A Monograph on Paper-Making in the Bombay Presidency

The shorter arm of the lever beam is let into a space in the ota which is raised about one foot above the level of the stone floor of the well in which the fibre is beaten. [...] The paper-maker leans over the vat and takes the frame containing the screen in both hands dips into the water and draws the screen which acts as a sieve slowly and evenly to the top and cunningly manipulates it so that a uniform filament of pulp is left upon the screen as it emerges from the water. [...] The actual makers of the unfinished paper the wielders of the screen and frame are paid by piece-work at the rate of Re. [...] At the time of the Divali holidays the seivkeirs all start new books of account and the preceding month is the busiest season. [...] The supply of rags is entirely uncertain and there is often a corresponding uncertainty in the quality of the paper due to the use of substitutes or to uneven proportions in the mixture of.materials.