At one time there were serious apprehensions that the supply of linen rags would fail, and various researches were entered upon by ingenious individuals to find substitutes. A book written in German by M. Shäffers, so long ago as 1772, contains sixty specimens of paper made of different materials. This ingenious person made paper from the bark of the willow, beech, aspen, hawthorn, lime, and mulberry; from the down of the asclepias, the catkins of black poplar, and the tendrils of the vine; from the stalks of nettle, mugwort, dyer's weed, thistle, bryony, burdock, clematis, willow-herb, and lily; from cabbage-stalks, fir-cones, moss, potatoes, wood-shavings,[1] and sawdust. Paper has been likewise made from straw, rice, hopbind, liquorice-root, the stalks of the mallow, and the husks of Indian-corn. The fear of a failure of linen rags, and the consequent necessity for these experiments, were obviated by the discovery of chlorine. This powerful bleaching agent will restore many varieties of colored linen to their original whiteness, as well as discolored papers and manuscripts, so that the same substances may be used over and over again as a material for paper. [Footnote 1: A successful experiment of making paper from this material, as also of reeds, has lately been tried in Baltimore.] SUPPLY OF RAGS--SORTING--WASHING--GRINDING, AND BLEACHING. The quality of the paper depends greatly on that of the linen worn in the country where it is made. Where that is coarse and brown, the rags and the paper made from them must be so too.