94 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



THE FIRST GERMAN PAPER-MAKER. 



By EDUAED GEOSSE. 



" TN the name of Christ, amen. Anno Domini 1390, I, Ulman 

 -L Stromer, started at making paper on St. John's day at the 

 Solstice, and began to set up a wheel in the Gleissmiihle, and 

 Clos Obsser was the first who came to work." 



So said Ulman Stromer, undoubtedly the first German paper- 

 maker, in his notes which are still preserved. Five hundred 

 years have passed since then, and the art of paper-making can 

 look back on as long a period of earnest effort and profitable 

 work. When Ulman Stromer so long ago established paper-mak- 

 ing in Germany he had no foresight of the important position 

 paper was destined to assume in the civilization of man. In book- 

 printing, and outside of it, it is the most efficient agent in the 

 advancement of the race, and has become a supreme necessity. 

 It is the foundation of the book and newspaper arts, the indis- 

 pensable aid of science and instruction, as well as of commercial 

 and social intercourse. In short, it so governs our whole age that 

 hardly anything could be thought of without paper in its present 

 shape. 



It was different in Ulman Stromer's time. Paper was then a 

 rare material, little used, and only to be found in the offices of the 

 learned, of scribes, and of officers. The supply of Germany and of 

 all northern Europe was brought from Italy and Spain, most of 

 it from the factories of Fabriano in Italy, where paper-mills ex- 

 isted in the twelfth century, while a lively paper industry flour- 

 ished in Spain, with its principal seat at San Felipe in Valencia, 

 as early as 1150. The paper-making art was introduced into both 

 of these lands by the Arabs, who learned it in Samarcand and 

 spread it through Europe. It was introduced into Samarcand in 

 751 by Chinese prisoners from their country, where it had been 

 carried on from extremely ancient times. It is believed that the 

 Chinese were making paper at the beginning of the Christian 

 era, while the civilized lands of the West had still no other writ- 

 ing material than the Egyptian papyrus, which was not equal to 

 the Chinese paper in quality and serviceableness, and parchment 

 prepared from skins, the high price of which prohibited its gen- 

 eral and free use. 



The mercantile houses of Germany had trade relations with 

 Italy at an early date. German merchants made trading jour- 

 neys there, and sent their sons to Italian universities, or to Venice 

 and other marts to learn business. We must therefore suppose 

 that the paper-maker's art was not wholly unknown to the Ger- 

 mans, and that individual dealers had had opportunities to visit 



