The beginning of the industry in America was almost coincident with the granting of patents for the manufacture of paper in England. A paper-mill was established by William Rittenhouse, a native of Holland, at Germantown, Pennsylvania, in the year 1690, one of the builders and owners being William Bradford, a Philadelphia printer, who was afterward the owner of the first printing office in New York City. It was through him that Benjamin Franklin, in 1723, received his first introduction to a temporary home, and employment, in Philadelphia. The paper at this first American mill was made from linen rags, and the product was about two hundred and fifty pounds per day. The mill was on a stream subsequently called Paper-mill Run, which empties into the Wissahickon. In 1697, William Bradford, probably in preparation for his intended removal to New York City, rented his quarter interest in this paper-mill near Germantown to William and Nicholas Rittenhouse, for a term of ten years, the annual rental being “ye full quantity of seven reams of printing paper, two reams good writing paper and two reams of blue paper.” William De Wees, a brother-in-law of Nicholas Rittenhouse, in 1710 erected another mill in that part of Germantown called Crefeld, this being also on the banks of a small stream that emptied into the Wissahickon. [Illustration: THE RAG CUTTERS--PAGE 59] ♦Russian mills♦ It is stated by several authorities that in the year 1712 Peter the Great of Russia visited Dresden, and was so pleased with the process of paper-making as he witnessed it there that he secured workmen and sent them to Moscow, where they erected a paper-mill with many valuable royal grants and privileges. The following year, 1713, saw a revival of the industry in England, where it had again gone to decay, and where Thomas Watkin, a stationer of London, brought it into great repute in a short time. ♦Rapid advancement in America♦ In 1714 a Mr. Wilcox, who, it is stated, furnished paper to Benjamin Franklin, erected a paper-mill in Delaware. The date of the erection of this mill is given by another authority as 1729, and the place Chester Creek, Delaware County, Pennsylvania, where paper was still made by hand as late as 1870. It may possibly have been a second mill that was built by Thomas Wilcox at that time, in which case there would be no conflict of authorities. The manufacture made rapid strides in this young and growing country, so that in 1770 there were forty paper-mills in the states of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware. The advance among the leading nations of Europe during the same period was equally rapid. The manufacture was introduced into Massachusetts in 1717, and into Norwich, Connecticut, in 1768, but the progress in New England was not so rapid as in the states where it had been first established.