Timeline milestone
Fabriano's Mills Give Paper Its First Trademarks
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Milestone
Fabriano's Mills Give Paper Its First Trademarks
Italian papermakers introduced stamping hammers, animal-glue sizing, and, within a few years, watermarks, letting mills brand and date their paper for the first time.
Paper mills established at Fabriano, in central Italy, around 1276 introduced two lasting improvements over the Islamic-world process they inherited: mechanical stamping hammers, powered by waterwheels, that pulped rags faster and more finely than hand-beating, and sizing with animal glue, which let ink sit on the surface rather than bleed through. Within about six years, Fabriano's makers began pressing wire designs into the pulp mold, creating watermarks.
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