Glossary of Papermaking Terms

These definitions apply to paper manufacture and usage during Turner’s lifetime. In some cases, these definitions are not applicable to modern handmade, or machine-made, papers.

Words in italics within a particular definition are themselves defined elsewhere in this glossary.

alum: Traditionally, potash alum, but superseded later in the nineteenth century by aluminium sulphate. Added to gelatine in the sizing of paper, to stabilise the gelatine and aid its bite into the surface of the sheet.

ass: Curved wooden post on the corner of the vat, where the mould is rested after the sheet has been formed.

back: The marks left in the centre of a handmade sheet of paper when dried over ropes.

beater: Machine invented in Holland in the seventeenth century for the preparation of pulp, consisting of a heavy beater roll rotating above a bedplate, placed midway down one side of an oval trough.

beater roll: Barred roll used to crush, cut and fibrillate the fibre as it passes round the beater.

bedplate: A barred plate, situated in the base of the beater and over which the roll passes.

broke: Flawed paper that is not of sufficient quality to sell, usually repulped.

brown-white: Papermakers’ description of papers made from blends of white and coloured linen rags, and usually having some addition of hemp of jute fibre derived from rope.

cartridge: Originally used for making cartridges, and later used as both strong wrapping paper and by many artists for drawing and watercolour.

chain lines: Lines visible in a laid paper when it is held up to the light. Caused by the wires used to hold the laid wires together.

couch: The action of transferring the newly formed wet sheet from the mould to the felt, hence coucher.

cover: The old name for the forming surface of the mould.

curing: Allowing the paper to mature for a time before packing and sale.

cylinder mould machine: Invented by John Dickinson in 1809. Designed to produce single sheets rather than the continuous web of paper produced on a Fourdrinier machine.

dandy roll: Free running hollow wire mesh roll situated on the forming table of a paper machine. The Dandy compresses the top surface of the newly formed sheet and is also used to impart a laid or wove look-through to the sheet. Watermarks in machine-made papers are impressed into the top surface of the sheet by images attached to the surface of the Dandy cover.

deckle: A removable frame which fits on and around the working surface of the mould, retaining the pulp on its surface, during the formation of the sheet.

deckle edge: The slightly ragged edge to the sheet found in handmade paper, caused by small amounts of pulp seeping under the deckle during the formation of the sheet.

double-faced mould: Papermaking mould with a secondary supporting wire layer underneath the formation surface. Developed at the very end of the eighteenth century for wove moulds. Began to be used for laid moulds at the turn of the century.

dry press: The various pressing sequences given to the sheets after drying.

duster: A wire mesh drum used to shake loose dirt out of rags.

edge chains: Extra chain lines running on the outer edge of both short sides of the mould. Added for strength.

engine: See beater.

engine sizing: The addition of size to the beater rather than adding size to the finished sheet.

felts: Woven woollen blankets used in handmade papermaking during couching and during the first wet press.

felt side: The side of the paper which first comes into contact with the felt after formation. Opposite to wire side.

fermentation: The old method of preparing rags for the beater, which involved letting piles of wet rags heat up and begin to rot.

fibre: Plant based cellulose used in making paper. Towards the end of the eighteenth century the paper industry changed its raw material use from fibre obtained from linen rags and old ropes, sailcloth etc., to cotton rags and eventually to wood based fibres.

fibrillation: The action of breaking up the surface of the individual cellulose fibres used to make the paper. It takes place during beating.

finish: Term used when describing the nature of the surface of the sheet.

finishing: The process of imparting the final surface to the sheet of paper.

form: The action of making a sheet of paper. Also the old name for the mould.

fourdrinier machine: Papermaking machine developed by Bryan Donkin, for the Fourdrinier Brothers in 1803–4, based on the original invention of Nicholas-Louis Robert. Produces a continuous web of paper rather than individual sheets.

furnish: The raw materials that make up the sheet. Particularly the fibre or blend of fibres used.

gelatine: A type of size added as a coating to the dry sheet, to prevent ink and paints bleeding across the surface. Has the added effect of increasing the surface strength of the sheet. Gelatine is made from animal parts such as hides, hooves and bones.

glazing: The degree of smoothness or polish of a paper surface.

half stuff: Partially beaten fibre.

hollander: See beater.

hog: A wooden paddle used to kept the fibre in suspension in the vat. Later replaced by a mechanical paddle fitted in the base of the vat.

hot presses (or hp): One of the three traditional finishes of handmade paper. Originally produced by pressing the paper between hot metal plates, this finish is now approximated by passing the metal plates and paper between glazing rollers.

hydration: A process taking place during beating whereby the fibres, through crushing and fibrillation, take up water.

insides: Used to describe the best paper, regardless of the type of paper being made: the sheets used as the ‘inside’ quires of a ream, when paper was packed with the best paper protected by lower quality paper, placed top and bottom of the ream. See outsides.

knots: Small lumps of badly beaten or twisted fibres in the pulp.

laid lines: Tightly spaced parallel lines seen in laid paper when it is held up to the light. These lines are produced by the wires of the mould surface. See chain lines.

laid paper: Paper made on a laid mould.

