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Paper in my world has always been made in an artisan way. More people have started to learn how to read now that my characters are providing an easy, reliable, and quick way to send letters. They want to increase the volume of letters send and for that they need to bring the costs down of sending notes and letters. So i'll have them invent an early paper machine.

The Fourdrinier machine used a specially woven fabric mesh conveyor belt (known as a wire, as it was once woven from bronze) in the forming section, where a slurry of fibre (usually wood or other vegetable fibres) is drained to create a continuous paper web. The original Fourdrinier forming section used a horizontal drainage area, referred to as the drainage table.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paper_machine#/media/File:Fourdrinier_machine_model.jpg

With wood logs delivered how much paper would a single person be able to make in a day? Power tools are not available. I am not looking for high quality but it should be strong enough to write on with a quill.

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  • $\begingroup$ As it stands, the question lacks context and details to be considered on-topic for Worldbuilding. What is the context within your world building? What kind of research did you do before? $\endgroup$
    – Juliana Karasawa Souza
    Commented Sep 30, 2021 at 10:21
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    $\begingroup$ It is heap unclear what you mean, because there has never been a paper factory where one single person worked. One single person can make paper, but only on artisanal scale. This means that they won't be making woodpulp paper; they will be making rag paper. Depending on how much space (for drying) they have available, they can make let's say a dozen full-size sheets per day. An ordinary writing sheet of paper is about a quarter of a full-size pre-industrial sheet as it came from the paper manufacture; so that one artisan working alone can make maybe about 50 ordinary writing sheets. $\endgroup$
    – AlexP
    Commented Sep 30, 2021 at 11:56
  • $\begingroup$ If you are interested in actual historical papermaking, and you can read French, Google has available a copy of J. J. Le Francois de La Lande Art De Faire Le Papier, originally published as part of the French Academy's Descriptions des Arts et Metiers. $\endgroup$
    – AlexP
    Commented Sep 30, 2021 at 12:01
  • $\begingroup$ Check out wikipedia and Youtube for info on how "Washi" is made by hand today. Or this site looks like a good reference : shihomasuda.com/blog/… $\endgroup$
    – JonSG
    Commented Sep 30, 2021 at 13:49
  • $\begingroup$ @AlexP Smaller machines used by just a single household came before we moved everything into large factories run by assembly lines. In our own history, wood paper and fourdrinier machines did not come onto the scene until the 1800s, but in an alternate timeline, they could have easily been invented WAY earlier using available knowledge and technology. By about 30BC we already knew about boiling wood to pulp, roller presses, belts & pulleys, and gear drives. So, such a 1-man machine would have fit in well with other ancient technologies. $\endgroup$
    – Nosajimiki
    Commented Sep 30, 2021 at 18:12

1 Answer 1

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About 1/2 to 3 Reams of Paper a Day

Even a primitive fourdrinier machine like this is surprisingly efficient. Using the picture you provided we can look at the gear ratios to get a decent clue into how fast it was.

enter image description here

The first and most important gear ratio is the relationship between gears 1 and 2. Sadly, this is the hardest ratio to make out because it is most obscured, but it appears to be about an 8:20 tooth ratio. If we assume that the crank gear is about 3/4" in diameter, that means that the press roller turns at a speed of (.75*pi*8/20) = 0.942 inches per turn of the crank.

A hand crank like this can be sustainably operated at a rate of somewhere around 0.5-0.75 revolutions per second meaning to get a standard 11" sheet of paper, you need to turn the crank for roughly 16.5-22 seconds. In an 8 hour work day that is about 1300-1750 sheets... but that is just the time spend turning the crank. It would also take labor to prepare the pulp and dry it.

If we assume the paper maker is having pre-split, fireplace ready wood delivered to his workshop, then that is already a lot of labor actually being outsourced because you have to burn a lot of wood to make primitive wood pulp paper, and all the wood that you pulp needs to be debarked. But, if we say he is just getting logs delivered to him, then he has to spend hours a day splitting and preparing wood.

