How the Paper in this Book is Made

Where Does Paper Come From?

Egyptians were the first people to make what would today be called paper. They made it from a plant called papyrus and that is where the name comes from.

This plant is a species of reed. The Egyptians took stalks of reed cut into as thin slices as they could, laid them side by side; then they arranged another layer on top with the slices the other way and put this in a press. When dried and rubbed until smooth, it made a kind of paper, which could be written upon.

One of the first substances used for making the kind of paper we have today was cotton. Paper was made from cotton about 1100 A. D. From this thin cotton paper our present papers are a development, i.e., paper today is largely made of vegetable fibers. Vegetable fibers consist mostly of cellulose surrounded by other things which hold the short vegetable fibers together.

The fibers best adapted for making paper are those of the cotton and flax plants, and while the uses of paper were few, no other material was needed when it was once learned that cotton and linen fibers would do for making paper. All we had to do was to save all the old rags and sell them to the paper man.

In making paper from rags, the rags were allowed to rot to remove the substances that incrust the cellulose, and then beaten into a pulp, to which a large quantity of water was added. This pulp was put into a sieve, until the greater part of the water had been drained off by shaking, and the fibers remaining formed a thin layer on the bottom of the sieve. This layer of fiber was put into a pile with other similar layers, and the whole pile was placed under a press, where more of the water was removed. When they were dry, we had a very fair kind of paper which was, however, not much better than blotting paper and could not be written on with ink because it was loose in texture and very absorbent.

To give it good writing surface it was necessary to fill the pores. This was done by sizing which gave the paper great firmness. Paper was sized by drawing the layers of paper through a solution of alum and glue, or some similar substances, and then drying them, then finally passed between highly polished rollers to iron it. This gave it the necessary smooth hard surface.

In the modern method of making rag paper by machinery, the rags are boiled with caustic soda, which separates the cellulose fibers, and placed in a machine in which rollers set with knives tear the rags to pieces and mix them with water to form a pulp. This is called a breaker. The pulp is then bleached with chloride of lime, and is passed on to the sizing machine. This machine mixes the pulp with alum and with a kind of soap, made from suitable resins which serves the purpose better than glue.

How Is the Water Mark Put Into Paper?

The pulp, which is now ready to be made into paper, is poured out upon an endless cloth made of fine brass wire. This cloth travels constantly in one direction, by means of rollers, and is given at the same time a sort of vibratory motion, to cause the paper fibers to become more closely felted together. On the wire cloth web are usually woven words, or designs, in wire, that rise above the rest of the surface. These are transferred to the paper, and are called water marks. The machine then winds the finished paper into rolls, so that it may be handled conveniently.

During the past few years the uses for paper have increased so greatly that there have not been enough rags available to meet the demand for material, and a successful effort was made to find other material from which paper could be made. Many fibers were tried before it was found that wood pulp could be used. Straw and esparto grass, a plant that grows wild in North America, were found to yield cellulose having the desired qualities and were used to some extent. But the problem was solved when it was learned that pulp made from trunks and limbs of trees would serve even then. At first the powder formed by grinding up logs was used, but the paper produced was not strong, and could be used for very few purposes.

It was discovered finally that if wood shavings were boiled in strong solutions of caustic soda, in receptacles that would withstand very high pressure, the wood fibers were separated, and a very good quality of cellulose for paper manufacture produced, provided it was bleached before being made into paper, and most of our paper to-day is, therefore, made of wood.

Later on this process gave way to the sulphite process. In the sulphite process, a solution of sulphite of lime is used. Acid sulphite of lime results when the fumes from burning sulphur are passed through chimneys filled with lime. By this process the separation of the fibers and the bleaching are done at the same time and an even whiter paper making material is obtained.

The sulphite process is now used almost exclusively in making paper from wood.

The discovery of the process of making paper from wood has led to the use of paper for many purposes for which it could otherwise never have been used. The wood pulp is also used in the form of papier-mâché, a tough, plastic substance, which is made by mixing glue with it, or by pressing together a number of layers of paper having glue between. Papier-mâché can easily be molded into almost any form, and after drying forms a very tough substance and one that will stand rough usage. It has been employed for making dishes, water baskets and utensils of many other kinds, for making the matrices for and from electrotype plates, for car wheels, and many other purposes.

WHERE THE INGREDIENTS FOR MAKING PAPER ARE MIXED

BEATING THE INGREDIENTS FOR MAKING PULP

GREAT PAPER-MAKING MACHINES IN OPERATION

PUTTING THE PRINTING SURFACE ON THE PAPER

WHERE THE PAPER IS CUT IN SHEETS

Illustrations showing manufacture of paper by courtesy of S. D. Warren & Co.

HOW THE PRINTED TYPE OF THIS BOOK WAS SET

THE LINOTYPE—FOUR MACHINES IN ONE

LITTLE PIECES OF BRASS WHICH PRODUCE SOLID TYPE

HOW THE LINOTYPE MAKES SOLID TYPE

CASTING THE SLUGS OF SOLID METAL

HOW THE PRINTED PART OF A BOOK LOOKS AT FIRST

HOW THE PAGES OF A BOOK ARE MADE UP

Lay-out of page 126 of this book

Lay-out of page 127 of this book

HOW THIS BOOK IS PRINTED

HOW THE BOOK OF WONDERS IS BOUND

Courtesy of the J. F. Tapley Co. New York.

SEWING THE PAGES OF THE BOOK OF WONDERS

Courtesy of the J. F. Tapley Co., New York.

THE BOOK OF WONDERS IS READY TO READ

Courtesy of the J. F. Tapley Co., New York.