392 OS THE PAPER MANUFACTURE. 



distinguished ; but if our own makers would pay stricter attention to 

 the absolute purity of their stuff — as well as to height of colour, previous 

 to the addition of colouring materials — they would have no reason to 

 complain of any superiority, whether in brightness or otherwise, on the 

 part of the foreign paper-maker. 



In considering the multitude of vegetable fibres suggested for the use 

 of the paper-maker, we are completely bewildered. Their name is 

 legion ; and yet we can only point to one out of the whole number as an 

 accomplished fact, viz., the grass called esparto or alfa — a hard, wiry 

 grass, with a rather strong siliceous cuticle. In this country Mr. Rout- 

 ledge, of Eynsham, has, by his diligence and enterprise, monopolised the 

 manufacture, throwing it open to the trade, however, on easy terms ; 

 whilst the Baron de Niviere has been doing the same thing in France. 

 The fibre is strong and hard, and, as far as our experience goes, difficult 

 to work, great care being required at the beating-engine, otherwise the 

 stuff is apt to be stringy and impede the working of the machine. Mr> 

 Routledge shows some specimens of esparto paper, remarkably good in 

 texture, and of good colour ; but we cannot help thinking that the utility 

 of the fibre is most apparent when used as a mixer with rags. Straw 

 cannot be considered a new material for paper-making, although its 

 extensive use is of comparatively recent date. Neither can straw be consi- 

 dered in the bight of a substitute for rags per se. For low papers it will, 

 at all events for the present, command a market ; and as a mixer, we 

 consider it inferior to esparto, the articulations or knots are so exceed- 

 ingly troublesome, and cannot be got rid of effectually. The conse- 

 quence is that, even when used as a mixer at the rate of 10 per cent., 

 should the knotter on the machine be set fine, the plate speedily becomes 

 clogged with knots, and the paper runs immediately uneven. The only 

 remedy for this is to rake the knotter, which almost invariably forces 

 some dirt into the stuff below, and the paper for several yards in length 

 becomes foul and unserviceable, the only alternative being to work with 

 a knotter sufficiently coarse to allow the straw knots to pass, and trust to 

 Providence for the rest. The refuse of the maize manufacture in 

 Austria — an interesting account of which, by Dr. Auer, appeared in the 

 ' Technologist' for March — may become in time an important aid to the 

 paper-maker ; but, as far as we can judge, there is no fibre^ before the 

 public at present which could be accepted as a substitute for rags in every 

 particular. 



Any novelty in the paper manufacture is of rare occurrence ; but the 

 manufacture of a good printing sort, entirely from waste paper, may be 

 fairly accepted as such. Any kind of old paper that has ever been white 

 — whether plain, printed, or written — is eligible for this process, which 

 was originated by the writer, and was, from its inception to its proof, 

 carried on by a series of laboratory experiments under his direction. 

 The process is the property of the Kennet Paper-making Company, occu. 

 pying large premises on the river bearing that name. The uses of waste 



