PAPER. 
•ontlantly round, and keep the stuff in per- 
petual motion. When the stuff and water 
are properly mixed, it is easy to perceive 
whether the previous operations have been 
complete. W hen the stuff floats close, and 
in regular (lakes, it is a proof that it has been 
well triturated; and the parts of the rags 
which have escaped the rollers also appear. 
After this operation the workman takes , 
one of the forms, furnished with its frame, by 
the middle of the short sides ; and fixing the 
frame round the wire cloth with his thumbs, 
he plunges it obliquely four or five inches 
into the vat, beginning by the long side, 
which is nearest to him. After the immer- 
sion he raises it to a level: by these move- 
ments he fetches up on the form a sufficient 
quantity of stuff; and as soon as the form is 
raised, 'the water escapes through the wire 
cloth, and the superfluity of the stuff over the 
sides of the frame. The fibrous parts of the 
stuff arrange themselves regularly on the 
wire-cloth of the form, not only in proportion 
as the water escapes, but also as the workman 
favours this effect by -gently shaking tile 
form. Afterwards, having placed the form 
on a piece of board, the workman takes oit 
the frame or deckle, and glides this form to- 
wards the coucher ; who, having previously 
laid ins felt, places it with his left hand m an 
inclined situation, on a plank fixed on the 
edge of the vat, and full of holes. During 
this operation the workman applies his frame, 
and begins a second sheet. The coucher 
seizes this instant, takes with his left hand the 
forfn, now sufficiently dry, and, having laid 
the sheet of paper upon the felt, returns the 
form by gliding it along the trepan of the 
Tat. 
They proceed in this manner, laying al- 
ternately a sheet and a felt, till they have 
made six quires of paper, which is called a 
post : and this they do with such swiftness, 
that, in many sorts of paper, two men make 
upwards ot t.ventv posts in a day. W hen the 
last sheet of the post is covered with the Iasi 
felt, the workmen about the vat unite toge- 
ther, and submit the whole heap to the action 
of the press. 1 hey begin at first to press it 
with a middling lever, and afterwards with a 
lever about fifteen feet in length. After this 
operation, another person separates the she. ts 
of paper from the lefts, laying them in a 
heap ; and several of these heaps collected, 
together are again put under the press. 
The stuff which forms a sheet of paper i 
received, as we have already said, on a form 
made of wire cloth, which is more or less fine 
in proportion tothestulf, and surrounded u iti. 
a wooden frame, and supported in the middle 
by many cross bars of wood. In consequence 
of this construction, it is easy to perceive, that 
the sheet of paper will take and preserve the 
impressions of all the pieces which compose 
the form, and of the empty spaces between 
them. 
The traces of the wire cloth are evident!; 
perceived on the side ot the sheet which v. ~ 
attached to the form, and on the opposite side 
they form an assemblage of parallel and 
rounded risings. As in the paper which is 
most highly finished, the regularity ot these 
impressions is still visible, it is evident that all 
the operations to which it is submitted have 
chiefly in view to soften these impressions 
without destroying them, It is of conse- 
quence, therefore, to attend to the combina- 
tion of labour which operates on these im- 
pressions The coucher, in turning the form 
on the felt, flattens a little the rounded emi- 
nences which are in relievo on one of the 
surfaces, and occasions at the same time the 
hollow places made by the wire cloth to be 
partly tilled up. Meanwhile, the effort which 
is made in detaching the form, produces an 
infinite number ot small hairs on every pro- 
tuberant part of the sheet. 
Under the action of the press, first with the 
felts and then without them, the perfecting of 
the grain of paper still goes on. The vestiges 
of the protuberances made by the wires' are 
altogether flattened, and of consequence the 
hollows opposite to them disappear also; blit 
the traces formed by the interstices of the 
wire, in consequence of their thickness, ap- 
pear on both sales, and are rounded by the 
press. 
The risings traced on each side of the pa- 
per, and which can be discovered by the eye 
on that which is most highly finished, form 
what is called the grain of paper. The dif- 
ferent operations ought to soften, but not 
destroy it; which is effectually done by em- 
ploying the hammer. This grain appears in 
the Dutch paper; which is a sufficient proof 
that though they have brought this part ol the 
art to the greatest perfection, they have not 
employed hammers, but more simple and in- 
genious means. The grain of paper is often 
disfigured by the felts when they are too 
much used, or when the wool does not cover 
the thread. In this case, when the paper is 
submitted to the press, it takes the additional 
traces of the warp and the wool, and com- 
poses a surface extremely irregular. 
