Page 124 - Encyclopedia Of World History Vol IV

paper 1425

Three kinds of paper were produced: writing paper,
printing paper (mostly unsized), and cheap wrapping
paper, also used for drafts. Printing paper caused the evo-
lution of the graphic arts (woodcut; engravings).Work at
the vat normally involved four people: the vatman, who
made the sheet using the mold; the couchman, who
worked in time with the vatman, placing the sheet on the
felt; the layman, who removed the moist sheets from the
felt after pressing; and the apprentice, who had to feed
pulp to the vat and keep the vat heated. Up to nine reams A European papermaker at work.
(4,500 sheets) of paper could be made during a working
day averaging 13 to 15 hours.
Technical progress continued. In the sixteenth century, reading, for private use, too. The debates of the church
hand glazing (polishing) using a glass or stone burnish- reformers and new works of science were widely pub-
er was supplemented by the use of the glazing hammer lished by printing on paper, and popular pamphlets,
similar to a forging hammer.Toward the end of the sev- romances, and plays were distributed in print all over
enteenth century a much more efficient tool, the so-called Europe. Newspapers, which from the beginning of the
hollander beater, supplemented or even replaced the seventeenth century had come out with weekly issues,
stamping mill. changed during the eighteenth to a daily format, and be-
came—censored by the government in most countries—
Watermarks the sole means of shaping public opinion and spreading
The watermark, invented in medieval Italy, provides the news of scientific progress. The ideas of the Enlighten-
historian with an unsurpassed dating and authenticating ment and of the French Revolution were supported by
tool. The real watermark, a figure in the paper sheet, is the development of the print mass media at the end of
seen by the naked eye. In hand papermaking, it is formed the eighteenth century.
by a curved wire that is sewn onto the screen of the Further developments in printing during the eigh-
mold; the wire reduces the thickness of the sheet, thus teenth and nineteenth centuries resulted in a steeply ris-
making the figure transparent. Later, after the invention ing demand for paper, especially for new printing grades.
of the paper machine, a roll covered with wire gauze This and the tremendous upsurge in papermaking soon
impressed the watermark on the wet paper web. The led to a serious shortage of raw material and to regula-
watermark serves as a papermaker’s trademark. By com- tions governing the trade in rags to ensure the local pro-
paring a watermark with others of a certain date or ori- duction of paper for administrative purposes. The sys-
gin, the paper historian is able to determine age and tematic search for substitute pulping materials met with
origin of a document or print. Shadow (countersunk, little immediate success.
embossment, intaglio) watermarks are produced on a Already in the eighteenth century, there had been
mold that carries a fine, embossed woven wire, and ap- some concentration of handicraft activities in big facto-
pear as images, like a black-and-white photograph. ries, which still depended on skilled papermakers organ-
ized in open guilds. Efforts to step up production and to
The Advent of Industrial have many jobs done mechanically culminated in the
Papermaking design and construction of paper machines. A French-
From the sixteenth century, paper became more and man, Nicholas-Louis Robert (1761–1828), built the first
more important for administrative and commercial pur- paper machine using an endless wire screen, patented in
poses, and, as more people were trained in writing and 1799. It was further refined in England by Bryan Donkin