Download SHORT WALK NOTES - FULL NOTES AT END · # INTRODUCTION

SHORT WALK NOTES - FULL NOTES AT END
·
# INTRODUCTION Before paper, man used many other materials to
record his thoughts. Ancient civilizations wrote on stone and imprinted them
on bricks. They also scratched on cave walls and on wet clay. Lead, copper,
and brass successively carried the written word. Less permanent materials,
such as leaves, bark, wood, and skins, were predecessors of paper.
·
Papyrus is first known to have been used in ancient Egypt at least as far
back as 3,500 BC
·
1600 BC–256 BC in ancient China, documents were ordinarily written on
bone or bamboo
·
The first person to make paper by “felting” wood fibres was Ts’ai-Lun
nearly 2,000 years ago in China.
·
In America, a parchment writing material was invented by the Mayans no
later than the 5th century AD. Called amatl, it was in widespread use until the
Spanish conquest. This was made from the bark of the fig tree
·
In Europe, the use of papyrus had dropped out in the 9th century. The
preferred medium was the smooth and lustrous parchment - made from animal
skin - was extremely expensive. A single bible hand written on parchment
required the skins of 300 sheep.
·
The notion of paper being used as a practical everyday item did not
occur until the 15th Century. When Johann Gutenburg perfected movable type
and printed his famous bible in 1456, he not only spread the word of
Christianity, but also sparked a revolution in mass communication. The birth
of the modern paper and printing industry is commonly marked from this
date.
·
#
BIRCH The thin outer birch bark can be used as a paper substitute
·
# LINDEN LIME Around the year 70 AD Pliny (Caius Plinius Secundus),
alludes to the use of the inner bark for paper (parchment), when it was known
as liber (so becoming extended to books, and giving us the word "library”.
·
# SITKA SPRUCE ‘Pound for pound it is stronger than steel’. Sitka
spruce has the highest strength to weight ratio of any tree. Despite these
desirable timber characteristics, it is widely used as a pulpwood tree.
·
# EDGWORTHIA CHRYSANTHA common name, paper bush, comes from
its utilitarian bark, which is processed into a high-grade paper product in
Japan and China
1
·
Paper spread slowly outside of China; other East Asian cultures, even
after seeing paper, could not make it themselves. Instruction in the
manufacturing process was required, and the Chinese were reluctant to share
their secrets.
·
In the 3rd century the secret of papermaking began to creep out of
China, first to Vietnam then Tibet. The technology was first transferred to
Korea in 604 and then imported to Japan by Buddhist priests, around 610,
where fibres (called bast) from the mulberry tree were used.
·
Spread slowly throughout Asia to Nepal and later to India. In 751
Chinese papermakers captured and gave the process to Samarkand, in
Uzbekistan
·
Gradually paper makers made their way further west through the Muslim
world - to Baghdad, Damascus and Cairo. Production started in Baghdad,
where the Arabs invented a method to make a thicker sheet of paper. The
first paper mills were built in Baghdad from 794, which helped transform
papermaking from an art into a major industry.
·
The manufacture had spread to Damascus by the time of the First
Crusade in 1096; but the wars interrupted production, and it split into two
centres. Cairo continued with the thicker paper. Iran became the centre of
the thinner papers. It was also adopted in India.
·
The first paper mill in Europe was in Spain, (modern Valencia) in 1120.
·
The oldest known paper document in the West is the Mozarab Missal of
Silos from the 11th century, probably written in the Islamic part of Spain.
·
Paper manufactured in both Italy and Germany by 1400, just about the
time when the woodcut print making technique was transferred from fabric to
paper
·
First commercially successful paper mill in England 1588 by John
Spilman
·
Rene de Réaumur a French physicist in the 1700s, watched a species of
wasp we now call the paper wasp. Realised wood fibres could make paper
·
The advent of steam-driven paper making machines in the 19th century,
which could make paper with fibres from wood pulp
·
Continuous paper making machine in 1799
·
The invention of the practical fountain pen and the mass produced
pencil of the same period, and in conjunction with the advent of the steam
driven rotary printing press, using wood based paper caused a major
transformation of the 19th century economy and society in industrialized
countries.
·
2
Early paper was made of rags, and rags were hard to come by. Ironically,
when the Plague or Black Death killed millions of people in Europe, tons of
clothing and rags became available - at just about the time the printing press
was invented.
·
Some historians speculate that paper was a key element in cultural
advancement. According to this theory, Chinese culture was less developed
than the West in ancient times prior to the Han Dynasty because bamboo,
while abundant, was a clumsier writing material than papyrus; Chinese
culture advanced during the Han Dynasty and subsequent centuries due to the
invention of paper; and Europe advanced during the Renaissance due to the
introduction of paper and the printing press.
·
# INK FROM OAK GALLS is essentially created by the chemical reaction
between tannic acid and iron sulphate in an aqueous solution, highly prized
for centuries for its durability and rich colour
o
Tannic acid contained in the galls, bark, leaves, roots and fruits of
various plants. The greatest concentration of gallotannic acid is found in
galls; the bulbous growths formed on the leaves and twigs of trees in
response to attack by parasites
o
Iron sulphate
o
Water or wine
o
Gum Arabic a water soluble golden-coloured sap collected from Acacia
trees native to North Africa.
o
Logwood Because the pigment in iron gall ink does not completely form
until it is exposed to air, it is not very dark when applied to paper immediately
after preparation. Provisional colorants were often added to the ink to obtain
a dark colour as soon as it flowed from the pen. Natural dyestuffs, including
logwood, indigo, and Brazilwood were used until synthetic aniline dyes
replaced them
·
# PINUS RADIATA Wood consists primarily of cellulose (mostly from
fibres which give strength and support to the tree) and lignin, which cements
the fibres together. Cellulose makes up roughly 65 to 80 percent, and lignin
about 20 to 35 percent of the weight of wood.
Wood is reduced to a mass of tiny, individual fibres for papermaking by
chemical or mechanical pulping processes, or by a combination of the two. In
the chemical pulping processes, dissolving the lignin and other cementing
material from wood chips separates the natural plant fibres.
·
NZ produces over 800,000 tonnes of paper and paperboard annually,
mostly from Pinus radiata.
·
PAPERMAKING IN NZ There was the need to investigate and study the
relative pulping values of native woods. Pulp and paper making tests were
made at the Imperial Institute in 1921 and in conjunction with a London paper
3
machinery company in 1923. Attempts were made to interest local capital in
a paper-pulp mill in Westland to use slabs of wood and mill wastes but to no
avail.
