Practual Paper-Making. 263 
this now add one part of white soap, previously dis- 
solved in hot water. At the same time heat half a part 
of gallipot* with a sufficient quantity of a solution of potassa, 
rendered caustic by lime to dissolve this resin entirely, and 
after having mixed the whole, it only remains to pour in a 
solution of one part of alum.” 
The compound resulting from the intimate union of the 
above named materials was applied by M. Braconnot to 
brown paper, in only thin coatings, and the paper was per- 
fectly sized. “It seems,” adds this learned man, “that in 
introducing fat and resinous matters into the pulp, the prin- 
cipal object is, as it were, to fix and agglutinate the size, in 
order to prevent it from being expelled by pressure.” 
This is, then, the discovery of the materials employed in 
sizing paper in the pulp, due to the power of science put 
in practice by so learned a man as M. Braconnot, to whom 
it will insure an undying reputation. 
Several manufacturers tried this process without success ; 
but doubtless they operated upon fermented pulp, and the 
failure is only to be attributed to the persons themselves 
who made the attempt. 
The same is true of the receipt of M.Canson. It answers 
very well in his mills, but was without success in those ofa 
manufacturer I was visiting in the month of September, 
1828, and with whom I should have made it succeed if I had 
been able to stay longer with him, or if the mill had been 
working during my sojourn in the city where it was situated. 
It is important to understand in brief the work of the 
commission of the “ Société d‘Encouragement,” a report of 
which is contained in their transactions. 
The “Société d' Encouragement” had received, about 
twenty-four years ago, specimens of paper made in Ger- 
many, and sized, the one with resinous soap, the other with 
starch. They were but feebly sized, which was due to the 
fact that in German mills, asin ours, the rags are fermented. 
This long maceration, carried as far as putrid fermen- 
tation, deprives the rags of their gluten, and the pulp then 
requires a great quantity of starch; but in that case the 
leaves, on being withdrawn from the press, cannot be 
separated without peeling. The commissioners knew of 
these processes, and it occurred to them to unite the two. 
They believed that the addition of resinous soap would 
* Gallipot is a very clear, yellowish-white pine resin of French 
origin.—Tr. 
Z2 
