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May I have a word about… when newspapers really were rags | Jonathan Bouquet
Once upon a time, the physical version of this article would have been brought to you on a piece of linen
There’s nothing like a good obituary and last week the Times had an absolute belter for a man called Mark Sykes. He had been, according to his son Tom, “an art dealer, a card dealer, a gambler, a bookie, a gentleman and a rogue”. As the obituary helpfully added, he had also been a gun runner, womaniser and a jailbird. Not surprisingly, added Tom: “He was rarely out of the ‘linens’, as the newspapers were known.”
I have to say that this nickname for papers was new to me and takes us right back to the very early days of newspaper production and the Fourdrinier process, which pounded the rag source materials, including cotton and linen, before spreading the liquid “stuff” into sheets, then pressing and drying them. Such was the demand for papers that eventually these raw materials gave way to wood pulp. It would also explain why papers are now called rags, I think. So a double thank-you to Mark Sykes for a rip-roaring life and broadening my knowledge.
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