Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1862-12-03
The Paper Famine.

There is just now an excellent opportu
nifty for some shrewd Yankee to make
fortune. Paper is becoming high priced
/ FoT l.Aany years past ingenious men hav,
endeavored to make it out of other nIateri
ais than rags, but cotton and flax have
held their ground heretofore as the ma
/ terials from which it could easily ant
cheaply made, the tibers being used in the
form of rags Aside from the present
scarcity, the rag question" hls heen io
some years attentively discussed in Eu
rope. Formerly white paper WAS made
altogether from rags but cotton waste
hempen bale ropes and bagging have since
been employed for the purpose in thi:
country. Old gunny and juts are used tC
make brown paper; perhaps these could
also be turned into white.
Straw has been used in Englrnd to mix
with rags in the manufacture of printing
paper. Straw paper has also been used
IN this country; seven years ago Phila
delphia journal was printed on paper oi
this description and we notice that some
of our exchanges are once more giving IT
a trial 1t has a grayish yellow tint, and
is stiff and easily torn. 1t will not bear
folding well, breaking in the creases.-
Eastwood and hemlock have been used
for making paper, and there is in the
Smithsonian Institute copy of a work
10y Jakob Christian Schaeffer, on expert
ments in making paper, which is printed
on more than sixty varieties of paper.
made from as many different materials.
There is one material which has been
used to some extent, but which should be
more generally utilized. 1t exists in the
greatest 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 samples of excel
lent calico made of ii. Ii could be easily
and cheaply obtained in immense quanti-
ties, and by the novel "explOsive" pro-
cess, which was explained last year in the
Evening Post, its fiber can be quickly
and, we believe, cheaply separated from
the silica which envelopes the reed rs it
grows. The canes, in this process, are
shut into an iron cylinder, of great strength
which is made steam-tight, and then fill
ed with steam at considerable pressure.
The steam penetrates the cane, dissolves
the silica, and-when the canes are sud-
denly shot out of the cylinder into the
cnld air-its explosive power teas the
canes to pieces and leaves the fibrOgs
parts cleared of the Others. The white
fiber after a slight cleaning, has the feel
ing and appearance of fine cotton, and can
be used for all manufacturing purposes,
we have been assured, for which cotton is
used.
Two years ago paper a mill was going
up at Wilmington, North Carolina, in
which this process was to be applied for
the disintegration of cane. There is no
reason why it should not be generally in
troduced and the parts of the Southern
States now in our hands would yield abun-
dundant supplies of the cane to work
with. ..-
We notice that Buffalo paper manu-
fgetgrer states that straw will be extern
siyely used at once. Among the causes
of the appreciation of paper are the short
supply and high price of cotton, and the
high rate of exchange, which shuts off
importation of rags. u
The present prices of prip ting paper are
such as will materially affect the condi-
tion of the American press. If they con-
tinue, the newspapers must either raise
their prices or stop altogeter. To show
how it works we may say that such of the
morning journals of this city as have cir
culation daily of $4,000 copies lose by the
recent rise not less than one hundred and
fifty Thousand dollars per year. II a New
York daily has a circulation of one hun
dred thousand copies, its loss, if paper
continues at present prices, would be at
the end of the year not less than three
hundred thousand dollars. OF course,
this woI1ld he ruinouS IN any hIISineSs en-
terprise. No doubt the morning journals
dislike to raise their price, but they must
do so, unless some change takes place to
bring paper back to its old price. The
speedy opening of the Mississippi river
would probably help to cotton, in censid-
erable quantities, but this staple would
be appropriated at once for cloths, and
would affect but little the price of paper
for some time to come We look more to
enterprises by which other and now un-
used materials may brought to the ser
vice of the paper maker.-NeO York Posi-.
.