308 APPENDIX. [No. XXII. 



dusted, placed in the machine, and reduced to pulp. This pulp is passed 

 through the finest strainer to the vat at which the paper-makers stand. 

 To insure as far as possible identity even in the paper, Mr. Portal has put 

 up machinery constructed by Mr. Donkin, in which all the improvements 

 and adaptations heretofore adopted by machine paper are brought into 

 operation for bank-note papers. The mould is dipped by hand into the vat 

 of pulp, and a sufficient quantity taken up to make the note. This, as soon 

 as the water is drawn off, is passed to a man, who puts it on a blanket, 

 which slowly moves at a regular pace, and brings a new part into play for 

 each mould of four notes as they are made. After the notes are placed in 

 the blanket, they are carried under successive rollers till the water is 

 squeezed out, and the pulp acquires consistency. This part of the process 

 has performed the duties of the flannel and powerful press of the old 

 system. The paper then, instead of being removed by a boy, as in the old 

 process, is carried by machinery to tne next part of the machine, where it 

 is dried by passing over warm cylinders. This part of the machine answers 

 to the old drying-room. When dry, it is spontaneously carried to the 

 sizing apparatus, where it is sized with the whitest and purest size, when it 

 is finally dried in the last compartment of the machine by passing over 

 heated cylinders. By all those processes which have been in use in those 

 machines which make paper by the mile, paper made by the hand mould is 

 dried, sized, and dried again in the short space of half-an-hour, instead of 

 requiring an interval of many days, as in the old process. 



Mr. Portal, however, does not so much look to the rapidity as he seeks 

 identity, for in all cases the pulp, being subjected to precisely similar con- 

 ditions, may be expected to afford precisely similar results. 



When the paper is dried, it is moderately glazed to give a smooth 

 surface for printing. Formerly the paper used invariably to be wetted 

 previous to printing, and a pretty-looking apparatus existed in the Bank 

 for wetting the paper, by excluding the air from a receiver with an air- 

 pump, and then allowing the water to rise and wet the paper. This wetting, 

 however, damaged and weakened the paper, and hence it was very desir- 

 able to take advantage of the power of surface-printing to be applied to 

 dry glazed papers. The smoothness is given by placing the sheets of 

 paper between plates of copper, and subjecting them to a pressure sufficient 

 on the one hand to give a fine and true surface, and yet not sufficient on 

 the other to damage the water-mark. 



When the paper is rolled, it is carefully inspected, and every damaged 

 sheet thrown out, for if any little speck remains it is liable to injure the 

 electrotype in the subsequent printing ; and, after one inspection, the 

 paper is re-inspected by two of the sharpest-eyed of the sharp-eyed 

 inspectors of the mill. The paper is then inspected as to its gauge, as 

 occasionally a sheet shrinks considerably in its manufacture. The paper 

 is again inspected to see that every sheet is placed with its face uppermost, 

 after which it is counted and packed up ready to be sent to Mr. Marshall, 

 the chief cashier of the Bank. 



These numerous processes of inspection are performed by females, and 

 they generally belong to families who have been engaged in the manufac- 

 ture of bank-note paper for 150 years. Each inspector is seated in a 

 green box, opposite to a north light ; but the ladies who have honoured 

 the Society with their presence this evening will probably think that the 



