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Show Part I The Papermaking Material HILE India is rich in fibrous plants suitable for conversion int paper, textiles, rope, and other products, the handmade paper‘makers of India have never possessed the ingenuity or the appliances tha ‘would enable them to make use of many of the substances available. In thi description of Indian plants it is not the intention to enumerate even a fraction of the myriad vegetable fibres that are produced in India's soil, bu simply to record the materials that have definitely been used for the makin of handmade paper. Furthermor, the list embraces only those fibes tha are found in the old Indian handmade papers in my collection, and th fibres that I have actually seen in use in India by the present day hand‘made papermakers. Inasmuch as this book deals only with the ra of paper by hand I will not venture into the multitude of plant fibres tha have received attention in India during the past half century for use in fab ncatmg paper on the machine ing an account of the various fibres of India that have been use paper, the treatise must necessarily be of a historical nature. At present, unfortunately, the industry has fallen into suc leplorable state that, for the most part, the material used is waste pape ~m refuse from printing establishments. While paper cuttings (addi) ar casily beaten to pulp by being trampled upon in earthenware jars, and present no hardship in cleansing, the stock does not produce the quality o mor In my collection of middle nincteenth century paper made in the Meeru jail there s a specimen "made from old records" that s as well preserve as the sheets that were made from cotton, hemp and daphne. These "ol records," however, which formed the pulp for this paper, were of the fines Digital mage© 2005 Marriott Library University of Utah, All rihts reserved |