The Daily state journal. [volume] (Alexandria, Va.) 1868-1874, 1873-06-04
WEDNESDAY EvEN'G. JUNE 4, 1879
Virginia rnGustries-TheN Norfolk Fibre
Company.

Virginia Industries-TheN Norfolk Fibre
Company.
We are confident our readers will thank
us for brief respite from politics in order
to give place for so important Virginia in
dustry as that which has recently sprung up
at Gilberton's Locks. about five miles be-
low Norfolk, on the Elizabeth river. 1t is
at this place that Northern company are
successfully developing an interest which is
the more important, since there can be
no end to the supply of the raw material
any more than there can be to grass that
grows or water that runs. The parties
engaged in this new industry have organ.
lied joint stock company by the name of
'The Norfolk Fibre Company with
a capital stock Of 100000, and are now
successfully prosecuting their work on a
large scale. The material from which
this fibre is made is the cane or reeds
growing so abundantly in the Dismal
Swamp, and which can be cut every three
years with constant renewal of the
crop afterwards. In fact, the three-year-
old canes are the best, as the fibre can
be dsintegrated from The slac and other
n)n-fibrous substances Of which it is COM
posed, much more readily than in the
case of older growths, while the fibre
itself is equally good and otherwise valua-
Bile for commercial purposes. This fibre
is now taking the place of manila as
q "stock fibre" in the manufacture of
paper Of various descriptions, wherever
manufacturers are able to get hold of it,
as it is considered equally as good an article
and can be furnished thirty-three and a
third per cent. cheaper. The present COM
pany have been engaged in the prepara-
ton of this fibre but short time, and
yet they have been able to dispose of all
they could turn out, and have orders
ahead for something over four thousand
tons in advance of their supply.
OF course, every one at all familiar with
the texture of the southern cane, will
readily perceive the value of its fibre for
paper and other purposes, but they will
hardly guess at the process by which 1t is
rapidly and thoroughly detached from the
woody parts of the reeds, as we'll as from
the silacF'which SO tenaciously cncloses
both fibre and wood. In briefly describing
this process, the reader will not only be
informed of new and entirely original
method of dsintegrating woods and de.
taching their fibre, but will see the impor-
lance which must attach to this new branch
of business at once in the paper-malling
world. Any process that will supply a
material so universally in demand as ma
nilla for paper-stock purposes, and furnish
equally as good an article, at third less
than it is possible to obtain the MANILA
for, cannot fail of being as profitable as it is
valuable. Tn this age Of almost universal
machinery everything must be reduced to
the lowest possible cost, whether it be raw
material or manufactured fabric; and q
reduction of even one per cent. in the cost
of either, often determines the question as
to success or failure. But here is a saving
Of such large per cent. in the cost of the
raw material that it must be benefcially
felt in almost every branch of the paper
business, if it does not enure as much to
the benefit of consumers as manulactu-
rers.
The officers of this company are Colonel
Edwin Post, of New York city, president !;
John II. Howell, esq, of Norfolk, man
aging agent, and Mr.. L. A. Terry, lately
from New York, superintendent. They
have erected four large buildings at their
place of business /; purchased and leased
over twenty thousand acres of cane lands !;
put up two large steam engines. one Of
forty and the other Of thirty horse power,
with seven steam boilers for bleaching and
firing purposes; constructed two large
bleaching tubs with a capacity Of ten tons
of fibre each, with steam presses for pack
ing their stock, and erected a battery of
folr steam guns, twenty-lour feet long
each, and twelve and fifteen inches bore,
capable of taking in charges Of from one
hundred and twenty-five to two hundred
pounds Of reed. The company employs
force of about two hundred men, which is
no small gain in population to Gilberton's
Locks. These hands are exclusively en-
gagged in cutting the reeds, forwarding
them to the works. running the machinery,
packing the fibre and shipping it to the
North, the principal part Of their stock
being ordered from New York and Boston
by those selling directly to the paper
makers.
The powers of preparing the fibre for
the market is as follows: The reeds of
cane are cut and bound i'll compact bundles
of two given sizes, according to the bore
OF the steam guns, and ready to be
rammed into them, as you would ram q
cartridge into cannon. only one bundle is
rammed in after another until the twenty
four feet steam-pieces are charged to the
muzzle. Then large iron plates with lead
valves, which are hinged to the muzzle Of
the guns are made fast over the same, and
by means Of connecting pipes, superheated
steam of temperature Of about -four
hundred degrees, Fahrenheit, is let in
upon the reeds, when the process Of
disintegration commences. 1t takes about
L. L L.