246 TAXIDERMY AND MODELLING 



warping — to which wood is peculiarly liable, — and its extra- 

 ordinary toughness and applicability to many purposes, have 

 ever rendered it a favourite ; and now that it can be worked up 

 into large masses for purposes for which wood, or even iron, was 

 previously used, and can be waterproofed and made to with- 

 stand much more than wood possibly can, it is rapidly coming 

 into prominence, not as an aid to the fine arts merely, but as a 

 material to be dealt with in the building and other trades. 



In No. 3 of a most useful periodical which came out in 

 1889,^ is to be found the commencement of an interesting and 

 valuable article on " Papier-michd : How to Mould It and 

 Ornament It," by Sylvanus Ward,^ which gives the origin of 

 the process or processes now known under the comprehensive 

 term of Papier-michd, or sometimes " Carton pierre," as thus : — 



Papier-mich^, which, literally translated, means "chewed paper," is 

 a term which we have been accustomed to hear applied to a great 

 variety of products made by a pulping process, and some of which 

 contain no paper whatever. If we look for the origin of the name we 

 shall find that it was first applied to a coarse, unglazed paper reduced 

 to a pulp, and then mixed with gum or glue paste, thus forming a 

 substance plastic whilst wet, and, when dry, as hard or harder than most 

 woods, and, unlike them, not liable to crack. As the name would seem 

 to indicate, the inventor, or reputed inventor, was a Frenchman — one 

 Lefevre. About 1 740 this person is said to have imparted his discovery 

 to a German snuff-box maker named Martin, by whom it was found to 

 be of commercial value in his trade. In or near the year 1745, John 

 Baskerville of Birmingham, the famous printer, took the matter up, and 

 before long the manufacture of papier-michd became an important 

 industry in Birmingham and its district. Later on, various fibres or 

 fibrous materials, pulped and mixed with adhesive substances, have 

 been known as papier-m^che ; scrap leather, wood fibre imported from 

 Sweden, potato peelings, and even sawdust having, it is said, been 



1 Work: An Illustrated Magazine of Practice and Theory for all Workmen, Pro- 

 fessional and Amateur. 



2 Pages 33, 34. 