·
The planting of exotic forests begun, not only as a State enterprise but
also as a result of commercial interest arising from publicity given to the
remarkable way Pinus radiata grew, together with the idea that a wood
famine was in prospect.
·
Plantings took place principally in the North Island's central volcanic
region where a cobalt deficiency had prevented pastoral development.
·
Those sponsoring the private sector plantings varied in their probity but
the bond system adopted was basically unsound whatever the honesty of
those promoting it. Sales around the world. Gradually the bondholders who
had fallen for the tales of the riches they might expect when the trees
matured began to realise the uncertainty of their investment. After 20 years
they would receive title to a block of mature trees for which no clear market
existed.
A national asset had been created but New Zealand wages were so high that
once they and the cost of land and sea transport had been taken into account
there would be little left for the bondholder, even if sales of timber could be
made overseas.
Many bond purchasers had been led to believe the schemes were governmentbacked and as the uncertainties about the future came home, it became
necessary to establish a Commission of Inquiry.
The Commissioners after initiating legal proceedings where fraud was
evident, proposed that bondholders should be made into shareholders in the
sponsoring companies, with equal rights to the existing shareholders. Thus
17,000 bondholders of the first and largest of the forestry companies,
Perpetual Forests, were incorporated into New Zealand Forest Products (now
Carter Holt Harvey) in December 1935. The new company would not pay a
dividend until 1960.
·
In 1947 when the Forest Research Institute (now Forest Research) was
formed as part of the Forest Service to investigate the utilisation of the
wood.
The large-scale forestry based pulp and paper projects, using imported
technology at Kinleith and Kawerau, were put in place in the 1950s.
·
PLANTS FOR PAPERMAKING: While it is possible to make paper from
the fibre of thousands of plant varieties, some are more suitable than others.
Here are a few used for hand made paper now that fall into three categories:
grass, leaf, and bast fibres.
The so-called “grass” fibre plants are often the easiest to process. Pampas
Grass (Cortaderia selloana), an exotic-looking mound of coarse-edged leaves,
cotton-candy like flower plumes rising up to twelve feet above. Bamboo
4
(Phyllostachys aurea) grows and spreads so quickly. dozens of varieties of
Corn (Zea mays) to grow your food and paper fibre simultaneously.
Among the leaf fibres, fast spreading Hosta (Hosta fortunei) is your best bet
for ground cover in shady spots. Yucca (Yucca filamentosa), with four-foot
high clumps of stiff, sword-shaped leaves . Iris (Iris germanica and other
species).
Bast, or “inner bark” fibres are the most commonly used for hand
papermaking. Raspberry or Blackberry (Rubus spp.) . Milkweed (Asclepias
speciosa) Paper Mulberry (Broussonetia papyrifera) is a rich tradition as the
raw material for much of the world’s best handmade paper.
·
HOW MUCH PAPER IS IN ONE TREE? It really all depends on the size of
the tree. According to paper manufacturer a cord of wood (wood stacked 4
feet by 4 feet by 8 feet, or 128 cubic feet) produces nearly 90,000 sheets of
paper or 2,700 copies of a 35-page newspaper!
·
# PAPER MULBERRY (MORUS PAPYRIFERA L.) is a tree in the family
Moraceae, native to eastern Asia.
The bark is composed of very strong fibres, and can be used for making highquality paper.
·
Paper Mulberry has unfortunately now become better known as an
unwelcome weed of natural areas worldwide
·
Although paper can be made from rice straw, this is not the “rice paper”
that people usually think of which smooth, thin, crackly, strong. It is not
actually made from rice at all but from fibres from the bark of the mulberry
tree. It got the name “rice paper” because it was used to make packets for
rice. This sort of paper is used for origami, calligraphy, paper screens and
clothing, etc. It is much stronger than commercially made wood-pulp paper.
·
Three layers to the bark occur: black bark, the outermost layer; green
bark, the middle layer; and white bark, the innermost layer. All three layers
can be made into paper, but the finest paper is made of white bark only.
·
Paper was in use by the ancient Chinese military in 8 BC used for
wrapping or padding protection for delicate bronze mirrors for safety padding
poisonous 'medicine'
·
Paper used for writing became widespread by the 3rd century, although
it continued to be used for wrapping (and other) purposes.
·
An Arab traveller to China once wrote of the curious Chinese tradition
of toilet paper in AD 851. Toilet paper continued to be a valued necessity in
China In AD 1393 that the Bureau of Imperial Supplies manufactured 720,000
sheets of toilet paper for the entire court (produced of the cheap rice–straw
paper). For the emperor's family alone, 15,000 special sheets of paper were
made, in light yellow tint and even perfumed.
5
·
The world's earliest known printed book (using woodblock printing), the
Diamond Sutra of AD 868, shows the widespread availability and practicality
of paper in China.
·
During the AD 618–907 paper was folded and sewn into square bags to
preserve the flavour of tea. During the same period, it was written that tea
was served from baskets with multi-coloured paper cups and paper napkins
of different size and shape.
·
Around 600 AD there were local issues of paper currency in China and
by 960 the Song Dynasty (AD 960–1279), short of copper for striking coins,
issued the first generally circulating paper-printed money. Paper money
bestowed as gifts to deserving government officials were wrapped in special
paper envelopes.
·
# ABACÁ AKA MUSA TEXTILIS Closely related to the banana is Abacá,
from Spanish "abacá" (pronounced "ah buh KAH"), or Musa textilis, a species
of banana native to the Philippines, grown widely as well in Borneo and
Sumatra.
·
The plant is of great economic importance, being harvested for its fibre,
called Manila hemp, extracted from the large, oblong leaves and stems. The
coarse fibres range from 1.5 to 3.5 metres in length. The fibre is used for
making twines and ropes as well as the Manila envelope.
·
# PAPYRUS Ancient civilizations carved their laws and history in stone
and imprinted them on bricks. Lead, copper, and brass successively carried
the written word. Less permanent materials, such as leaves, bark, wood, and
skins, were predecessors of paper. They scratched on cave walls, painted
too, and drew characters on wet clay.
·
The word paper derives from the Greek term for the ancient writing
material called papyrus, formed from beaten strips of papyrus plants. These
materials made from pounded reeds and bark are technically not true paper,
which is made from pulp, rags, and fibres of plants and cellulose.
