~ what of that? 
1809.] 
Strawy from the tough. stringy particles 
(which can be dune in a few minutes by a 
anill driven by wind, water, steam, or even 
-by an old blind hoxse), becomes thereby 
as soft and pliable, and as useful for mak- 
ing paper, as the longest and what is 
wveckoned the most valuable part of the 
plant, after it has been converted, into 
cloth, and worn for years. 
In its natural state, it is true, the: re- 
fuse of hemp and flax is generally of a 
brown, and somewhat dark colour. But 
By the applicatjon of a 
little oil of vitriol, or other cheap ingre- 
dients, well known to every bleacher, 
such refuse, without being in the least in- 
jured for making paper, can, in a few 
hours, if necessary, be made as white as 
the finest cambric. By being beat when 
wet by a mill or otherwise, it also ac- 
quires a considerable degree of white- 
ness. 
There are, at a medium, published in 
London every morning 16,000 newspa- 
pers; and every evening about 14,000. 
Of those published every other day, there 
are about 10,000. The Sunday’s news- 
papers amount to about 25,000; and 
there are nearly 20,000 other weekly pa- 
pers; making in all the enormous sum of 
245,000 per week. At a medium, twen- 
ty newspapers are equal to one pound. 
Hence the whole amounts to about five 
tons per week, or 260 tons per annum. 
Bat though this is not perhaps the one- 
half of the paper expended yearly in 
London on periodical publications, and 
what may be called fugacious literature, 
and not one-fourth of what is otherwise 
consumed in printing-houses in the coun- 
ary at large, yet there are materials 
enough in the refuse of the bemp and 
flax raised in Britain and Ireland for all 
this, and much more. 
Wor is this ali: for as the bine or straw 
ef hops contains an excellent hemp for 
making cloth, canvas, ropes, cables, and 
a thousand other articles, so also the 
wery best materials for making all kinds 
of paper. And it is a fact that,. were 
even one-half of the bine of the hops 
raised in, the counties of Kent, Sussex, 
_.and Worcester, instead of being thrown 
away, alter the hops have been picked or 
burnt, as is commonly done, steeped for 
five or six days in water, and beat in the 
_ same way as is done with flax and hemp 
(independent of what may be got from 
scatlet-runners, nettles, the haum of po- 
tatoes, &c.), there would be found, an- 
nually, materials enough for three times 
the paper used in the British dominions, 
wit 2 
{ 
Rags in the manufacture of Paper. 
543 
While we admire the rapid progress 
that is making in painting, sculpture, en- 
graving, architecture, coach building, and 
the elegant arts in general, one cannot 
help being astonished at the slow progress 
that is making in discoveries of the useful 
kind, in various departments. Thoughe’ 
it has not been attended to, nor, so far 
as I know, has ever been mentioned by 
any one, yet it is certain that, according 
to its size, every bean-plant contains 
from twenty to thirty-five ‘filaments, run- 
ning up on the outside, under a thin 
membrane, from the root ta the very top, 
all round; the one at each of the four 
corners being thicker and stronger than 
the rest. Itis also certain that, next to 
Chinese, or sea-grass, in other words, the 
materials with which hooks are sometimes 
fixed to the ends of fishing-lines, the fila- 
ments of the bean-plant are the strongest 
and most durable yet discovered, These, 
with a lictle beating, shaking, and rub- 
bing, are easily separated from the strawy 
part, when the plant has been a few days 
steeped in water, or is damp, and ina 
state approaching to fermentatiun, or 
what is commonly called rotting. : 
From carefully observing the medium 
number of stalks, or bean-plants, in @ 
square foot, in a variety of fields, and 
multiplying these by 4840, the number of 
square feet in an acre, and then weighing 
the hemp or filaments of a certain num- 
ber of stalks, I find that there are ata 
medium about two hundred weight of 
hemp, or these filaments, in an acre, ad- 
mirably calculated for being converted 
into canvas, cables, cordage, and a thou- 
sand .other things, where strength and 
durability is of importance, as well as, 
with a little preparation, into paper of alk 
kinds, even that of the most delicate tex- 
ture. Now, since there are at least 
200,000 acres of ticks, horse, and other 
beans, in Great Britain and Ireland, and 
since, where there is not machinery ‘for 
the purpose, the poor of each workhouse, 
as well as others, both young and old, 
males as well as females, might (hemp 
having risen lately from GOI. to 1001. per 
ton) be advantageously employed, aud 
gain somethiug handsome to themselves, 
in peeling or otherwise separating the 
filaments from the strawy part of the 
bean-plant, after the beans are thrashed 
out, 1 leave it to you, Mr. Editor, to 
judge of the importance of the idea held 
out here, not only to the landed proprie- 
tors and the poor, but to the communit 
atlarge. And, as the insertion of the 
above in your useful miscellany may he 
the 
