A Brief Look at American Papermaking


In an early American paper mill, paper was made from cotton and linen rags, and the work was performed entirely by hand. The rags were cleaned, and all buttons or other materials that would not break down into pulp were removed. The rags were then soaked and ground into fine pulp, which was mixed with water. The consistency of the pulp determined the thickness of the sheet of paper. The tank in which the pulp was mixed was continually stirred to keep an even distribution, and the paper was made by dipping shallow boxes, called deckles, with bottoms made of fine-meshed wire screening, into tanks containing pulp. The water was allowed to drain out as the box was raised. This left a thin coating of the pulp evenly distributed over the wired screen. The box was then skillfully turned over and the newly-formed sheet fell onto a layer of felt. The sheets were laid in piles, and more water was pressed from the paper. After this the sheets of felt were laid out until the paper became dry enough to hold together. The drying process was completed by hanging the individual sheets of paper on a line, in a drying room. Virtually all commercial papers are made by machinery now, but the processes common to the old hand mill are still in use.

William Rittenhouse (1644-1708), a clergyman and papermaker born in Germany, emigrated to America from Amsterdam in 1688. He settled in Germantown, became the first Mennonite minister in the community, and then founded the first American paper mill in Philadelphia, near Wissahickon Creek in 1690. The Rittenhouse family operated paper mills for over 160 years in the Philadelphia area. Philadelphia was the center of the papermaking craft until the early 19th century, when Massachusetts became the leading producer, and paper mills were established throughout the country.

Though there was a large demand for paper in the 18th century, the paper industry was slow to develop. Paper in America at this time was handmade from cotton and linen rags. Due to the Revolutionary War and the introduction of the papermaking machines in 1801 by Nicholas Louis Robert, the need for paper created a rag shortage. Advertisement for rags ran in newspapers. Rags were scarce and in poor condition, producing a poor quality of paper with many imperfections. There was competition from the whiter and better-grade European paper.

Technical advances during the 19th century vastly improved the quality of American paper. By 1845 the Foudrinier machine, which formed paper on a continuously moving wire cloth, became the standard in papermaking and almost completely eliminated the handmade paper industry.