INTRODUCTION
In the following pages I have endeavored to present a treatise on paper free from confusing technicalities, yet sufficiently intimate to be of service alike to the manufacturer, the salesman, and the consumer of paper viewing the subject in a broad way from the paper mill to the pressroom. The manufacturer and the consumer may notice the omission of some details, as I have aimed to touch mainly on such points as are essential to a good understanding of the work-a-day problems of paper after it reaches the printer.
I am convinced that in many cases the problems of the pressroom are too slightly understood by the “paperman,” while the technicalities of paper-making are only too vaguely comprehended by the printer. I also feel that both should have at least an acquaintance with the history and progress of paper-making.
William Bond Wheelwright.
Appleton, Wisconsin,
January, 1920.
CHAPTER ONE
THE TRADITION AND HISTORY OF PAPER-MAKING
It would be difficult to single out among the diversified objects of human investigation,” wrote John Murray in his remarks on “Modern Paper” (published in 1829), “a question more curious or interesting than the medium which bears the symbols that register the circumstances and events of past ages.... It is through such wonderful media that we are introduced into the multitudinous throng of a world’s tenantry, and from their inscription learn what they thought, and said and did.... In deciphering these transcriptions of ideas and memorials of humanity we virtually converse with minds long since numbered with those who people the world of spirits; and even the mummy from his cerements in his sycamore coffin, recovered from the vaults of eternal pyramids, talks with us by virtue of the roll of papyrus which he holds in his hand.”