The Middlebury register and Addison County journal. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1883-1885, 1883-05-25
Paper Railroad Ties.

A tall man, with sharp features and
a thoughtful air, sat in a small study,
in New York, and gazed gravely at a
brown object that lay at his feet.
at is a paper railroad cross tie" he
said.
The Sun reporter lifted it with some
difficulty. 1t was of very close fiber,
and so highly polished that it resembled
rosewood. Its inventor tapped it with
his nail, and said:
at doesn't look much like paper,
does i t."
cit seems more like iron. Is it pos
sible that it is made OF paper"
ooh. yes; almost anything can be
made of paper. A paper ball can be
rendered so solid that nothing will in
dent it but a diamond tool. Car wheels
are now made Of paper. Its strength
is astonishing. You can suspend 339
poun S from a Bank of England note,
and it will not part. Bath tubs, pots,
plates, knives, forks, cooking stoves,
printing presses, steam engines and
%chimneys are made of paper nova
days, and there is absolutely no limit to
the uses to which it may be put"
The inventor proceeded to tell the
reporter that nearly 100000 rail-
road ties are used yearly, and that he
had started to invent "a substitute for
the wooden cross-tie or sleeper. His
attention was first attracted to the
matter by the cutlery raised in the
newspapers against the destruction of
forests. Continuing, he said to the
reporter:
There are scores of mills in the
country where paper, straw, prairie
grass and other hbrous substances are
converted into straw board. The
process is simple. The straw is re-
duced to pulp and run into boards.
These straw boards are sold all over
the country as substitutes for wood.
My invention utilities straw board.
The cross tie is constructed of sheets
or layers of paper or straw board, laid
n upon another, cemented and COM
lreSsed into mods. 1t makes a perfect
cross tie. 1t is practically water and
ireproof, as it is manufactured under
500 degrees of heat. Atmospheric
changes have no effect on it. 1t can
be made as cheap as wood of the
present time and will last at least
twenty-five years. One paper tie will
outwear five wooden ones, and will
render better service, because it does
not rot and there is no danger of
spreading rails. The accident to the
Long Branch train last year was due,
according to official Investigation, to
spreading rails. The wooden ties had
decayed so that the spikes that held
the rails were loose"
"Will the paper tie take a spike? 1t
seems like IRON"
1T Will take a spike as readily as
wood, and hang to it, too. There is
plenty of give to the paper tie, so
that the rolling stock of a railroad will
not suffer. They are of uniform size,
and weigh a little more than wood"
"Supposc straw board goes up in
value?"
1T doesn't make Indifference. The
tie can be made of any tibrous sub
stance capable of being reduced to
pulp-prairie grass, for instance. But
how can the straw give out? 1t takes
a hundred years to grow a tree, while
straw grows every year. In the
Northwest they burn straw in vast
quantities every year 50 as to get it
out of the way. The paper tie must
be adopted before long from sheer ne
cessity. We can't go on chopping
down trees forever. The paper tie
dea lens sound. It's a pretty good
thing, 1 guess, eh?" asked the in
ventor, and again he smiled and
drummed on the tie with his finger
nails.