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 business was not very successful; 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 thevast improvement which has taken place in all the mechanical arts of England since the era of Arkwright, 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, Russia, 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 vessels, whereby they underwent in reality a species of putrefaction. It is easy to see that the organic structure of the fibres would be thus unnecessarily 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 fineness; 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.Stuff-engineThe construction of thestuff-engineis represented infigs.785,786.Fig.785.is the longitudinal section, andfig.786.the plan of the engine. The large vat is an oblong cistern rounded at the angles. It is divided by the partitionb,b, and the whole inside is lined with lead. The cylinderc, is made fast to the spindled, which extends across the engine, and is put in motion by the pinionp, 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 woodkis placed. This is mounted with cutters like those of the cylinder, which in their revolution pass 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 depressing the bearings upon which the neckse,e, of the shaft are supported. These bearings rest upon two leversg,g, which have tenons at their ends, fitted into upright mortises, made in short beamsh,h, bolted to the sides of the engine. The one end ofthe leversg,g, is movable, while the other end is adapted to rise and fall upon bolts in the beamsh,h, as centres. The front lever, or that nearest to the cylinderc, is capable of being elevated or depressed, by turning the handle of a screw (not seen in this view), which acts in a nut fixed to the tenon ofg, and comes up through the top of the beamh, upon which the head of the screw takes its bearing. Two brasses are let into the middle of the leversg,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 ofi,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 blockkis 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 across 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 ofi, and round the partitionb,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.Block with teethThis 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 byfig.787.; but the teeth of the cylindercitself 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 successive degrees, so that any rags coming between them, are torn as if between the blades of a pair of forceps. Sometimes the bladeskin 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 necessarily have. The plates or blades are united by screwing them together, and fitting them into a cavity cut into the wooden blockk. 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 thewasher, 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. Thebeateris made in the same manner, except that each groove contains three bars and two fillets.In the operation of the cylinder, it is necessary 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 boxm,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 partitionb,b,fig.786.The diagonal linesm,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 undern,n, infig.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 upperginfig.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 thecylinder, 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 undern,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 pass 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, thefinisher; there is another, quite similar, placed at its end, but on a level with its surface, which is called thewasher, 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 calledhalf-stuff, and are then let down into the bleaching engine, and next into thebeatingengine, above described.By the arrangements of the mill gearing, the two cylinders of thewasherandbeaterengines 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 passes 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 mass, and stress 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 ofhalf-stuff. They are then discharged into a large basket, through which the water drains away.The bleaching is usually performed upon thehalf-stuff. At the celebrated manufactory of Messrs. 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 sliderso,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 mass, but not to triturate it. The water-cock is then opened, the boardsm,mare 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 pass 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 spissitude of stuff for making paper.For printing paper, thesizingis 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 vessel 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 vessel 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 ass, 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 across, about an inch and a half apart. Across 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 cross 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 awovemould 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 adeckel, 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 necessary. He now pushes the mould along the small board to the left, and removes the deckel. Here another workman called thecoucherreceives it, and places it at rest upon the ass, to drain off some of the water. Meanwhile thevat-manputs 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 press 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 presses 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 ass, 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 mass is drawn into the press, and exposed to a force of 100 tons or upwards. After it is sufficiently compressed, the machine is relaxed, and the elasticity of the flannel makes the rammer descend (if a hydraulic press be used) with considerable rapidity. The felts are then drawn out on the other side by an operative called alayer, who places each felt in succession upon one board, and each sheet of paper upon another. The coucher takes immediate possession 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 press, and subjected to moderate compression, in order to get quit of the mark of the felt, and more of the water. Next day it is all separated, a process called parting, and being again pressed, is carried into the loft. Fine papers are often twice parted and pressed, in order to give them a proper surface.The next operation is the drying, which is performed in the following way. Postsabout 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; passing 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 pressed out, and the paper is parted into sheets. After being once more pressed, 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 pressed 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 pressed, given to the finisher, to be counted into reams, and done up. These reams are compressed, tied up, and sent to the warehouse for sale. A good finisher can count 200 reams, or 96,000 sheets in a day.Hot pressing 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 press. 