Chương 235: 232. Papermaking - Part II

"Alright," Kivamus said after enough time had passed that the slurry had cooled down.

"Now bring up the moulds and deckles here, and put them one above the other in pairs." The servants carried out the order immediately, with two of them being smaller sized moulds, and the other two being larger sized. The majordomo was watching everything curiously, while also asking small questions once in a while.

By now they had four such pairs ready - with the remaining two being promised to be completed by tomorrow by the blacksmith - with the mould including its attached mesh on the bottom, and the frame of the deckle kept on the top.

"Start pouring the slurry onto the frames, one by one." He explained, "The frame of the deckle will allow the pulp to stay in place while the water drains away." The servants followed the order, and started pouring the slurry on the first pair of mould and deckle, before repeating the process on the other pairs. Once again there was a period of waiting, and then it looked like most of the water had drained off.

"Okay," he began.

"Now bring the pieces of felt here." Two of the servants ran off to the felts hanging on a rope nearby, and soon returned with them. He continued, "Now remove the deckle from the top, since it is no longer necessary to hold the slurry of wood pulp together, and flip that semi-solid sheet of mush onto the felts." The servants did as asked, and soon there were four pieces of felt on which a semi dry sheet of mush was kept.

He ordered them to cover it with another piece of felt - which was larger than the sheet of mush so that the mush would be pressed by the felt from both sides."

"Alright, our work here is done, so let's take these felts to the wood press machine in the south." The servants and guards picked up the felts which were covering the sheet of mush carefully, and they began walking around the manor walls to the south. Soon they reached the south-eastern gates of the village, before they started walking towards the south. It still wasn't snowing, even though there was a layer of snow gathered on the ground.

It was nearly evening now, and soon they saw the two labourers assigned to the wood press machine hard at work. Reaching there, Kivamus waited until the current batch of sawdust briquettes was ready, before he told them to stop. He looked at the labourers.

"Did Darora give you the second plank I asked him for?" One of them nodded, and walked around the other side of the machine, and picked up a rectangular piece of thick wooden plank, which was exactly the same size as the upper surface of the wood press machine.

"Good," Kivamus nodded.

"Now put the plank above the briquette molds on the stump." The labourer set it up carefully above the stump with the help of the other man, and soon the wood press machine had exactly the same types of plank as its newly installed base, as well as the upper plank which was already there and movable by screw.

"Let's put one of the felts here," he told the servants who had come with him. The servants put the pair of felts containing the smaller sized sheet of mush between them on the newly created base of the wood press machine. Finally he ordered the labourers to start turning the screw of the machine just as they always did.

These men were curious about this new concept, but followed the order, and soon the screw began to lower the upper plank, before it reached the lower plank and started to press the sheets of felt between them with a groan. Soon, he decided that it was enough, and told them to turn around the screw in reverse.

"Okay, let's see what we have here." He walked to the machine himself after the upper plank was moved higher and picked up the top layer of felt, and gave it to a servant, before he got his first look at the first sheet of primitive paper created in Tiranat. He gently removed the sheet of paper from the lower felt, and looked at it in the evening light of the late winter sun.

It was quite a bit thicker than the fine quality of paper he was used to on earth, while its surface was still uneven and it was also a little wet, although that was to be expected. While the lye had bleached off some of the colours, there was still a mix and match of brownish yellow colours on the sheet. However, as soggy, rough and scratchy as it was right now, it was still paper!

"I don't believe it..." the majordomo muttered with wide eyes.

"You really did it..." Kivamus grinned and looked at him and Hudan who had been crowding around him in curiosity. Handing over the sheet of soggy paper to the majordomo, he looked at their faces. Duvas was looking at the sheet in his hands in wonder, while the guard captain's eyebrows seemed like they would vanish inside his hairline.

The nearby servants, guards and the labourers were still looking at them in curiosity, probably not even realising how significant this newly manufactured stuff was, since none of them were literate and hadn't used or probably even seen paper in their lives. Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

"This is really paper..." the majordomo mumbled.

"Amazing..." Hudan took the opportunity to touch the soggy paper as well, and while he was hardly literate, even he gave a huge grin.

