THE MANUFACTURE OF PAPER 



by an endless wire cloth, upon which the paper can be 

 made in rolls many miles long instead. The pulp is run 

 up on this moving wire cloth in a layer of a certain depth, 

 according to the thickness of the paper being made, 

 the water draining through the meshes as it moves along, 

 leaving a blanket-like layer of white pulp behind. This 

 passes first under the "dandy roll," as it is called a 

 wire-cloth roll on which is woven the watermarks, de- 

 signs, names, etc., which are to be distinguishing charac- 

 teristics of the paper when completed. The impressions 

 from this dandy roll remain more transparent than the 

 rest of the paper, as can be seen by holding any sheet 

 of watermarked paper to the light. 



By the time the damp blanket of paper has passed 

 the dandy roll it has acquired sufficient body so that 

 it can be passed between two rolls covered with felt, 

 which compress it slightly, pass it on to a belt of moist 

 felt, which carries it to two metal rolls called the "press 

 rolls." These compress it still more, send it along 

 other belts and through still other rolls until it has ac- 

 quired enough tensile strength to sustain its own 

 weight can "travel alone," as the paper-men say. 

 It is then ready for its journey through the drying cylin- 

 ders from a dozen to fifty of them great, steam- 

 heated steel rolls, three or four feet in diameter, over 

 and under which the web of paper travels until it is 

 perfectly dry. 



In this journey it acquires its full tensile strength, 

 which contrasts remarkably with the delicate blanket 

 of fibers that left the pulp-vat a moment before with 

 scarcely more cohesive quality than mud. It still is, 



[169] 



