HAND-MADE PAPER 283
Fourdrinier machine. For instance, for filter-paper, stuff that is so long, raw
and free that it is impossible to get it through most strainers or to put it together
on the machine wire can be made into a compact sheet by hand. And very
highly fibrillated stock for strong ledgers, etc., can be made to heavier sub-
stances on the hand mould than could be run satisfactorily over the usual wet
end of a Fourdrinier machine.
On leaving the beater the stuff passes to a stuff chest, whence it passes along
sand traps over magnetic separators to remove metal and through strainers
into the vat. As the quantity required by one vat is small, the straining of the
stock is not forced, as it too often is for a machine, and this is a great advantage
in producing clean paper. Being generally well fibrillated, the stuff is warm
on leaving the beater, and it is warmed for ease and speed in making, and to
save the vatman from having to slow down so as to handle cold stuff. It is
also kept stirred while in the vat by an agitator or 'hog'.
Moulds for Hand-Made Paper.—The foundation of a mould for making
hand-made paper is a framework of hardwood into which are set at convenient
distances a number of thin transverse wooden bars, which are perforated with
small sewing holes.
Used in conjunction with this frame is what is termed the deckle, which
closely resembles a picture frame, and when placed in position on the mould
provides the necessary edge to keep the pulp from running off the mould back
into the vat. It also determines the exact size of the sheet of paper.
The surface of the mould (called 'the sheet') is provided with either a kid
wire sheet or a woven wire cloth, the laid being the older form of covering.
In either case it is sewn down to the framework, the sewing wire passing through
the perforations in the bars.
The laid sheet is so called because its component wires are actually laid in
position by hand as the cloth is formed, being held together by chain or twist
wires, and the construction of this type of mould differs but slighdy from the
earliest types. At the present time most of these coverings are laid mechani-
cally, with the result that the mould has a much more even surface, but there are
still a good many moulds made with hand-laid 'sheets'.
In its earliest form a paper mould was probably formed by knitting or
weaving vegetable fibres or split cane together to form a sheet, and then stretch-
ing this sheet over a mould in such a way as would provide an adequate surface
for the pulp to be lifted from the vat and drained.
The introduction of drawn wire largely benefited the construction of paper
moulds, both in the case of laid sheets, and later in the introduction of the
woven type of sheet or cover.
It may be mentioned that the earlier types of moulds have the kid sheets