it has left the form, and free it from a great part of the water, which escapes into a box.  The paper is now freed of a good deal of the fluid, and assumes a consistency with which it is enabled to leave the form, which now commences to return underneath the paper, passing on to an endless felt, which revolves around rollers and delivers it to two iron rolls.  The paper passes through a second pair of iron rollers, the interiors of which are heated by steam.  These rollers cause the last of the water to be evaporated, so that it can then be rolled upon reels.  A special arrangement shaves the edges to the exact size required.

The paper is made in different thicknesses and designated by numbers to the size and weight.

Waste paper, bookbinders’ shavings, etc., can be used for making the paper.  As much wool as possible should be employed, because the wool fiber has a greater resistance than vegetable fiber to the effects of the temperature.  By wool fiber is understood the horny substance resembling hair, with the difference that the former has no marrowy tissue.  The covering pellicle of the wool fiber consists of flat, mostly elongated leaves, with more or less corners, lying over each other like scales, which makes the surface of the fiber rough; this condition, together with the inclination of curling, renders it capable of felting readily.  Pure wool consists of a horny substance, containing both nitrogen and sulphur, and dissolves in a potash solution.  In a clean condition, the wool contains from 0.3 to 0.5 per cent. of ash.  It is very hygroscopical, and under ordinary circumstances it contains from 13 to 16 per cent. humidity, in dry air from 7 to 11 per cent., which can be entirely expelled at a temperature of from 226 to 230 degrees Fahrenheit.  Wool when ignited does not burn with a bright flame, as vegetable fiber does, but consumes with a feeble smouldering glow, soon extinguishes, spreading a disagreeable pungent vapor, as of burning horn.  By placing a test tube with a solution of five parts caustic potash in 100 parts water, a mixture of vegetable fibers and wool fibers, the latter dissolve if the fluid is brought to boiling above an alcohol flame, while the cotton and linen fibers remain intact.

The solubility of the woolen fibers in potash lye is a ready means of ascertaining the percentage of wool fiber in the paper.  An exhaustive analysis of the latter can be performed in the following manner:  A known quantity of the paper is slowly dried in a drying apparatus at temperature of 230 deg.  Fahrenheit, until a sample weighed on a scale remains constant.  The loss of weight indicates the degree of humidity.  To determine the ash percentage, the sample is placed in a platinum crucible, and held over a lamp until all the organic matter is burned out and the ash has assumed a light color.  The cold ash is then moistened with a carbonate of ammonia solution, and the crucible again exposed until it is dark red; the weight of