March 1, 1864.] THE TECHNOLOGIST. 



SUITED FOR THE PAPER-MAKER. 381 



the waste lands of India could be covered with the plant, as it requires 

 no culture and no water. 



Paper made of hemp by the prisoners in the Central Jail, Meerut. — 

 This is, no doubt, sunn-hemp, as the fibre of the true hemp is seldom 

 utilized in India. 



Paper of " aloe-leaf" fibre. — This is from a species of agava, which, 

 though not indigenous, is now cultivated in many parts of the country. 

 The misnomer of aloe, having now become the trade term, is likely to 

 be retained. 



Paper made at Agra of old ropes and gunny bags, and bleached by 

 means of carbonate of soda and lime. Such papers can be procured at 

 about 10s. per ream. 



Paper of fibre of Hibiscus cannabina, made at Lucknow, and of H. 

 esculentus. 



Nepaul paper, made of the bark of the stems of Daphne cannabina — 

 four qualities are shown. The paper is said never to be destroyed by 

 insects, owing to the poisonous quality of the plant ; but this is doubt- 

 ful. This unsightly paper%as been much over-rated. It is certainly 

 tough when kept dry, and can be used like cloth, for wrapping up dry 

 substances in ; and it has one other quality which renders it superior, 

 in that respect, to the ordinary country paper — it can be used after 

 having been saturated with water, provided it be carefully dried within 

 a reasonable time after it has been wet. 



Mr. Hodgson, in the ' Journal of the Asiatic Society,' describes the 

 process of manufacture as consisting, first, in boiling slips of the inner 

 bark of the plant for about half-an-hour, by which time the slips will be 

 quite soft. These are then broken in a stone mortar with a wooden 

 mallet till they are reduced to a homogeneous pulp. This is then 

 diffused through water, and taken up in sieves and paper-frames, as in 

 the ordinary process for making paper by hand. When dry, the sheet 

 of paper is folded up ; sometimes it is smoothed and polished by being 

 rubbed on wood with the convex side of the ponderous chank shell. 

 But Mr. Hodgson does not explain how the very large sheets of several 

 yards square are made. Though called Nepalese, the paper is, in fact, 

 manufactured in Cis-Himalayan Bhote, in the midst of its immense 

 forests, where there is an abundant supply of the plant, of wood for 

 ashes and for firewood, as well as a constant supply of clean water. 

 Some bricks of the half stuff were sent to this country more than thirty 

 years ago, and a small portion made into paper by hand. It afforded 

 finer impressions of engravings than any English-made paper, and 

 nearly as good as the Chinese India proof paper. 



Another kind of Nepaul paper is manufactured almost exclusively 

 from the young shoots and leaves of the bamboo — an arborescent grass. 

 After being cut, it is beaten in wooden mortars until reduced to a pulpy 

 mass, then thrown into a vat of water, the impurities separated, and 

 when of a proper consistency, it is spread on linen to be dried ; the 



