Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Volume 2.djvu/1073

 PAP

PAP

this being performed with a gentle and uniform motion, makes thole clouds and Undulations whereon much of the beauty of the paper depends.

If it be further dented to have the colours lie in any other fantaftical pofture, reprefenting ferpents or the like, it is effected with the pointed flick abovementioned, by draw- ing it over what has been already combed ; but this muft be done with a dexterous hand, and with a mallow dip into the liquor, circling as if you would draw fome flourifh, or figured letter.

Laftly, the colours being in this pofture, the operator dif- plays, and applys on them a meet of white paper, to do which, artift-like, requires a Height to be obtained only bv practice ; for that the furfaces of the liquor and the paper are to meet equally in all parts : which done, before the colours have time to foak through, which, unlefs the paper be very thick, will be in the fpace of two or three pulfes, he lifts up the paper nimbly, and with an even hand j and then fpreading it a while on a board, hangs it on a line to dry; which when fufficiently done, they po- lifh it with a marble ftone, or ivory knob. — It muft be obferved, that the fprinkling of the colours is to be renew- ed, and all the other ceremonies performed with the {tick and comb at every application of a frefh paper, by reafon every paper takes off all the colour from the liquor a.

' Fid. Kirch, de Luce & Umbra. 1. 10. Par. 2. C. 4. Merr. Ob- few. on Neri de art. Vitr. c. 42. p. 312. Hought. Collet!. T. '2. p. 419, feqq.

Some efTays have been made to inrich the marbling by mixing gold and filver with the colours, which fucceeded well, efpe- clally for the French King's Library, though the expence has hindered the practice from obtaining — Savar. ubi fupra. Chinefe Paper is of various forts; fome made of the rinds, or barks of trees, efpecially thofe aboundiug in fap, as the mulberry-tree, and elm, but chiefly of the bambu and cot- ton-tree. In reality, almoft each province has its feveral paper: that of Se-chwen is made of hemp; that of Fo- kyen, of foft bambu ; that ufed in the northern provinces, of the bark of the mulberry-tree : that of the province of Che-kyang, of wheat or rice ftraw ; that of the province of Kyang-nan, of the fkin found in the filkworms balls. In fine, in the province of Hu-quang, the tree chu, or ko- chu, fumifhes the principal material lor paper. For Papers made of the barks of trees; the manner of their preparation may be exemplified in the inftance of that of the bambu, a tree of the cane, or reed-kind, being hol- low, and divided into joints ; but much larger, fmoother, harder and ftronger than any other fort of reed. For paper they ordinarily only ufe the fecond coat or fkin of the bark, which is foft and white ; this they beat in fair water to a pulp, which they take up in very large moulds or frames, fo that they have meets ten or twelve foot long, and ibmetimes more. They are compleated by dipping them lheet by meet in allom-water, which ferves inftead of the fize ufed among us, and not only hinders the paper from imbibing the ink, but gives it that luftre, which at firft fight makes it look filvered, or at leaft varnifhed over. The paper thus made, is white, foft and clofe, without the leaft roughnefs to arreft the motion of the pencil, or occa- fion the rifing of any of its fibres. Though, being made of the bark of a tree, it cracks more eafily than the Eu- ropean paper : add, that it is more apt to take moifture, that the duff flicks to it, and that the worms foon get into it ; to prevent which laft inconveniency, they are obliged often to beat their books, and expofe them to the fun. Add, that its thinnefs making it liable to be foon worn out, the Chinefe are under a frequent neceflity of renewing their books, by frefh impreffions taken from their blocks b.

b Fid k Compt. Nowv y Mm. fur Chine. Lett. 7. Kuft. Bibl. nov. Libr. An. 1697. p. 67. feq". Lett. Edif. & Cur. T. 19. p. 479. But the paper of the bambu, it is to be obferved, is neither the beft, nor that moft ufed in China. In the former of thefe refpects, it yields the priority to the paper made of the cotton fhrub, which is the whitcft and fineft, and at the fame time leaft fubject to the inconveniencies above men- tioned ; for that it keeps as well, and is as durable as the European paper. — Dr. Grew thinks we have many plants in England, which contain a down that in all probability would make as fine a paper as that made by the Chinefe from their cotton fhrub. — By which it appears he mifra- kenly imagined that the Chinefe paper was made not from the rind of the cotton fhrub, but from the down or cot- ton itfelf. — fV.Grew Muf. Reg.Soc.Y.%. §. 1. c. 5. p.2i5. But the paper in moft common ufe in China, is that made of the tree called Chu-Ku, or Ku-Chu, which du Halde compares, firft to a mulberry-tree, then to a fig-tree, then to a iycamore-tree, and laftly, to increafe the embarrafs, to a ftrawberry-tree. — By all which, we know lefs of it than if he had faid nothing about it. But this is a way of .deicribing very familiar to that author, who is often ftrange- ly jejune in the midft of the utmoft prolixity, and is never more confufed and incoherent, than when he aims moft at order and exactnefs. But to return to the Ku-Chu. The method of preparing it for paper, is by firft fcraping off lightly the thin outfide bark of the tree, which is greenifh

