for plaster in the moulded ornaments of roofs and walls, and the ordinary roofing felts, too, are very closely allied in their composition to papier mâché. Under the name of ceramic papier mâché, architectural enrichments are also made of a composition derived from paper pulp, resin, glue, a drying oil and acetate of lead. Among the other articles for which the substance is used may be enumerated masks, dolls’ heads and other toys, anatomical and botanical models, artists’ lay figures, milliners’ and clothiers’ blocks, mirror and picture-frames, tubes, &c.
The materials for the commoner classes of work are old waste and scrap paper, repulped and mixed with a strong size of glue and paste. To this very often are added large quantities of ground chalk, clay and fine sand, so that the preparation is little more than a plaster held together by the fibrous pulp. Wood pulp (from Sweden) is now largely used for making papier mâché. For the finest class of work Clay’s original method is retained. It consists of soaking several sheets of a specially made paper in a strong size of paste and glue, pasting these together, and pressing them in the mould of the article to be made. The moulded mass is dried in a stove, and, if necessary, further similar layers of paper are added, till the required thickness is attained. The dried object is hardened by dipping in oil, after which it is variously trimmed and prepared for japanning and ornamentation. For very delicate relief ornaments, a pulp of scrap paper is prepared, which after drying is ground to powder mixed with paste and a proportion of potash, all of which are thoroughly incorporated into a fine smooth stiff paste. The numerous processes by which surface decoration is applied to papier mâché differ in no way from the application of like ornamentation to other surfaces. Papier mâché for its weight is an exceedingly tough, strong, durable substance, possessed of some elasticity, little subject to warp or fracture, and unaffected by damp.
See L. E. Andés, Die Fabrikation der Papiermaché- und Papierstoff-Waaren (Vienna, 1900); A. Winzer, Die Bereitung und Benützung der Papiermaché und ähnlicher Kompositionen (4th ed., Weimar, 1907).
PAPIN, DENIS (1647–c. 1712), French physicist, one of the
inventors of the steam-engine, was a native of Blois, where he
was born on the 22nd of August 1647. In 1661 or 1662 he
entered upon the study of medicine at the university of Angers,
where he graduated in 1669. Some time prior to 1674 he
removed to Paris and assisted Christiaan Huygens in his experiments
with the air-pump, the results of which (Expériences du
Vuide) were published at Paris in that year, and also in the form
of five papers by Huygens and Papin jointly, in the Philosophical
Transactions for 1675. Shortly after the publication of the
Expériences, Papin, who had crossed to London, was hospitably
received by Robert Boyle, whom he assisted in his laboratory
and with his writings. About this time also he introduced into
the air-pump the improvement of making it with double barrels,
and replacing by the two valves the turncock hitherto used;
he is said, moreover, to have been the first to use the plate and
receiver. Subsequently he invented the condensing-pump,
and in 1680 he was admitted, on Boyle’s nomination, to the
Royal Society. In the previous year he had exhibited to the
society his famous “steam digester, or engine for softening
bones,” afterwards described in a tract published at Paris and
entitled La Manière d’amollir les os et de faire couire toutes sortes
de viandes en fort peu de tems et à peu de frais, avec une description
de la marmite, ses propriétés et ses usages. This device consisted
of a vessel provided with a tightly fitting lid, so that under
pressure its contents could be raised to a high temperature;
a safety valve was used, for the first time, to guard against an
excessive rise in the pressure. After further experiments with the
digester he accepted an invitation to Venice to take part in the
work of the recently founded Academy of the Philosophical and
Mathematical Sciences; here he remained until 1684, when he
returned to London and received from the Royal Society an
appointment as “temporary curator of experiments,” with a
small salary. In this capacity he carried on numerous and
varied investigations. He discovered a siphon acting in the
same manner as the “sipho wirtembergicus” (Phil. Tr., 1685),
and also constructed a model of an engine for raising water from
a river by means of pumps worked by a water-wheel driven by
the current. In November 1687 he was appointed to the chair
of mathematics in the university of Marburg, and here he
remained until 1696, when he removed to Cassel. From the
time of his settlement in Germany he carried on an active
correspondence with Huygens and Leibnitz, which is still
preserved, and in one of his letters to Leibnitz, in 1698, he
mentions that he is engaged on a machine for raising water to a
great height by the force of fire; in a later communication he
speaks also of a little carriage he had constructed to be propelled
by this force. Again in 1702 he wrote about a steam “ballista,”
which he anticipated would “promptly compel France to make
an enduring peace.” In 1705 Leibnitz sent Papin a sketch of
Thomas Savery’s engine for raising water, and this stimulated
him to further exertions, which resulted two years afterwards
in the publication of the Ars nova ad aquam ignis adminiculo
efficacissime elevandam (Cassel, 1707), in which his high-pressure
boiler and its applications are described (see Steam Engine).
