This important article of civilisation is made from rags of various descriptions and qualities, according to the kind of paper to be made, the finest white paper being made of old clean linen rags, while brown paper is made of all sorts of old rope-yarns, sacking, &c., and some kinds of paper have a considerable amount of straw bleached and worked up in them. The rags are first sorted and cut up into small pieces; they are then beaten on a wire screen to separate all dust, and afterwards put into the washing-machine, through which a stream of water runs, and in which they are kneaded and torn by a broad wheel having iron wedges or knives fastened to its edge (fig. 1) or surface, which work as it is turned against knives of a similar description fastened to the bottom of the cistern. When the rags are thoroughly washed, and at the same time torn to a coarse pulp, it constitutes what the workmen call “half-stuff.” This is mixed with chloride of lime, and the machine again set in motion; this is for the purpose of bleaching the pulp; after this has been effected, more water is turned on, as in the first washing, and all the chloride of lime washed thoroughly away. The pulp is now either put into another machine of the same description which cuts sharper and finer, or else the same machine used at first is so screwed up as to cause the knives to come more closely together; in either case the rate of turning is greatly increased, so that the wheel turns at about 150 revolutions per minute, and completely grinds up the pulp till it is perfectly smooth: at this part of the process some “indigo” or “smalt” is added if the paper is to be of a blueish tint, as in “foolscap” paper. The “stuff” is now run off into a cistern ready for use. Paper is now nearly all made by machinery, in pieces of a certain width, but of an indefinite length, and is cut up into sheets afterwards by a “cutting machine.” These machines (fig. 2) consist essentially of a vat, A, for the pulp, which flows out on to a bed of wire gauze, B B B, covered with felt, and bounded on each side by straps or deckles, and forming a circle or endless band by being stretched over a succession of rollers, C D E F G, which, by turning round continually, move its upper surface onwards and between other cylinders, which press out the superfluous moisture; it is then carried forward till it arrives at several pairs of large hollow cylinders, H H H, heated by means of steam which is passed through them, and which compress and at the same time thoroughly dry the paper, which comes from them as paper perfectly formed, and of any length that may be required. It is then glazed on the surface by the rollers I, and coiled on the cylinder L. Any name, device, or water-mark can be worked in the bed on to which the pulp flows, and which, being repeated at definite distances, appears on each sheet into which the paper is afterwards cut. The apparatus marked K is to