370 
PAPER. 
this means the duff will be completely wafhed, the tex¬ 
ture of the rag uninjured, and very little wade of fluff 
■yvill take place. 
For the beating-engine, Mr. Bigg recommends what is 
called a Jaw-plate for all kinds of paper, excepting very 
thin papers, for which a plate like the wafhing-engine 
plate is bed. The bars of the roll and plate to be dull, if 
for very thin papers, by which means the duff will work 
wet on the mould, and form a very drong paper. The 
procefs of beating will take about four hours for thick 
papers; and, for thin and very thin papers, the plate and 
bars of the roll being properly dull, will take from nine to 
twelve hours. The thinner the paper, the more time will 
be required in the procefs of beating, on which every 
thing depends to produce a drong firm paper; for, in cafe 
it is hurried, by having your plate and the bars of the 
roll too dtarp, it is impoffible to manufacture h drong, 
clear, and even, paper, as the dud’ will not hold water fuf- 
ficient to give a good drong texture to the paper in 
moulding it. 
When you think the duff fudiciently beaten, try it, by 
taking a bafin of clear water, into which put as much 
pulp as will lie upon your four fingers, and tritu¬ 
rate it with your hand two or three minutes : it will then, 
if properly beat, doat in clear and beautiful clouds, like 
what is called a mackarel-fky in the atmofphere ; and, if 
handled as it turns in the beating-engine, it will be very 
foftand fmooth to the feel, and numerous fmail air-blad¬ 
ders will then arife as it turns in the engine : thefe will 
quickly break and difappear, and keep in quick fucceffion 
arifing and breaking. If, on trying the duff in the bafin 
as above, the duff appears very clear and free from knots, 
threads, and lumps, it is certain of being properly beat. 
The pulp, properly beat for very thin papers, fhould be 
long, and clear from knots and threads, and float clear in 
the bafin without finking quickly. 
The faired water is the bed for paper-making, on ac¬ 
count of the clean and white quality fo defirable in the 
manufacture. The w'ater that diffolves foap bed is alfo 
the fitted for taking the greafe out of rags. Paper-makers 
lay that the water which is molt beaten, and that which 
comes from afar, makes a better curdled paper, ftouter, 
and of dronger confidence, as to matter : if this be the cafe, 
it is probably becaufe this water has had more time for 
depofiting the dime, and other heterogeneous parts, and 
that, being more expofed to the air by motion, it is 
thereby in a better condition for diffolving greafe and 
foap. Water fubjedt to be rnudded by rain, and that 
which runs through marfliy grounds, ought to be avoided. 
Neither ought a paper-mill to be placed below other ma¬ 
nufactories or machinery, which, by ufing the fame water, 
might communicate to it a bad quality. The water of 
ponds, and rain water, are very good for diffolving foap, 
and may therefore be uled for paper, if otherwife in a pure 
Hate. Water impregnated with lime, by having run off 
from chalky foils, is generally very pure and clear to the 
eye, and is therefore much ufed for paper-making; but 
it is apt to depofit a flight incrudation upon the brafs wire 
of the moulds, which they remove by occafionaily waflj- 
ing them with vinegar. 
For printing-papers, the fixing is done in the beating- 
engine, towards the end of its operation, as we ffiall de- 
fcribe : the fize is neceffary to prevent the ink from fink¬ 
ing into the paper like blotting-paper; but, printing-ink 
not being fo fluid as w'riting-ink, the paper can be fulfi- 
ciently fizedin fubdance, without fubjeCting the (heets to 
a feparate operation after they are made. The fize for 
the engine is compofed of alum pounded very fine, and 
mixed up with a quantity of oil : about a pint and a half 
of this mixture, thrown into the engine at intervals, 
during the lad half-hour of the beating, is fufficient. In 
order to give that bloom, or bluecaft, to the paper, which 
fome kinds have, a quantity of powder-blue is frequently 
put into the engine at the lame time. The pulp is now 
run off into the jiuff-clieji, where the different kinds are 
mixed ; and it is taken out as it is wanted, in the vats 
where the dippers, &c. work to form the (heets. 