"I have never been interested in reading or writing, but looking at this paper, even I want to draw a few squiggles on it!" Immediately, Kivamus and Duvas began to guffaw at that suggestion, with the guard captain joining them in the laughter. The nearby guards and servants were still looking at them in curiosity when suddenly, Hudan began to clap loudly, with the other others joining him.

"All hail Lord Kivamus!" The nearby servants and labourers repeated it a few times, before Kivamus raised a hand to stop them and looked at them.

"Making paper is a really big deal, and it wouldn't have been possible without the hard work of you all. Let's have another round of cheers once again for you all as well!" The labourers looked surprised for a moment, before they grinned, and this time there were even louder cheers and clapping, along with a few roars of Glory of Tiranat mixed in between. It took a while for everyone to quiet down, before Kivamus looked at the servants.

"Now let's repeat the process for the remaining three felts as well, and then we will take the papers to the manor so we can hang them on a rope overnight to dry." Giving an enthusiastic nod, the servants followed out the order before the labourers who worked at the wood press repeated the process of turning the huge screw. Soon, the servants had four sheets of paper in their hands, two of them in small size and two in larger size, before they all began to return towards the manor along with the felt.

Kivamus looked at Duvas who seemed to be lost in thought.

"What is it?" The majordomo shook his head.

"It's nothing, my lord. I was just thinking about what it would have been like if you hadn't arrived in this village a few months ago." He snorted, "Well, nothing good for sure, and I'd rather not imagine it. Anyway, I can't wait to show Gorsazo these papers. Being a teacher he would be the most enthusiastic about it, even though we only have just four sheets right now." Kivamus nodded.

"Today was only a trial run, and while it still turned out to be a success, it's true that it won't really be feasible to produce enough paper like this by hand. That's why I designed and ordered Darora to make the trip hammer in the future near the dam on the eastern stream.

Today it took nearly a dozen people working all day to create just four sheets of this rough and uneven paper, but with the trip hammer we can perform the mixing process of the sawdust and wood pulp much faster, with only a single worker to keep an eye on it, while it can also be used to even out the paper sheet much faster and better before it is finalised in this press."

He continued, "Once the trip hammer is ready, we should easily be able to make a lot more paper, and more importantly it would be of a much better quality than this. Right now its texture is uneven, the colour is haphazard, and it is way too rough, but by using a trip hammer, many of those problems can be solved easily. Still, I think we should continue the current process at the current small scale until then." Duvas nodded.

"That's true. Once the dam and the trip hammer are ready, we might be able to improve both the quality and quantity even more, but having even this quality of paper produced in Tiranat is something I never imagined in my dreams. Our stack of empty parchments is nearly gone now, so you need a way to keep sketching your blueprints as well. So producing even this quality of paper will be helpful in that."

"That's certainly true," Kivamus nodded. As they entered the south eastern gates, Duvas looked at him again.

"I think once this paper is dry by tomorrow, we should give one of these sheets to Lucem and Clarisa since they are the only two kids living in the manor, so that they can squiggle whatever they want on it, and then we can keep it securely as a keepsake of the first time when paper was made in Tiranat. We can even hang it on a wall in the manor hall.

While it would be far from the ornate paintings hung in the halls of the richer nobles, this is still an important event for our village, so it would be good to have a memory of this day."

"That's a very good idea," Kivamus agreed with a nod, while wishing they had a way to capture a photograph of this day. Well, he wasn't on earth anymore, so it was probably better to make do with the things available here. He continued, "In that case, I think we should do the same for the remaining three sheets of paper as well. I will make a simple sketch of the paper making process on one sheet, while Syryne can use another one to draw a few leaves of losuvil as well as the final reddish powder on it.

As for the last one, I think we can write the names of everyone who was present for the process today, including you, Hudan, as well as all the guards, servants and labourers. It might seem like a waste of precious paper today, but in the future, when Tiranat has grown and become much larger and prosperous, these will be our precious memories of the very early beginnings."

"That is very much true, my lord," Duvas agreed.

"Just a few months ago, I would have laughed at anyone who went to say that Tiranat would grow and become prosperous in the future, but today, I have no doubt that you will make it come true somehow." He smiled while looking at him.

"I'm glad the Duke sent you to our village, no matter the reasons behind it." Kivamus smiled as well.

"I would never have accepted that I would be happy to be here when I arrived in Tiranat, but right now, I'm glad that I am here!"