THE PAPER-MAKER.
1. The materials on which writing was executed, in the early days of the art, were the leaves and bark of trees and plants, stones, bricks, sheets of lead, copper, and brass, as well as plates of ivory, wooden tablets, and cotton and linen cloth.
2. The instruments with which writing was practised were adapted to the substance on which it was to be formed. The stylus, which the Romans employed in writing on metallic tablets covered with wax, was made of iron, acute at one end, for forming the letters, and flat or round at the other, for erasing what may have been erroneously written.
3. For writing with ink, the calamus, a kind of reed, sharpened at the point, and split like our pens was used. Some of the Eastern nations still write with bamboos and canes. The Chinese inscribe their characters with small brushes similar to camel's hair pencils. We have no certain evidence of the application of quills to this purpose until the seventh century.
4. As the literature of antiquity advanced, a material adapted to works of magnitude became necessary, and this was found both in the skins of animals, and in the celebrated plant papyrus, of Egypt; but the time when they were first applied to this purpose cannot be determined, although it is probable that the former has the preference as regards priority.
5. The papyrus was an aquatic plant, which grew upon the banks of the Nile. In the manufacture of paper from this reed, it was divested of its outer covering, and the internal layers, or laminæ, were separated with the point of a needle or knife. These layers were spread parallel to each other on a table, in sufficient numbers to form a sheet; a second layer was then laid with the strips crossing those of the first at right angles; and the whole having been moistened with water, was subjected to pressure between metallic surfaces. The pressure, aided by a glutinous substance in the plant, caused the several pieces to become one uniform sheet.
6. Parchment was manufactured from the skins of sheep and goats. In the preparation, these were first steeped in water impregnated with lime, and afterwards stretched upon frames, and reduced by scraping with sharp instruments. They were finished by the application of chalk, and by rubbing them with pumice-stone. The skins of very young calves, dressed in a similar manner, was called vellum. Parchment and vellum are still used for deeds and other important documents.
7. When Attalus, about 200 years before Christ, was about to found a library at Pergamus, which should rival that of Alexandria, one of the Ptolemies, then king of Egypt, jealous of his success, prohibited the exportation of papyrus; but the spirited inhabitants of Pergamus manufactured parchment as a substitute, and formed their library principally of manuscripts on this material. From this fact, it received the name of Pergamena among the Romans, who gave it also the appellation of Membrana.
8. The greatest quantity of paper was manufactured at Alexandria, and the commerce in this article greatly increased the wealth of that city. In the fifth century, paper was rendered very dear by taxation; and this probably was an inducement for an effort to produce a substitute. Accordingly, in the eighth century, it began to be superseded by cotton paper, although it continued in use in some parts of Europe, until three hundred years after the period last mentioned.
9. The manufacture of cotton paper was introduced into Spain, in the eleventh century, by the Arabians, who became acquainted with it in Bucharia as early as A.D. 704. About the year 1300, it was commenced in Italy, France, and Germany; and, in some of the paper-mills of these countries, paper was made from cotton rags. Linen paper is thought to have originated in Germany, about the year 1318.