·
Used in ancient Egypt at least as far back as 3,500 BC, it was used
throughout the Mediterranean region. Ancient Egypt used this plant for boats,
mattresses, mats and paper
·
Papyrus is a thick paper-like material produced from the pith of the
papyrus plant, Cyperus papyrus, a wetland sedge that was once abundant in
the Nile Delta of Egypt.
·
In a dry climate like that of Egypt, papyrus is stable, formed as it is of
highly rot-resistant cellulose; but storage in humid conditions can result in
moulds attacking and destroying the material. In European conditions,
papyrus seems only to have lasted a matter of decades; a 200–year-old
papyrus was considered extraordinary. Imported papyrus that was once
6
commonplace in Greece and Italy has since deteriorated beyond repair, but
papyrus is still being found in Egypt.
·
In the first centuries BC and AD, papyrus scrolls gained a rival as a
writing surface in the form of parchment, which was prepared from animal
skins. Sheets of parchment were folded to form quires from which book-form
codices were fashioned. Early Christian writers soon adopted the codex form,
and in the Græco-Roman world it became common to cut sheets from papyrus
rolls in order to form codices. A codex (Latin for block of wood, book; plural
codices) is a book in the format used for modern books, with separate pages
normally bound together and given a cover. It was a Roman invention that
replaced the scroll, which was the first form of book in all Eurasian cultures.
·
Codices were an improvement on the papyrus scroll as the papyrus was
not strong enough to fold without cracking and a long roll, or scroll, was
required to create large volume texts. Papyrus had the advantage of being
relatively cheap and easy to produce, but it was fragile and susceptible to
both moisture and excessive dryness. Unless the papyrus was of good quality,
the writing surface was irregular, and the range of media that could be used
was also limited.
·
By AD 800 the use of parchment and vellum made of processed
sheepskin or calfskin replaced papyrus in many areas, though its use in Egypt
continued until it was replaced by more inexpensive paper introduced by
Arabs. The reasons for this switch include the significantly higher durability
of the hide-derived materials, particularly in moist climates, and the fact that
they can be manufactured anywhere.
·
7
Papyrus was used as late as the 1100s
•
•
•
•
We are going to talk
about writing, and the use
of various materials to write on.
We all write and read each day, but do we ever think about how this process developed
I wanted this talk to be in some logical order, but the placement of the various plants makes this
impracticable so we will jump about somewhat but never the less I will try and give some logical
progression.
There are many interesting stories and on this walk we will introduce some of them.
INTRODUCTION
Before paper, man used many other materials to record his thoughts - rocks, leaves, bark,
bone, bamboo, clay tablets, and much more.
From 1600 BC–256 BC in ancient China, documents were ordinarily written on bone or
bamboo (on tablets or on bamboo strips sewn and rolled together into scrolls), making them very heavy
and awkward to transport. The light material of silk was sometimes used, but was normally too expensive
to consider.
Papyrus is first known to have been used in ancient Egypt at least as far back as 3,000
BC) .The fibre of papyrus was used to write on for many years, and we will discuss later.
`By AD 800 the use of parchment and vellum made of processed sheepskin or calfskin
replaced papyrus in many areas, though its use in Egypt continued until it was replaced by more
inexpensive paper introduced by Arabs. The reasons for this switch include the significantly higher
durability of the hide-derived materials, particularly in moist climates, and the fact that they can be
manufactured anywhere. Papyrus was used as late as the 1100's
In America, archaeological evidence indicates that a parchment writing material was
invented by the Mayans no later than the 5th century AD. Called amatl, it was in widespread use until the
Spanish conquest. This was made from the bark of the fig tree created by boiling and pounding the inner
bark . The Aztecs later improved the process. The Pacific South Sea Islanders also learned independently
how to make paper from bark.
The first person to make paper by “felting” wood fibres was Ts’ai-Lun nearly 2,000 years ago in
China.(Felting is the interlocking or matting of loose fibres to form a sheet of paper.) made paper by
grinding up plants - mulberry bark, linen and hemp, producing a wet mush of separate fibres, then spread
it all out in a mat made of coarse cloth and a frame and the sun dries the matted material. However, before
this modern material, other materials were used.
Betula
Birches are common trees and shrubs of northern temperate and boreal zones of the
Northern Hemisphere habiting cool, moist regions, including peat lands, stream banks, and lake shores,
cool, damp woods, and moist slopes in cool coves.
Species number around 35 throughout Northern Hemisphere, North America, Asia.
Removing the bark from a live birch threatens the health of that tree. If the dark inner bark of the
birch tree is damaged this can kill the tree.
The thin outer bark can be used as a paper substitute. It is carefully peeled off the tree and used as it
is. A fibre is obtained from the inner bark and another from the heartwood; these are used in making paper.
The branches of the tree can be harvested in spring or summer, the leaves and outer bark are removed, the
branches are steamed and the fibres stripped off.
8
Tilia europaea
To the ancients the Lindens (Linden Lime) seem to have appealed rather by their utility than by
their beauty. The genus contains some 30 species from most temperate parts of the Northern Hemisphere.
Common lime is a hybrid, probably of T. cordata. x T. platyphyllo
Around the year 70 AD Pliny (Caius Plinius Secundus), alludes to the use of the inner bark for
paper (parchment), when it was known as liber (so becoming extended to books, and giving us the word
"library”.
In making paper the stems are harvested in spring or summer, the leaves are removed and the stems
steamed until the fibres can be stripped. The outer bark is removed from the inner bark by peeling or
scraping. The fibres are cooked for 2 hours with lye (water made alkaline by addition of vegetable ashes)
and then beaten in a ball mill. The paper is beige in colour.
Picea sitchensis
The Sitka Spruce is native of the Northwest coast of North America from Kodiak Island
Alaska to California, never more than 200 km from the coast.. It is a rapidly growing tree to 80 metres tall
and is one of the world’s tallest and fastest growing spruces, often adding 1 metre (three feet) to its height a
year. It grows in humid, foggy areas of coastal forest. It likes a good summer rainfall.
‘Pound for pound it is stronger than steel’. It has the highest strength to weight ratio of any tree.
