Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1882-03-12
THE AGE OF PAPER.
Paper as IA Substitute for Wood and Water
Paper Car Wheels. Paper Houses, Pa
per Furniture and Paper Knives and

Faper as substitute Tor W0O0 ana wafer
Paper Car Whe.ts. Paper Houses. Pa
per Furniture and Paper Knives and
Forks.
If one can believe all one could see at
an industrial exhibition in Louisville,
Ky, the age Of paper is just about dawn
ing Most persons have been under the
impression for long time that the pres
ent age was more distinguished for its
consumption of paper and the various
uses to which that protean article is put
than for anything else in it's wonderful
industrial development; but manifold as
are the general uses OF paper now, few
people have any idea how infinitely the
list may be extended, When the Japan
csc made paper garments that would
wash, and the Americans turned out
paper oar wheels that would out
wear iron ones and be superior in
every other respect, it was thought the
last stage in progress in paper working
had been reached; but the Louisville ex-
hibitien showed that these devices were
early discoveries IN the art. 1t is pushed
away beyond them now. 1t is true that
still regards paper car wheels with curl.
osity, not unmixed with incredulity, but
they are being adopted rapidly by the
railroads, and many scoffer has ridden
hundreds of miles over paper car wheels
without knowing it. An iron car wheel
is good for 200, 900 miles; then it must be
taken out and recast; it may not be worn
out, but it is unsafe, its ''life'' is gone,
and there is no telling how soon it may
fly to pieces. A paper wheel, formed by
the compression of sheets Of paper, under
enormous pressure, into solid
disk, with thin steel tire, will
run 100000 miles. The tire is
considered necessary for smooth
running, but the wheel can go without
it, and if the tire flies off duringa run,
the train proceeds to it's destination with
out stopping to repair damages Paper
wheels will not crack in frosty weather
or break on meeting an obstacle, as when
the train runs off the track Many an
accident has owed all its importance to
the breaking of wheel, which has cul-
minated in grand catastrophe which
lively harmless derailment.
| After this exhibition of its qualities,
the reader will be prepared to believe
that paper can b. made very hard, but
scarcely fer the statement that it can be
made to resist any cutting tool except a
diamond. 1t can be made so hard
| that steel will not cut It---at least
that is the statement made IN
the Louisville CourSer-Journal, from
| which we gather most of the facts here
given. Paper tubs and buckets are ar
| ticles in common use, but how many
people know that they can be made to
hold fire as well as water; so that they
can neither be soaked nor burned, and,
moreover, cannot be broken? Sll the
pots and pans in the kitchen, and for that
matter, the range and bath boiler too,
can be made Of paper; SO can the heavy
dishes in the kitchen cupboard, and the
| finer ones on the dining table. Paper
plates are said to be handsemer, as well
as much cheaper than the china ones,
and the most destructive "help'' cannot
break them. Even the knives and forks
can be made Of paper, and can be kept
sharp and serviceable.
In word lit is the word of an exhi-
bitor at the Louisville display, house
can be built entirely of paper from foun
dation stone to cap shingle, and it will
| last forever 1t can be furnished through
out with paper Pulp limitations of
black, walnut are harder and take q bet
| ter polish than the wood itself, and that
| furniture made of them will last longer,
beside being only fraction of the weight;
an Item that will be appreciated by
housekeepers, whose muscles are strained
in the process of sweeping and busting.
which always involves moving furniture
! The same exhibitor declared his ability
| to build and fit out a printing Office, from
type to press complete, all of paper, and
even to construct the operating
steam engine Of the same
material. The enthusiastic gentleman
does not give any figures
to show the tensile strength of his paper
substitutes for wood and iron, but he
gives us to understand inferentially that
it is very great. One cannot build a
house without putting an enormous strain
beams can be made to sustain a burden
wooden ones, a great economical problem
is on tho verge of solution. The dlsap-
pearance of our forests, and the CROWN g
scarcity of timber in consequence have
been troubling political economists for a
great many years. The rapid approach
of time when timber would become
more costly than iron was clearly indi-
Gated; but if a working substitute can
be found in paper the loss of
timber will not be severely felt. nor will
the waste go on SO rapidly. Paper has
some manifest advantages over wood; one
of which is its great lightness, involving
less labor in construction and less cost in
transportation; another is the ease with
which it can be worked, being moulded
instead of carved, and consequently run
ming less to waste in preparation, produc-
tion. The supply of material fer paper
making is lneXhaustible, since variety
of the sources from which it can be
obtained is only equaled by the variety of
uses to which it can be put, and if it can
be substituted for wood in only few
of the mechanics arts and few depart
ments of housekeeping and domestic
economy, desirable revolution will have
been effected in more directions than one.
If paper products, cheaper, handsomer,
more convenient and more durable than
the wooden ones we have been accus-
toned to, can be substituted for the lat
ter, the change will mark not unimport-
ant forward step in the worlds progress.
philadelphia Bulletin.
<4,ati- Catholic Spgur0e.