The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1884-04-18
Nliscrl lancntls.
For The -Egis ana AnteiAgacv.
A Great Manufacturing Enterprise.
THE SUSQUEHANNA PAPER WORKS.
UTILIZING SUSQUEHANNA'S RAPID
CURRENT

One mile below Conowingo, on the Har-
ford county side of the Susquehanna river,
the Susquehanna Paper Company has loca-
ted its immense works. The capital stock Of
the company is $250000 The projectors of
this enterprise have ingcniously contrived to
use the grand and rugged old river as pow
er almost made to their hand. Just below
the old Sand Bar Shad Fishery, SO well
known to all the old people in the neighbor-
hood for the fine quality of shad that were
caught there, fifty or sixty years ago, by
David G. Mccoy, Henry Wesley and others,
is small island in the river, about one hun
bred feet from the main land. The fore bay
or head gate of the work is ninety feet long,
extending from the main land to this island.
AT the head of the island wing dam COM
mences, which is continued obliquey up the
river for 600 feet The dam runs up the
river dividing the current in such manner
as to pile the water up on the Hartford side.
The upper end of this dam is four or five
hundred feet from the river shore. Two hun
drcd and sixty thousand feet of lumber and
more than 10000 pcrches of stone were used
in constructing this dam. 1t was construct
ed so substantially and well that the ice did
it no injury the past winter 1t now gives
head sufficient for | 800 horse power for the
paper mill, and 200 horse power for flint
mill, located one hundred yards above the
paper works. This water power can be
largely increased if desired
The paper works consist of several large
brick and one frame building, all connected
together, except one brick building 2Sb by 60
feet, two stories high, which is detached from
the main buildings thirty or forty yards, on
account of the material in it being liable to
spontaneous combustion. This is called the
picker house" and is where the cotton
waste is made ready for the revolving boiler
in which it is cooked. In the main building
is the heater room, 1877 by 81 feet, two stories
in height, built of brick. 1t contains six en-
gnes for beating pulp, together with other
machinery. The rotary boiler room, 2S by 4G
feet, is also of brick, two stories high, and
has in it n rotary boiler which looks some.
thing like Winan's cigar ship, which was
familiar sight at Baltimore during the war;
except that the boiler is not sharp ended Its
weight is thirteen tons. 1t is twenty -four feet
long and twenty one feet in circumference
In this large boiler the cotton waste is cook
ed and made ready for the beaters. The cot
ton stock, after being prepared in the picker
room, is blown through a large pneumatic
tube into the upper story of the boiler room
where it is convenient for putting into the
boiler
The room where the wood is ground into
pulp is heavy frame, 40 by AZ feet 1t
contains six grinding machines, with grind
stones twelve feet in circumference and
twenty inches on the face; also two sixty-two
inch wet machines for reducing pulp. The
basement of this room contains six first class
turbine water wheels, weighing fifteen tons
each, and also the large gearing connected
with them.
rha Hpi ;nl, I,,,E n e.
has in it No. one paper making machine,
80 inches by 10 feet, and room for another
machine of equal size, which will be placed
there shortly. Connected with this room is
an engine house 12 by 16 feet, containing a
forty horse power engine, which resembles
tue handsome little engine in the mint in
Philadelphia. If the company can learn it
to coin money rs fast and as well as its Phil
adelphia brother, it will be great pet with
the stockholders. The boiler house is 80 by
40 feet and contains two of Babcock Il Will.
coXs tubular boilers, each of eighty
horse power. Connected with the boiler
room is a stack or chimney eighty feet high,
to get the necessary draft.
All the rooms or buildings are of brick, ex-
ccpt the one named as the room where wood
is ground. Two solid iron shafts, one hun.
dred and ten feet long each and nearly two
feet in circumference for running betting,
DC, are part of the machinery in the work.
The machinery in the mill is very massive,
and many hands are now busy adjusting it
properly. The mill will be started in q few
weeks and will run without ceasing night
and day. In the mills chemical room for
ty or fifty feet square, divided into vats for
mixing chemicals. ll
Electric lights will be used throughout the
works, and none of them will be put under a
bushe. 1t is estimated that 1000 cords of
poplar or spruce wood will be annually
turned into paper Twelve hundred tons of
cotton waste will also be used yearly, as well
as a large amount of chemicals for bleaching
the stock. The paper, when finished, will
consist of about two-thirds wood and one
third cotton. They expect to make twelve
tons of news and hanging paper daily.
For about eighteen months, more than one
hundred men have been on the pay roll part
of the time one hundred and forty, erecting
these works. The foundations of all the
buildings were sunk down to solid rock. The
running of these works will give constant
employment TO more than one hundred
hands. Besides the buildings mentioned,
the company have several frame tenant
houses. n frame office, have just finished
large frame boarding house. with twenty
rooms, and are going tobuild more.
About one hundred yards above the paper
works is the flint mill, granite building
about 200 by 20 feet. 1t contains ten grind
ing tubs, n large revolving dryer for drying
ground flint, heavy stone crushers, &c. The
flint prepared here is of the best quality, and
the Flint Company find ready and remu
nerative market for it, This company also
employs quite q number of hands and turns
out, ready for market, fifty tons of flint per
week. Ample flint quarries along the river
hills, a mile or two above the mill, make the
crude article very accessible by the canal.
The special novelty of the flint mill is that