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 press, 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 process 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 thePaper-cutting Machine.In 1799, Louis Robert, then employed in the paper works of Essonne 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 ofBrevets 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 possession 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 theDictionnaire Technologique, 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 exclusivement 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, &c., 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 Messrs. Bryan Donkin & Co.:—Messrs. Canson, at Annonay.M. de la Place, at Jean d’Heures, Bar-le-duc.Société anonyme, at Sainte Marie, under M. Delatouche.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 Chantoiseau.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 progress of the paper automaton.M. Leger Didot, accompanied by Mr. John Gamble, an Englishman who had resided for several years in Paris, obtained permission 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 addressed 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, assigned these two patents to Messrs. 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 passed 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 passed in the House of Commons for 14 years, but it was limited by thisruseof Lord Lauderdale to 7, “who put the standing order upon the books (of the upper house) which prevented Messrs. 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, assigned over to Messrs. 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 possessed, in Mr. Hall’s engineering establishment, every tool requisite for constructing the novel automaton, and in his assistant 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 Messrs. Fourdrinier, the glory of rearing to a stately manhood the helpless 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 endless 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 meansto the progressive improvement of this admirable apparatus; and has, by the unfailing regularity, precision, promptitude, and productiveness of its work, earned for himself a place along with Watt, Wedgewood, and Arkwright, 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 rivalité 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 confess that in 1823 his country possessed only one manufactory of thepapier 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 loss. 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 possess many advantages: they can receive, so to speak, unlimited dimensions; they preserve a perfectly uniform thickness 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 less than one defective sheet out of every five. The continuous paper at one time retained the impression of the wire-wove web on its under side; a defect from which it has been freed by a pressure apparatus of Mr. Donkin, recently imported from England by M. Delatouche.”[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 Messrs. Fourdrinier had, by that time, withdrawn from their stationery business the large sum of 60,000l., 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.2Journeymen36220880109402Ditto26110060078002Finishers36220880109402Dry workers3622088010940Parters (none)Fire (none)Felting2400Washing, ditto500Wire200001Man, to keep in repair the mill and machine10000Total971603140734120£s.d.Expense of 7 vats per annum (seenext page), is2,604120A machine doing 7 vats’ work, is, per annum734120Balance saved by the machine per annum£1,87000N. B.—There are other advantages, to the amount of full 400l.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.7Vatmen, at33616627603541807Couchers31696251803361407Layers31696251803361403Finishers4031201480187406Dry-workers31511022402881203Men to go to press, &c.26250900117007Parters (women)1421601140145120Fire700280036400Felting14000Washing ditto, oil, soap, fire, &c.111666081180Moulds140001Man, and expenses of repairing, in keeping in order 7 vats, vat-presses, &c.11200Total41persons.42110170402,60400In the same statement, it was shown that the expense of making paper by hand is 16s.per cwt., whereas by their machine it is only 3s.9d.; 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 264,600l., or 345,600l.- 81,000l.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 4vats30betweenthedeckles7156ditto40dittoditto8458ditto44dittoditto94012ditto54dittoditto995If driven by wheels.3 or 4vats30betweenthedeckles7506ditto40dittoditto8808ditto44dittoditto98012ditto54dittoditto1,040“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 process of making paper by this machine, may be classed in the following order:—“1st. That the paper is much superior in strength, firmness, and appearance, to any which can be made by hand of the same material.“2d. It requires less drying, less pressing and parting, and consequently comes sooner to market; for it receives a much harder pressure from the machine than can possibly be given by any vat press, and is therefore not only drier, but, on account of the closeness and firmness 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 pressure, and the circumstance of one side of the paper passing under the polished surface of one of the pressing rollers, contribute to that smoothness which in hand-made papers can only be obtained by repeated parting and pressing; consequently a great part of the time necessarily 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 10l.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 accessions 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 accession 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 loss 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 unsuccessful, on account of some paltry technical objections made to their well-specified patent, by that unscientific judge Lord Tenterden. The piratical tricks practised by many considerable paper-makers against the patentees are humiliating to human nature in a civilized andsoi disantChristian community. Many of them have owned, since the bankruptcy of the house removed the fear of prosecution, that they owed them from 2000l.to 3000l.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 400,000l.per annum. The tissue paper made by the machine is particularly useful for communicating engraved impressions to pottery ware; before the introduction of which there was but a miserable substitute. Messrs. R. and J. Clewes, of Cobridge potteries, in a letter to Messrs. 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 impression; and the Staffordshire 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 tissue1209670Royal16312089“We have adopted a new mode of printing on china and earthenware, which, but for your improved system of making tissue paper, must have utterly failed; our patent machine requiring the paper in such lengths as were impossible 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 Messrs. Bryan Donkin and Co. in Bermondsey, and have never witnessed a more admirable assortment of exquisite and expensive tools, each adapted to perform its part with despatch and mathematical exactness, 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 Troughton, for the Royal Observatory of Greenwich, 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 1200l.to 2000l., 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. Eachmachine 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 thickness, it turns off 30 feet.
