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Show 2 OLD~PAPERMAKIN the finishing-room of a paper mill has been know by this name for several hundred years. The ter may have originally come from the German wor "saal," and it is reasonable to surmise the phras was first used in England by Spilman, a German who established a mill in Kent in 1588 The saul was that part of the mill where th paper was surfaced and packed for transportation The earliest method of producing a smooth surfac to the paper was to burnish each sheet by hand using an agate or other glossy stone. The Oriental finished their paper in this manner and the resul was a glasslike surface. This burnishing was don on one side of the sheet only but as the reverse sid laid against smooth marble or a piece of polishe wood, it also took on a certain amount of finish. I an investigation of the paper used in many seven teenth and eighteenth century Oriental manuscripts it may be seen that much of this paper ha been imported from Europe and after being mad smooth with an agate or soap stone burnisher, th paper acquired an Oriental appearance A mechanical method of imparting a surface t paper was brought into use in Europe in the earl seventeenth century. This consisted ofa pressin hammer of huge construction, operate by wate power. The idea for this apparatus was borrowe by the papermalers from the boolsbinders as thes craftsmen had used this mechanism for polishin Digitaimage© 2004 MariotLirary, Univrsity of Utah. Al rights reserved |