Paper-Making
an account of paper-making from its earliest
known record down to the present time by
J.W. Butler Paper Company 1901
unwieldy bowlders which marked man's first effort to solve an
ever-recurring problem, so it in turn was superseded. The
temples were sacred place$, and especially fitted to become the
repositories of the records that were to preserve for coming
generations the deeds of kings and priests. Accordingly, the
pictured stories of great events were graven on stone panels in
the temple walls, or on slabs or tablets of the same enduring
material. Then came a forward step to the easier and cheaper
method of writing on soft clay. The monarchs, not being obliged
to take into consideration questions of ease or economy,
continued to make use of the stone tablets, but private
individuals usually employed clay, not only for literary and
scientific writings, but in their business transactions as well. A
careful baking, either by artificial heat or in the burning rays of a
tropic sun, rendered the clay tablets very enduring, so that many
which have been dug from ancient ruins are now in a remarkable
state of preservation,
the splendid days of Greece or Rome. The people of Assyria and Chaldea recorded almost every transaction, whether
public or private in character, upon tablets of clay, forming thus a faithful transcript of their daily lives and occupations,
which may be read to-day by those who hold the key; thus it is we bridge the gulf of centuries. From the ruins of
ancient Nineveh and Babylon, records of almost every sort have been unearthed, all inscribed on indestructible
terra-cotta. There are bank-notes and notes of hand, deeds of property, public records, statements of private
negotiations, and memoranda of astronomical observations. The life in which they played a part has passed into
history; the once proud and mighty cities lie prostrate, and upon their ruins other cities have risen, only to fall as they
fell. The terra-cotta to which they committed their records is all that is left, and the tablets that were fashioned and
inscribed so long ago give to us the best histories of Chaldea, Babylonia, and Assyria. . One of the largest collections
of these clay writings is now in the British Museum and was taken from a great edifice in Assyria, which was probably
the residence of Sennacherib. Several series of narratives are comprehended in the collection; one referring to the
language, legends, and mythology of the Assyrians; another recording the story of creation, in which "Water-deep" is
said to be the creator of all forms of life then in existence, while a third relates to the deluge and the story of the
Assyrian Moses. But however interesting these facts may be in themselves, we refer to them only by way of
illustration, since we are dealing not so much with the writing itself as with the material on which writing was done.