How the Paper in This Book Is Made
Where Does Paper Come From?
Egyptians were the first people to make what would today be called paper. They made it from a plant called papyrus and that is where the name comes from.
This plant is a species of reed. The Egyptians took stalks of reed cut into as thin slices as they could, laid them side by side; then they arranged another layer on top with the slices the other way and put this in a press. When dried and rubbed until smooth, it made a kind of paper, which could be written upon.
One of the first substances used for making the kind of paper we have today was cotton. Paper was made from cotton about 1100 A. D. From this thin cotton paper our present papers are a development, i.e., paper today is largely made of vegetable fibers. Vegetable fibers consist mostly of cellulose surrounded by other things which hold the short vegetable fibers together.
The fibers best adapted for making paper are those of the cotton and flax plants, and while the uses of paper were few, no other material was needed when it was once learned that cotton and linen fibers would do for making paper. All we had to do was to save all the old rags and sell them to the paper man.
In making paper from rags, the rags were allowed to rot to remove the substances that incrust the cellulose, and then beaten into a pulp, to which a large quantity of water was added. This pulp was put into a sieve, until the greater part of the water had been drained off by shaking, and the fibers remaining formed a thin layer on the bottom of the sieve. This layer of fiber was put into a pile with other similar layers, and the whole pile was placed under a press, where more of the water was removed. When they were dry, we had a very fair kind of paper which was, however, not much better than blotting paper and could not be written on with ink because it was loose in texture and very absorbent.
To give it good writing surface it was necessary to fill the pores. This was done by sizing which gave the paper great firmness. Paper was sized by drawing the layers of paper through a solution of alum and glue, or some similar substances, and then drying them, then finally passed between highly polished rollers to iron it. This gave it the necessary smooth hard surface.
In the modern method of making rag paper by machinery, the rags are boiled with caustic soda, which separates the cellulose fibers, and placed in a machine in which rollers set with knives tear the rags to pieces and mix them with water to form a pulp. This is called a breaker. The pulp is then bleached with chloride of lime, and is passed on to the sizing machine. This machine mixes the pulp with alum and with a kind of soap, made from suitable resins which serves the purpose better than glue.
How Is the Water Mark Put Into Paper?
The pulp, which is now ready to be made into paper, is poured out upon an endless cloth made of fine brass wire. This cloth travels constantly in one direction, by means of rollers, and is given at the same time a sort of vibratory motion, to cause the paper fibers to become more closely felted together. On the wire cloth web are usually woven words, or designs, in wire, that rise above the rest of the surface. These are transferred to the paper, and are called water marks. The machine then winds the finished paper into rolls, so that it may be handled conveniently.
HOW PAPER IS NOW MADE FROM WOOD
During the past few years the uses for paper have increased so greatly that there have not been enough rags available to meet the demand for material, and a successful effort was made to find other material from which paper could be made. Many fibers were tried before it was found that wood pulp could be used. Straw and esparto grass, a plant that grows wild in North America, were found to yield cellulose having the desired qualities and were used to some extent. But the problem was solved when it was learned that pulp made from trunks and limbs of trees would serve even then. At first the powder formed by grinding up logs was used, but the paper produced was not strong, and could be used for very few purposes.
It was discovered finally that if wood shavings were boiled in strong solutions of caustic soda, in receptacles that would withstand very high pressure, the wood fibers were separated, and a very good quality of cellulose for paper manufacture produced, provided it was bleached before being made into paper, and most of our paper to-day is, therefore, made of wood.
Later on this process gave way to the sulphite process. In the sulphite process, a solution of sulphite of lime is used. Acid sulphite of lime results when the fumes from burning sulphur are passed through chimneys filled with lime. By this process the separation of the fibers and the bleaching are done at the same time and an even whiter paper making material is obtained.
The sulphite process is now used almost exclusively in making paper from wood.
The discovery of the process of making paper from wood has led to the use of paper for many purposes for which it could otherwise never have been used. The wood pulp is also used in the form of papier-mâché, a tough, plastic substance, which is made by mixing glue with it, or by pressing together a number of layers of paper having glue between. Papier-mâché can easily be molded into almost any form, and after drying forms a very tough substance and one that will stand rough usage. It has been employed for making dishes, water baskets and utensils of many other kinds, for making the matrices for and from electrotype plates, for car wheels, and many other purposes.
WHERE THE INGREDIENTS FOR MAKING PAPER ARE MIXED
MIXING ROOM.