then they take off the inner rind in long thin flips, which they blanch in water and the fun ; and afterwards prepare them in the fame manner as the bambu. It muft not be forgot, that in the other trees it is only the inward bark that ferves for making paper; but the bambu, as well as the cotton fhrub, have this peculiarity, that not only their bark, but their whole fubftance may be employed, by means of the following preparations. Out of a wood of the largeft bambu's, they felea moots of a year's growth, which are about the thicknefs of the calf of a man's leg: thefe they ftrip of their firft green rind, and fplit them into ftrait pieces of fix or feven foot long : the pieces thus cleft, they ftecp in a pond of muddy water, till they rot and grow foft by the maceration. In a fortnight, they take them out, warn them in clean water, fpread them in a large dry ditch, and cover them with lime for a few days; then take them out again, and having wafhed them a fecond time, flip them into filaments, which they expofe in the fun to dry and whiten ; then throw them, into large coppers, where they are thoroughly boiled ; and laftly reduce them by the ftrokes of large hammers to a thin pafte, or pulp.

Then they take fome fhoots of a plant called Ko-teng, foak them four or five days in water, till there come out an unc- tuous fizy fort of juice ; this they mix with the pulp of which the paper is to be made, fomewhat in the fame man- ner as painters temper their colours ; care being taken not to put in too much, nor too little of it, on which the goodnefs of the paper much depends.

When they have mixed the juice of Ko-teng with the cleft bambu, and beaten the whole till it refembles a thick clam- my water ; they pour it into a large deep refervoir, confilr- ing of four walls raifed breaft high, and the fides and bottom fo cemented, that the liquor cannot run out, nor foak in.

This being done, and the workmen placed at the fides of the refervoir, they dip in their moulds, and take up the furface of the liquor, which almoft inftantly becomes paper ; the mucilaginous and glewy juice of the Ko-teng binding the parts, and rendering the paper compact, foft, and glofly, qua- lities which the European/a^r isaftranger to when firft made. To harden the fheets, and make them bear ink, they dip them in allom-water ; this operation is called faning from the Chinefe word fan, which figiiifics allom. The man- ner is this.- — Six ounces of fifh-glue, cut very fmall, are put in divers porringers of water, which they afterwards boil up, ftiring it all the time to prevent lumps : when the whole is reduced to a liquid fubftance, they throw into it three quarters of a pound of calcined allom, which they melt and incorporate with it. This mixture is next poured into a wide bafon, acrofs which is laid a fmall round itick: then they fhut the edge of each lheet in another ftick cleft from end to end, and in this manner dip the fheet, gently drawing it out as foon as it is wetted, by Aiding it over the round ftick. When the whole fheet has palled nimbly through this liquor, which makes it whiter and more com- pact, the long ftick that holds the fheet by the edge, is ftuck in a hole in the wall, and the fheet hung up to dry. — For the mould wherewith they take up the fheet, its frame is fo contrived that it may be raifed or lowered at pleafure ; and its bottom is not made with wire as ours, but with little flender flips of bambu drawn feveral times through holes made in a fteel plate, whereby they are ren- dered as fine as wire : they are then boiled in oil till tho- roughly foaked, that the mould may enter lightly into the water, and not fink deeper than is requifite to take up matter enough for a fheet.

To make fheets of any extraordinary fize, care is taken to have a refervoir and mould large in proportion. This mould is fuftained by firings which pafs over a pulley ; the moment thefe pull up the frame, the workmen placed afide the re- fervoir, affift to take the fheet off; working together in a regular manner.

For drying the fheets when taken off, they have a hollow wall, whofe fides are well whitened: at one end hereof is . an aperture, through which, by means of a pipe, they convey the heat of a neighbouring furnace: and at the oppofite end is a fmall vent to let out the fmoke. By help of this fort of ftove, they dry the paper almoft as faft as it is made.

Silvering of paper is another fecret among the Chinefe, prac- tifed at a very fmall charge, and without ufing any filver. — In order to this, they take two fcruples of glue made of neats leather, one of allom, and half a pint of clean wa- ter ; thefe they fimmer over a flow fire, till the water Is confumed, that is, till no more fteam arifes; then on a fmooth table they fpread fome fheets of paper, and on this, with a pencil, apply two or three layers of the glue : then they take a powder made of talc boiled, and mixed with •j the quantity of allom : the two are ground together, lifted, and the powder boiled again in water, then dried in the fun, and laftly punded. — This powder they fift through a fine fieve, fpreading it uniformly on the fheets prepared as above : after which they hang them in the made to dry ; I and