Rag paper
As a rag paper refers to a group of papers , from the waste textiles were prepared or textile fiber materials, and are. In librarianship , the term was used for hand-made paper before the invention of wood pulp paper in the middle of the 19th century. In modern technical language contexts of the paper industry , rag paper refers to high-quality paper types made from gently digested fibers from suitable crops. In everyday parlance, the term handmade paper has also become common, but it is only aimed at an actual or supposed production method, without necessarily taking into account the actual fiber composition.
Historical rag paper
Since the beginning of European paper production in the 14th century by Italian paper mills , worn clothing and other textile objects that are no longer required have established themselves as the raw material basis for the rag paper , which is always made by hand. The paper-making method, which was widespread from East Asia and across the Middle East , was largely based on the direct use of plant raw materials obtained for this purpose.
A significant part of the starting materials for early European paper production consisted of hemp fibers , flax fibers (linen) and nettle cloth , which are among the most resilient natural fibers of the fiber plants cultivated in Europe . The paper mills bought the rags they needed from the rag collectors who worked for them. This starting point in the paper production practice that has lasted for several centuries was the cause of tear-resistant and very aging-resistant papers, the rag paper.
In preparation for scooping up the paper, the rags were chopped up by hand and placed in a stamping mill. The result was a washed and more or less homogeneous paper pulp that was suitable for scooping. In the 17th century, some procedural improvements developed in Dutch paper mills. The production process now included the Dutch , a water-wheel-driven device for the mechanical digestion of old textiles. This apparatus was able to produce the necessary fiber mass in a quarter of the time required than the old rammers could. Because this method of producing the paper pulp took place under simple manual conditions, the paper raw material obtained from it is not uniform. Small swellings in such old rag paper, which are sometimes referred to as stumps, are typical.
Modern rag paper
Since the industrial paper production, the rag papers are mostly white and even papers with a basis weight between 70 and 135 grams. Their raw material basis is predominantly cotton fibers and only a small proportion of flax , ramie or jute . Such rag papers are often cut with cellulose so that a rag content of at least 50 percent is present. In other cases one speaks of rag-containing papers.
As the most important technical features of these rag papers, they show particularly high values for the number of double folds and the tearing length in comparison with conventional printing and writing papers .
Typical modern uses are postage stamps, banknotes, stocks, maps, and special document purposes. In the production of banknotes or other special governmental purposes, a complex quality control is already carried out during the production process and the quantity produced is strictly controlled and documented. In contrast to their historical models, modern rag papers no longer necessarily have a watermark. For the layman, they are indistinguishable from good printer or letterpress paper .
literature
- Wolfgang Schlieder: Paper. Traditions of an ancient craft. Fachbuchverlag Leipzig, 1985.
- Otto Wurz: Paper production based on modern knowledge. Ulrich Moser publishing house, Graz / Vienna 1951.
- Joachim Elias Zender: Lexicon book printing paper. Haupt Verlag, Bern / Stuttgart / Vienna 2008, ISBN 978-3-258-07370-5 .