The wood is elastic, soft, light, straight grained and is sought where these characteristics are required, e.g..
in rowing shells, and aircraft (Howard Hughes ‘Spruce Goose’ was substantially made from timber of this
tree), guitar faces, ladders, and turbine blades for wind energy generators. Aircraft quality planks only
represent a small percentage of total timber yield, however. It is preferred for acoustic uses such as piano
sounding boards. Despite these desirable timber characteristics, it is widely used as a pulpwood tree.
Edgeworthia chrysantha :
A member of the family that includes the daphnes.
The genus comprises three very similar species from China and Japan. It is named after Michael
Pakenham Edgeworth (1812-81), a part-time botanist, plant collector and employee of the East India
Company.
Edgeworthia's common name, paper bush, comes from its utilitarian bark, which is
processed into a high-grade paper product in Japan and China
.
The first person to make paper by “felting” wood fibres was Ts’ai-Lun nearly 2,000 years
ago in China.(Felting is the interlocking or matting of loose fibres to form a sheet of paper.) made paper by
grinding up plants - mulberry bark, linen and hemp, producing a wet mush of separate fibres, then spreads
it all out in a mat made of coarse cloth and a frame and the sun dries the matted material. However, before
this modern material, other materials were used.
Paper spread slowly outside of China; other East Asian cultures, even after seeing paper,
could not make it themselves. Instruction in the manufacturing process was required, and the Chinese were
reluctant to share their secrets. The paper was thin and translucent, not like modern western paper, and thus
only written on one side.
It wasn't until the 3rd century that the secret art of papermaking began to creep out of China,
first to Vietnam and then Tibet. The technology was first transferred to Korea in 604 and then imported to
Japan by Buddhist priests, around 610, where fibres (called bast) from the mulberry tree were used.
Paper making spread slowly throughout Asia to Nepal and later to India. It made its true
push westward in 751 AD when the Tang Dynasty was at war with the Islamic world. During a battle on
the banks of the Tarus river, Islamic warriors captured a Chinese caravan which happened to include
several paper makers. They spirited them away to Samarkand, which soon became a great centre for paper
9
production.
Gradually paper makers made their way further west through the Muslim world - to
Baghdad, Damascus and Cairo. Production was started in Baghdad, where the Arabs invented a method to
make a thicker sheet of paper. The first paper mills were built in Baghdad from 794, which helped
transform papermaking from an art into a major industry.
The manufacture had spread to Damascus by the time of the First Crusade in 1096; but the
wars interrupted production, and it split into two centres. Cairo continued with the thicker paper. Iran
became the centre of the thinner papers. It was also adopted in India.
The first paper mill in Europe was in Spain, at Xátiva (modern Valencia) in 1120. More
mills appeared in Fabriano Italy in about the 13th century, as an import from Islamic Spain. They used
hemp and linen rags as a source of fibre.
The oldest known paper document in the West is the Mozarab Missal of Silos from the 11th
century, probably written in the Islamic part of Spain.
Paper is recorded as being manufactured in both Italy and Germany by 1400, just about the
time when the woodcut print making technique was transferred from fabric to paper in the old master
print and popular prints.
The first commercially successful paper mill in England was opened by John Spilman in
1588 near Dartford in Kent and was initially reliant on German papermaking expertise.
Rene de Réaumur a French physicist in the 1700s, watched a species of wasp we now call
the paper wasp. These insects were munching on wood. Not eating it but chewing it up, spitting the mush
back out and forming nests with it. It seemed to him that the wasps were making paper out of wood.
Somehow, Réaumur never got around to trying to imitate the wasps by making paper himself, but had
stumbled upon the secret of practical papermaking: wood could be broken apart, like the other organic
materials, and crafted into paper. We still follow Réaumur's advice and the wasps' example, although
papermaking has become a more complex and efficient process, and its products incredibly varied and
advanced.
In 1750 paper was made from the bark, leaves, and wood of various trees in France.
Paper remained expensive, at least in book-sized quantities, through the centuries, until the
advent of steam-driven paper making machines in the 19th century, which could make paper with fibres
from wood pulp. During the 19th century much progress was made in the production of wood pulp for
paper. Previously, paper had been made almost entirely from cotton and linen rags.
Nicholas Louis Robert of Essonnes, France, was granted a patent for a continuous paper
making machine in 1799. At the time he was working for Leger Didot with whom he quarrelled over the
ownership of the invention. Didot sent his brother-in-law, John Gamble, to meet Henry and Sealy
Fourdrinier, stationers of London, who agreed to finance the project. Gamble was granted British patent
2487 on 20 October 1801.
With the help particularly of Bryan Donkin, a skilled and ingenious mechanic, an improved
version of the Robert original was installed at Frogmore, Hertfordshire, in 1803, followed by another in
1804. A third machine was installed at the Fourdriniers' own mill at Two Waters. The Fourdriniers also
bought a mill at St Neots intending to install two machines there and the process and machines continued
to develop.
People picked up the paper challenge. One person, a man named Kellar, learned how to
grind wood efficiently. Others invented new ways to separate wood fibres.
If Réaumur had written down his paper recipe - or more accurately, the wasps' recipe - it
might have looked like this:
wood fibre + water + energy = paper.
We still make paper using that same basic formula. We just vary the kinds of wood fibre and
energy, and the techniques of bringing it all together, to get just the kinds of paper we want.
10
Together with the invention of the practical fountain pen and the mass produced pencil of
the same period, and in conjunction with the advent of the steam driven rotary printing press, wood based
paper caused a major transformation of the 19th century economy and society in industrialized countries.
With the introduction of cheaper paper, schoolbooks, fiction, non-fiction, and newspapers became
gradually available by 1900. Cheap wood based paper also meant that keeping personal diaries or writing
letters became possible and so, by 1850, the clerk, or writer, ceased to be a high-status job.
Wood pulp was first made in the United States in 1869
Early paper was made of rags, and rags were hard to come by. Ironically, when the disease
called the Plague or Black Death killed millions of people in Europe, tons of clothing and rags became
available - at just about the time the printing press was invented.
Some historians speculate that paper was a key element in cultural advancement. According
to this theory, Chinese culture was less developed than the West in ancient times prior to the Han Dynasty
because bamboo, while abundant, was a clumsier writing material than papyrus; Chinese culture advanced
during the Han Dynasty and subsequent centuries due to the invention of paper; and Europe advanced
during the Renaissance due to the introduction of paper and the printing press.
But papermaking today, creating all the kinds of paper we use in such huge quantities, is a
science as well as an art. Engineers and technicians speed things up, using computers to help guide factory
machines that can produce huge rolls of paper at more than 45 miles an hour.
