Papier-mâché

“ Sheets of thin tissue paper, pasted together and backed with damp unsized thicker paper, constitute the mold or matrix for the papier-maché process. They are firmly and evenly impressed on the page of type, which may be flat or curved, and are then dried upon the page. When dry the matrix is removed, and adjusted to an iron mold on which melted type metal is poured from several openings. The plate so made is then cooled, planed, and beveled to fit the press. All the operations, aided by machinery, are made with great speed. Ten minutes is the ordinary time. ”

“ At a little distance, especially in a dim light, it is impossible to discover the writing as it blends very well with the white paper. In wrapping up the slate the medium presses the writing on the paper against the surface of the slate and the chirography adheres thereto, very much as the greasy drawing on a lithographer’s stone prints on paper.
In the other experiment the medium uses a papier mache slate, set in the usual wooden frame. A papier mache pad is prepared with a spirit message on one surface ”

“ It was ascertained that when papier-mache matrices were rapidly dried and placed in a mould, separate columns might be cast in them with stereotype metal, type high, planed flat, and finished with sufficient speed to get up the duplicate of a forme of four pages fitted for printing. Steps were taken to adapt these type-high columns to the Applegath Presses, then worked with polygonal chases. When the Hoe machines were introduced, instead of dealing with the separate columns, the papier-mache matrix was taken from the whole page at one operation, by roller-presses constructed for the purpose. ”

“ By combination with a mixture of nitric or sulphuric acid and water, soft paper becomes parchment-like and very hard. This requires careful experimenting, for its success depends on the quality of the acid and the texture of the paper. Very remarkable results have been obtained from this, such as material resembling ivory, horn, and tortoise-shell, in large blocks.
Waste-paper is so common and cheap that papier-mâché can always be made anywhere. It is well adapted to close cracks in wood, walls, or elsewhere; and for those who wish for an employment or amusement, it affords endless facilities. ”

“ It should be remembered that both in leather work and papier maché, it is desirable to model rather than stamp or mould. The material when properly treated is quite as plastic as clay, and will well repay the efforts made in learning to manage it properly. ”

“ In delicate relief-work, a pulp is prepared of scrap paper, which is dried, then ground to powder and mixed with paste and a proportion of potash until a very fine, thin paste is formed. Papier-maché is an exceedingly strong, tough, durable substance, slightly elastic, and not liable to warp or fracture. ”

“ Not only that, but it can make a sort of papier-mâché, which it uses for the flooring, if we may so call it, of the different strata of cells, and for the pillars which bind them together.
Like our own paper manufacturers, it is economic of material, will re-masticate any superabundant paper, and is only too glad if it can get hold of any paper made by man. I have seen a wasps’ nest which was made entirely from the empty blue and white cartridges that were thrown away by soldiers.{475}
Then there is as much difference in the papers made by wasps as in those made by man. ”

“ Yet if the reader will take a piece of thoroughly wetted paper, and knead or macerate it with a knife for some time with gum in solution, he will find it gradually becomes a soft paste, as flexible and as capable of moulding as putty or clay. This is not the same as papier-mâché, which consists of paper merely wet or mixed and boiled with paste, and contains fibre and knottiness. The finely macerated paper, combined with an adhesive, is ductile, impressionable, sets well, and readily receives pressure on rolling, under which it becomes extremely hard. ”

“ The papier-maché matrix lines resulting from pressure against the characters were secured upon a backing sheet, over this sheet was laid a gridiron frame containing a series of slots, and into these slots type metal was poured by hand to form slugs bearing the characters from which to print. This system was immediately followed by a machine which cast the slugs automatically, one line at a time, from the matrix sheets. ”

“ Instead of employing artists at a high rate of wage, transfers are used which can be applied to the articles by boys and girls. German papier mâché is imported into this country duty free, but on the other hand, English papier mâché is subjected to heavy duties before it reaches the German and Continental Markets. ”

“ Paper bird, the Japanese, 78-81; paper boats, 83-86; paper boxes, 119-122; a lot of paper windmills, 52-54; a fan from Nagasaki, 323 Papier-maché, 73; materials for, 74; process of working, 74-75; card-receiver, 75; umbrella-holder, 76; vase, ib.; papier-maché flowers, 77 ”

“ It is essential that all the water should be dried out of the paper, and the paper is sometimes reeled almost bone-dry, but if the paper is to be super-calendered it is damped before reeling, and left until the paper mellows before calendering. Many papers are cut and packed without much opportunity for maturing, that is, as regards paper, attaining a degree of stability which should be maintained during its manipulation by the printer, and, it is hoped, during the remainder of its career. ”

“ Machine-made paper is good, retree, and outsides, the prices being 10 and 20 per cent. less for the second and third qualities respectively. Paper is usually supplied in inside reams of 480 sheets, that is, all good paper, but the papermaker may supply mill reams of 480 sheets, but with a quire of outsides at the top and bottom. The ream of 480 sheets is also known as the stationer's ream—writing, drawing, cartridge, and fancy papers being packed in that quantity. ”

“ China clay, having no cohesion, does not assist in felting the paper in any way, but tends to weaken its resistance to wear. That weakness or tenderness is one feature of imitation art papers. After leaving the paper machine the paper is super-calendered, receiving a water finish, that is, the paper is just wetted on the surface immediately before entering the rolls of the calender. The loading is thus brought to the surface, and a very smooth level sheet is produced, only a little inferior, as a printing surface, to art paper. ”

