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MANUFACTURE] of the coinage, it rose, in common with all other commodities, to nearly 4d. the quire, and to rather more than 5s. the ream. The relatively higher price of the ream in this last period, as compared with that of the quire, seems to imply a more extensive use of the material which enabled the trader to dispose of broken bulk more quickly than formerly, and so to sell by the quire at a comparatively cheap rate.

Brown paper appears in entries of 1570–1571, and was sold in bundles at 2s. to 2s. 4d. Blotting paper is apparently of even earlier date, being mentioned under the year 1465. It was a coarse, grey, unsized paper, fragments of which have been found among the leaves of 15th-century accounts, where it had been left after being used for blotting. Early in the i6th century blotting-paper must have been in ordinary use, for it is referred to in W. Herman’s Vulgaria, 1519 (p. 80 b): “Blottyng papyr serveth to drye weete wryttynge, lest there be made blottis or blurris”; and early in the next century “charta bibula” is mentioned in the Pinacotheca (i. 175) of Nidus Erythraeus. It is remarkable that, in spite of the comparatively early dale of this invention, sand continued generally in use, and even at the present day continues in several countries in fairly common use as an ink absorbent.

A study of the various water-marks has yielded some results in tracing the different channels in which the paper trade of different countries flowed. Experience also of the different kinds of paper and a knowledge of the water-marks (the earliest of which is of about the year 1282) aid the student in fixing nearly exact periods of undated documents. European paper of the 14th century may generally be recognized by its firm texture, its stoutness, and the large size of its wires. The water-marks are usually simple in design; and, being the result of the impress of thick wires, they are therefore strongly marked. In the course of the 15th century the texture gradually becomes finer and the water-marks more elaborate. While the old subjects of the latter are stiU continued in use, they are more neatly outlined, and, particularly in Italian paper, they are frequently enclosed in circles. The practice of inserting the full name of the maker in the water-mark came into fashion early in the i6th century. But it is interesting to know that for a very brief period in the 14th century, from about 1307 to 1320, the practice actually obtained at Fabriano, but was then abandoned in favour of simple initial letters, which had already been used even in the 13th century. The date of manufacture appears first in the water-marks of paper made in 1545. The variety of subjects of water-marks is most extensive. Animals, birds, fishes, heads, flowers, domestic and warUke implements, armorial bearings, &c., are found from the earUest times. Some of these, such as armorial bearings, and national, provincial or personal cognizance’s, as the imperial crown, the crossed keys or the cardinal’s hat, can be attributed to particular countries or districts; and the wide dissemination of the paper bearing these marks in different countries serves to prove how large and international was the paper trade in the 14th and 15th centuries.

In the modern sense “paper” may best be described as a more or less thin tissue composed of any fibrous material, whose individual fibres, first separated by mechanical action, are then deposited and felled together on wire cloth while suspended in water (see ). The main constituent in the structure of all plants is the fibre or cellulose which forms the casing or walls of the different cells; it is the woody portion of the plant freed from all foreign substances, and forms, so to speak, the skeleton of vegetable fibre to the amount of 75 to 78%. Its forms and combinations are extremely varied, but it always consists of the same chemical elements, carbon, hydrogen and oxygen, and in the same proportions. It is the object of the paper-maker to eliminate the glutinous, resinous, siliceous and other inter cellular matters and to produce the fibre as pure and as strong as possible. Linen and cotton rags, having already undergone a process of manufacture, consist of almost pure fibres with the addition of fatty and colouring matters which can be got rid of by simple boiling under a low pressure of steam with a weak alkaline solution; but the substitutes for rags, esparto, wood, straw, &c., being used as they come from the soil, contain all the inter cellular matter in its original form, which has to be dissolved by strong chemical treatment under a high temperature. The vegetable fibre or cellulose, being of a tougher and stronger nature, is untouched by the action of caustic soda (which is the chemical generally employed for the purpose), unless the treatment be carried too far, whilst animal fibres or other organic matters are rendered soluble or destroyed by it. The cellulose, after its resolution by chemical treatment, is still impregnated with insoluble colouring matters, which have to be eliminated or destroyed by treatment with a solution of chlorine or bleaching powder. The object of the paper-maker in treating any one particular fibre is to carry the action of the dissolving and bleaching agents just so far as to obtain the fibre as free from impurities and as white in colour as is desired. The usefulness of a plant for a good white paper depends upon the strength and elasticity of its fibres, upon the proportion of cellular tissue contained in them, and upon the ease with which this can be freed from the encrusting and inter cellular matters. Although experiments had previously been made with many fibrous materials, paper was made in Europe, until the middle of the 19th century, almost entirely from rags, either linen or cotton. At that period other fibres began to be adopted as substitutes, due in part, no doubt, to insufficient supply of rags for the increasing consumption of paper, and to the consequent rise in price. The most important of these substitutes are esparto-grass, wood and straw, and these, together with flax (linen), hemp, jute and cotton rags, form the principal raw material for the manufacture of paper.

Paper was first entirely made by hand, sheet by sheet, but in 1798 the invention of the paper machine by Louis Robert, a clerk in the employ of Messrs Didot, of the Essonne Paper Mills in France, gave a new impetus to the industry. The invention was introduced into England by Henry Fourdrinier (1766–1854), the proprietor of a mill at Dartford in Kent. He secured the assistance of Bryan Donkin (1768–1855), an engineer, and after much toil and perseverance, attended with great expense, for which he received no recompense, succeeded in 1803 in erecting a machine at Frogmore, Herts, which worked comparatively well. This machine, by the subsequent improvements of Dickinson, Causon, Crompton and others, has been brought to the state of perfection in which it now stands. It embraces a multitude of most ingenious and delicate operations, and produces in a few minutes, and in one continuous process from the prepared pulp, sheets of paper ready for use. Machine-made paper has now gradually supplanted that made by hand for all except special purposes, such as bank-note, ledger, drawing and other high-class papers—in one word, in cases where great durability is the chief requisite.

The various uses to which paper is put in the present day are multitudinous, but the main classes may be grouped into four: (1) writing and drawing papers; (2) printing and newspapers; (3) wrapping papers; (4) tissue and cigarette papers.

The process of paper manufacture consists of two main divisions: (1) the treatment of the raw material, including cleaning, dusting, boiling, washing, bleaching and reducing to pulp;