Ink from oak galls oaks
Hundreds of recipes for iron gall ink have been published over the centuries.
It is surprisingly easy to make iron gall ink - the earliest recipes are often the simplest - and the
ingredients are inexpensive and readily available.
Ingredients
Iron gall ink is essentially created by the chemical reaction between tannic acid and iron
sulfate in an aqueous solution. The primary active components in tannin are gallotannic and gallic acid.
With iron sulfate, these tannic acids produce a black pigment, called ferrogallotannate upon exposure to
oxygen. A small amount of pigment forms by reacting with oxygen in the water, but much more pigment is
produced after the ink has been applied to paper and exposed to air for several days.
Iron gall ink has been highly prized for centuries for its durability and rich colour
Although tannic acid and iron sulfate in water will produce a colored solution, it is not a true ink
until a water-soluble binder is added to improve the body and flow of the solution so it may be used with
quill, reed or steel dip pens (because of the corrosive nature of the ink, it is not recommended for use in
expensive fountain pens). Other ingredients can be added to strengthen or change the color of the ink, act
as a preservative, or prevent it from freezing. A brief description of the source and function of each
ingredient may inspire you to experiment with your own ink formulas.
1. Tannic acid
Tannic acid is contained in the galls, bark, leaves, roots and fruits of various plants. The
greatest concentration of gallotannic acid is found in galls; the bulbous growths formed on the leaves and
twigs of trees in response to attack by parasites.
2. Iron sulfate
Pure iron sulfate may be obtained from chemical, specialty art or fabric dye suppliers in the
form of a pale green powder or granules.
3. Water or wine
Most inks are made in water. Of course, the purity of water varies widely, and older recipes
often suggest using rain water, probably because it was thought to be purer than available standing water
sources.
Wine, beer or vinegar were sometimes used instead of water because it was thought to be a
11
purer liquid. Alcohol may also have prevented the ink from freezing in winter, but, since some recipes
require boiling the alcohol (which would cause it to evaporate), there may be another explanation for its
use. It may be that the glycerin in alcohol increases the rate of extraction for tannin. Alcohol also reduces
the surface tension of the ink solution, allowing it to soak more quickly into the paper fibres. Anecdotal
evidence suggests that a large proportion of alcohol or vinegar may have a preservative effect, inhibiting
mold from growing on the finished ink.
4. Gum arabic
Gum arabic is a water soluble golden-colored sap collected from Acacia trees native to
North Africa. . Gum arabic keeps the black pigment suspended in the liquid; otherwise, it would settle to
the bottom of the container over time. It also helps to thicken the ink, allowing it to flow more easily from
the pen or brush onto the paper. More importantly, the gum holds the ink at the surface of the paper for a
few extra seconds before sinking into the fibers. This influences the appearance and durability of marks
made with the ink. The ink line is clearer and sharper than it would be without a binding agent, in part
because the ink sinks less deeply into the paper fibers. However, too much gum arabic will cause the dried
ink to become inflexible, and it can crack and flake off the surface
.
5. Logwood
Because the pigment in iron gall ink does not completely form until it is exposed to air, it is
not very dark when applied to paper immediately after preparation. To bypass this latent reaction,
provisional colorants were often added to the ink to obtain a dark colour as soon as it flowed from the pen.
Natural dyestuffs, including logwood, indigo, and Brazilwood were used until synthetic aniline dyes
replaced them in the late 19th century. Indigo had the further advantage of imparting a preservative effect
to the ink.
Logwood has been used as a colorant since at least the Middle Ages, and was used widely in
ink formulations produced in the first half of the 19th century. It is obtained from the wood of the
campeachy tree Boiled in tap water, logwood creates a blood red solution, although it will shift to blue in
alkaline solutions and to yellow-orange in highly acidic solutions. Unfortunately, the colorant is not very
lightfast, and, unlike the iron gall pigment, it will remain soluble in water after drying.
Pinus radiata
Wood consists primarily of cellulose (mostly from fibres which give strength and support to the
tree) and lignin, which cements the fibres together. Cellulose makes up roughly 65 to 80 percent, and
lignin about 20 to 35 percent of the weight of wood.
Wood is reduced to a mass of tiny, individual fibres for papermaking by chemical or mechanical
pulping processes, or by a combination of the two. In the mechanical or groundwood process, short logs
are held against the rough surface of a rotating grindstone made of sandstone or synthetic abrasive
material. A shower of water cools the stone and carries away the shredded wood fibres (pulp).
In the chemical pulping processes, the natural plant fibres are separated by dissolving the lignin and
other cementing material from wood chips. The lignin is dissolved by heating the chips and cooking liquor
at high temperatures and pressures in large pressure vessels called digesters. The three chemical processes
commonly used for pulping are the sulfate or kraft, the soda, and the sulfite. Alkaline liquors are used in
the sulfate and soda processes; and acid liquor is used in the sulfite process. The semichemical processes
employ both chemical and mechanical actions. In these processes, the chips are first given a mild softening
treatment with a chemical; then they are reduced to a pulp by mechanical treatment in an “attrition” or
“disk” mill. The semichemical processes were developed for pulping hardwoods and they are especially
suitable for this purpose; also they increase the yields of pulp from both softwoods and hardwoods. This
process was developed by the staff of the Forest Products Laboratory, Forest Service, U.S. Department of
Agriculture.
In simplified form the papermaking process. Starting from left, either wood chips are poured into
the chemical digester (“cooker”) or else debarked short pulpwood logs (bolts) are fed into the mechanical
grinder. For papers that must be whitened, the next step is the bleaching process. The loose fibres
suspended in water (pulp) then go through a washer, where the pulp is sprayed with water as it revolves on
large drums. From there it goes into the beater or into the refiner (jordan), or it may go into the beater first
and then into the refiner as well.
12
In the beater the fibres are subjected to rubbing or brushing action which cuts, splits, bruises, and
frays them in varying degree. The fibres are then more flexible, and have more surface area exposed for
fiber bonding. These characteristics result in strong, well-formed paper. For the finer grades of paper, a
sizing solution (starch or animal glue) is added to seal pores in the paper and give it a good writing surface.
Colouring, if necessary, is also done at this point. In the refiner long fibers are mechanically treated to
improve the formation and strength of the sheet. The treatment may also be done by the beater alone. From
here the wet mass of pulp is further diluted with water and fed into a long, broad wire screen where part of
the water is drained off and the wet pulp sheet is formed. The wet sheet of pulp is then deposited onto a
porous felt cushion which carries it through a series of roller presses which squeeze out more of the water.
