French rags are 

 coarfe cotton. 



French paper for 

 copper plates. 



New aera in 

 paper making. 

 The bleaching 

 procefs by ox. 

 mur. acid. 



Coarft cotton rags 

 are brought to 

 an equality with 

 fine linen rags by 

 that procefs. 



A plentiful and 

 cheap fupply of 

 cotton rags. 



REMARKS ON TAPER MAKING. 



tuted our fuperiority. About the year 1789 and 90, certain 

 refpeclable Englifh paper makers endeavoured to take thefe 

 advantages to France. France apparently required them ; her 

 coarfe foul cotton rags were not made better by feparation 

 and aflbrtment ; her engines were deficient, and her mills 

 exhibited no mark of profperity, but every fy mptom of flo- 

 venly neglect. 



One fort of paper, notwithstanding the want of colour and 

 cleanlinefs, Aie excelled in, upon neceffity. I mean paper 

 for copper plate prints ; the necefTarily excelled becaufe her 

 flaple cotton rag being more bibulous, received better im- 

 preffions from the plate. This was the ftate of her paper 

 trade and mills in the year 1789. Before that period, (lie did 

 not confume all her own rags. We received a confiderable 

 part from the cellars of Dunkirk and Oftend, and from coun- 

 tries in her fouthern vicinity, Leghorn, &c. 



About this time a new aera in paper making commenced. 

 Chemiftry by her difciples, Scheele, Bertholiet, and Chaptal, 

 from a metallic oxide, folicited and directed the concentrated 

 and pure part of the atmofphere, oxigen, to remove with ex- 

 pedition the colouring part of cloth, or rags made from vege- 

 table fubfrances, fuch as flax, cotton, hemp, &c. An atten- 

 tion to the bell: bleaching procefs ought certainly to form a 

 material part of the confi derations in this Paper ; becaufe this 

 object, connected with a knowledge of the forts of rags fuit- 

 able for bleaching, and making printing paper, would give 

 that comprehenfion of the evil from which might be drawn 

 — not fteps of temporary and unavailing expedience, but folid 

 foundations of relief. 



The bufinefs under confideration is more intimately con- 

 nected with printing than with writing paper. The bleaching 

 gas is much better adapted to coarfe cotton rags than coarfe 

 linen or hempen rags ; becaufe the former is without ligneous 

 particles, and the latter abounds with them, and thefe parti* 

 cles, called by paper makers JJieaves, are made more confpi- 

 cuous by bleaching. The ftaple of our opponents the French, 

 conlifts in coarfe cotton rags. I can, if required, point out 

 places where depots mould be eftablifhed for affording an un- 

 limited fupply of fimilar cheap materials, and where each (hip, 

 by way of finifhing her lading, will take on board a conve- 

 nient number of bags. 



In 