The wood fiber must be mixed with other ingredients when paper is made from it. This shows a corner of the large electro-chemical department for the production of bleach and soda used in the preparation of rag and wood fibres.
THE WATER SUPPLY.
A good deal of water is needed in making paper. From twelve to fifteen million gallons daily are drawn from the river and filtered through this plant in Maine; clean paper of bright color being dependent upon the use of pure water.
BEATING THE INGREDIENTS FOR MAKING PULP
BEATER ROOM.
The ingredients for making paper are first mixed thoroughly in machines called “beaters” before going to the paper making machines. The operation of beating is one of the most important in paper making.
THE PAPER COMING OFF IN ROLLS.
As the paper progresses through the machines, it passes over a long series of heated cylinders, drying and hardening the stock until it reaches the finished end. This illustration shows a web 135 inches wide being cut into two rolls. The air pressure in the machine room is slightly greater than the atmospheric pressure outside, preventing dust from entering.
GREAT PAPER-MAKING MACHINES IN OPERATION
PAPER MAKING MACHINES.
In the foreground is the so-called wet end showing the vats in which the liquid pulp, about 98 per cent water, is pumped. It is screened and then flows on to an endless wire web beyond, where the free water is taken out by drainage and by suction boxes.
PUTTING THE PRINTING SURFACE ON THE PAPER
PAPER STOCK.
A large amount of stock of paper mills. This paper is seasoned by holding it in stock and will be later given such surface as is called for.
COATING MACHINES.
Where the paper passes through a bath of coating mixture to a long drying gallery at the end of which it is rewound preparatory to being given the highly finished surface on the calendaring machine.
A section of Finishing Room department where paper is passed through alternating compressed fiber and steel rolls giving it the surface required for different classes of printing. The paper on which the Book of Wonders is printed has a highly finished smooth surface so that the pictures will come out clear.
WHERE THE PAPER IS CUT IN SHEETS
The finished rolls of stock pass through rotary cutters which produce the sheets of various required sizes. The paper in the Book of Wonders was cut in sheets 41x55 inches, thus making it possible to print 32 pages on each side of each sheet.
Rotary Boiler for cooking rags or wood in making pulp for use in manufacture of paper.
Illustrations showing manufacture of paper by courtesy of S. D. Warren & Co.
HOW THE PRINTED TYPE OF THIS BOOK WAS SET
This picture shows the wonderful Linotype machine by which the type of this book was “set,” as the printers say. The men who operate the machine are compositors. Originally the type matter of books was set by hand and the compositor composed in type what the author of the book had written. By pressing down on the keys which you see in the picture, the compositor sets the words in lines of metal. This machine is almost human. By touching the proper keys, the operator assembles a line of matrices the details of which are explained in another picture, and after this is done the machine automatically casts a slug from them, turns and delivers a slug into a galley ready for use and finally distributes the matrices back into their respective channels in the magazine, where they are ready to be called down again, by the touch of the key button. The latest model linotype has four magazines and can be equipped with matrices which when assembled will cast lines in from six to twelve different sizes and styles of type.
The assembling mechanism is the only part of the linotype where the human mind is applied to the working of the machine. It is necessary for the eye to read what is to be printed, and the mind, through the medium of the fingers, to translate this into assembled lines of matrices; after that the machine acts automatically.
THE LINOTYPE—FOUR MACHINES IN ONE
The keyboard is made up of 90 keys, which act directly on the matrices in their channels in the magazine. The slightest touch on the keybuttons releases the matrix, which drops to the assembler belt and is carried swiftly to the assembler. When a word is assembled, the spaceband key is touched and a spaceband drops into the assembler. When the necessary matrices and spacebands to fill the line have been assembled, the operator raises the assembler by pressing a lever on the side of the keyboard. When the assembler reaches its highest point it automatically starts the machine and the matrices are transferred to the casting position.
This illustration shows the manner in which matrices are constantly circulated in the Linotype. From the magazine they are carried to the assembler, then passed to the mold, where the line is cast, and from the mold after casting they are raised to the top of the machine and redistributed to their proper channels in the magazine.
The Linotype is sometimes called a typesetting machine, but this is not correct: it does not set type. It is a substitute for typesetting. It is strictly speaking a composing machine, as it does composition but its product is not set type, but solid slugs in the form of lines of type with the printing face cast on the edge.