The final drying is accomplished by winding the paper through a series of steam-heated rotating
drums. Then it is passed through a series of chilled steel rolls to smooth it out and give it uniform
thickness. Finally it is wound into large rolls and cut to the required sizes.
NZ produces over 800,000 tonnes of paper and paperboard annually, mostly from Pinus radiata.
Papermaking in NZ
There was the need to investigate and study the relative pulping values of native woods. Pulp and
paper making tests were made at the Imperial Institute in 1921 and in conjunction with a London paper
machinery company in 1923.
Attempts were made to interest local capital in a paper-pulp mill in Westland to use slabs of wood
and mill wastes but to no avail.
Meanwhile the planting of exotic forests had begun to boom, not only as a State enterprise but also
as a result of commercial interest arising from publicity given to the remarkable way Pinus radiata grew,
together with the idea that a wood famine was in prospect. The scene was set for one of New Zealand's
more interesting financial debacles, as well as for early "Think Big" projects and the establishment of a
world-scale forest products industry.
Pinus radiata was the main species planted. Plantings took place principally in the North Island's
central volcanic region where a cobalt deficiency had prevented pastoral development. The State and
private plantings took place in parallel, with those of the state outstripping those of the private sector.
The people sponsoring the private sector plantings varied in their probity but the bond system
adopted was basically unsound whatever the honesty of those promoting it. Sales of bonds were made
around the world, chiefly in Australia but also in India and other places. Gradually the bondholders who
had fallen for the tales of the riches they might expect when the trees matured began to realise the
uncertainty of their investment. After 20 years they would receive title to a block of mature trees for which
no clear market existed.
As one Indian gentleman who came to see for himself discovered, the trees were there, row upon
row of them and clearly a national asset had been created but New Zealand wages were so high that once
they and the cost of land and sea transport had been taken into account there would be little left for the
bondholder, even if sales of timber could be made overseas.
Many bond purchasers had been led to believe the schemes were in some way government-backed
and as the uncertainties about the future came home, many bondholders wrote to the Prime Minister and to
government departments. Eventually it became necessary to establish a Commission of Inquiry.
The Commissioners carried out their investigations in private and, after initiating legal proceedings
where fraud was evident, proposed that bondholders should be made into shareholders in the sponsoring
companies, with equal rights to the existing shareholders. Thus 17 000 bondholders of the first and largest
of the forestry companies, Perpetual Forests, were incorporated into New Zealand Forest Products (now
Carter Holt Harvey) in December 1935. The new company would not pay a dividend until 1960.
The basic fact remained that Pinus radiata did grow well in New Zealand. The big question
became: how should they be utilised.
An engineer employed in the Forest Service supervised pulping trials in North America on various
woods, including Pinus radiata. He was A.E. Entrican, who would later become a dominant DirectorGeneral of Forestry and the architect of the major project based on the State Forest plantings, which would
13
become the Tasman Pulp and Paper Company (subsequently Fletcher Forests and Fletcher Paper.)
Reporting on the trials, Entrican wrote in the New Zealand Journal of Science & Technology in
1929:
"Paper pulp is chiefly cellulose fibres. It follows that, since cellulose is the basic structure of all
woody plants, some kind of pulp can be made from every species of wood. The practical question is
whether any pulp can be made cheaply in sufficient quantities and of a quality, which will enable it to
compete with other papermaking materials. Under existing conditions, it is true, there are few, if any,
localities in New Zealand where the necessary raw materials may be procured either in quantity or at such
a price as would enable a pulp and paper mill to compete with foreign producers. But, as foreign woodsupplies become scarce, large volumes of intermediate products will become available from the manmade
forests in various regions. These will create favourable conditions for the operation of all classes of pulpmills, whose main source of raw materials requires to be in the form of round products. Supplementary
supplies of logging and mill waste will then be useable from adjacent native forests.
Indeed it is possible that New Zealand may become eventually a large exporter of forest produce,
including both pulp and paper. A.E. Entrican. "Paper Pulp from New Zealand-grown woods” NZJ of S&T
Vol XI August 1929
MacIntosh Ellis's plea was finally answered in 1947 when the Forest Research Institute (now Forest
Research) was formed as part of the Forest Service.
The large-scale forestry based pulp and paper projects, using imported technology at Kinleith and
Kawerau, were put in place in the 1950s.
Entrican, displaying all the optimism of "Think Big" promoters, gave his justification for what was
called the Murupara project in his report to Parliament in 1950. Here among other things he wrote of the
large number of jobs it would provide (2,000) and the exchange it would save the sterling area (at least 16
million pounds).
The latter would arise because of the expenditure at that time of this sum on pulp and paper from
North America.
"The project can compete at world parity for these products on the Australian markets and achieve
these results. Who will gainsay that it cannot be to New Zealand what Broken Hill is to Australia?"
Nevertheless Entrican was sensitive to the conservatism of his countrymen, and their likely reaction
to the large scale of the enterprise. In a section entitled "Prejudice Against Large-Scale Enterprises" he
wrote:
"The Forest Service fully appreciates the inherent pyschological difficulties hindering public acceptance of
the scheme. New Zealand is essentially a country of individualists. Even large-scale co-operatives are
suspect. How much more so must be a company, which will have an output of sawn timber alone equal to
the production of one hundred existing sawmills? The natural thought, if not instinct, is not merely to
suspect but to resist.
The unpleasant truth to the individualist is that only by this large-scale production will New
Zealand be able to reduce costs sufficiently to compete at world parity in Australia so that in either event
there will be no one hundred millers - merely unused forest! The Forest Service hopes that the same type
of enterprise which gave New Zealand the largest co-operative dairy company in the world will likewise
give it the largest integrated sawmill and pulp and paper company in the Southern Hemisphere."
Plants for papermaking:
While it is possible to make paper from the fibre of thousands of plant varieties, some are more
suitable than others. Fibres can be too short to bond into a strong sheet, too difficult to extract from the
plant without expensive equipment, or unattractive for a variety of other reasons.
Here are a few used for hand made paper now that fall into three categories: grass, leaf, and bast
fibres.
