Pasteboard

“ Specimens of paper and pasteboard made from the old moss of the Scandinavian bogs have been offered in the markets. The pasteboard is as hard as wood, and is easily painted and polished; and it is believed to have, for certain purposes, advantages over wood, of which it has the best qualities without the faults. It does not split or warp. Under the hydraulic press it acquires a consistency and a resisting power much superior to what can be given to pasteboard of straw. ”

“ Fig. 365.—Mark it off like this. we can go to work immediately and build toy Hanging Gardens. Cut a piece of the pasteboard exactly square, measuring on each of the four sides eighteen and one-half inches (Fig. 364) . Of this we will make a box-like foundation. Draw a straight line three inches from each edge, as shown by the dotted lines in Fig. 365. Take each line in turn and, placing the edge of a straight ruler along it, score the line; that means, run the knife-blade along the pencil line at the edge of the ruler, cutting the pasteboard only partially through. ”

“ The openings are cut with a penknife, care being taken to make as clean a cut as possible. Japanese paper, of pale green, orange, or some suitable light colour, is pasted under the openings. The process of pasting is one that requires some care. It is well to paste only a portion of the pasteboard at a time taking care not to use more paste than necessary and not to let any get over the edges of the openings. ”

“ There is no danger of breaking the back of a [90] Chinese book on first opening it, for it has no lining of hard glue. As to the utilization of only one side of the paper, it must be remembered that the Chinese paper is very thin, and that this practice makes it possible to secure the advantage of opacity without loading the paper with a foreign and heavy material. Moreover, the thickness of the pasteboard cover is saved on the shelves, and even if a substitute for it is adopted, it is in the form of a light pasteboard case that holds several volumes at once. ”

“ Fig. 70.—Pasteboard extension for front of stage.
Cut the arch (Fig. 68) of stiff pasteboard. The cover of a pasteboard box will do. Make the arch long enough to span the space across the front of the stage and let the lower edge of the curve in the centre of the arch be five and a half inches higher than its two ends (see dotted line, Fig. 68) . Cover both sides of the arch with green paper, gluing it on only along the edges. Tack the ends of the arch to the top of the two side walls (Fig. 69) .
[79]
Fig. ”

“ Put two teaspoonfuls of water to the color you have rubbed down, and mix it well up with a camel's-hair brush about three quarters of an inch long.
25. Then take a piece of smooth, but not glossy, Bristol board or pasteboard; divide it, with your pencil and rule, into squares as large as those of the very largest chess-board: they need not be perfect squares, only as nearly so as you can quickly guess. Rest the pasteboard on something sloping as much as an ordinary desk ”

“ To dream of pasteboard, denotes that unfaithful friends will deceive you concerning important matters. To cut pasteboard, you will throw aside difficulties in your struggle to reach eminent positions. ”

“ When all is well mixed cover it, and set it to rise in a round straight-sided tin pan. Place it near the fire, and when quite light and cracked all over the surface, flour your pasteboard well, place the loaf upon it, and having prepared in a pint bowl a stiff mixture of ground cinnamon, fresh butter, and brown sugar, beaten together so as to stand alone, make numerous deep cuts or incisions all over the surface on the sides and top of the cake ”

“ Fig. 2
This is a fine game for rainy days. Any boy can make it and if he likes to use pencil and paint brush he will find it as interesting to make as to play with. Get a small pasteboard box about six inches long by three wide and an inch deep—such as spools of cotton come in. Cover it with white paper, pasting it neatly and securely. Then draw and colour on the lid a mail bag, which should almost cover it—either a brown leather sack or a white canvas one with "United States Mail" on it in large blue letters. ”

“ Of course we do not expect to equal the savages in its use, when recent investigations show that it has taken the experience of generations upon generations of men and hundreds of years, to bring it to its present degree of excellence; but every boy may derive much fun from practicing with the little cardboard boomerang 22cut of stiff pasteboard in either of the forms given in the preceding page. ”

“ To mould it in the usual form, make it into balls of uniform size, hollow these a little at the top by pressing the thumb round them, brush them over with yolk of egg, and put a second much smaller ball into the hollow part of each; glaze them entirely with yolk of egg, and send them to a quick oven for half an hour or more. The paste may also be made into the form of a large cake, then placed on a tin, or copper oven-leaf, and supported with a pasteboard in the baking; for the form of which see introductory page of Chapter XXVII.
114. ”

“ At this stage of the process, the books are received by the men or boys, who generally take on one hundred at a time. The workman first spreads some glue on the backs of each book with a brush. He then places them, one after the other, between boards of solid wood, and beats them on the back with a hammer. By this means the back is rounded, and a groove formed on each side for the admission of one edge of the pasteboards. ”

“ In hot-pressing, a number of stout cast-iron plates are heated in an oven, and then put into a screw-press in alternate layers, with highly glazed pasteboards, between which the paper is placed in open sheets; and the hard polished surfaces of the pasteboards, aided by the heat and pressure, impart that beautiful appearance which belongs to hot-pressed paper. A yet more smooth and elegant surface is produced by the process of glazing. The sheets of paper are placed separately between very smooth clean copper-plates. ”

“ Pasteboards can be obtained in various substances, being described as three-sheet, four-sheet, etc., but there is no point system in card thicknesses, as one maker's six-sheet will be the same as a four-sheet of another manufacturer. ”

