ON THE PAPER MANUFACTURE. 19 



is from the foregoing perfectly obvious, but no notice whatever seems to 

 have been taken by the writer of the large quantities procurable from 

 Egypt, India, and Japan ; paper-makers almost without exception say 

 that Eastern rags are worthless on account of their softness, and the 

 excess of wear which" the woven fabric receives before it is condemned ; 

 there is much more force in the first objection than there is in the 

 latter. In order to convert a good strong rag into paper, there is not so 

 much skill and care required at the hands of the experienced manufac- 

 turer, as is necessary in the working of a comparatively soft material ; 

 as a rule, the lowness of the rag must be in an inverse ratio to the state 

 of the machinery ; with strong stuff after being couched, the paper-maker 

 may let his dry felts waddle on the stretching rolls, if precision be 

 not with him a cardinal virtue, and generally to allow the paper to run 

 as slack as it may until it either falls on the cutting board or is wound 

 on the reel, but it is otherwise with a low material, which requires mak- 

 ing in the strictest sense of the term ; then precision is absolutely indis- 

 pensable, and the machinery from the engine roll downwards, must be 

 in the most perfect order. Many inexperienced paper-makers imagine 

 that anything will do for a common material, the contrary being the case 

 as we have already stated. The principal difficulty with which the 

 paper-maker has to contend in working soft rags, is their inability to 

 carry engine size, rendering machine sizing necessary ; and as very few 

 machines in this country are adapted for sizing, it follows that stuff 

 needing this particular treatment is necessarily condemned. Nearly all 

 modern machines are made with a double set of drying cylinders so as to 

 admit the use of animal size, but the great bulk of the machines in use 

 have been running for a great number of years, are small in size, and 

 not worth the additions which it would be necessary to make in order to 

 fit them for sizing purposes. The paper-makers of this country must 

 set about the substitution of modern for comparatively ancient 

 machinery, before long, if they would keep their proper place in the 

 van of the manufacture. Cotton spinners, so long as they could obtain 

 a plentiful supply of long staple cotton from the Gulf of Florida, classed 

 every other sort coming from the East under the name of Surats, 

 and condemned their use, but now that the supply of Sea Island and 

 other favourite marks is cut off, they are gladly putting their machinery 

 in order for the working of the shorter stapled, but still valuable, Surats, 

 we do not say that to such a pass the paper-makers of this country must 

 come, but the lesson may have its uses. From Japan alone a large and 

 increasing exportation of rags is going on ; Sir Rutherford Alcock states 

 the cost of collection, freight, and incidental expenses to be about 141. 

 per ton laid down in this country, and the wisdom of allowing a mass of 

 such material to lie neglected in our warehouses, and finally to be re- 

 shipped to another market, is, to say the very least, exceedingly ques- 

 tionable. 



The mode in which rags are collected for the use of the paper 



