Gutenberg printing press & invention of the Hollander beater

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1 History of Paper & Paper Terms by Drew Matott, October Invention of Paper Artifacts show that paper was invented by the Chinese and was in use as early as 200 BCE, and was used as an alternative writing surface to Papyrus and Silk. However, the first recorded recipe was made by T sai Lun in 106 BCE. The original paper recipe was a combination of hemp fish netting and boiled mulberry bark. The material was pounded with mallets into a pulp, suspended in water and captured onto a bamboo laid mould, couched and dried on boards. Paper was a much-needed invention, as the Chinese empire was quickly expanding, and it needed a way to record laws, finances and spread religion. While paper products were traded along the Silk Road (into Europe through Istanbul), the method for manufacturing paper was kept a secret and to divulge how paper was made was a capital offense. As a result, the manufacturing of paper follows a more southerly rout, different than that of the Silk Road. Paper follows Islam With the spread of Islamic forces into Mongolia (751 BCE), the Arab-Muslim world gained the knowledge of papermaking and immediately brings it to Baghdad & Damascus. Paper is a much-needed resource for the expanding Arab-Muslim world and is viewed as a gift from Allah (God). Since paper is seen as a direct gift from Allah, the manufacturing becomes open source and it flourishes as an open market industry, hundreds of thousands of papermills are established throughout the Arab-Muslim world. The Arabs did not have access to mulberry, so their papermaking recipe consisted of hemp, linen and eventually cotton rags. They made several innovations to the papermaking process, rotting fibers in urine pits, beating fibers with animal and water driven trip hammers (stampers) and replacing the bamboo laid mould with one of iron, copper and eventually brass. The Arabs also couched onto felting, pressed, loft dried, externally sized with animal skin glues and burnished the finished paper. Papermaking flourished under the Arab-Muslim world and by 1050 it was manufactured in Xativa, Spain (near Valencia). Papermaking enters Christianized Europe Within two-hundred years of paper entering Moorish Spain, the Christian army captured Valencia and with it, their first glimpse at how paper was manufactured. This knowledge was quickly sent to the Vatican, which sanctioned papermills in Italy, including the Fabriano papermill (1276). However, paper was seen as inferior to parchment & vellum (the skins of calves and goats), which was the primary writing surface for the manuscripts of the Catholic Church. Gutenberg printing press & invention of the Hollander beater Papermaking in Europe took the back burner and was seldom used until Gutenberg invented the printing press in Gutenburg sought to use his printing press to print 100 bibles, and to do that with parchment & vellum he would have needed to skin 22,000 animals! So, he, or his investors, looked to paper as the substrate for printing the bible. Almost overnight papermaking using old hemp, linen and

2 cotton rags moved to the forefront in Europe, quickly replacing the manufacturing of animal skin substrate. In the early days of the printing press, printmaking and papermaking were joined at the hip, with both studios often taking up space in the same building. The primary way to render rag into pulp during this time was to collect rags from the community, rot them in urine pits and use the water powered stampers to hydrate and separate the fibers. In Holland they did not have the mountain fed rivers like the lower parts of Europe (Spain, France, Italy and Germany) and so they invented a new method for making pulp. Their method was to merge the hammer with the wheel; essentially putting hammers on a paddle boat wheel (like you would see in the Mississippi River). The wheel-stamper required less energy to operate and could be wind powered. This machine is called the Hollander beater and was introduced in The Hollander very quickly replaced stampers throughout Europe. Papermaking travels to America The technology of making paper made its way to the America s through the colonialization of North America. Fortunately for the colonies, Europe was upgrading their mails to use Hollanders and were delighted to sell their old stampers overseas. Many of these sales were negotiated by Ben Franklin, and were imperative for the colonies to develop independently of England. The manufacturing of paper arrived first to Philadelphia in 1691, and eventually spread throughout the colonies. The industrializing world and rag paper Paper was manufactured using old clothing until after the Civil War. With the continued industrialization of Europe and America, there was an increased demand for paper, through books, newspapers and packaging materials. As a result, there was not enough rag in the world to keep up with the demand for paper. A global rag shortage. Rags to make paper was such a needed resource that in places like Germany there were laws designed to prevent its waste; including the law that the deceased were not allowed to be buried in hemp, cotton or linen clothing, only wool. This was because paper is made from the cellulose in hemp, cotton & linen clothing; while wool is made from animal fiber and incapable or transforming into paper. The Civil War and mummy paper During the Civil War, the Confederate States controlled the trade of cotton and so the Northern Union States were desperate for rags and imported them from England and Germany. The English themselves were short on rag, so while they were colonizing Egypt they were exhuming hundreds of thousands of mummies from the ground, removing their wrappings and sending them to America for conversion into paper. One of the uses for this mummy wrapping paper was to make stamps! Today these stamps are worth millions of dollars! Paper enters a new era: tree paper Because of the rag shortages, western civilization looked to other sources of plant material (cellulose) for making paper. In the Midwest paper experiments were done using straw and corn husks, which was

