From The Connecticut River Valley in Southern Vermont and New Hampshire: Historical Sketches by Lyman S. Hayes, Tuttle Co., Marble City Press, Rutland, VT., 1929, page 290:
THE FIRST PAPER MILL IN VERMONT BUILT IN BELLOWS FALLS IN 1802 BY BILL BLAKE
The first paper mill in the vicinity of Bellows Falls was built in the year 1799, by Bill Blake. This mill was located at Alstead, N. H., which has taken its other name, "Paper Mill Village," from that fact. Alstead is five miles from Bellows Falls. Mr. Blake came to Bellows Falls in 1802, and, procuring a right to water power from the "Company for Rendering Connecticut River Navigable by Bellows Falls," built the first paper mill in the state of Vermont directly in the rear of where the stone grist mill now stands. It was a small, primitive affair, burned in 1812, and replaced at once by Mr. Blake, with a mill 144 feet long and 32 feet wide, with a number of ells and storehouses. A portion of the mill was two stories high, but the larger part was three stories. This mill was destroyed by fire July 12, 1846, from which date the site was unoccupied, and there was no paper mill in Bellows Falls until 1870. In January of that year, William A. Russell started the first modem paper machine "under the hill," Albert C. Moore, later of the Moore & Thompson Paper Commpany, being his first machine tender.
T'he " cylinder' , and "Foudrinier" types of machines of today are a long call from the primitive method used by Bill Blake over a century ago. The water power of the river was then used only for grinding the rags and reducing the "stuff" to the proper consistency for the grades of paper to be made. Today a paper machine is running in Gatineau, Que., producing a sheet 272 inches wide and running at a speed [291] of 1,000 feet a minute, and another machine is being built to run the same speed and make a sheet 372 inches wide.
It is interesting to contrast this with the methods employed at the time Mr. Blake's first mill was built here. The product of that mill at first was wholly writing and book paper. The stock used in making the paper was clean white rags, sorted at tables by girls, and cut up on old scythes set into the tables. It was not necessary to bleach them and the fine stock went directly to the beating engine for macerating, that process being then about the same as now. The "stuff" (as it is called in the paper mills), after being prepared, was run into tanks standing two or three feet high, and the paper from this point was made wholly by hand instead of by the complicated machinery of today. In a small frame, made to correspond with the size of the sheet of paper to be produced, was fixed a wire cloth or screen, similar in grade to the wires now in use on the large machines. With this sieve in hand, the paper maker stood beside the vat, and dipping it into the stuff, enough adhered to it to form the sheet when taken out. This sieve was then turned upside down on a felt of the same size, a paper board was laid on the sheet, and another felt was then put on the board, and the operation repeated until 200 or 300 sheets had been made.
The pile, then three or four feet high, was placed in a large press with an immense screw similar to that in a cider mill press, and by the aid of long levers in the head of the screw, the water was squeezed out of the pile. The sheets of paper were peeled from between the felts and hung up singly, on poles, in a drying room [292] with open sides like a com crib, until thoroughly dried. They were then taken down and each sheet scraped with a knife to remove all imperfections, in what was· termed a "saul room."
A few years ago, a number of curiously worn stones were found by the late Stephen R. Wales in the vicinity of the eddy below the mills. He at once recognized them as being the same as those used by the girls in sharpening their knives with which to scrape this paper many years ago. They also used them to sharpen the pieces of scythes with which the rags were cut. Mr. Wales used to work in the mill as a boy. The process of putting on the finish was the same in principle as that of today, the use of heavy calendar rolls, from which they went to the finishing room to be packed and shipped to market. The amount of product from this method of manufacture was very small and prices were necesssarily extremely high, as compared with those of today.
In 1820, an inventor came to Bellows Falls who had partially perfected a machine for taking the place of the hand work and hand sieve. It was the pioneer of the cylinder and Foudrinier machines now in general use. He arranged with Bill Blake to test his principle and one of his machines was built. While it was in process of building, feeling ran high against the invenntor among the old employees of the mill here, because they foresaw the coming change which would, as they thought, leave them out of work. At one time they seriously considered that the proper thing to do would be to "ride him out of town on a rail," but the machine was installed and brought a revolution in methods of paper manufacture without lasting detriment to labor.