CUTTING MACHINE.
The large drum (b), over which the paper passes, in the direction indicated by the arrows, has simply an alternating motion, which serves to gather the paper in such lengths as may be required. The crank arm (c), which is capable of any adjustment either at top or bottom, regulating the extent of the movement backwards and forwards, and thus the length of the sheet. As soon as the paper to be cut off has passed below the point (d), at which a presser is suspended, having an alternating motion given to it, in order to make it approach to, and recede from, a stationary presser-board; it is taken hold of as it descends from the drum, and the length pendant from the presser, is instantly cut off by the moveable knife (e), to which motion is given by the crank (f), the connecting rod (g), the lever (h), and the connecting rod (i). The combined motion of these rods and levers, admits of the moveable knife (e), remaining nearly quiescent for a given time, and then speedily closing upon the fixed knife (k), cutting off the paper in a similar manner to a pair of shears, when it immediately slides down a board, or in some instances is carried along a revolving felt, at the extremity of which several men or boys are placed to receive the sheets, according to the number into which the width of the web is divided.
As soon as the pressers are closed for a length of paper to be cut off, the motion of the gathering drum is reversed, smoothing out the paper upon its surface, which is now held between the pressers; the tension roll (l), taking up the slack in the paper as it accumulates, or rather bearing it gently down, until the movement of the drum is again reversed to furnish another length. The handle (m), is employed merely to stop a portion of the machinery, should the water-mark not fall exactly in the centre of the sheet, when by this means it can be momentarily adjusted.
The paper being thus made, and cut up into sheets of stated dimensions, is next looked over and counted out into quires of 24 sheets, and afterwards into reams of 20 quires; which subsequently, under the superintendence of an Excise Officer, are carefully weighed and stamped, previously to their being sent into the market.
Connected with the manufacture of paper, there is one point of considerable interest and importance, and that is, what is commonly, but erroneously, termed the water-mark, which may be noticed in the Times Newspaper, in the New Bank of England Notes, Cheques and Bills, as also in every Postage and Receipt Label of the present day.
The curious, and in some instances absurd terms, which now puzzle us so much in describing the different sorts and sizes of paper, may frequently be explained by reference to the various paper-marks which have been adopted at different periods. In ancient times, when comparatively few people could read, pictures of every kind were much in use where writing would now be employed. Every shop, for instance, had its sign, as well as every public-house, and those signs were not then, as they often are now, only painted upon a board, but were invariably actual models of the thing which the sign expressed—as we still occasionally see some such sign as a bee-hive, a tea-canister, or a doll, and the like. For the same reason printers employed some device, which they put upon the title pages and at the end of their books, and paper makers also introduced marks, by way of distinguishing the paper of their manufacture from that of others; which marks becoming common, naturally gave their names to different sorts of paper. And since names often remain long after the origin of them is forgotten and circumstances are changed, it is not surprising to find the old names still in use, though in some cases they are not applied to the same things which they originally denoted. One of the illustrations of ancient water-mark which I have given in the accompanying plate; that of an open hand with a star at the top, which was in use as early as 1530; probably gave the name to what is still called hand paper.
Another very favourite paper-mark, at a subsequent period 1540-60, was the jug or pot, which is also shown, and would appear to have originated the term pot paper. The foolscap was a later device, and does not appear to have been nearly of such long continuance as the former. It has given place to the figure of Britannia, or that of a lion rampant, supporting the cap of liberty on a pole. The name, however, has continued, and we still denominate paper of a particular size, by the title of foolscap. The original figure has the cap and bells, of which we so often read in old plays and histories, as the particular head-dress of the fool, who at one time formed part of every great man’s establishment.
I have met with the water-mark of a cap, much simpler than that which we have just noticed, somewhat resembling the jockey-caps of the present day, with a trifling ornamentation or addition to the upper part. The first edition of “Shakspeare,” printed by Isaac Jaggard & Ed. Blount, 1623, will be found to contain this mark, interspersed with several others of a different character. No doubt the general use of the term cap to various papers of the present day owes its origin to marks of this description.
The term imperial was in all probability derived from the finest specimens of papyri, which were so called by the ancients.