In 1707 he resolved to quit Cassel for London, and on the 24th
of September of that year he sailed with his family from Cassel
in an ingeniously constructed boat, propelled by paddle-wheels,
to be worked by the crew, with which he apparently expected
to reach the mouth of the Weser. At Münden, however, the
vessel was confiscated at the instance of the boatmen, who
objected to the invasion of their exclusive privileges in the
Weser navigation. Papin, on his arrival in London, found
himself without resources and almost without friends; applications
through Sir Hans Sloane to the Royal Society for grants
of money were made in vain, and he died in total obscurity,
probably about the beginning of 1712. His name is attached
to the principal street of his native town, Blois, were also he
is commemorated by a bronze statue.
The published writings of Papin, besides those already referred to, consist for the most part of a large number of papers, principally on hydraulics and pneumatics, contributed to the Journal des savans, the Nouvelles de la république des lettres, the Philosophical Transactions, and the Acta eruditorum; many of them were collected by himself into a Fasciculus dissertationum (Marburg, 1695), of which he published also a translation into French, Recueil de diverses pièces touchant quelques nouvelles machines (Cassel, 1695). His correspondence with Leibnitz and Huygens, along with a biography, was published by Dr Ernst Gerland (Leibnizens und Huygens Briefwechsel mit Papin, nebst der Biographie Papins (Berlin, 1881). See also L. de la Saussaye and E. Péan, La Vie et les ouvrages de Denis Papin (Paris, 1869); and Baron Ernout, Denis Papin, sa vie et ses ouvrages (4th ed., 1888).
PAPINEAU, LOUIS JOSEPH (1786–1871), Canadian rebel
and politician, son of Joseph Papineau, royal notary and member of the house of Assembly of Lower Canada, was born at Montreal on the 7th of October 1786. He was educated at the seminary of Quebec, where he developed the gift of declamatory and persuasive oratory. He was called to the bar of Lower Canada on the 19th of May 1810. On the 18th of June 1808 he was elected a member of the House of Assembly of the province of Lower Canada, for the county of Kent. In 1815 he became speaker of the house, being already recognized as the leader of the French Canadian party. At this time there were many grievances in the country which demanded redress; but each faction was more inclined to insist upon the exercise of its special rights than to fulfil its common responsibilities. In December 1820 Lord Dalhousie, governor of Lower Canada, appointed Papineau a member of the executive council; but Papineau, finding himself without real influence on the council, resigned in January 1823. In that year he went to England to protest on behalf of the French Canadians against the projected union of Upper and Lower Canada, a mission in which he was successful. Nevertheless his opposition to the government became more and more pronounced, till in 1827 Lord Dalhousie refused to confirm his appointment to the speaker ship, and resigned his governorship when the house persisted in its choice. The aim of the French Canadian opposition at this time was to obtain financial and also constitutional reforms. Matters came to a head when the legislative assembly of Lower Canada refused supplies and Papineau arranged for concerted action with William Lyon Mackenzie, the leader of the reform party in Upper Canada. In 1835 Lord Gosford, the new governor of Lower Canada, was instructed by the cabinet in London to inquire into the alleged grievances of the French Canadians. But the attitude
