MAKING PAPER IN Presented by BOB VAN CLEEF of the North River Railway

Transcription

1 MAKING PAPER IN 1776 Presented by BOB VAN CLEEF of the North River Railway

2 LIFE IN COLONIAL TIMES Back in the good ol days you didn t send a message by just typing in your text and hitting SEND. No siree! It just wasn t that simple. There were no movie theaters and playhouses were rare. News was delivered by gossip, from the pulpit or the town crier in the town square. People made their own entertainment - Prominent citizens provided rooms for small gatherings. Most people rarely traveled more than about 20 miles from home as that was a good day s ride by horse. Only the Government and a few wealthy individuals could afford to import goods from Europe and it took up to a year after an order was placed to receive the goods.

3 PAPERS IN EARLY AMERICA Parchment, the prepared skin of certain animals such as cows, goats or sheep was well known. It was used for the Declaration of Independence as well as many official government documents. Vellum was made exclusively from calf s skin and even more costly.

4 PARCHMENT and VELLUM Both were scrapped, stretched and dried. Lime and Gum Arabic was used to whiten and glaze the writing surface. The process was very laborintensive requiring skilled labor. Suitable animals became scarce as the population increasingly learned how to read and write. All this made both well beyond most American s budget.

5 FIRST COMMERCIAL MILLS If you lived in town it was always much easier to buy paper. The best quality of course was from Europe and while it cost less then parchment it was still very expensive. Paper from the developing new mills in Philadelphia was also high quality but was only slightly less costly due to the cost of transportation. The paper mills in Dalton, Mass had yet to be built. By far the most paper was literally homemade by small local cottage industries

6 PAPER WAS MADE LOCALY A dozen or so workers could make about a dozen reams of paper in a day. Paper was used for wrapping, packets for goods and letters. It cost much less then parchment and was locally available.

7 PAPER MAKING The Vatman shredded rags and mixed them with water. This was pounded to a paste either by hand or by the use of a waterwheel. Paper was actually fairly easy to make. All that was needed were some cotton or silk rags, water, a few molds and a press. Anyone with these could make paper that would satisfy most basic needs. Sometimes lime was added to bleach the paper to Yellow and gradually expensive chlorine was used to bleach the paper closer to white. Colored rags were reserved for cardboard and packing materials where color did not matter. Wood was introduced to paper making much later as production increased due to demand and the cost of rags began to increase due to scarceness.

8 MOLDING PAPER The vatman then molded the damp pulp in a mold and earned about $9 per month The mold consisted of two parts. The first was a 26 by 33 assembly called a deckle with slats made from oak. The second was a wire mesh frame. The Coucher, who earned about $6 per month then took the wet paper out of the mold and placed it and on felt. 144 pieces (one ream) of paper alternated with felt were layered in a stack called a post. The word post in some newspaper names such as the Daily Post was a reference to this term, NOT the mail.

9 WATERMARKS Watermarks were made by applying a thin design layer to the screen before couching. A strong light placed behind this letter shows the watermark resulting from the design to the left.

10 Post Processing Pressing The most critical part of paper making was squeezing the water from the post. All available workmen in a mill would be summoned to move the four foot high post to a press and work the windlass. This then properly compacted the fibers in the paper together as the water was removed. Too much pressure could ruin the press and frames. To little and the paper wouldn t dry properly.

11 DRYING THE PAPER The poor Layman who was the least skilled mill worker earned a mere 6 cents a month (plus room or board if they were not family). The tittle refers to the job of carefully peeling the paper from the felt, replacing it with new dry felt, and re-building the post. This was repeated three times before laying the individual sheets to dry on a rack.

12 GUM ARABIC Gum Arabic was an important ingredient in a huge array of products during the colonial era. It dated back to the days of antiquity and could be found in any household. In the Colonial period it was used as a binder for making inks and to prepare the surface of skins and paper to absorb ink. It was used in foods as a preservative and stabilizer, an additive to ceramics and in incense cones. Later it is was used for the glue on postage stamps and envelopes.

13 HOME MADE PAPER TODAY Worried about identity theft? Concerned about ecology? Then protect your security and stop clogging the landfills. Paper making might be the perfect solution for you. Just shred and recycle all your bills, newspapers junk mail and almost anything else paper. You can make your own paper at home for next to no cost at all.

14 MOLD CONSTRUCTION Mold A device for making paper consisting of two parts, the deckle and the frame Deckle Is the upper part of the mold. It is the hardwood box, fence or wall that contains the paper pulp/slurry as the paper sheet is being formed. o Mask (optional) Controls the size and shape of the paper being formed. Frame - The lower part of the mold. It consists of o o o A screen, The screen support, A wooden structure that mates with the deckle. Consider treating the wood with Cuprinol or varnish to prolong the useful life of the mold.

