it to the vat, so that the wool would rest on the collars, 

 and by their intercepting the pulp would form a 

 pulp tight joint, and allow the cylinder to revolve 

 with very little retarding friction. Holes through the 

 vat near the bottom inside of the cylinder led into an 

 outside vat into which the water from inside the 

 cylinder could freely pass; in this outside vat he had 

 a Persian wheel, that by revolving would raise the 

 water to its hollow center axis, through which it 

 poured back into the pulp vat, only allowing so much 

 to escape through an adjustable gate as would cor- 

 respond to the amount of water coming in with the 

 constant supply of pulp. By regulating the speed of 

 the Persian wheel, the difference in the height of 

 dilute pulp outside and the water inside the cylinder 

 would be kept uniform with sufficient difference to 

 consolidate a film of pulp to pass onto the felt of the 

 coucher without squashing. 



I have no knowledge of what experiments had been 

 tried, but from the confidence the man spoke on that 

 head, it gave the impression that he spoke from actual 

 trial results. There must have been difficulties he 

 met with in getting his machine into successful opera- 

 tion, for it was a considerable time before he sent 

 specimens of a very fair quality of printing paper 

 made on the cylinder. 



I have been thus particular in describing this 

 cylinder, for I believe it to have been the first simple 

 squirrel wheel cylinder ever made; and also on ac- 

 count of its close resemblance to the cylinder invented 

 and patented by John Ames, of Springfield, Mass., at 

 a later date, and from which patent grew long and 

 expensive litigation. 



I recollect that when my father sketched and ex- 

 plained this simple cylinder to Mr. Gilpin that he 

 seemed perfectly incredulous as to the possibility 

 of consolidating a film of pulp sufficiently to couch 

 without the V-trough and exhaust pumps, but at the 

 same time he showed considerable uneasiness; for, 

 said he, could such a simple cylinder and machine be 

 made to work at all it would be a dangerous competi- 

 tor to his expensive cylinder machine. [36] 



If I am not greatly mistaken at the period of our 

 visit to Mr. Gilpin's mill, he was the sole manufac- 

 turer of endless or machine made paper in America, 

 and it was from perfecting the simple cylinder that I 

 have described as the work of a Frenchman in New- 

 Jersey, and its appliances, that the rapid introduction 

 of machine made paper in America takes its date. 



I am strongly impressed with the belief that when 



John Ames, of Springfield, Mass., got up his squirrel- 

 wheel cylinder and machine, and patented it, that 

 he had no knowledge of what had preceded him in 

 New Jersey, although they were substantially the same. 



My father greatly improved this simple cylinder, by 

 substituting for the longitudinal round rods, drawn 

 rods, of an oval or rather egg-shape, somewhat like 

 the wooden bars of the paper mould, only being made 

 of brass, much smaller. These, besides being secured 

 in drilled holes in the rims of the end wheels or the 

 cylinder, were sunk half their depth into sharp-edged 

 rims of the supporting wheels, to which they were 

 firmly secured, instead of simply resting on round 

 rims secured in position by looped wire sewing, as in 

 the case of the New Jersey cylinder. To secure the 

 wrapping wire of No. 1 8 hard-drawn brass, forming the 

 foundation or under face (without sewing) notches of 

 one-half the diameter of the No. 18 wire, were cut 

 spirally around the cylinder in the outer edges of the 

 oval longitudinal bars, leaving a space of %-inch 

 between each turn. This was done by a traversing 

 buzz cutter 131 that spirally notched the bars as the 

 cylinder revolved. The No. 18 wire, being wound in 

 these notches, was held firmly in place by a wove wire 

 backing of about fourteen meshes to the inch, on which 

 the outer face of the cylinder was placed, the only 

 sewing being that to secure the ends of the faces where 

 they met together. 



This simple cylinder produced the effect appre- 

 hended by Mr. Gilpin; its comparatively small cost, 

 compared with his elaborately constructed cylinder, 

 put it within the reach of all paper makers, no matter 

 how small their mills. Many single vat mill owners 

 were among the first to adopt it. 



The putting up and starting paper machines became 

 a leading business for a number of millwrights. The 

 proprietor of the mill would procure a cylinder com- 

 plete, with the shafting, gearing and spindles for the 

 wooden press rolls, all of which we furnished in sets. 

 Beyond this, all was the work of the millwright. Old 

 apple orchards furnished the material for the press 

 rolls; even the housings they ran in were at that time 

 made of wood. I do not recollect finished cast-iron 

 housings, with boxes complete, being called for earlier 



131 Essentially a milling cutter. Henry Maudslay had devised 

 such a cutter for cutting gear teeth on a lathe. The cutter 

 (according to John Nicholson, The Operative Mechanic and 

 British Machinist, 2d American ed. from 3d London ed., Phila- 

 delphia, 1831, vol. i, p. 332) turned at 7,300 revolutions per 

 minute. 



100 



