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Images

This image bank contains approximately 1400 digitized images about the history of the printed book in the Netherlands, largely originating from the collections of the KB. The images can be downloaded and used with the stated credit line.

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Title
 Hammer mill for making paper, early 17th century

Creator
 Zonca, Vittorio (auteur/author), Bertelli, Pietro (uitgever/publisher)

Year
 1607

Type
 illustratie, illustration

Measurements
 24, 5 x 15, 5 cm.

Related term
 papiermaken, papiermolens, hamerbakken

Period
 16e eeuw, 17e eeuw

Content
 This is one of the first illustrations of a hammer mill, a 16th-century pounding apparatus invented in Italy. It consisted of a number of hammers, fastened to a camshaft, which was driven by a water wheel. By the beating of the hammers on the rags and by adding large quantities of water to clean the rags, a milky mush of fibres and cellulose (the contents of the fibre) was created. There was not enough waterpower in the Netherlands to drive this kind of hammer mill. Only in the course of the 17th century, when the windmill could generate sufficient energy to be applied to paper making, did a flourishing paper industry develop there.

Original
 Zonca, Vittorio. - Novo teatro di machine et edificii per uarie et sicure operationi [...], Padoua: appresso Pietro Bertelli, 1607, p. 94

available in
 Koninklijke Bibliotheek, Den Haag PC.A 201

@description
 Den Haag Koninklijke Bibliotheek

@reproduction
 Den Haag Koninklijke Bibliotheek