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Show KOREAN PAPER. Manufacture ftiid of a Valuable Atlatlo Product. A leading manufacture of the strange hermit kingdom of Korea is paper, writes Consul General Heard from Seoul. Korean paper is highly esteemed and always forms part of royal presents and of the tribute paid to China. Besides Be-sides the same uses as with us for writing and for books It fills a great diversity of needs. It serves as string and in the manufacture of lanterns, fans, umbrellas, shoe soles, hats, boxes and makes very good rain coats; it covers cov-ers floors and walls and ceilings, and, stretched on frames, supplies windows and doors. It is highly prized in China and Japan and is especially sought after for the manufacture of umbrellas. It is made from a bush of the mulberry mulber-ry order, which is indigenous, growing in many parts of the kingdom, but thriving best in the moist, warm cli- mate of the south. It is chiefly raised from cuttings for this special purpose, and the wild and cultivated plants are said to be of equal value. The bark, which alone is used, is generally gen-erally gathered in the spring and is boiled for a long time in water in which a quantity of wood ashes has been mixed till it becomes a pulp? the mass having been beaten during the whole time of the boiling. Fine bamboo screens ai'e then placed iu shallow wooden vats and a ladle full of the pulp is evenly spread over the screen by a dexterous circular motion of the hand. The operation is repeated once or twice, or as often as may be necessary the more frequent the operation the finer the paper and the screen allowed to drain into the vats till a proper consistency con-sistency is reached, the drippings being thus saved. They are then placed on a hot floor to dry. After the drying has proceeded far enough the paper is laid on a hot floor and ironed by hand. The long lines in the paper show strands of the bamboo screens and their nearness, distinctness or absence indicate the fineness or otherwise of the paper. They are almost imperceptible in some grades of paper, while in others they are distinct aud far apart. Paper is made by the Paper guild, a numerous and prosperous association. Chicago News. |