Call Number:

Item 0159

Repository:

University of Delaware Library Special Collections

Extent:

1 volume (90 pages)

Language:

English

Preferred Citation:

MSS 0097, Item 0159, Papermaking apprentice's notebook, Special Collections, University of Delaware Library, Newark, Delaware.

Date:

approximately 1890 (inclusive)

Creator:

Creator unknown

Form:

Notebooks, Recipes, and Poetry

Abstract:

This notebook belonged to an English papermaking apprentice in the 1890s and contains instructions and recipes for making paper as well as poetry.

The keeper of this notebook was a papermaking apprentice in England circa the 1890s.

Biographical information derived from collection.

This notebook belonged to an English papermaking apprentice in the 1890s and contains instructions and recipes for making paper as well as poetry.

This notebook is a small, leather-bound volume with autograph instructions and recipes for making paper. There is a seal on the front endpaper that with the words "From Wilson and Witworth, Printers, Bookbinders, & Stationers; High St., Grays."

The front of the volume contains tables of paper sizes with weights converted from pounds to imperial measurements. The tables are followed by mathematical problems used to calculate paper production. The majority of the volume contains general notes on the papermaking process as well as recipes for making particular types and colors of papers. Some sections include "The Wire," "Marking edges on Paper," "Press Rolls," "Boiling Esparto," "Preparation of Lime + Soda Ash," "Bleach Test," "Preparation of the Gelatine," "Blotting Paper," and "A Rule to Figure Production."

The back of the volume contains several poems of a humorous or inspirational nature. It is not clear if they are original or copied. There are also two addresses in England and a page headed "Hearts of Oak proposed members."