Indian Science and Technology in the Eighteenth Century: Some Contemporary European Accounts c19.s1.2

c19.s1.2

The manufacturer purchases old ropes, cloths, and nets, made from the *son* plant, and cuts them into small pieces, macerates them in water, for a few days, generally five, washes them in the river in a basket, and throws them into a jar of water lodged in the ground; the water is strongly impregnated with a lixivium of *sedgimutti*² six parts and quick lime seven parts. After remaining in this state eight or ten days, they are again washed, and while wet, broken into fibres, by the stamping lever, *Fig 1*. [Diagram I], and then exposed to the sun, upon a clean terrace, built for this purpose; after which, they are again steeped, in a fresh lixivium, as before. When they have undergone three operations of this kind, they are fit for making coarse brown paper; after seven or eight operations, they are prepared for making paper, of a tolerable whiteness.