Quote:
Originally Posted by Andrew H.
Actually, all books before the late 19th century were printed on acid free paper. Acidic paper came about as a consequence of large scale industrial paper manufacturing processes developed at that time - which is why books from 1800 are often in better shape than books from 1900.
My school's rare book library had a Gutenberg bible in a special display case (they turned a page each day); it was less yellowed that paperbacks I bought in the 80's.
However, there are a lot of other factors, especially humidity, that can affect old paper.
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That acid-free paper had a lot of cotton and linen in it. The paper factories bought rags and used it in the paper. Once they had the technology to make cheap paper that was mostly wood pulp, the predecessor to the MMPB was born.