3 brittle and difficult to print and bind. In the north east, where the rich industrialists owned immense tracks of forested lands, research on making paper from trees commenced. It was not until 1878 that the code for making paper out of trees was cracked and a new era of papermaking was born. Almost immediately the 2000-year-old industry of making paper from old rags disappeared around the world. The last of the Traditional Islamic rag paper was phased out after WWI, with the rise of a democracy and the industrialization of Turkey s Arts & Crafts movement and the renaissance of papermaking Hand papermaking went all but extinct until the Arts & Crafts movement in America during the 1920 s. During this time a few artists and designers become interested in making their own paper as a way to take control of all the aspects of their artmaking media (writing their own text, deigning their own type, making their own paper, printing their own prints and binding their own books). Dard Hunter, a gentleman scholar from the Roycroft Institute in East Aurora, New York is credited with bringing the knowledge of papermaking back to practice. Hunter was turned onto paper while at the Roycroft Institute and dedicated his life to traveling the world and documenting the remaining hand paper industries. He followed what is now called the paper trail from America to England to Germany, Italy, France, Spain Morocco, Syria, Iraq, India, China, Korea and Japan. Bibliography: Bloom, Johnathan, Paper Before Print, The History & Impact of Paper in the Islamic World, Yale Press, 2001 Diringer, David, The Book Before Printing, Dover Press, 1938 Hunter, Dard, Papermaking: A History of an Ancient Craft & Technique, Dover, 1934

4 Using the Portable Hollander 1) Cut up to 1lb (450 grams) of cotton, hemp or linen rags into 1 inch pieces 2) Put the lid/ roll cover on the Hollander and check that the drain plug is in 3) Make sure the roll is raised, clear of the bed plate 4) Turn the Hollander on 5) Add two buckets of water: ~ 8 to 9 gallons of water 6) Add the cut-up rag by sprinkling it along the basin 7) Lower the roll until the Hollander makes a steady rumble, use the wing nut to lock the threaded bolt 8) Let run for 5 to 10 minutes 9) Lower until you hear a steady rumble, use the wing nut to lock the threaded bolt 10) Add more water 11) Run for 5 to 10 minutes or until rumble stops 12) Add water 13) Lower again until steady rumble, use the wing nut to lock the threaded bolt 14) Run for 5 10 minutes 15) Add Water 16) At this point the steady rumble should be sounding more like a fire alarm. 17) Run for 5-10 minutes, or until the fiber length is around ¼ inch 18) Raise roll, add sizing or pigments or other additives, circulate no more than 5 minutes 19) Pull the plug and drain off into two buckets 20) Clean by hosing down the Hollander or running five gallons of water through to clear of pulps The beating cycle for one pound of cotton rag, cut at 1 inches should take around 40 minutes. If your time is significantly longer, either you need to add more water, sharpen the blades or be more aggressive with lowering the roll. Remember you want the machine to sound load and rumbly, that means it is working. Try lowering the roll until you are uncomfortable with the rumble and back it off a little, watch and see the difference and how it changes over the beating cycle. Practice, practice, practice! Beater Terminology: Roll: The roll consists of stainless steel blades that act as hammers, pounding rag and pulp as it passes beneath. The height of the roll is controlled by turning the threaded bar and locking it into place with the wingnut. Roll cover: Clear plastic cover that is contoured to fit above the roll. Fly bars: The name for the blades on the roll Bedplate: The group of bladed under the roll. The bed plate is fixed, meaning it does not move. Backfall: The contoured ramp behind the roll, this allows pulp to be sloshed over the roll for more beating and pulp flow.

