Portobello paper mill (A. Nichol and Co)

Category

Library Item

Item no

4443

Title

Portobello paper mill (A. Nichol and Co), Bridge Street, vats and machinery

Description

The interior of Portobello paper mill (A. Nichol and Co), Bridge Street, Portobello, Edinburgh. The room is filled with machinery and large metal vats. Some of the workmen are pushing square metal trolleys. Reams of paper can be seen in the foreground. The building has a pitched roof with beams.

Artist / maker

Unknown

Date

1905

Size

14.9 x 20.1 cm

Type

Photograph

Location

Edinburgh and Scottish Collection

The business of making paper was first established in Edinburgh in 1695 and the mill at Portobello was one of the pioneering paper mills established soon after. A Nicol's Paper Mill was known locally as 'Craig's Mill, as it had been under the ownership of a number of predecessors, including Messrs. David Craig & Co.
The paper mill occupied several acres of land including the whole of one side of Bridge Street. The works were powered by several steam boilers and could produce 30 tons of paper a week, of a type known as 'fine printings' and 'engine sized writings'. The paper was made mostly from 'Esparto', a grass obtained from the European and African shores of the Mediterranean. Nicol's machinery was both modern and efficient for its time and enabled the sorting, pulping and rolling processes to achieve high quality paper. The mill machinery turned out rolls of paper six and a half feet wide and three and a half miles in length.

Exhibitions with this item

Other views of this item

Related images

Related subjects

Manufacturing Industry > Manufacturing equipment > Vats

Manufacturing Industry > Manufacturing facilities > Mills

People > Industry > Factory workers

Places > Edinburgh areas > Portobello

Places > Scotland > Edinburgh