Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1862-11-20
The Paper Question.

The Prairie Farmer, published at Chicago,
Ill.,, states that German has recently come
to this country to take out patent for making
paper eff cern husks. He has with him sew
erai varieties of paper made of this material.
He has come at the right time, and we hope
his invention may be perfectly successful
The same paper has the following
Paper from Sorghum."-In addition to
procuring our sweets from this plant, we are
in fair way to derive another benefit Of very
large value from it, in material for paper. 1t
is is well known that the bagasse bleaches out
very white and by experimenting with it it
proves to afford good. substitute for, or sub
stance to mix with rags in the manufacture of
paper. paper mill on the Fox river is al
ready using considerable quantities of it in
the manufacture OF wrapping paper and are
putting in the necessary machinery for pre-
pairing it for printing paper. When complet-
ed they will use from two to three tons of it
per day. They have every confidence in the
success of the enterprise"
The New York Evening Post, discussing
the present enormously high prices Of paper,
says:
''Therc is one material which has been used
TO some extent, but which should be more gem
STGdIcSI
abundance, and has hitherto merely numbered
the earth. We mean the cane, or reed of
the southern states. We have seen beautiful
paper made from this substance; we have
seen even samples of excellent calico made
OF It, 1t could be easily and cheaply obtained
IN immense quantities, andby the novel '.explo-
slYe" process, its fbreS can be quickly, and
we believe cheaply separated from the silica
which envelopes it in the reed as it grows.
The canes, in this process, are shut into an
iron cylinder OF great strength, which is made
steam tight and then filled with steam at a
considerable pressure. The steam penetrates
the cane, dissolves the Silica and-when the
canes are suddenly shot out of the cylinder
into the cold air-its explosive power tears
the cane to pieces and leaves the fibrous parts
cleared Of the Others. The white fibre, after
slight cleaning, has the feeling and appear
ance Of fine cotton, and can be used for all
manufacturing purposes, we have been as
sured for which cotton is used.
Two years ago paper mill was going up
at Wilmington, North Carolina, in which this
process was TO be applied for the disntegra-
ton of cane. There is no reason why it
should not be generally introduced; and the
parts ofthe southern states now in our hands
would yield abundant supplies OF the cane to
work with"
to Yankee ingenuity. There never was
time so favorable as the present for the exer-
else of this ingenuity in devising methods for
manufacturing paper of something besides
rags and the other materials constituting the
usual paper stock. For some reason which
we cannot fully explain, the price of printing
paper has nearly doubled within Two months,
SO that newspapers generally will be compelled
TO reduction in size, or an increase in
the rates of subscription and advertising.
Paper makers tell us that there is in the mar
ket great lack of the materials of which pa
per is usually manufactured, that this materi-
al has nearly doubled in price, and that they
doubt whether they shall be able to supply pa
per at any price, in quantities equal to the
demand. The scarcity of cotton may, in part,
account for this trouble; whether any part
OF it is due to'the operations Of any parties to
monopolize the materials of which paper is
made, and hold them for purposes of specula.
fion, we are unable to say.
Be the cause what it may, the price of pa
per has gone up until it has become ruinous
to publishers, and creates an imperative ne
cessity for raising the prices Of newspapers,
or reducing their size In the western states,
in western and central New York, in Connec-
ticut, and in several places here in Massachu-
sets, the prices have already been raised, in
many cases about fifty per cent. In a few in
stances the difficulty has been remedied by
reducing the size of the papers. The dsa-
greeable necessity must be met and disposed
OF by similar means in every part of the coun-
try; and the sooner it is done in New York
and Boston, where the trouble is very press
ing, the better will it be for all concerned
Meanwhile, let the shrewd Yankees who desire
to make fortunes turn their attention to this
matter, and perfect method of manufactur~
ing paper of some of the new materials that
have been suggested.