“ For those who do not understand making puff paste, it is by far the best way to work the butter in at two separate times, divide it in half, and break the half in little bits, and cover your paste all over: dredge it lightly with flour, then fold it over each side and ends, roll it out quite thin, and then put in the rest of the butter, fold it, and roll it again. Remember always to roll puff paste from you. The best made paste, if not properly baked, will not do the cook any credit.
Those who use iron ovens do not always succeed in baking puff paste, fruit pies, &c. ”

“ Paste should be worked up very lightly, and no strength or pressure used; it should be rolled out from you, as lightly as possible. A marble slab is better than a board to make paste on.
The flour should be dried for some time before the fire previously to being used. In forming it into paste it should be wetted as little as possible, to prevent its being tough. It is a great mistake to imagine lard is better adapted for pastry than butter or clarified fat; it may make the paste lighter, but neither the color nor the flavor will be nearly so good, and the saving is extremely trifling. ”

“ Fill the dish with the mixture of the pudding, and bake it in a moderate oven. The paste should be of a light brown colour. If the oven is too slow, it will be soft and clammy; if too quick, it will not have time to rise as high as it ought to do.
In making the best puff-paste, try to avoid using more flour to sprinkle and roll with, than the small portion which you have laid aside for that purpose at the beginning. If you make the dough too soft at first, by using too much water, it will be sticky, and require more flour, and will eventually be tough when baked. ”

“ The cardboard for tickets is made of a slightly spongy texture, well fitted to take paste. It is known technically as 'middles,' and is the foundation for two external surfaces of paper, white or coloured as the case may be. The primitive paste-brush has long been discarded. A cleverly constructed machine pours out a stream of paste on two rollers, under or over which pass two sheets of paper, each of which becomes thoroughly pasted on one side. ”

“ The medium used for adhering the pictures is common flour paste, the pictures being also washed over the outside with the same, and all the edges effectually fastened down, the cotton cloth to which they are applied being tightly stretched over a wooden frame. When domestic paste is made, the material is frequently injured by scorching, or by the addition of too much water. Good paste, when spread on paper, will not strike through it like water, but will remain on the surface, like butter on a piece of bread. ”

“ 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. ”

“ If you have a box of cutters you can cut this paste into all sorts of shapes according to the shape of the cutters, or you can cut each thin cake into pieces about the same size, and then with a sharp dry knife cut the paste into threads. These threads or ornamental shapes can be thrown into boiling clear soup, when they will separate of their own accord. Nudel paste is, in fact, home-made Italian paste, or, when cut into threads, home-made vermicelli. It is very nourishing, as it is made with eggs and flour. ”

“ Flatten it again, put on the last layer of butter, flour it slightly, and again roll up the sheet. Then cut the scroll into as many pieces as you want sheets for your dishes or patty-pans. Roll out each piece almost an inch thick. Flour your dishes, lay the paste lightly on them, notch the edges, and bake it a light brown. The oven must be moderate. If it is too hot, the paste will bake before it has risen sufficiently. If too cold, it will scarcely rise at all, and will be white and clammy. When you begin to make paste in this manner, do not quit it till it is ready for the oven. ”

“ Under-Paste.—Put one pound of flour on the paste-board with six ounces of butter in the middle of it; also two ounces of sugar, two eggs, and cold water enough to make an ordinary paste, neither too stiff nor too soft. Roll the paste down to a thickness of one-eighth of an inch, spread it on a tin dish or bakepan, buttered slightly, raise the borders a little or place a strip of puff-paste all around it; put the fruit in the middle, then cover with a thin piece of puff-paste or place strips of it only over the fruit, and bake in a rather quick oven, about 390 degrees Fahr. ”

“ To shew what a 'bit of paste' may become when multiplied by millions, it will suffice to say that thirteen sacks of flour per week are used in this one factory! After the pasting, each sheet of cardboard, large enough for one hundred and twenty-five railway tickets, is, with others of the same kind, subjected to flat-pressure, rolling-pressure, and heat, until the surface-papers are firmly and smoothly attached to the 'middle;' exposure to a high temperature in heated chambers thoroughly dries them. ”

“ If paste is to be applied to part of the paper only, the easiest way is to lay the paper on a board, place another piece of paper over it, leaving exposed the surface to which paste is to be applied. It can be spread more evenly with the finger, faster with a soft, long-handled brush. The larger libraries will find a pasting-machine a great time-saver. Book labels, book pockets, new end papers to freshen soiled books—anything which needs to have the entire surface covered—is pasted on the machine in one-tenth the time required by hand.
Glue. For ordinary mending, glue should never be used. ”

“ Mix the paste well till it becomes a lump of dough. Then beat it on all sides with the rolling-pin. Transfer it to the paste-board, and roll it out thin. Divide it equally into square pieces. Put thickly on each piece a portion of the cream or custard mixture, and fold over it the four corners of the paste, so that they approach each other in the centre. Dredge each tart with powdered loaf-sugar. Set them into the oven, and let them bake of a light brown. They are best when fresh, but not warm; and will be found delicious. ”

“ Perhaps the first qualification about a good writing paper is its cleanliness and freedom from specks of all kinds. A dirty paper is never salable except to dirty people and firms who don’t mind using dirty materials.
Paste for Labels.
For adhesive labels dissolve 11⁄2 ozs. common glue, which has laid a day in cold water, with some candy sugar, and 3⁄4 oz. gum arabic, in 6 ounces hot water, stirring constantly till the whole is homogeneous. If this paste is applied to labels with a brush and allowed to dry, they will then be ready for use by merely moistening with the tongue. ”