The so-called “grass” fibre plants are often the easiest to process. Pampas Grass (Cortaderia
selloana), an exotic-looking mound of coarse-edged leaves, cotton-candy like flower plumes rising up to
twelve feet above. Bamboo (Phyllostachys aurea) grows and spreads so quickly. dozens of varieties of
Corn (Zea mays) to grow your food and paper fibre simultaneously.
Among the leaf fibres, fast spreading Hosta (Hosta fortunei) is your best bet for ground cover in
14
shady spots. Yucca (Yucca filamentosa), with four-foot high clumps of stiff, sword-shaped leaves . Iris
(Iris germanica and other species).
Bast, or “inner bark” fibres are the most commonly used for hand papermaking. Raspberry or
Blackberry (Rubus spp.) . Milkweed (Asclepias speciosa) Paper Mulberry (Broussonetia papyrifera) is a
rich tradition as the raw material for much of the world’s best handmade paper.
How Much Paper is in One Tree?
`It really all depends on the size of the tree. According to paper manufacturer Boise Cascade,
however, a cord of wood (wood stacked 4 feet by 4 feet by 8 feet, or 128 cubic feet) produces nearly
90,000 sheets of paper or 2,700 copies of a 35-page newspaper!
The Paper Mulberry
(Morus papyrifera L.) is a tree in the family Moraceae, native to eastern Asia.
The bark is composed of very strong fibres, and can be used for making high-quality paper.
Paper Mulberry has unfortunately now become better known as an unwelcome weed of natural
areas worldwide. Now, nearly two millennia later, the paper mulberry has become another plant,
introduced intentionally throughout the world for economic and aesthetic purposes, which has gone
terribly awry, disrupting natural vegetation patterns and processes
The first person to make paper by “felting” wood fibres was Ts’ai-Lun nearly 2,000 years ago in
China.(Felting is the interlocking or matting of loose fibers to form a sheet of paper.) made paper by
grinding up plants - mulberry bark, linen and hemp, producing a wet mush of separate fibres, then spreads
it all out in a mat made of coarse cloth and a bamboo frame and the sun dries the matted material.
Nearly 2000 years ago, the Chinese used paper mulberry bark for the production of its paper. This
was the first example of a true “paper” being used as opposed to parchment, hides, and papyrus, from
which an earlier name for the paper mulberry (Papyrius papyriferus) was derived.
.
Although paper can be made from rice straw, this is not the “rice paper” that people usually think
of. The sort of paper that many people think of when hearing the term “rice paper” (smooth, thin, crackly,
strong) is not actually made from rice at all. The paper is made from fibres from the bark of the mulberry
tree. It got the name “rice paper” because it was used to make packets for rice. This sort of paper is used
for origami, calligraphy, paper screens and clothing, etc. It is much stronger than commercially made
wood-pulp paper.
The branches of the mulberry shrubs are harvested in the fall, so the fibre can be processed
and the paper formed during the cold winter months, because the fibre spoils easily in the heat. The
branches are cut into sections two-three feet long and steamed in a large kettle, which makes the bark
shrink back from the inner wood, allowing it to be pulled off like a banana peel. The bark can then be dried
and stored, or used immediately. There are three layers to the bark at this stage: black bark, the outermost
layer; green bark, the middle layer; and white bark, the innermost layer. All three layers can be made into
paper, but the finest paper is made of white bark only.
If the bark strips have been dried, they are soaked in water overnight before being processed
further. To clean the black and green bark from the white bark, the bark strip is spread on a board and
scraped with a flat knife. Any knots or tough spots in the fibre are cut out and discarded at this stage. The
scraped bark strips are then cooked for two or three hours in a mixture of water and soda ash. The fibre is
cooked enough when it can easily be pulled apart lengthwise. The strips are then rinsed several times in
clean water to rinse off the soda ash. Rinsing also makes the fiber brighter and whiter—fine kozo paper is
not bleached, it’s naturally pure white.
Each bark strip is then individually inspected, by hand, against a white background or lit from
behind by a light box. Any tiny pieces of black bark and other debris are removed with tweezers, and any
knots or tough patches of fibre missed during scraping are cut out of the strips. The ultimate goal is to have
completely pure white bark.
The scraped, cooked, and cleaned strips are then laid out on a table and beaten by hand. The beating
15
tool is a wooden bat that looks like a thicker version of a cricket bat. The fibres are beaten for about half an
hour, or until all the fibres have been separated and no longer resemble strips of bark
The prepared fibre can now be made into sheets of paper. A viscous substance called formation aid
is added to the vat with the fibre and water. Formation aid is polyethylene oxide, and it helps slow the flow
of water, which gives the paper maker more time to form sheets. Sheets are formed with multiple thin
layers of fibre, one on top of another.
Paper was in use by the ancient Chinese military in 8 BC used for wrapping or padding
protection for delicate bronze mirrors. It was also used for safety, such as the padding of poisonous
'medicine' as mentioned in the official history of the period.
Paper used for writing became widespread by the 3rd century, although it continued to
be used for wrapping (and other) purposes.
An Arab traveller to China once wrote of the curious Chinese tradition of toilet paper in
AD 851, writing: "The Chinese are not careful about cleanliness, and they do not wash themselves with
water when they have done their necessities; but they only wipe themselves with paper". Toilet paper
continued to be a valued necessity in China, since it was during the Hongwu Emperor's reign in AD
1393 that the Bureau of Imperial Supplies manufactured 720,000 sheets of toilet paper for the entire
court (produced of the cheap rice–straw paper). For the emperor's family alone, 15,000 special sheets of
paper were made, in light yellow tint and even perfumed. Even at the beginning of the 14th century the
amount of toilet paper manufactured for modern-day Zhejiang province alone amounted to ten million
packages holding 1,000 to 10,000 sheets of toilet paper each.
The world's earliest known printed book (using woodblock printing), the Diamond Sutra of AD
868, shows the widespread availability and practicality of paper in China.
During the Tang Dynasty (AD 618–907) paper was folded and sewn into square bags to preserve
the flavour of tea. During the same period, it was written that tea was served from baskets with multicoloured paper cups and paper napkins of different size and shape.
In the 600s there were local issues of paper currency in China and by 960 the Song Dynasty (AD
960–1279), short of copper for striking coins, issued the first generally circulating paper-printed money,
(illustration above) or . Paper money bestowed as gifts to deserving government officials were wrapped in
special paper envelopes.
