THE FIRST GERMAN PAPER-MAKER. g7 



probably an intermediary of trade between the southern and 

 northern countries. In his journeys to Italy he became ac- 

 quainted with the paper-mills, and observing the prosperity of 

 the Fabrianos, Cividales, and Battaglias, recognized the immense 

 importance of the trade. It was a short step to decide to estab- 

 lish a paper-mill at home. There being no paper-makers in Ger- 

 many, he secured the brothers Marco and Francisco di Marchia 

 and their boy Bartolomeo in Italy and brought them to Nurem- 

 berg. He built his mill in the so-called Gleissmiihle, which was 

 situated not far from Nuremberg, near the present Hallerniese. 

 Whether he built a new mill or only adapted an old grist-mill or 

 oil-mill, of which we know nothing, he had to prepare new ma- 

 chinery for paper-making, including stamps, presses, and tubs, 

 and sorting and drying rooms. Notwithstanding these apparatus 

 were of the simplest character, their construction required con- 

 siderable time, for work was done more slowly in those days 

 than now. When, therefore, Stromer reports that he began 

 paper-making on St. John's day, we must suppose either that 

 months or years had been spent before that in hard work, or that 

 he did not begin the actual making of paper, but only the build- 

 ing of his mill, on that St. John's day. The latter seems, in fact, 

 to have been the case, for Stromer says that it was then that he 

 set the wheel — that is, the water-wheel by which the stamping 

 machine was propelled. 



The view of the interior of an old German paper-mill in the 

 year 1568 (Fig. 2) is taken from a woodcut by Jost Amman. In 

 the left background are seen through the window the paddles 

 and upper part of two water-wheels, which, moved by the stream 

 without, drive the works within, especially the large roller that 

 lies against the wall. This, it may be seen, is furnished with 

 projecting beaters which are designed to hit upon the knee-bent 

 stamps visible in front, and work them up and down. The heavy 

 stamps lie with their hammer-shaped ends in a rectangular trough, 

 in which the rags are placed after having been cut up and macer- 

 ated. These stamps, with their heavy blows on the rags, beat 

 them till the cloth and its threads are resolved into a fine lint, 

 which, bleached, washed, and mixed with an adhesive substance, 

 are carried, a semi-fluid mass, into the draw-tubs. The paper- 

 maker draws the pulp from them with a rectangular metallic 

 sieve, and, while the water is dripping out through the meshes 

 in the bottom, he shakes the fibrous mass that is left till it lies 

 smoothly on the wire-work, felted into an even, homogeneous leaf. 

 This is the still moist paper, which now laid between felts is 

 placed in the powerful press that is seen behind the workman, 

 and freed from water and made smooth. When this is done, the 

 sheet is taken out of the press, carried in piles by apprentices to 



TOL. XLII. V 