The moulding of the paper fhould be carried on in a 
lofty room, well ventilated, and with a fmooth and even 
ceiling, that the fleam arifing from the feveral vats of pulp 
may not be condenfed upon it, and fall in drops ; for a 
Angle drop, falling upon a Iheet of paper whild it is 
moulding, will beat a hole through it, or at lead fpoil it. 
The people in this apartment w'ork at the vats, with 
moulds, deckles, felts, vat-prefs, and wet-prefs. 
The vat ufed to contain the pulp is a tub, generally 
about five feet in diameter, and two and a half in depth. 
It is provided, on the upper part, with planks enclofed in¬ 
wards, and even railed in with v/ood, to prevent any of 
the fluff from running over in the operation: a plank, 
pierced with holes at one of the extremities, is placed 
acrofs the vat, and, reding on the planks which furround 
the vat, forms a fupport to red the mould upon when a 
flieet of paper has been made, and it remains here a lhort 
time to drain off the fuperfluous water. The duff in the 
vat is kept at a proper temperature, by means of a grate 
introduced at a hole in the fide, and furrounded on the in- 
fide of the vat with a cafe of copper. For fuel to this grate 
charcoal or wood is ufed, and frequently, to prevent 
fmoke, the wall of the building comes in contact with one 
part of the vat, fo that the fire has no communication with 
the room where they make the paper. 
The mould is a fquare frame, or lhallow box, made of 
well-feafoned mahogany, and covered at the top with 
wire-cloth ; its dimenfions are an inch or an inch and a 
half larger than the flieet of paper intended to be made 
upon it. The wire-cloth of the mould is varied in pro¬ 
portion to the finenefs of the paper and the nature of the 
duff’. It confids of a number of parallel wires dretched 
acrofs the frame, very near together, and tied fad through 
holes in the Tides; alfo a few other dronger wires, extend¬ 
ing acrofs in a direction at right angles to the former, and 
a confide table didance afunder, the fmail wires being bound 
down to them by fine wire at the interfe&ions. This may 
be readily underflood, from the examination of a flieet of 
fome kind of paper on which the marks of the wires re¬ 
main, becaufe the paper is thinner in thofe places where 
the wire touched it. By a modern improvement, thefe 
marks, called water-marks, are avoided, and the paper has 
a fmooth even furface. For this, the wire is wove in a 
loom, exactly like cloth, and dretched over the frame of 
the mould. The wire-cloth is in this cafe made larger 
than the intended flieet of paper, and turned down over 
the Tides of the frame, being Tewed fad to it by fine wire, 
fo that the cloth is drained tight over the frame. The 
wove-paper, as it is called, when made on thefe moulds, is 
a very luperior article to the old paper, particularly for 
books; but a prejudice dill prevails in favour of the old 
paper with lines, which obliges tnanufadturers ftill to 
make it, though by no means fo fine or good as the wove. 
The deckle is a fquare frame of mahogany, bound with 
brafs at the angles ; it is made very thin, and its outfide 
correfponds with the Tides of the mould, while the infide 
is the fize of the flieet. This frame is necefl’ary to retain 
the fluff of which the paper is made on the cloth ; and it 
mud be exactly flat, that it may fit upon the wire-cloth 
of the mould, otherwife the edges of the paper will be 
ragged and badly finifhed. The deckle, when placed upon 
the wire of the mould, forms a fhallow fieve or mould, 
in which a quantity of the pulp is taken up; and, by the 
draining-through of the water, the pulp is left in a iheet 
upon the wire. There is no fadening for the deckle, as 
it is movable, and only held upon the mould by the 
workman grafping the mould and deckle together in both 
hands at the oppoiite Tides. This admits of the deckle 
being removed, that the flieet of paper may be taken up 
from the wire, by applying the mould upon a piece of 
felt, 
The felts art pieces of woollen cloth, fpread over every 
fheet of paper, and upon which the fheets are laid, to detach 
them 