Abacá aka Musa textilis
Closely related to the banana is Abacá, from Spanish "abacá" (pronounced "ah buh KAH"), or
Musa textilis, a species of banana native to the Philippines, grown widely as well in Borneo and Sumatra. .
The plant is of great economic importance, being harvested for its fibre, called Manila hemp, extracted
from the large, oblong leaves and stems. The fibre is used for making twines and ropes as well as the
Manila envelope.
The sheaths contain the valuable fibre. The coarse fibres range from 5 to 11½ feet (1.5 to 3.5
metres) in length. They are composed primarily of cellulose, lignin, and pectin. After the fibre has been
separated, it is sold under the name Manila, Fibre for paper making is also extracted from the leaf sheaths.
Handmade papers are produced, and the fibres are also used in brown Manila envelopes and tea bags.
The fibres can be pulped and processed into speciality paper used in tea bags, vacuum
bags,currency, and more.
In Europe, the use of papyrus had dropped out in the 9th century. The preferred medium for the
artists and literati of the time was the smooth and lustrous parchment. However, parchment - made from
animal skin - was extremely expensive. In fact, it has been estimated that a single bible hand written on
parchment required the skins of 300 sheep. The notion of paper being used as a practical everyday item did
not occur until the 15th Century. When Johann Gutenburg perfected movable type and printed his famous
16
bible in 1456, he not only spread the word of Christianity, but also sparked a revolution in mass
communication. The birth of the modern paper and printing industry is commonly marked from this date.
Papyrus
Ancient civilizations carved their laws and history in stone and imprinted them on bricks. Lead,
copper, and brass successively carried the written word. Less permanent materials, such as leaves, bark,
wood, and skins, were predecessors of paper. They scratched on cave walls, painted too, and drew
characters on wet clay.
The word paper derives from the Greek term for the ancient writing material called papyrus, which
was formed from beaten strips of papyrus plants. These materials made from pounded reeds and bark are
technically not true paper, which is made from pulp, rags, and fibers of plants and cellulose.
Papyrus is a thick paper-like material produced from the pith of the papyrus plant, Cyperus
papyrus, a wetland sedge that was once abundant in the Nile Delta of Egypt.
The specimen in the garden Cyperus alternifolius (umbrella papyrus or umbrella palm) a grass-like
plant in the very large genus Cyperus of the sedge family, Cyperaceae. It is native to Madagascar,
frequently cultivated worldwide.
Papyrus usually grow 2–3 meters (5–9 ft) tall. First known to have been used in ancient Egypt at
least as far back as the First dynasty (3,000 BC), it was also used throughout the Mediterranean region.
Ancient Egypt used this plant for boats, mattresses, mats and paper.
Papyrus is made from the stem of the plant. The outer rind is first stripped off, and the sticky
fibrous inner pith is cut lengthwise into thin strips of about 40 cm long. The strips are then placed side by
side on a hard surface with their edges slightly overlapping, and then another layer of strips is laid on top at
a right angle. The strips may have been soaked in water long enough for decomposition to begin, perhaps
increasing adhesion, but this is not certain. While still moist, the two layers are hammered together,
mashing the layers into a single sheet. The sheet is then dried under pressure. After drying, the sheet of
papyrus is polished with some rounded object, possibly a stone or seashell or round hard wood.
To form the long strip that a scroll required, a number of such sheets were united, placed so that all
the horizontal fibres parallel with the roll's length were on one side and all the vertical fibres on the other.
Normally, texts were first written on the recto, the lines following the fibres, parallel to the long edges of
the scroll. Secondarily, papyrus was often reused, writing across the fibres on the verso Pliny the Elder
describes the methods of preparing papyrus in his Naturalis Historia.
In a dry climate like that of Egypt, papyrus is stable, formed as it is of highly rot-resistant cellulose;
but storage in humid conditions can result in moulds attacking and destroying the material. In European
conditions, papyrus seems only to have lasted a matter of decades; a 200–year-old papyrus was considered
extraordinary. Imported papyrus that was once commonplace in Greece and Italy has since deteriorated
beyond repair, but papyrus is still being found in Egypt
Papyrus was produced as early as 3500 BC in Egypt, and used by ancient Greece and Rome. The
establishment of the Library of Alexandria in the 3rd century BC put a drain on the supply of papyrus. As a
result, parchment was invented to build the library at Pergamum.
`
In the first centuries BC and AD, papyrus scrolls gained a rival as a writing surface in the form of
parchment, which was prepared from animal skins. Sheets of parchment were folded to form quires from
which book-form codices were fashioned. Early Christian writers soon adopted the codex form, and in the
Græco-Roman world it became common to cut sheets from papyrus rolls in order to form codices. A
codex (Latin for block of wood, book; plural codices) is a book in the format used for modern books, with
separate pages normally bound together and given a cover. It was a Roman invention that replaced the
scroll, which was the first form of book in all Eurasian cultures.
Codices were an improvement on the papyrus scroll as the papyrus was not strong enough to fold
without cracking and a long roll, or scroll, was required to create large volume texts. Papyrus had the
advantage of being relatively cheap and easy to produce, but it was fragile and susceptible to both moisture
and excessive dryness. Unless the papyrus was of good quality, the writing surface was irregular, and the
17
range of media that could be used was also limited. By AD 800 the use of parchment and vellum made of
processed sheepskin or calfskin replaced papyrus in many areas, though its use in Egypt continued until it
was replaced by more inexpensive paper introduced by Arabs. The reasons for this switch include the
significantly higher durability of the hide-derived materials, particularly in moist climates, and the fact that
they can be manufactured anywhere. . Papyrus was used as late as the 1100s
18
19
20
21
22
23
«The Joshua Roll», Vatican Library. An illuminated scroll, probably of the 10th century, created in the
Byzantine empire.
24
In the 600s there were local issues of paper currency in China and by 960 the Song Dynasty, short of
copper for striking coins, issued the first generally circulating notes.
25
26
27
Russian birch bark letter of the 14th century.
28
Birch bark scroll image from “The Midewiwin, or 'Grand Medicine Society', of the Ojibwa” in
Smithsonian Institution, U.S. Bureau of Ethnology Report, v. 7, pp. 149-299 by Walter James Hoffman.
(Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1891).
29
Bible. Manuscripts. Hebrew. Old Testament - The Book of Esther. An 18th Century vellum scroll (23.4 x
167.9 cm) in Sephardic
RARE VELLUM TORAH BIBLE SCROLL 450 YRS MOROCCO
30