15 THE DIP vs. POUR MOLD Both DIP and pour molds have similar construction. Dip molds, however, have lower sides and are designed to rapidly form high volumes of one particular type of simple paper sheet. The mold is dipped into the pulp slurry to form the sheet. Pour molds have higher sides and are more versatile. They produce a wide variety of papers but take longer to produce each sheet. The pulp slurry (and often additives) are sprinkled, placed or poured into the mold. the basic construction of the POUR and DIP molds are basically the same

16 OTHER REQUIRED ITEMS A tub large enough to partially submerge the mold in the pulp slurry is needed for the molding process. A FLAT shallow tray and a flat firm sponge will be required when squeezing water from the couch sheets. Most of the labor involving making paper involves squeezing water from wet paper.

17 USE ANY KIND OF PAPER SCRAPS The paper scraps you use will determine what kind of paper you make. Bits of colored paper, confetti or even cardboard for scrapbook papers are added for different effects. Use more scraps for a thicker paper or fewer for thinner paper. Done right, the paper made here can even be used with you computer s printer. Let your imagination run wild!

18 SECURITY AND SCRAPBOOKING Some additives are available for scrapbooking but others can also be used for security. These include metallic Dust, Mica, Threads, yarn fibers, Iridescent Flakes and botanicals. Many more types of dusts and particles can also be used.

19 ADDING LINTERS Linters are the tiny fibers that are left behind on the cotton seed after ginning removes the longer cotton fibers from the seed. Linters can take the form of loose fibers (shown here), paper sheets or shredded chips. Adding linters is totally optional as some prefer the rough look of rough home-made paper. As little as 10% cotton linter added to recycled computer paper shreds will make a very high quality, strong and beautiful paper that can even be reused by a home printer.

20 BEGIN WITH A BLENDER Traditionally, the process of breaking down raw materials into the individual fibers to make paper was a long and tedious chore. It takes a modern kitchen blender about one or two minutes to create paper pulp. Just cut up a sheet and a half of paper, add a bit of water plus whatever other bits you want to add to color and texture the paper then blend. You should have enough paper slurry to make a full page, more or less. Keep a record of how much of whatever you add so you can reproduce and adjust the results.

21 ASSEMBLE THE MOLD Place the mold on a flat surface. Lay the screen and screen support on the mold bottom. Molds will have Velcro straps, hooks or some other way to hold these in place Place the mold in deep pan. Fill the pan with water most of the way up side of mold.

22 FILL POUR MOLD Pour a measured amount of pulp slurry into mold. The amount of slurry will determine the thickness of the paper. Now is the time to finish adding anything to be embedded in the paper. Agitate the water from the top with fingers to distribute and particles in slurry evenly on mold bottom. Do not try to shake the mold from side to side as this will make the edges thinner In a pour mold it is the amount of pulp poured into the mold that determines the paper thickness.

23 LIFT THE MOLD Allow the pulp to settle. Slowly lift the mold straight up allowing the water part of the pulp slurry to drain through the mold If you don t like the result you can always return the mold to the water and try again.

24 FILLING A DIP MOLD A dip mold is thinner than a pour mold thus allowing it to be simply slid into the slurry. Again, agitate the slurry from the top to spread the pulp across the screen Hold the mold level, let drain then lift straight upward. The thickness of the paper will be determined by the concentration of the paper slurry.

25 REMOVE DECKLE Replace the tub with a tray that has a low rim to catch water spills. Carefully separate the deckle from the frame to expose the raw paper. Very carefully lay a fine screen over the paper. Press a firm sponge against the screen to remove water. Wring out sponge and repeat until no more water is removed. The paper is now sandwiched between two screens.

26 FIRST COUCH SHEET Begin by slowly and carefully lifting a corner then peeling the cover screen off. Turn everything over and carefully lay on top of a dry couch sheet. Press and sponge to remove as much water as possible.

27 SECOND COUCH SHEET Now slowly and carefully lift a corner of the last screen and gently peel it off. Carefully place a couch sheet on top of the exposed paper. You now have the sheet of paper just created sandwiched between tow Couch sheets. These sheets act as a blotter to further help dry the paper. But wait, there is more to it! Several paper and couch sheet sandwiches can be stacked in a press for faster drying

28 ABOUT PAPER Paper is little more than cellulose fibers compacted into a flat sheet. These fibers can be from wood, bark, grassy plants, silkworms, recycled cotton or other papers. Shredding the paper in a blender separates and shortens these fibers which in return creates better paper Pressing the paper causes fibers to lock together in a continuous sheet. The more pressure exerted when pressing the paper the stronger it becomes and the surface becomes smoother.