It is in reality four machines so arranged that they work together in harmony—the magazine, the assembling mechanism, the casting mechanism and the distributing mechanism. The magazine is at the top of the machine sloping to the front at an angle of about 31 degrees, and consists of two brass plates placed together with a space of about five-eighths of an inch between. The two inner surfaces are cut with 92 grooves or channels running the up and down way of the magazine, for carrying the matrices. The matrices slide down these channels on edge, with the face or punched edge down, and the V-end extending toward the upper part of the magazine. Each of these channels will hold twenty matrices.
LITTLE PIECES OF BRASS WHICH PRODUCE SOLID TYPE
Linotypes are guaranteed to be capable of setting above 5000 ems of 6 point per hour, and this output is widely obtained in commercial printing offices with first class operators. When a compositor speaks of the amount of type he sets per hour or day he speaks of “ems.” A column of type matter is so many “ems” wide. The term “em” means the square of the particular size of type that is being set. Thus if a column is said to be 13 ems wide it means that an em quad or square, could be set 13 times in the width of the column. Type is graded according to size by points. Machine type for book work runs from 5 points to 12 points. A point is one seventy-second of an inch, that is, there are 72 points to an inch. This guarantee, however, by no means indicates the limit of speed at which the machine can be operated, as evidenced by records of 10,000 to 11,000 ems per hour maintained for an entire day. The rapidity of the Linotype is limited only by the ability of the operator to manipulate the keys, and the extreme capacity of the machine has never yet been attained.
HOW THE LINOTYPE MAKES SOLID TYPE
SECTIONAL VIEW OF MAGAZINE SHOWING CHANNEL FULL OF MATRICES.
This picture shows the machine with part of the magazine top and side removed. We can thus see how the matrices are arranged in their respective grooves in the magazine. When one of the keys of the keyboard is pressed down the first matrix in the corresponding grove in the magazine escapes and drops upon a conveyor belt and is carried in its proper order to an assembler, which answers much the same purpose as a printer’s stick. The correct spacing or justification of the line of matrices is accomplished by means of spacebands, which are assembled automatically between the words in the line by the touch of a lever at the left of the keyboard.
LINOTYPE SLUGS.
Instead of producing single type characters, the Linotype machine casts metal bars, or slugs, of any length desired up to 36 ems, each complete in one piece and having on the upper edge, properly justified, the characters to print a line. These slugs are automatically assembled in proper order as they are delivered from the machine, when they are immediately available either for printing from direct or for making electrotype or stereotype plates. They answer the same purpose and are used in the same manner as composed type matter.
HOW THE PAGES OF A BOOK ARE MADE UP
Lay-out of page 126 of this book
Lay-out of page 127 of this book
When the revised proofs come back from the publisher ready to be made into pages, the publisher has marked on same what pictures are to go on the pages of the “make up” as this is called. The compositor then picks out the pictures in the form of cuts which are to go on the different pages and puts them in the page first. He then arranges the type matter from the galley proof around, above or below the pictures, puts in the proper headings and takes a “final proof” of how the pages are arranged to look. If this is satisfactory the publisher puts a “final O. K.” on the proof in writing and the page is ready to be printed. Thus the book is made up page by page. No page is printed without the O. K. of the publisher and so, if there are any errors still in the page, the publisher is responsible.
HOW THIS BOOK IS PRINTED
PRINTING THE BOOK OF WONDERS
This picture shows the pages of the Book of Wonders being printed. Thirty-two pages are printed on each side of a sheet of paper at one time. A printing office is a busy place as can be seen from the picture. As soon as the ink is dry on the printed sheets they are taken to the bindery where they are folded and sewed ready to have the covers put on.
HOW THE BOOK OF WONDERS IS BOUND
When the printed sheets are received in the bindery they are fed into a folding machine which is shown here. A sheet of 64 pages is folded and cut and delivered in four sections of 16 pages each ready to be gathered.
Here we see a machine which takes the folded sections of 16 pages each, which are called “signatures,” and sorts them, dropping them into compartments in order, so that each compartment finally contains the printed matter for one book all arranged in the order which it will be bound.
Courtesy of the J. F. Tapley Co. New York.
SEWING THE PAGES OF THE BOOK OF WONDERS
Here we see the girls at work operating the sewing machines which sew the sections together at the back side of the book.
The men in this picture are making the backs of the books round and preparing them for the putting on of covers.
Courtesy of the J. F. Tapley Co., New York.
THE BOOK OF WONDERS IS READY TO READ
In this picture we see the “case makers” at work making the covers on which the actual book is bound.
The book is now “bound” by having the covers put on and is ready for distribution.
Courtesy of the J. F. Tapley Co., New York.