Paper-Making
an account of paper-making from its earliest
known record down to the present time by
J.W. Butler Paper Company 1901
is the arrowroot-paper used in photography for positive prints. It
is plain or non-glossy, and is coated with a weak solution of
arrowroot in water, with sodium, chloride, and a trace of citric
acid. Photographic paper, as such, includes a great variety of
these sensitized papers, employed in various processes of the
art; albumenized, salted, coated with emulsion, or otherwise
treated. One of these, known as Pizzighelli paper, a sensitized
platinum paper, gives a neat surface, and soft, clear, gray tones,
which are most artistic and pleasing for many subjects.
Other papers are so treated chemically as to produce certain
effects under the application of pressure, instead of by the action
of light. Such is the transfer-paper used for transferring a design
mechanically, which is prepared by coating the sheet with
adhesive pigments of lampblack, vermilion, indigo, or other
chemical. The carbon-paper universally used in typewriting when
more than one copy of a letter or paper is desired, is paper faced
with carbon or lampblack. Alternate sheets of writing and carbon
paper, placed one above the other, are put into the typewriter,
Manifold writing or copying papers are made from strong unsized papers adapted to receive writing or printing, and to
transfer this readily under pressure to another sheet which has been dampened. It is the common rule to-day to make
permanent record of correspondence and business transactions by the use of this system of impression-copying. The
manifold paper largely used by railroads is very thin, making possible a large number of copies from a single
impression, thus effecting a great saving of time and labor.
Stencil-paper is produced by giving to a sheet of fibrous paper, as fine and thin as gauze, a thick, even coating of
paraffin, and from this the stencil may be prepared in two different ways. Either it may be placed in the typewriter, from
which the ink-pad or ribbon has been removed, and the stencil cut by allowing the type to strike the wax sheet, or it
may be placed upon a flat steel plate, the surface of which is cut into multitudinous microscopic steel points, and then
written upon by a stylus, a steel pencil made especially for the purpose, which cuts the wax without tearing the gauzy
body of the sheet. Copies are produced in the same manner as with other stencils, viz., by placing the blank sheet
under the stencil and then passing an inked roller over the latter.
Luminous paper is prepared by compounding the pulp with gelatine and phosphorescent powder.
Transparent papers are made by several different methods. The usual one employed is to apply a thin coating of a
solution of Canada balsam in turpentine, or a. solution of castor or linseed oil in absolute alcohol, the alcohol in the
latter case being permitted to evaporate, thereby rendering the paper transparent. Such paper is largely used for
tracing purposes, and may be restored to its original state of opacity, with the tracings left unchanged, by removing the
oil with a fresh bath of alcohol.
Safety-paper is a paper so treated or coated with chemicals that any ink-writing upon its surface cannot be erased,
effaced, or removed without leaving indelible marks on the paper. As its name implies, it is used for safety in
bankchecks or other commercial paper, to protect against alteration.
Gunpowder-paper is prepared by spreading an explosive substance on paper, which is then dried and rolled up in the
form of a cartridge.
Sand and emery papers are produced by coating a stout paper with glue, and then sprinkling sand or emery-dust
upon the surface. Man's skill has devised for this purpose an ingenious machine. This first coats the paper with glue
from a revolving brush, which plays over the surface of melted glue in a steam gluing-pot below. Having accomplished
this result, it softens the glue with a spray of steam, and sifts the sand upon the surface, all surplus sand dropping to a
box below as the sanded or emery surfaced paper passes over a roller. Other loose particles are blown off by a fan,
while the remaining ones are still more firmly fixed by a second jet of steam.