layer: The worker who separates the felts and wet sheets of paper after pressing.

litress: A kind of smooth cartridge paper made in two sizes, Royal and Foolscap, and used for drawing.

loading: Non-cellulose material added to the pulp: e.g. ‘smalts’, the finely powdered cobalt blue glass added to rags to make them appear whiter, or china clay, added to bulk up the fibre and act as an aid to ink retention.

look-through: The details of the internal structure of the sheet of paper when looked at in transmitted light.

maturing: See curing.

millboard: Heavyweight boards made from hemp and flax fibres and/or fibre refuse.

mould: A rectangular wooden frame covered with a sieve-like laid or wove wire surface, used for forming sheets of paper by hand. The mould is dipped into the pulp in the vat and lifted out. The excess water drains away through the mould cover, leaving the pulp as a thin flat sheet on the surface of the mould.

not: A traditional paper finish, slightly rough and unglazed, produced by pressing wet paper against itself, after the first wet press.

outsides: Second quality papers, used top and bottom of the ream, to protect the good sheets. See insides.

pack: Pile of wet sheets, after separation from the felts, after the first press. Or, small stack of paper prepared for glazing.

plate glazing: Method of producing sheets of smooth paper by interleaving the sheets with metal plates and passing the whole pack through glazing rollers.

plate paper: Paper designed for copperplate engraving.

post: The pile of newly formed sheets and couching felts, ready for pressing.

pressing papers: Rag and rope based papers or boards, sometimes heavily glazed, used for pressing or resurfacing woollen cloth.

printings: Papers designed for letterpress printing.

pulp: The cellulose fibre, held in suspension, from which paper is made.

quire: Originally twenty-four sheets of paper, now more usually twenty-five sheets.

rags: Formerly the principal raw material for handmade paper made in the European tradition, generally linen for the finest papers, but increasingly, after the end of the eighteenth century, from cotton goods. By association also used for old hemp rope, sailcloth, etc.

ream: Traditionally 480 sheets (twenty quires, each of twenty-four sheets), though this varied, depending on the use the paper was to be put to: e.g. a printer’s ream was 516 sheets. Now counted as 500 sheets.

reting: The rotting down of flax to begin the break up of the stems. Sometimes applied to a similar process used with rags. See fermentation.

retree: Sheets with minor faults. Usually sold 10 per cent cheaper.

ribs: Thin wooden struts fixed into the frame of the mould to support the wire mould cover.

rough: Traditional paper surface, formed by the weave of the felts during the first wet press.

salle: The room in the mill where the sorting, curing and packing of paper took place.

shadows: Thicker areas in the sheet, formed either side of the ribs on a single-faced mould, as the water draining through the wire is drawn to the ribs. See also white shadows.

shake: The vatman’s action of dipping, shaking and forming the sheet.

shives (sometimes sheaves): Specks visible in the finished paper, caused by impurities in the raw materials used.

single-faced mould: A mould on which the wire surface sits directly on the supporting ribs.

size: Originally a solution of gelatine, gum or starch, used to make the paper water resistant. Now any chemical which has the same effect, whether by coating the finished sheet, or by addition to the pulp before formation.

spur: Group of sheets dried together as a wad.

stamper: Early machine for making pulp, consisting of several sets of large wooden hammers, driven by a waterwheel, falling into mortars, filled with rag. Superseded by the beater.

stationer: Takes his name from his ‘station’ or shop: the name was used to distinguish himself from itinerant street vendors.

stock: See pulp.

stuff: Pulp ready for making into paper.

stuff chest: Storage vat for pulp.

texture: The actual surface of the sheet. Can be altered at various stages of the process.

trebles: (or tribbles): Racks of drying ropes.

tub sizing: The addition of size after the sheet has been formed, pressed, dried and allowed to cure.

vat: Contains the pulp from which the paper is formed.

vatman: Person who works at the vat forming the sheets.

waterleaf: Unsized paper.

watermark: An image in the sheet, formed by varying the density of the pulp at certain points in the sheet, by raising or lowering the surface of the mould at selected places. Usually done by attaching a design in wire to the working surface of the mould.

web: Newly formed paper, still in its wet state, formed on a Fourdrinier machine. Formed on a continous travelling wire.

wet press: The first pressing received by the newly formed sheets.

white shadows: Lighter areas in the sheet, when seen in transmitted light, usually caused by pulp drying between the forming wire and the support struts of the mould on double-faced mould. Caused by the papermaker neglecting to clean the mould after use. Very useful in terms of showing details of the mould construction that would otherwise have remained invisible.

wild: Used to describe the look-through of a poorly formed sheet.

wire mark: More accurate term for a watermark.

wire profile: The wire design used to form the watermark. Or, by extension, the description of the wires used to form the surface of the mould.

wire side: The side of the paper next to the wire during the formation of the sheet. Opposite to felt side.

wrappings: Low grade coloured papers, destined for wrapping various articles, but often, because of their strengths, textures, colour, tones etc. used by artists for both chalk, pencil and colour.

writings: Papers designed for the quill or the steel nib.

wove mould: Mould whose cover is made from woven wire, rather than laid and chain wires.

wove paper: Paper made on a wove mould.