LAID AND WOVE. 1 



By Dard Hunter. 



[With C plates.] 



All paper was formed in single sheets by hand before the invention 

 of the paper-making machine. For the purpose of making hand- 

 made paper flat molds were used on which the pulp was deposited. 

 This was accomplished either by pouring the liquid pulp upon the 

 mold or by dipping the mold into a vat containing pulp. Through 

 the centuries of paper making these molds have undergone many 

 improvements and changes which have affected the character of the 

 paper made on them to a marked degree. However, the molds used 

 to-day for the forming of handmade sheets are based on the original 

 principle of mold construction. To most paper makers and printers 

 the two terms " laid " and " wove " mean little, aside from the fact 

 that in the former the paper shows laid and chain lines when the 

 sheet is held to the light, and in the latter the paper appears to have 

 been woven, without much character or individuality. 



The earliest paper was formed by the Chinese some 2,000 years 

 ago on a woven cloth stretched over a bamboo frame which consti- 

 tuted the original paper-making mold. It is not known whether 

 these first molds were dipped into the vat containing pulp or whether 

 the fibrous liquid was poured upon them. As the wet sheet of pulp 

 could not be taken from the cloth, the sheet was allowed to dry on 

 the mold and was then removed. In this earliest form of paper 

 making a great many molds were necessary if much paper was to be 

 produced, for it would have required at least a day for each sheet to 

 dry before it could be taken from the cloth covering of the mold. 



It was left for an ancient Persian of genius to conceive the idea 

 of a mold from which the wet sheet could be taken while still moist. 

 This was the first real step in the progress of paper making, as this 

 enabled the paper maker to make sheets continually from the same 

 mold. For this purpose the mold had to be made from some smooth 

 and firm material from which the wet sheet would free itself. These 

 molds were made by placing many pieces of split bamboo or other 



1 Reprinted by permission from The Printing Art, September, 1921. 



587 



