98 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



the drying-ground, there hung on lines, froni which it is taken 

 when dried and is then smoothed again. Such in brief outline 

 was the method of the old paper-makers, which has now, of course, 

 been greatly modified and substantially supplanted by the inven- 

 tion of paper-making machinery. Stromer's first assistant, Clos 

 Obsser, was probably not a skilled paper-maker, but a carpenter, 

 who came to fix the water-wheel, while the real paper-making 

 could not be begun till this was done and the stamps were in 

 working order. This was apparently in August, 1390, for on the 

 7th of that month Stromer swore his assistant Clos Obsser to 

 fidelity and to keep the secret of the art of paper-making, as he 

 did regularly afterward with all his workmen when they began. 



The pledge of assistants to secrecy was an old custom which 

 was observed in different trades. It was particularly usual then 

 when working methods were still little known and assistants 

 initiated into the secrets might, by means of their knowledge, 

 injure their employer by inducing an unwelcome competition. 

 Such a danger lay before the Stromer mill. There were as yet no 

 paper-makers in Germany. The process was known only in the 

 southern countries, and Stromer, as a substantial business man, 

 desired to prevent his workmen revealing the secrets of the art or 

 setting up competitions. He therefore made himself secure by an 

 oath from his men and by written contracts. He administered an 

 oath of this kind in the presence of his son Jorg to Clos Obsser 

 on the 7th of August ; and a few days later to another workman 

 named Jorg Tirman, recording the fact in a note : " Anno Domini 

 1390, on the day after St. Lawrence's day (11th of August) Jorg 

 Tirman gave me his pledge, and swore with upraised fingers an 

 oath to hold his trust, to be true to me and my heirs, to further 

 our advantage and keep harm from us, truly without any com- 

 rades. He is for ten years to engage in no work in paper-making 

 except for me or my heirs, to whom I leave the paper-mill ; and 

 when the prescribed ten years have passed, he may make paper 

 for himself but not for anybody else. For this he has a permit 

 from my own hand." Stromer imposed a similar oath on the 

 Italians Marco and Francisco di Marchia and their boy Bartolo- 

 meo, and added the provision that they should not give either 

 advice or help in the introduction of Italian paper-making in any 

 countries on the hither side of the mountains of Lombardy. A 

 copy of the oath was made, attested by five witnesses, and given to 

 each of the parties. He doubtless made a good business out of his 

 paper, for he could sell it at great profit, while the rags and other 

 raw materials, not being yet currently merchantable articles, 

 could be bought very cheaply. He did not lack for customers, 

 but was, on the contrary, not able to supply the demand of Ger- 

 many or even of central Germany ; for it appears, from various 