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 business was not very successful; 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 thevast improvement which has taken place in all the mechanical arts of England since the era of Arkwright, 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, Russia, 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 vessels, whereby they underwent in reality a species of putrefaction. It is easy to see that the organic structure of the fibres would be thus unnecessarily 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 fineness; 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.
Stuff-engine
The construction of thestuff-engineis represented infigs.785,786.Fig.785.is the longitudinal section, andfig.786.the plan of the engine. The large vat is an oblong cistern rounded at the angles. It is divided by the partitionb,b, and the whole inside is lined with lead. The cylinderc, is made fast to the spindled, which extends across the engine, and is put in motion by the pinionp, 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 woodkis placed. This is mounted with cutters like those of the cylinder, which in their revolution pass 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 depressing the bearings upon which the neckse,e, of the shaft are supported. These bearings rest upon two leversg,g, which have tenons at their ends, fitted into upright mortises, made in short beamsh,h, bolted to the sides of the engine. The one end ofthe leversg,g, is movable, while the other end is adapted to rise and fall upon bolts in the beamsh,h, as centres. The front lever, or that nearest to the cylinderc, is capable of being elevated or depressed, by turning the handle of a screw (not seen in this view), which acts in a nut fixed to the tenon ofg, and comes up through the top of the beamh, upon which the head of the screw takes its bearing. Two brasses are let into the middle of the leversg,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 ofi,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 blockkis 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 across 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 ofi, and round the partitionb,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.
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 byfig.787.; but the teeth of the cylindercitself 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 successive degrees, so that any rags coming between them, are torn as if between the blades of a pair of forceps. Sometimes the bladeskin 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 necessarily have. The plates or blades are united by screwing them together, and fitting them into a cavity cut into the wooden blockk. 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 thewasher, 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. Thebeateris made in the same manner, except that each groove contains three bars and two fillets.
In the operation of the cylinder, it is necessary 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 boxm,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 partitionb,b,fig.786.The diagonal linesm,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 undern,n, infig.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 upperginfig.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 thecylinder, 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 undern,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 pass 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, thefinisher; there is another, quite similar, placed at its end, but on a level with its surface, which is called thewasher, 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 calledhalf-stuff, and are then let down into the bleaching engine, and next into thebeatingengine, above described.
By the arrangements of the mill gearing, the two cylinders of thewasherandbeaterengines 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 passes 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 mass, and stress 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 ofhalf-stuff. They are then discharged into a large basket, through which the water drains away.
The bleaching is usually performed upon thehalf-stuff. At the celebrated manufactory of Messrs. 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 sliderso,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 mass, but not to triturate it. The water-cock is then opened, the boardsm,mare 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 pass 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 spissitude of stuff for making paper.
For printing paper, thesizingis 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 vessel 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 vessel 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 ass, 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 across, about an inch and a half apart. Across 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 cross 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 awovemould 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 adeckel, 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 necessary. He now pushes the mould along the small board to the left, and removes the deckel. Here another workman called thecoucherreceives it, and places it at rest upon the ass, to drain off some of the water. Meanwhile thevat-manputs 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 press 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 presses 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 ass, 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 mass is drawn into the press, and exposed to a force of 100 tons or upwards. After it is sufficiently compressed, the machine is relaxed, and the elasticity of the flannel makes the rammer descend (if a hydraulic press be used) with considerable rapidity. The felts are then drawn out on the other side by an operative called alayer, who places each felt in succession upon one board, and each sheet of paper upon another. The coucher takes immediate possession 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 press, and subjected to moderate compression, in order to get quit of the mark of the felt, and more of the water. Next day it is all separated, a process called parting, and being again pressed, is carried into the loft. Fine papers are often twice parted and pressed, in order to give them a proper surface.