29 PAPER PRESSING By this point the paper is less fragile and can be subjected to less delicate handling. The more moisture that can be squeezed from paper the higher quality it will be. A wooden pressing bar like the one shown here works quite well for making paper suitable for scrap-booking with little time and effort. The finished product can be spectacularly beautiful but will have relatively low strength or surface smoothness. This can also be time-consuming as sheets are dried one at a time.

30 EASIER, FASTER, BETTER Presses and clamps save time by squeezing several layers with more pressure than can be done with a press bar. The top press is a simple home-made clamp made with two pieces of plywood and four threaded studs. The bottom press is a small commercial plywood press that can compress more sheets faster with less effort. Such presses can exert about two tons of pressure while a typical colonial press could go up to 30 tons. Modern hydraulic presses run up to 200 tons.

31 REMAKE THE POST The key to making good paper is to remove as much water as possible before hanging it out to dry. Once the post (stack of paper and felts) is pressed it is remade and squeezed. The damp felts are stripped from the paper and replaced by dry felts, stacked again to re-form the post and squeezed again. This process is repeated several times using dry felts each time.

32 CUTTING TO SIZE If the paper is to be used for scrap-booking it might be used as is with out any cutting Otherwise it should be trimmed to size, especially if it is to be used in a computer printer. A guillotine cutter will make the fast and easy.

33 Once a supply of home-made paper is available it is time to learn to make ink and maybe to cut a quill pen. See the other parts of this series of how to send a letter, Colonial style.

34 PAPER MAKING TERMS Mold A device for making paper consisting of two parts, the deckle and the frame A 'pour' hand mold has a deckle (frame) with high sides, usually 3 inches or so. To make paper, the hand mold is set in a dishpan with 3-4 inches of water. A small amount of pulp is poured into the deckle. A 'dip' hand mold has a deckle (frame) with shallow sides. It is dipped into a dishpan filled with 3-4 inches of pulp. Deckle was the upper part of the mold. It was a hardwood box or fence that contained the paper slurry as the sheet was being formed The frame was the lower part of the mold. It consisted or a screen, the screen support, and a wooden structure that mated with the deckle. The screen support can be made from a Florescent light screen WATERMARK - A design or pattern put into paper during its production, by making thinner the layer of pulp when it is still wet by wire or other means. MASK Template placed over the screen to form a shaped piece of paper smaller than the deckle such as for nonrectangular shapes or multiple smaller pieces of paper. Template a shaped piece of metal, wood, card, plastic, or other material used as a pattern for processes such as painting, cutting out or shaping Linters Linters is a tiny fiber that is left behind on the cotton seed after ginning removes the longer cotton fibers from the seed. Cotton linter is such an outstanding addition to the slurry that as little as 10% cotton linter to 90% recycled computer paper will make a very high quality, strong and beautiful paper for all sorts of papermaking uses. Vatman Shredded the cotton and silk rags, mixed them with water, pounded the mixture and molded the damp pulp in a mold Coucher Took paper from mold and placed on felt and built a post Layman peeled the paper from the felt and hanged it to dry and re-built post

35 Linters Linters is a tiny fiber that is left behind on the cotton seed after ginning removes the longer cotton fibers from the seed. Cotton linter is such an outstanding addition to the slurry that as little as 10% cotton linter to 90% recycled computer paper will make a very high quality, strong and beautiful paper for all sorts of papermaking uses. Vatman Shredded the cotton and silk rags, mixed them with water, pounded the mixture and molded the damp pulp in a mold Coucher Took paper from mold and placed on felt and built a post Layman peeled the paper from the felt and hanged it to dry and re-built post quire (kwī(ə)r/) four sheets of paper or parchment folded to form eight leaves, as in medieval manuscripts. also, 24 sheets of paper; one twentieth of a ream. (This has been changed to 25 sheets in modern times.) A post contained 144 sheets or 6 quire. A two foot high post can be reduced to 6 or 8 INCHES

36 RESOURCES Medieval Manuscript Manual - All about medieval period writing. Good background for Colonial writing. The Rittenhouse Mill - &sig=fhfjvxzcpuj2a3rti_rx7lpdio8&hl=en&sa=x&ei=v6gjvb2vh8hjsaxgoydacw&ved=0cdaq6aewazgk#v=onepage&q=early%20ame rican%20paper%20making&f=false All about the first American paper mill in Pennsylvania. A complete description of the workings of a paper mill. Once Upon a Time - A background history of paper making in the colonies Paper Through Time - A more detailed history of European paper making also roughly the same as in the colonies.

37 For More Information Once Upon a Time A background history of paper making in the colonies Arnold Grummer Paper making kits and supplies A complete line of paper making kits, supplies and instructional videos.

38 This presentation has been brought to you by the North River Railway Bob Van Cleef 46 Broadway Coventry, CT THE END