122 WOOD PULP FOR PAPER. 
Two pairs of rollers, worked by a horse, would do the work effectually : 
•one pair of the rollers to bruise the bark moderately in the first instance, 
and the second pair sufficiently close to squeeze out the watery and 
pulpy matter. This, with washing and drying, would partially prepare 
it ; or some scutching or tearing machine, which would separate the 
fibres, might be found best adapted for the purpose. 
In the year 1800, Matthias Koops patented a method of extracting 
ink from printed and written paper, and re-converting such pulp into 
writing and printing paper. In the following year he also obtained a 
patent for manufacturing paper from hay, straw, thistles, waste and 
refuse of hemp and flax, and different kinds of wood and bark. 
The graceful and useful bamboo is the source of paper supply in 
China. The paper made from its culm is sufficient to meet the common 
demands of the Chinese. It is, for the most part, of a quality unfit for 
European books and newspapers, but in some places the article is manu- 
factured with such care as to answer even for foreign writing-paper. 
The Anglo-Chinese newspapers, however, find it better to import their 
material from England. The paper mulberry also contributes to the 
paper demand in China, and so does rice-straw. Does the reader inquire 
what becomes of the cast-off or, rather, fallen-off garments of the un- 
counted millions of China ? The world of letters can derive no aid 
from Chinese rags until leather becomes more abundant in that country. 
Crispin claims them all for soles : the shoes of China have soles an inch 
thick, formed of suitably-prepared paper rags, fixed with a thin strip of 
leather. 
The leaves of Indian corn (Zea mays), have often been experimen- 
talized on, and recommended as a paper material, but have not yet 
come into general use. The supply of this waste substance might be 
very large. The chief use of the leaves, &c, hitherto, has been for 
packing purposes, stuffing mattresses, and wrapping oranges. When we 
consider the enormous crops of maize in North America alone, the 
material, if husbanded, might become profitable. Kecent experiments 
have proved it to possess, not only all the ordinary qualities necessary 
to make good paper, hut to be in many respects actually superior to 
rags. Indian corn, it is true, cannot be grown except in countries with 
a certain degree of temperature — at least, not with the prolific result of 
warmer climates ; yet the plant is of frequent occurrence all over the 
continent of Europe, and can be easily cultivated to a degree more than 
sufficient to satisfy the utmost demands of the paper market. Besides, 
as rags are likely to fall in price before long, owing to the extensive 
supply of material resulting from this new element, the world of 
writers and readers would seem to have a brighter future before it than 
the boldest fancy would have imagined a very short time ago. This is 
not the first time that paper has been manufactured from the blade of 
Indian corn ; but, strange to say, the art was lost and required to be 
discovered anew. As early as the seventeenth century, an Indian-corn 