The paper the grain of which is highly 
softened, is much litter for the purposes of 
writing than that which is smoothed by the 
hammer: on the other hand, a coarse and 
unequal grain very much opposes the move- 
ments of the pen ; as that which is beat ren- 
ders them very uncertain. The art of mak- 
ing paper, therefore, should consist in pre- 
serving, and at the same time in highly soft- 
ening, the grain : the Dutch have carried this 
to the highest perfection. 
The exchange succeeds the operation last 
'described. It is conducted in a hall contigu- 
ous to the vat, supplied. with several presses, 
. and with a long table. The workman ar- 
ranges on this table the paper, newly fabri- 
cated, into heaps; each heap containing eight 
or ten of those last under the press, kept se- 
parate by a woollen felt. The press is large 
enough to receive two of them at once, 
placed the one at the other’s side. When 
lie compression is judged sufficient, the 
heaps of paper are carried back to the table, 
and the whole turned sheet by sheet, in such 
a manner that the surface of every sheet is 
exposed to a new one ; and in this situation 
they are again brought under the press. It 
is in conducting these two operations some- 
times to four or five times, or as often as the 
nature of the paper requires, that the perfec- 
tion oi the Dutch plan consists. If the stuff 
is fine, or the paper slender, the exchange is 
less frequently repeated. In this operation it 
is necessary to alter the situation of the heaps, 
with regard to one another, every time they 
are put under the press; and also, as the 
heaps are highest toward the middle, to place 
small pieces of felt at the extremities, in order 
351 
to bring every part of them under an equal 
pressure. A single man with four or live 
presses may exchange all the paper produced 
by two vats, provided the previous pressing 
at the vats is well performed. The .work of 
the exchange generally lasts about two days 
on a given quantity oi paper. 
When the paper has undergone these ope- 
rations, it is not only softened in the surface,, 
but better felted, and rendered more pliant in 
the interior parts ot the stuff. In short, a 
great part of the water w hich it had imbibed 
in the operation of the vat is dissipated. By 
the felting of paper is understood the approxi- 
mation ot the fibres ot the stuff, and their ad- 
hering more closely together. '1 he paper is 
felted in proportion as tiie w'ater escapes, 
and this effect is produced by the manage- 
ment and reiterated action - of the press. 
Was it not for the gradual operation of the 
press, the paper would be porous, and com- 
posed of filaments adhering closely together. 
The superiority of the Dutch over the french 
paper, depends almost entirely on this ope- 
ration. 
If the sheets of paper are found to adhere 
together, it is a proof that the business of the 
press has been badly conducted. To avoid 
tins inconveniency, it is necessary to bring 
down the press at first gently, and by degrees 
with greater force, and to raise it as suddenly 
as possible. By this means the water, which 
is impelled to the sides of the heaps, and 
which lias not yet escaped, returns to the 
centre; the sheets are equally dry, and the 
operation is executed without difficulty. 
According to the state of dryness in which 
the paper is found when it comes from the 
apartment of the vat, it is either pressed be- 
fore or after the first exchange. The ope- 
ration of the press should be reiterated, and 
managed with great care; otherwise, in the 
soft state of the paper, there is a danger that 
its grain and transparency are totally destroy- 
ed.^ Another essential principle to the suc- 
cess of the exchange is, that the grain ol the 
paper is originally well raised. For this pur- 
pose the wire cloth of the Dutch forms is 
is composed of a rounder wire than that 
used in France, by which they gain the 
greatest degree of transparency, and are in 
no danger of destroying the grain. Besides 
this, the Dutch take care to proportion the 
wires even where the forms are equal to the 
thickness of the paper. 
Almost every kind of paper is considerably 
improved by the exchange, and receives a 
degree of perfection which renders it more 
agreeable in the use. But it is necessary to 
observe at the same time, that all papers are 
not equally susceptible of this melioration ; 
on the contrary, if the stuff is unequal, dry, 
or weakened by the destruction of the fine 
parts, it acquires nothing of that lustre and 
softness, and appearance of velvet, which the 
exchange gives to stuff properly prepared. 
The sheds for drying the paper are in the 
neighbourhood of the paper-mill, and -are fur- 
nished with a vast number of cords, on which 
they hang the sheets both before and alter 
the sizing. The sheds are surrounded w ith 
moveable lattices, to admit a quantity of air 
sufficient for drying the paper. The cords of 
the shed are stretched as much as possible ; 
and the paper, four or five sheets of it toge- 
ther, is placed on them by means of a w ood- 