5 Papermaking Terminology: Paper: material manufactured in thin sheets by capturing freely suspended plant fibers in a water solution. Cellulose: Plant material that makes paper Non-Cellulose: Animal and synthetic (polyester, nylon) materials that do not make paper Rags: Cast off textiles used for papermaking (clothing, etc ) Rag Paper: Paper made using old clothing and/or other textiles Rag Picking: Gathering rags Rag Picker: A person who gathers rags Breaking Rag: Cutting and beating rags to a pulp Beating to a pulp: Using a hammer, stamper or Hollander to hydrate and separate a cellulose for papermaking. Stamper: A large wooden hammer that rises and falls onto rag, slowly generating pulp (used from ~800 BCE to ~1680 BCE). Invented by the Arabs, inventor unknown. Hollander Beater: A machine that circulates and pounds textiles into pulp via a bladed roll. Invented in 1680 in Holland, inventor unknown. Internal Sizing: Product of the 20 th Century, added to pulp to slow the absorption of water after the sheet is dry. External Sizing: Traditional method of sizing by dipping dry sheets of paper in a gelatin bath or brushing on starch based pastes. Waterleaf Paper: Paper without sizing, aka University of Alabama-style. Mould: frame with a laid or woven screen stretched on top. Used to catch, form and transfer sheets of wet paper Deckle: German word for top, open frame that sits on top of the mould. The Deckle gives the shape to the sheet of paper, i.e a heart shaped deckle will make a heart shaped piece of paper. Vat: The basin used to put pulp and water for dipping the mould and deckle into to form sheets of paper Charging the Vat: Adding pulp to the vat Hogging the vat: Mixing the pulp in vat (jazz hands), this should be done every time before pulling a sheet Bringing up the clouds: Same definition as Hogging, except the preferred term in Alabama Pulling a sheet: Dipping a mould & deckle into vat to form a sheet of paper

6 Shaking: Gently agitating the mould & deckle side to side and to and from, while holding level with the ground. This allows the fibers to comingle and create a smooth surface to the paper. Couching: Pronounced Cooching, from the French word couche, meaning to lay out. Transferring the freshly formed sheet of paper onto the interfacing. This is done by aligning the mould perpendicular to the interfacing and slowly lowering it down into full contact with the interfacing, then raising the mould up, by lifting one side of the mould and pressing down on the other side. This is the most difficult part of papermaking to master. Post: A pile of interfacing on a board, used for couching freshly formed sheets of paper. Stack: Same as post Double couching: Layering sheets of freshly formed sheets of paper ontop of one another Double dipping: Dipping mould & deckle into the vat; often to form multi colored sheets of paper. Also used to create thicker sheets of paper Pressing: Adding pressure to the stack of paper. This is done after the post is capped with a board and weight is added. Pressing can be as simple as standing on the stack, using ratchet straps to apply pressure, car pressing by driving a car over the stack, piling weights on top of the stack r loading into a 6, 12, 20, 50 or 100 ton hydraulic press. Most importantly: pressing pushes the fibers closer together, increasing the hydrogen bonding and making a stronger paper. Additionally, it removes excess water. The press is a very important step in the papermaking process. Restraint Drier: Drying paper under restraint; hanging between interfacing, spur drying, drybox and the eastern method of laying wet sheets on glass are all examples of restraint drying Drybox: A form of restraint drying by layering porous interfacing and wet sheets of paper in an enclosed area with a fan passing air through the layers. A product of the late 20 th century. Loft Drying: Hanging sheets to dry from a line Spur Drying: After an initial press, layer 6 to 8 wet sheets atop of one another, press gently again and hang spurs from line to dry. This is the traditional method from 700 to Peeling paper: Removing single sheets of paper after pressing or drying.