The first man to make a continuous web of paper was Nicholas Louis Robert, a Frenchman who received a reward of 8,000 francs from his government for his invention. Robert’s patent rights were acquired by the Fourdrinier Brothers (Henry and Sealy), of England. They developed and perfected the machine and to them is ascribed the honor of founding the modern paper industry. USES OF PAPER Paper is more commonly and extensively used to-day than any other product of manufacture and is employed for an astonishing variety of purposes, ranging from milk bottles to suits of clothing. One very novel use we might mention, in passing, is to be found on the sugar plantations of Hawaii. After the cane is planted the fields are covered with a thick paper made, by the way, from sugar-cane fiber. This covering prevents the weeds from growing, but the sharp spikes of the sugar sprouts pierce the paper and grow through it. By the time the paper has disintegrated and the weeds have a chance to grow, the cane has such a start on them that they are kept shaded and cannot compete with or choke out the cane. TURNING FORESTS INTO PULP Before we proceed to describe the modern Fourdrinier machine, we must look into present day methods of preparing pulp. The finest papers are still made from linen and cotton rags. Esparto grass is largely used in Europe. This comes from Spain and North Africa. But by far the greater part of the paper produced to-day is made from the fiber of trees. Particularly is this true of our own country, which consumes half of the world’s output of paper. It used to be that only the poorest grades of paper were made from wood pulp; now however not only newspapers but nearly all books and magazines are printed on a forest product. Formerly only spruce wood was considered suitable for paper manufacture, but the rapid depletion of this raw material led to the employment of many other species of trees and our Government scientists are constantly searching for and experimenting with new woods for this purpose.