PAfrER MAKING. 339 



cracking the surface, it is evident that the trouble of the second 

 exchange is infinitely overpaid by the advantage. 



When the paper is sufficiently dry, it is carried to the finishing, 

 room, where it is pressed, selected, examined, folded, made up 

 into quires, and finally into reams. It is here put twice under the 

 press; first, when it is at its full size, and secondly, after it is 

 folded. 



The principal labour of this place consists in assorting the paper 

 into different lots, according to its quality and faults ; after which 

 it is made up into quires. The person who does this must possess 

 great skill, and be capable of attention, because he acts as a check 

 on those who separated the paper into different lots. He takes the 

 sheets with his right hand, folds them, examines them, lays them 

 over his left arm till he has the number requisite for a quire, brings 

 the sides parallel to one another, and places them in heaps under 

 the table. An expert workman, if proper care has been taken in 

 assorting the lots, will finish in this manner near 6000 quires in 

 a day. 



The paper is afterwards collected into reams of 20 quires each) 

 and for the last time put under the press, where it is continued for 

 10 or 12 hours, or as long as the demand of the paper-mill permits. 



In different volumes of the Annales de Chimie we meet with some 

 useful hints relative to the manner of re-manufacturing the paper 

 of old books, or any letters or other paper already used for writ- 

 ing or printing, by MM. Deyeux, Pelletier, Molard, and Ver- 

 kaven. 



I. Process for re-fabricating printed paper : All paper of the 

 same quality should be collected, and separated from such as may 

 have any writing on the pages ; the edges of those leaves which 

 may have become yellow, and also the backs of books, being cut 

 off by the instrument used by book.binders. One hundred weight 

 of paper is now to be put, sheet by sheet, into vats, sufficiently 

 capacious to contain it, together with 500 quarts of hot water, but 

 which ought to be filled about one-third : the whole is next stirred 

 by two men for the space of one hour, who are gradually to add 

 as much water as will rise about three inches above the paper ; after 

 which it is left to macerate four or five hours ; the agitation being 

 occasionally repeated, so as to separate, and at length to form the 

 paper into a kiud of paste. 



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