“ It is not always easy to persuade the consumer to select the very best paper for office stationery, but the choice should be made with a view to create a good impression. Remember always, too, that printing demands good paper to produce the most satisfactory effect.
For lithography the work in hand frequently dictates the quality of paper to be used. Offset printing, certainly, has enabled the lithographer to print on papers unsuitable for direct stone printing, but in all work the right paper produces the best result. ”

“ For ordinary use, common book or print papers are employed, but these are usually given extra care and attention in the course of their manufacture; the stock is so manipulated as to not only secure the desired quality and finish, but also to counteract the tendency of the paper to stretch, which if not overcome is apt to destroy the register and injuriously affect the quality of the work. The better grades of lithographing-paper are made by applying a clay coating especially prepared to bring about the desired results. ”

“ From the foregoing list and descriptions it can be seen that papermakers have a variety of fibres at their command, and it is by selecting, sometimes by blending, fibres of different characteristics, that the manufacture of the large variety of papers is possible. Some of the demands made by the world of paper users are for papers which are very strong or very soft, absorbent, resistant to grease or water, very light, very dense, and the selection of the fibres and their treatment call for special knowledge and skill on the part of the papermaker. ”

“ Chart Papers.—Largely used by lithographers for map and chart printing. Machine-made, the best qualities are all-rag, tub-sized, with smooth surface. Must be strong, pliable, tough, resistant to wear, and at the same time a good printing surface is essential. The manufacture is arranged so as to avoid subsequent stretch.
Cheque Papers.—Good quality of paper, specially made for strength, usually all-rag. Special watermarks may be employed, or protection from fraud is obtained by special printing. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The behaviour of papers when damped is a peculiarity well known to paper-makers and printers. For certain purposes it is desirable that paper should not show any material alteration when damped, since any expansion of the sheet is liable to throw the printing out of “register.” The liability of papers to such stretch or expansion is largely minimised by careful manipulation of the pulp during the process of beating, and also by a proper regulation of the web of paper as it passes from the wet end of the paper machine over the drying cylinders to the calenders. ”

“ Paper made of properly prepared linen and cotton is by far the best, but there are so many new uses for paper that there are not rags enough in the world to make nearly what is needed. There are scores of newspapers and magazines where there used to be one; and as for paper bags and cartons and boxes, there is no limit to their number and variety. A single manufacturer of pens and pencils calls for four thousand different sorts and sizes of boxes. ”

“ ACME PARCHMENT PAPER
which is the strongest paper made, and will not crack or wear out by use. Its color (cream) peculiarly adapts it to night work, being far more pleasing and less trying to the eyes than white.
It is the only paper made from pure fibre and not adulterated with clay or earth to give it weight and surface, and contains no jute, wood, straw, coloring matter, nor any foreign substance whatever.
PRICE PER REAM.
Cap, Letter and Note sizes on hand or ruled to order. On receipt of price, any quantity will be sent to any address, charges paid. ”

“ A few high-class mills are responsible for machine-made drawings similar in furnish and finish to those made by hand. Engine-sized drawing papers are more like cartridge papers, but some of the cheaper varieties resemble thick toned printings. Cartridge papers are made from long-fibred stuff which is only partly bleached. Some cartridges are tub-sized, and the papers serve as substitutes for drawing papers. Being very strong they make excellent cover papers for books and lists of various kinds. Crayon papers are coloured or tinted drawing papers used for crayon and water-colour work. ”

“ It embraces a multitude of most ingenious and delicate operations, and produces in a few minutes, and in one continuous process from the prepared pulp, sheets of paper ready for use. Machine-made paper has now gradually supplanted that made by hand for all except special purposes, such as bank-note, ledger, drawing and other high-class papers—in one word, in cases where great durability is the chief requisite. ”

“ A number of girls rapidly examine every sheet of paper, withdrawing those sheets which fall below the papermaker's standard of perfection, sorting into retree and broke proceeding as in the case of hand-made papers. Counting, cutting, and packing take place very quickly after the paper is sorted. The nimble fingers of the counters turn up the edge of a quantity of paper, the fingers of the other hand run down the edges quickly, counting into reams with extraordinary accuracy. Some papers are trimmed before packing, while others are cut from double to single sheets. ”

“ The products in question are manufactures of paper, as contradistinguished from paper, because completed paper, as produced in paper mills, is but one of the tangible ingredients, the other products (sizing of a particular description, water-color paints, wool flock, and the like) being materials entirely foreign to the art of the paper maker, and that complete merchantable paper is employed simply as the material, and is subjected to elaborate mechanical processes, involving the employment of machinery entirely unknown to the paper maker's art, and operated by workmen who are not paper makers ”

“ Featherweight papers are made entirely of esparto, very little sizing is added, no loading is used, the paper is treated so that the wire and felt marks are not easily visible, and the drying and finishing are carried out so as to retain the bulkiness of paper. It must always be remembered that all papers made under such conditions are not durable, and therefore should never be used for work which must withstand any considerable handling. ”

“ The highly-glazed surface is more suited for writing, while the rougher side takes the gum for the flap better than a burnished surface. Envelope papers are usually cut at an angle to prevent waste when cutting out blanks for envelopes. Demonstration of the waste involved by the use of square paper can be made by opening an ordinary envelope, and marking it out on an ordinary sheet of paper. ”