No 42, May 2002

The Quarterly, No 42 - May 2002

Papermaking Texts: Of the Street-Buyers of Waste (Paper) - Henry Mayhew

An extract from volume II of Mayhew's survey London Labour and the London Poor (pp.125-127). Although published in 1861 some of the information he recounts is based on the accounts of people describing events of earlier years. We are familiar with the concept of recycling paper as a raw material but Mayhew details the reuse of already used paper for other, sometimes surprising, purposes.

3 pages

The Portals Photo Archive - Nick Pearson

A set of photographs illustrating the handmade banknote papermaking process thought to date from between 1930 and 1950. These are a sample taken from the photographs recently recovered from old World War II bunker used as a store at the Portals paper mill in Overton. The photographs date from 1890s but the majority are from 1930 to 1970.

3 pages, illustrated

Multi-layer Paper - Richard Hills

A brief historical outline of some of the papers produced with more than one layer through hydrogen bonding without the use of paste or glue but not covering board with a weight of more than 200 grams per square metre. However, some later board machines will be mentioned. It will start with papyrus, look at some types of paper made by hand and then some produced on the cylinder mould and Fourdrinier papermaking machines.

5 pages, illustrated

Employment of Children in Paper Mills in England and Wales in the Mid-nineteenth Century part one - Tanya Schmoller

An extract of information on this subject from the 1843 Second Report to the Commissioners on Trades and Manufactures contained in Volumes 9 to 11of the British Parliamentary Papers. The areas inspected are Kent, Bucks and Herts; Exeter; Northumberland and Durham; West and North of Lancashire; some miscellaneous mills in the south east; and Wrexham. Volume 9 reports on the industry in general, covering Place of Work, Nature of Employment, Hours of Work, Accidents, Wages and Physical Condition. The author considers the information sufficiently interesting to quote verbatim, using the numbered paragraphs.

8 pages

The Illusive Silver Lining: The Rise and Fall of the Lancashire Limited Paper Company between 1860 and 1880 ***part two* - *Mike Malley***

The second part of an investigative article into the factors influencing the demise of several mills in Lancashire including the role of company promoters in the foundation of mills. The author highlights the high number of mills founded in the area many of which failed in a relatively short time.

5 pages, illustrated, tables

Book Reviews

English Artists' Paper: Renaissance to Regency. John Krill

La carta occidentale nel tardo medioevo. E Ornato, P Busonero, Paola F Munaf⬠M Speranza Storace

Double Fold Libraries and the Assault on Paper. Nicholson Baker

The Edinburgh Papers (part one)

In a move away from past practices and in order to catch up on publishing the backlog of past BAPH conference papers it has been decided to include the conference papers as partworks within The Quarterly. The first of these to appear was The London Papers, it was anticipated that four issues of The Quarterly would have been needed, however, having only taken three we are catching up faster than was thought, so welcome to part one of The Edinburgh Papers, the Proceedings of the Seventh Annual BAPH Conference, held at Pollock Halls, University of Edinburgh, in 1996.

John Rennie: Mysterious Papermill Millwright - Richard Hills

Article based on a series of John Rennies' notebooks deposited in the National Library of Scotland. The mysterious reference in the title arises from the fact that although the books contain references to various papermills they do not record whether he carried out any work at the mills, so his involvement remains a mystery. However, the notebooks do record otherwise unknown information about these papermills which is worthwhile making available to a wider audience.

7 pages, illustrated

Swimming Wheels and Swinging Wheels - Glenys Crocker

The terms 'swimming wheel' and 'swinging wheel' have been found in several eighteenth century inventories of papermills and gunpowder mills. It is assumed that the terms are synonymous but no dictionary definition has been found, nor any reference to the terms in books on millwrighting. The article lists, and illustrates, several examples of these wheels and also points out that, as far as it is known, none have been used in corn mills. The author would welcome information on other examples Glenys Crocker.

5 pages, illustrated

The Deterioration and Conservation of Coated Papers - J Stanley, D J Priest and A E Macdonald

The coating of paper is a topic of much interest for the modern paper industry, but as this article shows it is by no means a modern phenomenon having its roots in the Middle Ages. Several historical examples are described and the authors go on to cover modern developments in the field and problems associated with the longevity and conservation of such papers.

8 pages, illustrated

The Quarterly, No 42 - May 2002