Many of the papers above enumerated are made by hand, of the exact size indicated; but, if made by the machine, the roll of paper has to be cut to the required dimensions. In order to do this with precision and expedition, various cutting-machines have been contrived, in which the paper, as it comes from the manufacturing machine, is cut to any size required.
HOT-PRESSING, GLAZING, AND FINISHING—STATISTICS.
Fine papers are, in some cases, hot-pressed and glazed. 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. These are then passed through rollers, which impart a pressure of from twenty to thirty tons. After three or four such pressures, the paper is called rolled, and sometimes also hot-pressed; but, if passed more frequently through the rollers, the paper acquires a higher surface, and is then called glazed.
The general introduction of steel pens has increased the demand for smooth papers, and has led to improvements in finishing them.
As an improvement in the manufacture of paper sized by the machines now in use, it is proposed to conduct the web of paper, after it has been either partially or completely dried, through a trough of cold water, then to pass it through a pair of pressing-rolls, and afterwards to dry it on reels, or over hot cylinders. The paper thus treated will be found to "bear" much better, and admit of erasures being made on the surface of such paper, and written over, without the ink running in the way it does when the paper is sized and dried in the usual manner.
It has been found that when paper is dried, after sizing, by the drying-machines in present use, the paper is very harsh; and, until it stands for some time to get weather (as it is technically termed), great difficulty is experienced in glazing the paper. This inconvenience is proposed to be overcome by passing the paper partially round a hollow cylinder, through which a small stream of cold water is made to run. By this means the heat in the paper is carried off, and the paper is rendered more tractable, and brought to a proper state for undergoing the glazing operation.
It is stated that, "in England, writing-papers are sized with gelatin, and are stronger and harder than those of other countries; they are also cleaner, generally better put up, and show greater care in the manufacture, than those of France and of other countries. The old cream-laid papers, now so fashionable, were reintroduced a few years since, and they are still preferred for letter and note-paper. The thinner post writing-papers, however, are much better manufactured in France, Belgium, and other parts of the Continent, than in England. Those exhibited at the World's Fair from Angoulême, in France, and Heilbronn, in Germany, are the best; those made in Belgium are not sufficiently hard-sized. The white of the letter-papers of France, Germany, and other foreign countries is of great purity and beauty; and these papers being sized in the vat with farina, in addition to rosin-soap, instead of gelatin, they are less greasy under the pen, and consequently can be written on more freely than those which are sized with animal size; they do not, however, bear the ink so well. English printing-papers generally maintain a superiority over those of foreign countries; as also drawing-papers and strong account-book blue-laid papers. Tinted printing and drawing-papers, formerly made exclusively in England, are now produced by most foreign paper-makers."