Class XVII.]
ORIGIN AND PROGRESS OF PAPER-MAKING.
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sonnes are the first quoted in relation to this manufac-ture.
In England the manufacture of paper was introducedmuch later,* and was imported from France . Yet itappears by verses, in a book printed in 1490 by Wynkynde Worde , under the title of Bartholomaeus de Proprieta-tibus rerum , that the paper had been made for it by JohnTate, jun., at his mill iu Stevenage, Hertfordshire . Pro-bably the manufacture was not successful, for it was in1558 that Queen Elizabeth granted to her jeweller, JohnSpelman , the right to erect a paper-mill, which was es-tablished at Dartford : this has been erroneously statedto have been the first put to work iu England. So lateas the middle of the last century, only very commonpaper, principally wrapping, was made in Great Britain.It was not until* 1770 that the celebrated J. 'Whatmanestablished fine paper-making at Maidstone, in Kent ,after his return from the Continent, where he hadworked as journeyman iu most of the principal paper-mills.
When the art of paper-making was first introducedinto Europe , parchment (sheepskin), or vellum (calf-skin), was used for -writing and printing. In place ofthese substances, paper was required to possess greaterstrength and solidity than that made of cotton ; it wastherefore manufactured of hemp and linen rags, notweakened by bleaching, according to the present mode,which, by removing the natural gum enveloping vege-table fibres, injures them more or less. It is remarkable,that these old papers, having been well-sized with gela-tine, preserve their original qualities to this day.
in 1750, Baskerville, to obviate the roughness of thelaid paper of that time, had it made on wove moulds ;his beautiful’edition of Virgil , 1757, is chiefly printedon this wove paper. This attracted the attention of M.Ambroise Didot, who employed M. Johannot, of An-nonav, to make similar paper, which he called “ vellumpaper” (papier v€lui ).f Until that period the rags werereduced to pulp by means of stampers, a slow process,requiring considerable motive power; to remedy this,cylinders with sharp steel blades for tearing the ragswere invented in Holland, where the windmills, thenused for giving power, were found inadequate to putthese stampers in regular and constant motion. Hollandstill maintains a high reputation for its hard-sized hand-made laid writing-papers, as was shown by those exhibitediu the Dutch Department.
At the end of the last century (1799), the first trialwas made at Essonnes, in France , in the paper-mill ofM. Francois Didot, of a machine for making continuouspaper. It was the invention of M. Robert, a workmaniu that establishment, who obtained a patent for 15 years,and a sum of 8,000 francs from the French Government.Some sheets of paper iu continuous lengths were thenmade; but the troubles in which France was involvedat that time caused delay in the necessary experiments,which were both tedious and expensive. As soon as thePeace of Amiens restored intercourse with England, M.Didot, jun., convinced of the great utility of the inven-tion, came over with it to seek in England what was thenwanting in France —capital engineers and enterprisingpaper-manufacturers; he was accompanied by Mr. JohnGamble, his brother-in-law, who had resided severalyears in Paris . Having obtained patents in England,one in 1801, and the other in 1803, they were assignedto Messrs. Henry and Sealy Fonrdrinier in 1804. Dart-ford, in Kent , was selected as the place best adapted forrealizing the patentees’ plans, and Mr. Hall’s establish-ment as the fittest engineering concern for that purpose.In that manufactory, Mr. Bryan Donkin , since so cele-brated as a paper-machine maker, was employed; andto this gentleman the credit of perfecting the paper-machine is maiuly due. In 1803, after intense applica-tion, Mr. Donkin produced a self-acting machine, or
* See the argument of Pc Thou, in favour of the 24 swornbooksellers. — Parliament Records , 17th January 1564.
f The first specimen is in one of the volumes of the col-lection which he printed for Mons. le Comte d’Artois(Charles X .).
working model, which he erected at Frogmore, in Hert-fordshire ; and in 1804, he put up the second machine atTwo Waters, which was completely successful; and themanufacture of continuous paper became one of the mostuseful discoveries of the age. In the first ten years from1803, Messrs. Donkin made and set to work 13 paper-machines; in the second ten years they put up 25; andin the present year, 1851, Messrs. Donkin and Co. aremaking their 191st machine. Of these S3 have beenmade for Great Britain, 23 for France, 46 for Germany ,22 for the North of Europe, 14 for Italy and the Southof Europe, 2 for America in 1826, and 1 for Mr. Marsh-man, for India , in 1S25. The first machine made bythem for Frauee was sent to M. Canson, in 1822; thesecond, in 1823, to M. Maupeau ; and the third, in 1825,to M. Didot. The first machine made by Messrs.Donkin for Germany was in 181S, for the PrussianGovernment, sent to Berlin ; the second, in 1823, forM. Rauch, of Ileilbronn. The first machine sent toRussia was in 1835, for Moscow . In 1837, one for theBank of Poland, sent to Warsaw. In 1805, Mr. Donkin altered the position of the cylinders, so as to dispensewith the use of the upper web, an improvement bywhich the machine was much simplified—the paper onthe web being slightly pressed before passing throughthe pressing rollers — thus an all-important advantagewas attained.
In 1809, Mr. Dickinson, paper-maker, invented anothermethod of making endless paper. It consists in causinga polished hollow brass cylinder, perforated with holes orslits, and covered with wire-cloth, to revolve over and incontact with the prepared pulp; the cylinder being con-nected with a vessel from which the air has been ex-hausted, the film of pulp adheres to the hollow cylinder.It is then turned off continuously upon a solid onecovered with felt, upon which it is condensed by thepressure of a third revolving cylinder, and is thencedelivered to the drying rollers.—See Ure’s Dictionary,article Puper-mahimj . In 1826, M. Canson, of An-nonay, first applied suction-pumps to the Didot andFourdrinier machines. He kept it secret for six years,and in 1832, communicated it to Messrs. Wyse andMiddleton.
In 1836, Mr. Brown, of Esk Mills, near Fklinburgh,obtained a patent for applying suction-pumps to theFourdrinier machine. He places a rectangular box trans-versely beneath the horizontal wire-cloth, without theinterposition of any perforated covering.
In April 1839, Mr. T. B. Crompton took out letters-patent for producing a partial and continual vacuumunder the wire by means of a fan; and a uniform rare-faction is obtained by this arrangement. It has beensuccessfully applied since that period at his extensivemills, Farnworth, near Bolton , Lancashire.
The first machine for continuous paper actually madein France was constructed at Sorel, near Anet, by Messrs.Berte and Gre'venich, under the directions of M. Didot,who had obtained a patent in France . M. Calla, an in-genious French mechanic, was the maker. The machinesfirst made in France were very inferior to those made byMessrs. Donkin, consequently lie supplied the principalpaper-makers in that country with machines made by himin England.
Notwithstanding the great benefits derived by the per-fection of the Dtdot and Fourdrinier paper-machines,and the immense quantities of paper produced by thesemachines, it was not till 1821 that the advantages of thisinvention were fully developed. This was effected byMr. T. B. Crompton, who took out a patent on the 1st ofNovember 1820, for “ drying and finishing paper bymeans of a cloth or cloths, against heated cylinders, andthe application of a pair of shears to cut the paper offinto suitable lengths, as it comes from the machine orrollers.” The old tedious and expensive process ot dryingin lofts was no longer necessary. The paper was muchbetter finished and cut than had been found possible untilthis improvement. Through the imperfection of thepatent laws of that period a number of persons eventuallysucceeded in setting aside Mr. Crompton’s patent.