PA PER - MA KING. 281 



the beautiful colour known as Prussian blue is manu- 

 factured. 



Rags of all kinds are in great demand for the paper- 

 mills, many of which use more than thirty tons a week. 

 All are welcome, whether silk, wool, linen, cambric, lace, 

 holland, fustian, corduroy, bagging, canvas, and even 

 though these cannot be called " rags " old ropes. In 

 fact, almost any species of tough fibre, even the roots and 

 bine of hops, vine-tendrils, cabbage-stalks, and straw, may 

 be made into paper. Straw alone makes the paper too 

 brittle to be serviceable, unless the silica contained in it 

 be destroyed, but it is frequently mixed with other 

 materials. Still it is not probable that anything will ever 

 lessen the value of rags, since they must needs go on 

 accumulating and being disposed of in one way or 

 another, and are, therefore, to be had cheaper than any- 

 thing else. 



Before they come to the mill it is necessary that the 

 rags should be sorted, that the paper-maker may know 

 exactly of what the bulk is composed and determine its 

 destination accordingly, old rope being made into coarse 

 brown paper, and the refuse of the flax-mills into tracing 

 paper, while the paper for bank-notes is made from the 

 best white linen. * 



In 1882 we imported 21,200 tons of linen and cotton 

 rags of very various degrees of cleanliness, those from 

 Italy being lowest in the scale, while some of the English 

 ones are said to be so clean as to require no bleaching. 



* The tunics of the Jewish priests are said to have been unravelled and 

 used as wicks for the lamps during the Feast of Tabernacles. 



