PAPER AND PAPER STANDARDS. 401 



pound of raw material taken into work? and (2) as regards 

 quality (of manufactured product) : Is this regulated by 

 normal standards combined with systematic records ? The 

 above being the scientific conditions of routine production. 



And then (3) as regards improvements and discoveries : 

 Are you organised not only to take note of all forward 

 movements from outside, but to ensure a proportionate 

 probability of personally securing a lead in the large techni- 

 cal advances which are being made and to be made ? The 

 manufacturer, in other words, must seek first the kingdom 

 of technology, and all the details of large profits will be 

 duly added. 



Our friend, the unconverted paper-maker, smiles. We 

 know that smile. It is the smile of the man who would 

 sleep a little longer. 



And what of the consumer of paper? His name is 

 legion and it is of little avail to work for a universal public 

 opinion upon such a subject. We can only make our 

 appeal to those who can mould or constitute such a stress 

 of opinion or judgment as shall gradually bring about a 

 reform which in other countries can be determined from the 

 head-quarters of a parental government. It will be enough 

 to convey to scientific men that there is a large field of use- 

 ful and extremely interesting work to be done in bringing 

 science to bear upon the vastly important industry of paper. 



As for special problems, they are innumerable and the 

 solutions are at hand. 



To return to our "ideal" Bank of England note. We 

 can produce that gelatine-free, i.e., nitrogen-free; similarly 

 our water-colour or drawing papers, our photographic 

 papers, can be produced with at least this safeguard against 

 mould and bacterial growth ; our " Art papers " can be pro- 

 duced with something less than 30-40 per cent, of mineral 

 matter or " filling," and we can make papers adapted to a 

 hundred and one of the uses to which it is not as yet 

 applied. 



What a blessing that the absurd phrase fin de siecle 

 has already begun to pass into the limbo of antiquities ! 

 Probably also in the next century we shall have no 



