♦Chinese methods♦
Compared with modern methods of paper-making, this primitive process, which is said to be still in vogue in China, was fairly simple. The branches of the tree were first boiled in lye to remove the bark. Then followed maceration in water for several days, after which the outer part was scraped off and the inner part boiled in lye, until it was separated into fibers. These were washed in a pan or sieve, then worked by hand into a pulp, which was spread on a table and beaten fine with a mallet. The pulp was placed in a tub containing an infusion of rice and a root called oveni, and thoroughly stirred to mix the materials. The sheets were formed by dipping a “mold” made of strips of bulrushes, confined in a frame, into the vat containing the pulp, which was taken out in a thin layer, after the method followed in making paper by hand. After molding, the sheets were laid one above another, with strips of reeds placed between, weights were applied, and the sheets were afterward dried in the sun.
♦Nature’s process♦
It has been suggested that in regions where the water-plant called the conferna grows, Nature herself teaches the method of making paper from vegetable fibers beaten to a pulp. The plant consists of slender green filaments, similar to what is called frog-spittle. The fibers are disintegrated by the action of the water, and rise to the surface as a scum. Driven hither and thither by the winds, tossed by the waves, and carried on resistlessly by the currents, this scum is at last beaten into pulp and matted together by the forces whose plaything it has been. Bleached by the sun, it is finally, in some overflow of the water, cast upon the shore to dry, as veritable sheets of paper. But if Nature taught the process, man was slow to discover the teacher, or to learn the lesson.
♦Crusaders learn paper-making♦
When the Arabs captured the splendid city of Samarcand from the Chinese, about 704 A. D., they gained something more than material booty, for the art of paper-making flourished there, and they carried the secret back with them to their own towns and cities. Western Europe in turn learned it from the Arabs, through the Crusaders, who visited Byzantium, Palestine, and Syria. The followers of the Cross, many of whom were grossly ignorant and superstitious, went east to christianize, by conquest, the inhabitants of these ancient lands, and to wrest from the infidels the tomb of the Savior, and found to their surprise many arts and refinements of which they had been ignorant.
♦French and Dutch improvements♦
It was in 1189 A. D. that the art of making paper from pulp was introduced into France. At that time the French people were far in advance of the English in cultivation and in regard to the refinements of life. They were energetic, and took great delight in construction, manufacturing, and building. Profiting by their new knowledge, they prosecuted this art with such zeal and industry that they were soon in a position to supply not only the wants of France, but those of surrounding countries as well. The people of the Netherlands were stimulated by the example of France, and for a long period the French and Dutch were the best, and indeed almost the only papers produced in Europe.
THE SORTING AND SHREDDING ROOM—[Page 57]