PAPER, MANUFACTURE OF 483 



remarks of a poet of the time, were equally calculated to arouse undivided national 

 interest ; one can hardly help thinking, that the prominence to which Shakspeare 

 assigns the existence of a paper-mill, coupled, as such allusion is, with an acknow- 

 ledged liberty, inherent in him, of transposing events, to add force to his style, as also 

 with very considerable doubt as to the exact year in which he wrote the play, that 

 the reference made was to none other than that of Sir John Spielman's establishment 

 of 1 588, concerning which we find it said 



'Six hundred men are set to work by him, 

 That else might starve or seek abroad their bread, 

 Who now live well, and go full brave and trim, 

 And who may boast they are with paper fed.' 



Be the introduction or establishment of the invention, so far as this country is con- 

 cerned, when it may, little progress appears to have resulted therefrom, even so late 

 as the middle of the seventeenth century. In 1695, a company was formed hi 

 Scotland ' for manufacturing white writing and printing paper,' relating to which, 

 'Articles concluded and agreed upon at a general meeting at Edinburgh, the 19th 

 day of August,' in the same year, may still be seen by those who are sufficiently 

 curious in the library of the British Museum. It is also recorded in the ' Craftsman ' 

 (910), that William the Third granted the Huguenots refuged in England a patent 

 for establishing paper-manufactories, and that Parliament likewise granted to them 

 other privileges, amongst which, in all probability, that very unsatisfactory practice 

 of putting up each ream with two quires composed entirely of sheets spoiled in course 

 of production. Their undertaking, however, like that of many others, appears to 

 have met with very little success. 



In fact, the making of paper here scarcely reached any high degree of perfection 

 until about 1760-5, at which period the celebrated James "Whatman established his 

 reputation at Maidstone. 



The Keport of the Juries of the Great Exhibition of 1851 contains an unfor- 

 tunate error with reference to the position of Mr. Whatman at that time. It 

 is there stated that he gained his knowledge of the manufacture prior to estab- 

 lishing these well-known mills, ' by working as a journeyman in most of the 

 principal paper manufactories of the Continent,' which is altogether an erroneous 

 assertion ; for Mr. Whatman, previously to his being engaged as a manufacturer, 

 was an officer in the Kent Militia, and acquired the information, which eventually 

 rendered him so successful, by travelling in the suite of the British Ambassador 

 to Holland, where the best papers were then made, and the insight thus obtained 

 enabled his genius to effect the great improvements afterwards so universally ad- 

 mitted. 



At the present time, Whatman's papers are manufactured at two mills, totally 

 distinct, both of which are still worked by the descendants of Mr. Whatman's suc- 

 cessors ; the paper in the one case being readily distinguished by the Avater-mark, 

 ' J. Whatman, Turkey Mill,' and in the other, by the water-mark simply ' J. What- 

 man,' but bearing upon the upper wrapper of each ream the original and well-known 

 stamp, containing the initials L. V. G., which are those of L. V. Gerrevink, as cele- 

 brated a Dutch manufacturer prior to Mr. Whatman's improvements as Mr. What- 

 man's name has since become in all parts of the world. 



The comparatively recent application of continuous or rotatory motion has effected 

 wonderful results in the singular conversion of pulp into paper. 



The largest paper now made by hand, which is termed Antiquarian, measures 53 

 inches by 31, and so great is the weight of liquid pulp employed in the formation of a 

 single sheet, that no fewer than nine men are required, besides additional assistance, 

 In raising the mould out of the vat by means of pulleys ; while by the aid of the 

 paper machine, the most perfect production may be ensured, of a continuous length, 

 and eight feet wide, without any positive necessity for personal superintendence. As 

 an evidence of the enormous length of paper sometimes produced, two rolls were 

 exhibited in 1851, one of which measured 750 yards, and the other 2,400 yards in 

 length. 



TJie principle of paper-making by machinery is simply this : instead of employing 

 moulds and felts of limited dimensions, as was originally the practice, the peculiar 

 merit of the invention consists in the adaptation of an endless wire-gauze to receive 

 the paper-pulp, and again an endless felt, to which in progress the paper is trans- 

 ferred ; and thus by a marvellously delicate adjustment, while the wire at one end 

 receives but a constant flow of liquid pulp, in the course of two or three minutes the 

 finished fabric is carefully wound on a roller at the other extremity. 



It is a fact, which certainly deserves to be noticed for its singularity as well as for 



