Richard Herring

“ I shall observe, that with regard to the Tax itself, I simply question whether it would be possible to impose one less injurious to the well-being of society, and against which, as of necessity, fewer persons could have cause to murmur, than the existing duty on paper. ”

“ For, be it remembered, that in contrasting the results of this invention, with the productions of former periods, we are, in fact, arraying in our train, the mighty arm of the press against the feeble efforts of an unwieldy style, or the tedious and uncertain process of the slow-paced pen, which prior to an acquaintance with the art of printing, were the only means mankind possessed for spreading the influence and advantages of learning amongst their fellow-creatures. ”

“ Within the recollection of my father, it was not at all an uncommon occurrence for a parcel of paper to become so completely perished from the circumstance of its not having been thoroughly washed after bleaching, that to draw a sheet as a sample, and to fold it up in the usual way, was found utterly impossible, without the sheets being cracked or broken at every fold. In some instances, the fibre was so completely destroyed, that an entire ream, composed of 480 sheets, might be as readily snapped asunder as a piece of rotten wood, merely by giving it a sharp blow against the back of a chair. ”

“ For of all the arts that contribute to the comfort and happiness of mankind, no one, perhaps, is more intimately connected with our social habits, or more closely entwined with the best and purest feelings of our nature, than that of writing. ”

“ And even mother earth herself is treated with no greater forbearance, by alternately feeding her up with manure, and teazing and tormenting her surface with tillage, she is coaxed and compelled to send forth a living vegetable down, which is shorn, plucked and plundered from her bosom, in the shape of cotton, flax, and hemp. ”

“ The rags or materials already employed, are composed, as everybody knows, to a very great extent, of the fibre of flax, and besides, possess this great advantage, that they have been repeatedly prepared for paper making by the numerous alkaline washings which they necessarily receive during their period of use, which, if left to the paper-maker, as would be the case with flax in its raw state, to be done all at once, (and it must be done before the fibre is fit for use,) would add so fearfully to the expense, as to render its adoption for printing or writing paper altogether unadvisable. ”

“ It certainly would appear very remarkable, [24] that not only amongst mankind generally, but even with those intimately associated with that branch of commerce, so little interest should be found to exist in an acquaintance with its origin and advancement, beyond the bare knowledge which directly concerns them. It is true that with them, no less than with people in general, the very indispensableness of the material renders familiarity at once an unconscious stumbling-block, to any conception of the grandeur of its importance, or its vastly interesting, and varied associations. ”

“ Rags, to the paper-maker, are almost as various in point of quality or distinction, as the materials which are sought after through the influence of fashion. Thus, the paper maker, in buying rags, requires to know exactly of what the bulk is composed. If he is a manufacturer of white papers, no matter whether intended for writing or printing, silk or woollen rags, would be found altogether useless, inasmuch, as is well known, the bleach will fail to act upon any animal substance whatever. ”

“ Nor let any one scoff at the interest, which I venture to express in the ornament even of a cottage wall. Ornament is the crown of art. Taste is thought. Elegance is the refinement of civilization. The study of beauty, grandeur, and truth, in History and in Nature, is the most practical education of man! ”

“ For the application of cotton to the purposes of paper making, requires almost as much labour and ingenuity as the use of linen rags. Some have conceived, and I think with sufficient reason, that China originally gave birth to the invention. Certain it is, that the art of making paper from vegetable matter reduced to pulp was known and understood there long before it was practised in Europe, which did not take place until the 11th century, and the Chinese have carried it to a high degree of perfection. ”

“ The paper-making machine (see frontispiece) is constructed to imitate in a great measure, and in some respects to improve, the processes used in making paper by hand; but its chief advantages are the increased rapidity with which it accomplishes the manufacture, and the means of producing paper of any size which can practically be required.
By the agency of this admirable contrivance, which is so adjusted as to produce the intended effect with unerring precision, a process, which in the old system of paper-making, occupied about three weeks, is now performed in as many minutes. ”

“ Whole piles of quired stock, meaning books unbound, are already crumbling to dust in the warehouses of booksellers, never to come to light as books, and many a volume designed to enrich the library of its possessor and to descend as an heir-loom to posterity, now presents to the mortified owner its elegant print surrounded by a margin of tan colour, which in some instances forms, as it were, a complete frame round each page, the oil varnish in the composition of the ink seeming to preserve the interstices between the print from the same kind of discoloration. ”

“ The advantage gained by the use of so great a length of felt, is simply, that it becomes less necessary to stop the machine for the purpose of [71] washing it, than would be the case if the felt were limited in length to its absolute necessity.
In some instances, when the paper being made is sized in the pulp with such an ingredient as resin, the felt becomes so completely clogged in the space of a few hours, that unless a very great and apparently unnecessary length of felt be employed, a considerable waste of time is constantly incurred in washing or changing the felt. ”

“ Thus was man at once rendered as superior to the brute creation, as in after times by the aid of writing, or the art of drawing those ideas into vision, he was especially distinguished from the condition of uncivilized savages. ”

“ The cost, however, of reducing the plantain into fibre, coupled with the expense of freight, was found, and will still be found, to bring up the price so much, as to effectually exclude it from the manufacture of paper; for this simple reason, that rags, of necessity, must continue accumulating, and before it will answer the purpose of the paper-maker to employ new material—which is not so well adapted for his purpose as the old—he must be enabled to purchase it for considerably less than it would be worth in the manufacture of textile fabrics. ”

