The Lambertville record. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1872-1968, 1884-12-24
A TRADE SECRET.


The Paper World tells this story of the
manufacture of MANILA -four sacks by ArLell
Smiths at Conajoharie, in their bag fac.
tory, which is the largest in the world;
The civil war had not long been in pro-
gress when it nearly extinguished the cotton
Hour sack manufacture; but necessity was
never more truly the mother of invention
than the war was the cause of the making
of the paper sack at that time. Cotton was
not king, MS had been written across the
length and breadth of the land paper was
found to be o substitute better and cheaper
than cotton itself. As energetic as the firm
OF Arkell y Smiths Ind been in extending
their business at tho start, they still had
unused resources of mind and energy to at.
tack the paper problem and bring il TO q
highly successful solution.
From 1868 to 1865 the manufacture and
trade in cotton sacks had almost wholly
dried up, and this firm, seeing clearly tina,
It's business was fraying down to moro thar
| a ragged edge, commenced series of exper
tments in several paper mills to produce q
paper of the requisite toughness and tensile
strength to bear the abrasion and strain in.
cident to the transportation of flour. The
paper grocery bag was then Just coming
into use, but the paper of which it was, and
is still made, is so tender and fragile that il
would have been useless for any thing except
the llghtest contents and for the shortest
transportation. Every known and available
hbre was tested-Australian and Spanish
grasses, Canadian wild rico straw, Kentucky
hemp, Northern flax, Hindu jute, MANILA,
linen waste, and many others. No material
gave such strength rs the MANILA used in
the manufacture of rope and cordage. This
material, however, was SO obdurate and
kinking that the first sheets of paper made
from it would roll and il was only after
months of chemical persuasion and mechani
cal castigaton that this contrariness was
overcome. This paper was found to have Il
surprising tensile strength, for an inch rib.
bon of it sustained n weight of 100 pounds.
Some OF tho bag paper now made is strong
enough to hold toward 200 pounds on an
sack cloth gives way at % pounds.
Manila, however, was found too costly,
being worth in those days 1G cents per
pound in gold, with gold Mt 80, and il re.
CURED two pounds Of the fibre, exclusive of
the chemicals, to make pound of paper.
Manila could not be cheapened, for, though
the labor employed in getting the fibre was
excessively cheap, the distance of the trans
portation from the Philippine Islands could
not be shortened, and the material was too
expensive for an economical paper material
1t was not long, however, before it wa,
found that old MANILA rope that had been
used in rigging on water craft, had all tho
requisite strength and was cheap enough,
while large part of the sickness of the
new fibre was worked out of it by the usage.
So the old rope that paper-lnalters had
hitherto considered II nuisance and thrown
away was utilized for the new paper flour
sack
This m;nilla stock is made into tho dc.
sired paper by peculiar process of telling.
The rope is cut into lengths Of three or foul
inches and beaten out while dly into mass
that looks like the hair of n mattress; it il
then boiled in lime water, beaten for hour
in great FOUNDERS whose iron ribs comb Out
the fires without MASKING them, and then
by one step after another, it is carried float
ing in water to the face of revolving wires
whore il is sucked up against their moving
faces all woven, tangled and interlaced
and so passes upon continuous moving
belt of flannel where another soppy we
sheet made in the same way, joins il and
the two now beginning TO unto, are passed
under and over n long double row of steam
calenders, which squeeze out the water, dry
and press the fibres tightly together, till Of
last the hairy-looking pulp that surged at
one end of tho machine like foamy sea is
rolled up Mt the other end in big drums OF
paper weighing $50 pounds to the roll
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