The next operation is the drying, which is performed in the following way. Postsabout 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; passing 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 pressed out, and the paper is parted into sheets. After being once more pressed, 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 pressed 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 pressed, given to the finisher, to be counted into reams, and done up. These reams are compressed, tied up, and sent to the warehouse for sale. A good finisher can count 200 reams, or 96,000 sheets in a day.
Hot pressing 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 press. 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 press, 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 process 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 thePaper-cutting Machine.
In 1799, Louis Robert, then employed in the paper works of Essonne 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 ofBrevets 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 possession 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 theDictionnaire Technologique, 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 exclusivement 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, &c., 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 Messrs. Bryan Donkin & Co.:—
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.
[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 progress of the paper automaton.
M. Leger Didot, accompanied by Mr. John Gamble, an Englishman who had resided for several years in Paris, obtained permission 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 addressed 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, assigned these two patents to Messrs. 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 passed 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 passed in the House of Commons for 14 years, but it was limited by thisruseof Lord Lauderdale to 7, “who put the standing order upon the books (of the upper house) which prevented Messrs. 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.
[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, assigned over to Messrs. 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 possessed, in Mr. Hall’s engineering establishment, every tool requisite for constructing the novel automaton, and in his assistant 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 Messrs. Fourdrinier, the glory of rearing to a stately manhood the helpless 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 endless 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 meansto the progressive improvement of this admirable apparatus; and has, by the unfailing regularity, precision, promptitude, and productiveness of its work, earned for himself a place along with Watt, Wedgewood, and Arkwright, 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 rivalité 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 confess that in 1823 his country possessed only one manufactory of thepapier 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 loss. 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 possess many advantages: they can receive, so to speak, unlimited dimensions; they preserve a perfectly uniform thickness 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 less than one defective sheet out of every five. The continuous paper at one time retained the impression of the wire-wove web on its under side; a defect from which it has been freed by a pressure apparatus of Mr. Donkin, recently imported from England by M. Delatouche.”
[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.
[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 Messrs. Fourdrinier had, by that time, withdrawn from their stationery business the large sum of 60,000l., 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.
SEVEN VATS.
In the same statement, it was shown that the expense of making paper by hand is 16s.per cwt., whereas by their machine it is only 3s.9d.; 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 264,600l., or 345,600l.- 81,000l.
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.
“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 process of making paper by this machine, may be classed in the following order:—
“1st. That the paper is much superior in strength, firmness, and appearance, to any which can be made by hand of the same material.
“2d. It requires less drying, less pressing and parting, and consequently comes sooner to market; for it receives a much harder pressure from the machine than can possibly be given by any vat press, and is therefore not only drier, but, on account of the closeness and firmness 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 pressure, and the circumstance of one side of the paper passing under the polished surface of one of the pressing rollers, contribute to that smoothness which in hand-made papers can only be obtained by repeated parting and pressing; consequently a great part of the time necessarily 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 10l.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 accessions 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 accession 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 loss 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 unsuccessful, on account of some paltry technical objections made to their well-specified patent, by that unscientific judge Lord Tenterden. The piratical tricks practised by many considerable paper-makers against the patentees are humiliating to human nature in a civilized andsoi disantChristian community. Many of them have owned, since the bankruptcy of the house removed the fear of prosecution, that they owed them from 2000l.to 3000l.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 400,000l.per annum. The tissue paper made by the machine is particularly useful for communicating engraved impressions to pottery ware; before the introduction of which there was but a miserable substitute. Messrs. R. and J. Clewes, of Cobridge potteries, in a letter to Messrs. 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 impression; and the Staffordshire 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:—
“We have adopted a new mode of printing on china and earthenware, which, but for your improved system of making tissue paper, must have utterly failed; our patent machine requiring the paper in such lengths as were impossible 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 Messrs. Bryan Donkin and Co. in Bermondsey, and have never witnessed a more admirable assortment of exquisite and expensive tools, each adapted to perform its part with despatch and mathematical exactness, 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 Troughton, for the Royal Observatory of Greenwich, 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 1200l.to 2000l., 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. Eachmachine 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 thickness, it turns off 30 feet.