OCR Text |
Show 1 with a cellulose content of ninety-one percent has been used in India handmade papermaking for hundreds of years, but it found use only afte serving its purpose in other forms-cloth, rope, net for plained, owing to the great poverty of the Indian pcoplc very little cotto cloth ever reaches the papermakers. In Kashmir, however, even at the pre ent time, cotton textiles form the principal raw material for paper. Appa India and can spare at least a portion of their discarded cotton cloth for th utilitarian purpose of papermaking. Owing to the rigorous climate in th ‘mountains of Kashmir it is probable that wool is more acceptable for clothing than the more tropical garments fashioned from cotton. (The preparation of this material is explained in the chapter dealing with Kashmir) (4) Flax (Linum usitatissimum) (Hindi: atasi or tisi). In India flax ha been cultivated from early times, but, differing from many other countries more for the seed than for the fine fibre. This was due, no doubt, to the fac that India had as one of its indigenous products the cotton plant which wa so much more casily spun and made into cloth than the more difficult flax While the use of flax as an Indian papermaking fibre, even in the carl periods, was most uncommon it must nevertheless be listed, as it has bee used in India for this purpose The beating of flax refuse, or tow, required unusual patience, as thi tough material did not readily lend itself to maceration. After the flax wa cutinto short lengths it was placed under the foot-actuated stamper (dhenka for a short time toloosen the fibres. The material was then washed and thoroughly mixed with sji and chuna. The slightly-beaten flax, wi ‘misture of the potash and lime, was again subjected to the stamper for much more severe pounding, lasting thirty-six hours. This constant beatin reduced the fibre to such consistency that it could be moulded into blocks or cakes, as in Kashmir. These blocks of pulp were next bleached in the su for a month; the fibre was then washed and received two days more beat |