EUROPE: UNITED KINGDOM. 319 



TUNSTALL. 



The total population of the district is about 250,000. There are 

 no statistics available as to the number of illiterates. The people 

 have not much mechanical ambition. 



This is not a paper-making district. It is the greatest pottery- 

 manufacturing center in the world, and most of the paper made is 

 for use in the potteries, either for printing patterns upon the ware 

 or for packing the finer goods. 



Practically, only the necessities of life are bought and sold in the 

 boroughs which go to make up the "potteries." Everything else 

 must be ordered from the larger centers. Even daily newspapers 

 come from elsewhere, with the exception of one small sheet published 

 at Hanley. 



I find but three mills among the towns of my district, all of which 

 make principally paper for pottery use. There are no statistics 

 giving product or amount of wages paid. As all the paper is ma- 

 chine made, the amount produced being roughly measured by the 

 number of machines. Two of the mills have two machines each, 

 the third but one. 



The quantity of the paper manufactured is not liable to increase. 



There is no undeveloped water power. The district is well sup- 

 plied with railways and canals for transportation. Water power is 

 used only for small feed mills. Coal is the fuel employed. Beds of 

 it underlie most of the district, and it is hauled by cart to the fac- 

 tories. There is no raw material in the district available for the man- 

 ufacture of paper. But little wood pulp is used. Most of the paper 

 is made from vegetable fiber, such as hemp. 



The mills of my district were warned from the office of the Paper 

 Manufacturers' Association, in London, when the circular of the De- 

 partment was issued, to give no information to the Americans as to 

 details of manufacture of paper, price of labor, etc. The companies 

 therefore decline to talk on the matter. Their main output is a 

 white tissue paper, used for transferring designs to pottery. The 

 designs are engraved on metal. The paper is wet with size and 

 pressed upon the plate, in much the same manner as an engraved 

 visiting card is printed. Before the oil color is dry, the paper on 

 which the design is printed is pressed by hand onto the dish to be 

 decorated. The paper must be supple and tough enough to allow 

 of being pressed into all inequalities of the form of the dish, so that 

 the pattern may be continuous, but at the same time so thin and 

 soluble that it can be washed off from the dish a few moments after 

 its application, leaving the pattern on the china or earthen ware. 