Making the pulp without modern chemicals, wood chippers, and pressure boilers involves boiling wood for days on end (like making pulled pork, but even more time consuming) So, you are burning far more of your wood than you are turning into paper. Tending these wood burning fires takes time and vigilance; so, we should assume that the paper maker may have 5-7 large pots of boiling wood, each to make pulp for a following day, and he will need to stop making paper every 30 minutes or so to add wood to fires, adjust water levels, and stir to remove outer layers of digested wood exposing the inner layers... so probably about 10 minutes out of every 30 will be spend watching his pulp pots.

Then you also have drying. This fourdrinier machine has a wet end and a press, but no dryer or calendar. This means that as the paper is pressed, it will have to be cut and hung to finish drying. So, for every 16.5-22 seconds you spend pressing the paper, you need to spend at least as long cutting it and bringing it to a sort of cloths line to dry.

So, we can probably say that if your paper maker is just running the press, but has a wife and kids to do all the wood collection, preparation, and hanging for him, then he can produce about 3 reams in a day by just operating the machine. But, if your papermaker is a hermit who lives by himself and has to do everything, then you are looking at about 1/3 his time spend on preparing wood, 1/3rd spent tending the pulp pots, 1/6th of his time pressing, and 1/6th of his time hanging. This means that your paper maker could make roughly 250-1500 sheets (1/2 to 3 reams) of paper a day given this machine and an adequate workspace.

There are also a wide range of possible finishes your paper may or may not have to improve consistency, texture, color, and toughness that without any mechanization could also significantly reduce your output.

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  • $\begingroup$ perfect, this is what i was looking for. i will wait for others to have a chance before i accept this answer. $\endgroup$
    – Postlim Fort
    Commented Sep 30, 2021 at 17:41
  • $\begingroup$ @PostlimFort it is a good to answer and to add probably needs to cut result in half, just for start working process, end working process, food at day, people can't move each second for 8 hours, toilet, smoking, chatting, thinking about the answer for everything, repair maintenance, and other socializing - never forget about those things in human activity. Modern factory lines are good exactly for the reasons they do not do that and can(potentially) run 24/7 - just grease them well and replace parts each 8h break $\endgroup$
    – MolbOrg
    Commented Sep 30, 2021 at 17:54
  • $\begingroup$ @MolbOrg I thought about that but most pre-modern civilizations also had no such thing as workers rights where longer workdays were common. I did not go with 8 hours because of the 8 hour workday, but because various studies show that 8 hours is the maximum amount of productive time a person can work in a day before mental fatigue causes a sharp falloff in performance. So I tend to use in whenever I calculate how much a person can do something in a day. $\endgroup$
    – Nosajimiki
    Commented Sep 30, 2021 at 18:26
  • $\begingroup$ There much more in paper making than taking paper paste onto the wire grid. You are missing the time needed to cut the wooden logs into small pieces, the time needed to prepare the various fluids, the time needed to finish the paper sheets, the time needed to full them, the time needed to polish their surfaces and so on and so forth. The paper which comes out of simply taking paper paste onto the wire grid and drying it is not suitable for writing; in fact, the only uses it can possibly find are as toilet paper and raw material for making cardboard. You cannot even wrap fish and chips in it. $\endgroup$
    – AlexP
    Commented Sep 30, 2021 at 19:00
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    $\begingroup$ "no such thing as workers rights" - true. It was not a criticism of the answer, the answer is great and you did good detective work and overcomplicating this answer with such details is overkill, it just that I remembered my work experience and fight with my bosses who had such idealistic perception if a shift is 12h means people should do X and Y for 12 oh no for 11 hour - which is just physically impossible. So I commented, those things people often forget or didn't think before. As for rights - watch this video, have a laugh, lol youtube.com/watch?v=yhP2dT-Nar4 $\endgroup$
    – MolbOrg
    Commented Sep 30, 2021 at 21:28

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