“ If, in an age of foreign convulsion, England has undergone no catastrophe; if, in the fall of monarchies, she has preserved her hereditary throne; if, in the mingled infidelity and superstition of the Continent, which, like the mingled frenzy and fetters of a lunatic hospital, have, in our day, exhibited the lowest humiliation of human nature ”

“ That it is not an artificial production may very readily be perceived by contrasting one of the more translucent specimens with a piece of the finest manufactured paper, by the aid of the microscope.
The precise period at which the manufacture of paper was first introduced into Europe appears to be rather a matter of uncertainty. Paper mills, moved by water power, were in operation in Tuscany at the commencement of the fourteenth century; and at Nuremberg, in Germany, one was established in 1390, by Ulman Stromer, who wrote the first work ever published on the art of paper making. ”

“ I have seen a paper machine with the sizing apparatus attached, which from the wire-cloth where the pulp first flows on, to the cutting machine at the extremity, measured no less than one thousand feet. The advantage of drying the paper in this manner over so many of these drums is, that it turns out much harder and stronger, than if dried more rapidly over heated cylinders. ”

“ The principle of paper making by machinery is simply this, instead of employing moulds and felts of limited dimensions, as was originally the practice, the peculiar merit of the invention consists in the adaptation of an endless wire-gauze to receive the paper pulp, and again an endless felt, to which in progress the paper is transferred ”

“ Some writers state that of this plant the little ark was made, in which the parents of Moses exposed him upon the banks of the Nile, and of this it was that the most ancient paper was manufactured. Not as would now be customary, by first reducing it to a pulp, nor, indeed, in any way as resembling modern paper, except that in both, vegetable fibre is the basis. That a plant once so useful, and for ages in Egypt so commercially valuable, should have totally disappeared, being altogether unknown to modern botanists, appears scarcely credible ”

“ If, however, we glance at the other extreme, and take the aids frequently adopted to produce paper of apparent excellence from comparatively worthless materials, we shall find occasion to regret more than one form of artificial assistance, which is perpetually liable to objection. The effects, for instance, of excessive bleaching are still occasionally manifested, although by a better system of washing the pulp and the use of counteracting chemicals, evils which at one time resulted therefrom are now mainly checked. ”

“ And all those silks, woollens, flax, hemp, and cotton, in all their varied forms, whether as cambric, lace, linen, holland, fustian, corduroy, bagging, canvas, or even as cables, are or can be [51] used in the manufacture of paper of one kind or another. Still, when we speak of rags, as of necessity, they accumulate, and are gathered up by those who make it their business to collect them, they are very far from answering the purposes of paper making. ”

“ Amongst the numerous and diversified objects of human investigation and research, it would, perhaps, be difficult to single out one, more curious and interesting, than that of the medium which bears the symbols of language ”

“ It has, like all the works of man, occasional imperfections, and perhaps among the most prominent, are its too minute details of offences against public purity. But, there is scarcely a newspaper in this age, which would not have been regarded as a triumph of ability, in the last. In fact, the newspaper of England is the great practical teacher of the people. Its constant and universal teaching alone accounts for the superior intelligence of the population. ”

“ Every step of the manufacture of paper must be conducted under the surveillance of the Excise, and the provisions as to entries, folding, weighing, sorting, labelling, removing, and so on, are not only exceedingly numerous and vexatious, but enforced under heavy penalties. For instance, every paper maker is required by sections 20 & 21, to provide suitable scales and weights for the use of the Excise, and also to assist the officer in what we might conceive to be the execution of his peculiar duty, under the penalties, in the former case of £100., and in the latter, £50. ”

“ The manufacture of four or five hundred square feet of paper per minute, and 12,000 impressions per hour, are now matters of every day occurrence, although it should be borne in mind, that without the paper machine, pouring forth its miles of web, these corresponding advantages in printing could not have been developed. ”

“ The world, no doubt, according to ancient precedent, would rather pay its tribute of admiration, if we should not rather say its debt of homage, after death. But it is fortunately in the power of the present age to point to a modern example of tardy but full reparation made to a living man, a great improvement upon the old rule, the mockery of a national funeral, and Westminster Abbey. ”

“ The paper thus sized becomes much harder and stronger, by reason of the freedom with which the sheets can contract in drying; and this is mainly the reason why paper made by hand continues to be so much tougher than that made by the machine, in consequence of the natural tendency of the pulp to contract in drying, and consequently becoming, where no resistance is offered, more entwined or entangled, which of course adds very considerably to the strength and durability of the paper. In making by the machine, this tendency, you will observe, is completely checked. ”

“ There may be folly, and even faction, among us, and the press may be the trumpet of both; but, the width of the area is the remedy. A whole nation is always right. No sound can stir it, but the sound which is in accord with its own feelings ”

“ In paper making, there has seldom, perhaps, arisen a greater difficulty than in furnishing a supply suited to the purposes of photography. Unquestionably, great care is requisite in the selection of the materials, their preparation, and [100] subsequent manufacture. But the difficulty is owing more to the want of positive information on the part of the photographer, than to failure in the exertions of the Paper Maker. ”