Britain at Work
A Pictorial Description of Our National Industries

140 HOW PAPER IS MADE. IN the whole range of the industries few things are more arresting than the trans- formations wrought in the process of making paper. The thought of dirty, unsightly rags, the mere refuse of another industry, being converted into paper smoother than cream, and almost as white as driven snow, is more marvellous than a good many fairy stories. But even more wonderful is it to think supplies of this material also began to show signs of exhaustion ; and both in Spain and in Algiers the Governments felt it necessary to carry out investigations with a view to preventing its undue exploitation. As the years sped by, and the demand for a cheap press continued to grow more urgent, manu- facturers were forced to cast about for something less costly than esparto ; and in of anything so frail and unsubstantial as paper being made out of hard, solid wood. Yet such is the fact : the sheets which to-day we see being delivered in the form of huge rolls at the newspaper offices in the neighbour- hood of Fleet Street, and which to-morrow morning we shall find on our breakfast tables, were but a few weeks ago growing as timber in the forests of Norway or of Canada! The supply of rags is, of course, not illimit- able, and as the activity of the printing press increased, about the middle of the nineteenth century, manufacturers were glad to supple- ment it with esparto grass from Spain and from Northern Africa. Before long the the seventies they found in wood the cheapest of all known substances for the making of paper. All three materials—rags, esparto, and timber—are now in use, either singly or in combination. For the best kinds of paper, including hand-made paper and superior notepaper, linen and cotton rags still hold the pre-eminence. Esparto takes the second place, and from this it is that the majority of our better-class books are made. But the cheap newspaper press draws its supplies almost exclusively from wood. If for a moment we glance back to the dawn of history we shall find that we have rather less reason for priding ourselves