OCR Text |
Show 1 thousands of mills making handmade paper of some description. From this it wil be seen that the industy is far from dying in the Orient, and new uses for the paper especially in Japan, are being constantly developed. It is possible that the fabricatio of paper by hand in a commercial way will continue for all time in the Orient a labour costs are extremely low and there is considerable natural papermaking material Coupled with these two important conditions is the fact that many of the uilitaria handmade papers of the East, especially those made in Japan, have qualities tha cannot be duplicated successflly by the papermaking mackine. Tn Japan in th year 1932 the value of the paper made by hand was yen 14,000,000, while tha manufactured by machinery was yen 43,000,000 - surel a comparison that i favourable to the ancient hand process when compared with conditions in Occidenta countrics. In three great papermaking districis of Japan - Gifis, Fikui, Kicki there are almost six thousand, families who gain l/mrmp}mrl through the fabricatio of handmade paper. The Japanese have not, howeer, been slow in adopin e e e e S be succes:flz/ y made by the use ofa mould in the hands of a skilled and patient worker In America there are no mills making handmade paper and it is unlikely tha paper of this kind will ever again be made commercially in this country. In Grea Britain and Gontinental Eurape there are not above three dozen handmade paper mills and. the numbe s decreasing. Compared with the amount of paper manufactured o the machine in Europe that fabricated by hand is trivial and insignificant. There ar tawo reasons.for this: the high cos of labour, which places handmade paper m,,u aut of reach for ordinary purposes, and the fact that the modern machine can com very close to duplicating most of the qualities and characteristics that are sought for i handmade paper of the L'MUPMYK type. From present-day indications it would ot be a extravagant pmp}uc} that the next thirty years will see the demise in Europ of handmade paper as a commercial commodity, while in Japan, I/lml_g/r the mumbe of mills will pmbably (Incrm,rg, there will stil be much handmade paper fabricated This is a logical conclusion, and one that is justified when materials, Infmur, methods and ultimate adaptability and usage are taken into consideration Digitalimage© 2004 Marriott Library, Universiy of Utah. All ights reserved |