PAPER  FROM  INDIAN  CORN  LEAVES. 
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we  allude  is  a  complete  success,  and  may  be  expected  to  exercise 
the  greatest  influence  upon  the  price  of  paper.  Indian  corn,  in 
countries  of  a  certain  degree  of  temperature,  can  be  easily  cul- 
tivated to  a  degree  more  than  sufficient  to  satisfy  the  utmost  de- 
mands of  the  paper  market.  Besides,  as  rags  are  likely  to  fall 
in  price,  owing  to  the  extensive  supply  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  im- 
agined a  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  seven- 
teenth century  an  Indian  corn  paper  manufactory  was  in  full 
operation  at  the  town  of  Eievi  in  Italy,  and  enjoyed  a  world- 
wide reputation  at  the  time  ;  but  with  the  death  of  its  proprie- 
tor the  secret  seems  to  have  lapsed  into  oblivion.  Attempts 
subsequently  made  to  continue  the  manufacture  were  baffled  by 
the  difficulty  of  removing  the  flint  and  resinous  and  glutinous 
matter  contained  in  the  blade.  The  recovery  of  the  process  has 
at  last  been  effected,  and  is  due  to  the  cleverness  of  one  Herr 
Moritz  Diamant,  a  Jewish  writing-master  in  Austria ;  and  the 
trial  of  his  method  on  a  grand  scale,  which  was  made  at  the  Im- 
perial manufactory  of  Schlogelmulhe,  near  Glognitz,  Lower 
Austria,  has  completely  demonstrated  the  certainty  of  the  in- 
vention. Although  the  machinery,  arranged  as  it  was  for  the 
manufacture  of  rag-paper,  could  not,  of  course,  fully  answer  the 
requirements  of  Herr  Diamant,  the  results  of  the  essay  were 
wonderfully  favorable.  The  article  produced  was  of  a  purity 
of  texture  and  whiteness  of  color  that  left  nothing  to  be  desired  ; 
and  this  is  all  the  more  valuable  from  the  difficulty  usually  ex- 
perienced in  the  removal  of  impurities  from  rags.  The  proprie- 
tor of  the  invention  is  Count  Carl  Octavio  Zu  Lippe  Wessen- 
field  5  and  several  experiments  give  the  following  results  : 
1.  It  is  not  only  possible  to  produce  every  variety  of  paper 
from  the  blades  of  Indian  corn,  but  the  product  is  equal,  and 
in  some  respects  even  superior,  to  the  article  manufactured  from 
rags. 
2.  The  paper  requires  but  very  little  size  to  render  it  fit  for 
writing  purposes,  as  the  pulp  naturally  contains  a  large  propor- 
