ON THE PAPER MANUFACTURE, 21 



rags, making a large allowance for waste, not less than 50,000 tons of 

 raw material produced by the wear and tear of our habiliments, which 

 do not as yet find their way to the paper mill." The calculation i3 

 ingenious, but it would be much nearer the truth to estimate the quan- 

 tity of rags uncollected at 100,000 instead of 50,000 tons, on the basis 

 of 210,000 tons of material being available. Hitherto it has been 

 assumed by the paper makers that they are as certain of a monopoly of 

 the rag collection in the future as they have been in the past, an assump- 

 tion which we are inclined seriously to doubt. It was stated recently 

 in the public prints that a French engineer had invented a machine by 

 which cotton and linen rags could be made available for re-spinning, 

 and it was stated at the time that it would be impossible to estimate 

 the extent to which such an invention might revolutionise particular 

 staple industries. Such an announcement in the ordinary course of things 

 might fairly be considered a remote contingency, were it not for the 

 startling fact that the process which has been in embryo in this country 

 for the last two or three years is now being developed so steadily as to 

 leave no doubt of the position it is destined to assume, as an important 

 branch of the cotton manufacture. So far the demand for rags has been 

 scarcely felt by the paper makers, because manufacturers have not yet 

 had sufficient time to get a large plant in order, but that done, every 

 thousand spindles will tell upon the supply of rags with unmistakeable 

 distinctness ; against such an industry as this the paper maker will be 

 powerless, as the prices the spinner could afford to offer would be such 

 as to make rags unattainable for the purposes of the paper manufacturer. 

 To meet such a contingency as this we do not believe the paper makers 

 of this country are prepared. Its realisation even in a partial sense will 

 herald the downfall of many. The hard cotton waste, which in the 

 days of plenty the spinner cast to the paper maker, as a waste product, 

 is now found, in the days of scarcity, to possess a high textile value, and 

 that is consequently going slowly but surely from his grasp. It cannot 

 reasonably be expected that a waste product, such as rags, which ha3 

 been proved to possess a length of staple when broken up, sufficient for 

 the spinning of low numbers, will be much longer permitted to find its 

 way exclusively to the paper mill, and the paper makers of this country 

 as prudent men of business, ought at once to bestir themselves in 

 anticipation of the event. How far they are in a position to avail 

 themselves of raw material other than rags, from whence it must come, 

 and the multifarious and momentous considerations which such a change 

 would entail, may possibly be noticed by us at another time. 



