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Show THE OLD PAPERMAKER 25 in the eye. This press verily appears to be an ancient affsir. Th the large wooden screw, which was about the year 1755 for hi uncle William. Jacob, the millwright, also invented, about th year 1760, the slanting plat only, with much delay of grinding, en - - Jacob is stillliving, he is now 86 years of age, is blind, bu retains an excellent memory unimpaired. ‘The buildings usually pictured as the Rittenhouse paper mill ar two stone houses that are still standing. The larger of these structures was built in 1707 and was originally the home of Willia Rittenhouse and his son Claus, there being carved in the ston above one of the windows the inscription 7%, This picturesqu old stone house, with its steep, narrow, winding stairway an small cheerful rooms, is always pictured as the Rittenhouse pape mill, but was used only as residence, never as a mill. To the public aclarge this old two-story structure is better known today as th birthplace of David Rittenhouse, the astronomer (1732 than as the home of Willium Rittenhouse, the pioncer papermaker. It may be said without hesitation that nothing remains o the actual Rittenhouse mill, cither the building or the equipment Indeed, even the spot where this mill stood is unknown, nor wil it ever be possible to trace with certainty the exact location. A lik fate has overtaken the William De Wees mill, the sccond pape mill to be set up in the colonies. OF the buildings that housed i nothing remains. This mill was built in 1710, and was a direct out growth of the Rittenhouse establishment, erected near the pionce mill, on the west side of the Wissahickon Creek on that part o Germantown known at that period as Crefield The third mill, also in the province of Pennsylvania, was estab Digital Imag © 2004 University of Utah. All rights reserved |