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Show 6 PAPERMAKIN Inasmuch as Dr. Schiffer's work is one of the most importan works that deal with paper, and owing to the text being remarkably interesting, it will not be out of the way to quote at lengt from the book. Tam indebted to Dr. Zoltan Haraszti for the translation which follows: "It is generally known," writes Schiffer the clergyman, that the paper which, according to all evidence has been used in Burope since the twelfth century, is made of rag and worn-out linen. And the dearth of this material is now com plained of everywhere. The most curious thing is that not onl certain kind of paper is wanting; statements of merchants revea that in regard to wrapping paper, card-board, etc, the want is eve ccner "This general lack of paper, and the harm done thereby to administration, science, and commerce, brought a few years ago t my memory what various scholars-like Seba, Réaumur, Guettard Gleditch, and others-had in mind and proposed in regard t papermaking. They belicved and with probability proved, that one is not exclusively bound in papermaking to linen, but can mak paper just as well of a great many other things. It is generall known that rags originally were made of lint and hemp, whic are plants themselves; thus, these scholars came to the conclusio that every material which-like hemp and lint-consists of suc soft elastic, easily-separated fibres as through the action of wate turn to pulp and, by drying, attain a cer stiffness and firmness must be fit for papermaking "Few objections can be reasonably raised against the statement of these scholars,-and the more certain it is that besides hem ing the same necessary qualities the more difficult it is to comprehend why these ideas have no been used for the public benefit, and why such experiments hav a0t been longer, oftener, and in a more satisfactory way pursued. This regrettable neglect induced me three years ago to get to wor Digital Imag © 2004 University of Utah. All rights reserved |