the variety of substances which enters into the formation of pulp and the manufacture of paper is so great, that I cannot refrain from again quoting Dr. Ure.

The Doctor says that, "Silks, woollens, flax, hemp, and cotton, in all their varied forms, whether as cambric, lace, linen, holland, fustian, corduroy, bagging, canvas, or even as cables, are or can be used in the manufacture of paper of one kind or another. Still, rags, as of necessity they accumulate and are gathered up by those who make it their business to collect them, are very far from answering the purposes of paper-making. Rags to the paper-maker are almost as various in point of quality or distinction as the materials which are sought after through the influence of fashion. Thus the paper-maker, in buying rags, requires to know exactly of what the bulk is composed. If he is a manufacturer of white papers, no matter whether intended for writing or printing, silk or woollen rags would be found altogether useless, inasmuch, as is well known, the bleach will fail to act upon any animal substance whatever. And although he may purchase even a mixture in proper proportions, adapted for the quality he is in the habit of supplying, it is essential, in the processes of preparation, that they shall previously be separated. Cotton in its raw state, as may be readily conceived, requires far less preparation than a strong hempen fabric; and thus, to meet the requirements of the paper-maker, rags are classed under different denominations, as, for instance, besides fines and seconds, there are thirds, which are composed of fustians, corduroy, and familiar fabrics; stamps or prints (as they are termed by the paper-maker), which are coloured rags, and also innumerable foreign rags, distinguished by certain well-known marks, indicating their various peculiarities. It might be mentioned, however, that, although by far the greater portion of the materials employed are such as have already been alluded to, it is not from their possessing any exclusive suitableness—since various fibrous vegetable substances have frequently been used, and are, indeed, still successfully employed-but rather on account of their comparatively trifling value, arising from the limited use to which they are otherwise applicable."

The same authority goes on to state, that "almost every species of tough fibrous vegetable, and even animal substance,

has at one time or another been employed; even the roots of trees, their bark, the bine of hops, the tendrils of the vine, the stalks of the nettle, the common thistle, the stem of the hollyhock, the sugar-cane, cabbage stalks, beet-root, wood shavings, sawdust, hay, straw, willow, and the like. Straw is occasionally used, in connection with other materials, such as linen or cotton rags, and even with considerable advantage, providing the processes of preparation are thoroughly understood. Where such is not the case, and the silica contained in the straw has not been destroyed (by means of a strong alkali) the paper will be invariably found more or less brittle; in some cases so much so as to be hardly applicable to any purpose whatever of practical utility. The waste, however, which the straw undergoes, in addition to a most expensive process of preparation, necessarily precludes its adoption to any great extent. Two inventions have been patented for manufacturing paper entirely from wood. One process consists in first boiling the wood in caustic soda lye, in order to remove the resinous matter, and then washing to remove the alkali; the wood is next treated with chlorine gas or an oxygenous compound of chlorine in a suitable apparatus, and washed to free it from the hydrochloric acid formed; it is now treated with a small quantity of caustic soda, which converts it instantly into pulp, which has only to be washed and bleached, when it will merely require to be beaten for an hour or an hour and a half in the ordinary beating-engine, and made into paper. The other invention is very simple, consisting merely of a wooden box enclosing a grindstone, which has a roughened surface, and against which the blocks of wood are kept in close contact by a lever, a small stream of water being allowed to flow upon the stone as it turns, in order to free it of the pulp, and to assist in carrying it off through an outlet at the bottom. Of course, the pulp thus produced cannot be employed for any but the coarser kinds of paper. For all writing and printing purposes, which, manifestly, are the most important, nothing has yet been discovered to lessen the value of rags, neither is it at all probable that there will, inasmuch as rags, of necessity, must continue accumulating, and before it will answer the purpose of the paper-maker to employ new material, which is not so well

adapted for his purpose as the old, he must be enabled to purchase it for considerably less than it would be worth in the manufacture of textile fabrics; and, besides all this, rags possess in themselves the very great advantage of having been repeatedly prepared for paper-making by the numerous alkaline washings which they necessarily receive during their period of use."

In considering the various processes or stages of the manufacture of paper, we have first to notice that of carefully sorting and cutting the rags into small pieces, which is done by women, each woman standing at a table frame, the upper surface of which consists of very coarse wire cloth, a large knife being fixed in the centre of the table nearly in a vertical position. The woman stands so as to have the back of the blade opposite to her, while at her right hand on the floor is a large wooden box, with several divisions. Her business consists in examining the rags, opening the seams, removing the dirt, pins, needles, and buttons of endless variety, which would be liable to injure the machinery or damage the quality of the paper. She then cuts the rags into small pieces, not exceeding four inches square, by drawing them sharply across the edge of the knife, at the same time keeping each quality distinct in the several divisions of the box placed on her right hand. During this process much of the dirt, sand, and so forth, passes through the wire cloth into a drawer underneath, which is occasionally cleaned out. After this the rags are removed to what is called the dusting machine, which is a large cylindrical frame covered with similar coarse iron wire cloth, and having a powerful revolving shaft extending through the interior, with a number of spokes fixed transversely, nearly long enough to touch the cage. By means of this contrivance, the machine being fixed upon an incline of some inches to the foot, the rags which are put in at the top have any remaining particles of dust that may still adhere to them effectually beaten out by the time they reach the bottom. The rags, being thus far cleansed, have next to be boiled in an alkaline lye or solution, made more or less strong as the rags are more or less coloured, the object being to get rid of the remaining dirt and some of the colouring matter. The proportion is from four to ten pounds of carbonate of soda with one-third of quicklime to the hundredweight of

material. In this the rags are boiled for several hours, according to their quality. The method generally adopted is that of placing the rags in large cylinders, which are constantly, though slowly, revolving, thus causing the rags to be as frequently turned over, and into which a jet of steam is cast with a pressure of something near 30 lbs. to the square inch.

Before considering the subsequent process the material has to go through before it issues from the mill in the finished state of paper, it may be interesting first to describe the position of the machinery in order to show how the work is accomplished.

The following sketches, figs. 317, 318, and 319, represent plans and sections of the machinery part of a paper mill, but none of the outbuildings, such as dry houses, bleach works, and finishing rooms, which are generally attached to the buildings containing the moving power.

Fig. 317 is an elevation of the mill, showing the water-wheel A, and the principal shafts F, B, C; the vat F, containing the pulp; the rag engines R; the machine L, with endless wire; the drying machine K; the cutting machine H; the rag machines D in the upper story (which are used for cutting and preparing the rags for the boiling and bleaching process); the pillars for supporting the floor and roof; the roof, &c.

Fig. 318 is a plan showing the position and gearing of the longitudinal shafts; a, a, the pillars for supporting the floor; w, w, the hydraulic presses; T, the bench for sorting the paper; v, the staircase; b, c, c, the method generally adopted for gearing the shafting to the paper machine L; the drying machine K ; and the cutting machine н, &c.

Fig. 319 is a section showing the position of the rag engines R R, the upright B, &c.

shown at fig. 318, with a The mill is 125 feet long, It contains dust and rag

The building is rectangular, as powerful water-wheel A at one end. two stories high, and 50 feet wide. machines in the sorting-room above; eight engines for converting the rags into pulp; a continuous paper, drying, and cutting machine; hydraulic presses; glazing machines, &c. It will be seen that the water-wheel gives motion to a line of strong castiron shafts, varying from 10 to 8 inches diameter, a little above the ground floor. On these shafts, next to the wall, is a bevel