The jefuit Inchofer, dates its origin about 250 years ago m ; with whom agrees Milius in his Hortus Philofophicus, who maintains, that the art of making paper was not invented till about the year- 1470 n. In effect, if the invention be owing to the refugee Greeks at Bafil, who fled thither after the facking of Conftantino- ple, it muft at Jeaft be pofterior to the year 1452, when that city was taken °. Some add a further argument for the no- velty of paper, drawn from the novelty of hempen cloth, which Rabelais, who died in 1553, mentions as firft found out about an hundred years before him ; and which was fo fcarce in the time of Charles VII. of France, who died in 1461, that the queen his wife, was the only woman in France that had a couple of fhifts of it p. » Fid. Mabill. de Re Diplmn. 1. 1. c. 8. Reimm. Idea Syji. An-

tiq. Liter, p. 313, feq.— ■ Balbin. Mifcell. Hift. Bohem. c. 22.

A£i. Erud. Lipf 1682. p. 243. — "Phil, %-anf. N° 288. p.

1515— p Naudsan. p. 82. Nowv. Rep. Let. T. 26. p. 571. But thefe fuggeftions are refuted by Mabillon, from the tef- timonies of writers prior to the time here fpoken of, and from many manufcripts about 400 years old, which are written on Linen paper p. The jefuit Balbinus produces divers Inftances of paper MSS. written before the year 1340". An ingenious writer of our own country afliires

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us, he had a piece of paper which agreed well with a char- ter dated in 1358, in the 32 d year of Edward III. He adds, that in the archives of the library belonging to the dean and chapter of Canterbury, is an inventory of the goods of Henry, prior of Chrift Church, who died in 1340, written on paper; and that in the Cotton Library there are feveral writings on our paper in the times of moft of our kings and queens as high as the 15 th of Edward III. which coincides with the year 1335". p Mabill. he. cit. — i Balbin. lib. cit.-— ■ Phil. Trattf. N° 288.

Add, that the invention of paper may appear more mo- dern than it is, by reafon records were not ufed to be wrote on it, but it was a confiderable time confined to letters, and other fugacious compofitions ; which is, fo true, that to this day, few inftruments of any confequence are written on it, though it have been fo long in ufe. — It is even alledged, that Peter, the venerable abbot of Cluny, who died in 1 157, has a paffagein his book againft the Jews, which plainly indi- cates paper books to have been then known ; on the autho- rity whereof Valefius, in his notes on the panegyrick of Be- rengarius Auguftus, fcruples not to make paper upwards of 500 years old. — Fid. Mabill. ubifup. Reimm. he. cit. Father Hardouin even aflures us, he had feen records or diploma's on it prior to the XIII ltl century. — But this will hardly be credited. Count Maffei aflures us, that in all his refearches he could never meet with one more ancient than the year 1367. It is highly probable the learned je- fuit miftook a cotton manufcript for a linen one : a mif- take eafily made, as the chief difference between the two confifts in the greater thinnefs of the linen paper. But it is known we have linen papers of very different degrees of thicknefs ; and the like may be faid of thofe of cotton. — Vid. Maffei IJlor. Diplom. 1. 2. Bibl. Ital. T. 2. p. 253, feq.

Method of ?na king Linen Paper. — The procefs begins with preparing the rags. — Thefe when brought to the paper-mills are firft to be forted into what they call the grobin fine, gro- bin fecond, and grobin tres : for among the reft will be fome linfey-woolfey, which the dirt makes indifcoverable till they are once warned.— The way of wafhing, is by putting them in a puncheon with many holes in the bottom, and grates on the fide made of ftrong wires. Here are the rags to be often ftirred, that the dirt may run from them. When fufficiently wafhed, they are laid hi fquare heaps, and covered clofe with pieces of clean facking, till they truly fweat and rot, which is called fermenting, and is ufually performed in four or five days; if they be not taken in the due time, they are apt to mildew, difcolour, and take fire. When duly fermented, they twfft them in handfuls, then cut them with a fharp hook fet faft in a frame, with the point upwards, and edge from the workman ; ftill draw- ing them upwards, and cutting them piece by piece about half inch long, or as the fingers will allow. With the rags thus prepared, they prime or feed the mor- tars, which are made oval, about half a yard deep, of heart of oak right feafon'd. At the bottom of each is an iron plate an inch thick, eight inches broad, and thirty long; fhaped inward like a mould for a falmon with head and tail rounded. In the middle is a wafhing block grooved with five holes in it, and a piece of hair fieve fattened on the infide. This keeps the hammers from touching it, and prevents any thing going out except filthy water. The mortars are fupplied with water night and day by little troughs, from a ciftern fed by buckets fixed to the feveral floats of a wheel, fo long as the wheel goes. In thefe mortars the rags being beaten fit for a remove to the prefles juft by, they take them out with little iron hoop- ed pails, out of any of the mortars, whofe hammer they can ftop whilft the others work. — This makes what they

- call the firfi fluff.

From the mortars, this firft ftuff is lodged in boxes of five foot high, made like the corn-chandlers bins, with the bot- tom board a-flant, and a little feparation on the front for the water to drain away.— The pulp of rags being in, they take away as many of the front boards as are needful, and prefs the mafs down hard with their hands: the next day they put on another board and more pulp, till the box is full. And here it remains mellowing a week, more or lefs, according to the weather.

In the whole procefs-, there muft be no iron work where it may be liable to grow rufty, which would ironmould the ftuff, and fpoil the paper.

After this, the ftuff is again put into clean mortars, beaten afrefh, and removed into boxes as before ; in which ftate it is called the fecond fluff.

The like underftand of the third time, which fits it for the pit mortar, when it is again beaten, till fome of it being mixed with fair water, and brewed to and fro, appears like flower and water without any lumps in it. Thus prepared, it is fit for the pit mortar which has flat hammers without nails. Into this, by a trough, runs wa- ter continually whilft they work at the fat ; and here the beating and water diffolves it perfectly : after which it is carried into the fat, and more is brought from the Boxes. — And thus they do fucceffively. The