Adams, Massachusetts, USA
1905 - MAKING PAPER BY HAND

The Only Plant for That Work in the United States Is in Adams of the Berkshires - The Difference Between the Processes

Up in the little town of Adams, in the Berkshire Hills, is the only plant in America for making hand-made paper. There is a great demand for these papers for drawing, water-color painting, correspondence and special book editions and the miss in Adams are working at full speed to meet it. Until 1816 paper making in this country was entirely by hand, and the process was so slow that it required the labor of five persons to make three reams a day. With machinery for forming rag pulp into sheet paper, the hand-made process was abandoned, and skilled-artisans who could give the "old-time shake" to the mold forming a sheet of paper, became almost unknown. In 1879 the L. L. Brown Paper Company of Adams sent a practical man to England to purchase the necessary equipment and engage workers, and in 1880 it commenced the manufacture of handmade paper.

The difference in hand and machine-made paper is in the manipulation of the sheets. In making a sheet of paper by hand, the pulp, made from rags by the usual process of washing and beating, is emptied into an open vat with a quantity of water. In this vat the workman, holding a mold or frame piece of wire cloth in both hands, dips it at an inclination of about sixty-five degrees, and, taking up a sufficient quantity of pulp, raises it horizontally, the frame or deckle holding it upon the wire cloth.

A double oscillating motion is imparted to it and distributes the pulp with perfect uniformity over the entire service of the mold, interwining the fibres. Gradually the water drains through, the pulp solidifies and takes on a shiny appearance, which indicates to the experienced eye that the first process is completed.

The frame or deckle is then removed and the mold laid upon a woollen felt or blanket, to which the wet sheet adheres and the mold is lifted from it. Another felt is spread over this, upon which the next sheet, made exactly like the first, is laid, and this is continued with alternate layers of felt and paper until a sufficient quantity is made to form a "post," after which the whole is carried to a press and subjected to varying degrees of pressure, according to the purpose and finish of the sheet made. The product is then completed by sizing, drying, etc.

In making the water mark on the paper the mold or wire frame on which the pulp is formed is raised in that portion where it is desirable to stamp the mark, and the sheet is thus made thinner than in other portions of the mold and the design remains impressed on the sheet.

The art of making paper by hand is only acquired after long experience and practice, for it requires great alertness, a quick eye and concentrated attention. William Norman, his wife and two sons were the paper-makers brought form England to Adams and for years the elder Norman made all of the handmade paper. After his death a few years ago, his son William took the place at the mold and he is said to be the only man in America today who can give the proper "Jog" to the mold.

Boston Evening Transcript
Boston, Massachusetts
January 2, 1905

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