Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1886-12-30
GOOD WRITING PAPER.
A DESCRIPTION OF THE VARIOUS
PROCESSES OF MANUFACTURE.

Cutting the Rags into Pieces-In the
Cleansing Engine-ReductiOn of the
Rags to Pulp-Blueing. Sizing and
Calenderin (.
The materi tls for good writing paper are
cotton and Ii len rags Of domestic gathering,
supplemented by importations. The rags
come to the mill in bales and are assorted in
several grades and then cut into pieces by
hand The cutting is done by girls and
women, sitting in front of a bench, to which
is fixed short blade like small scythe
blade. The Tags, picked up by the handful,
are drawn across the keen edge with great
rapidity, the operator occasionally using a
sandstone rifle just as the mower does, so that
the dusty room resembles, to the ear, a field
of busy mowers. At a second sorting all the
buttons, pins, hooks and eyes and harsh
seams are removed. The rags then go to a
duster, large cylinder of woven wire, IN
side of which is a shaft carrying number Of
blades of plate iron set in a spiral form on
the shaft and revolving at a rate of speed
higher than that of the outer cylinder. This
difference of speed, with the spiral setting
of the blades. insures constant stirring up
of the rags, and their gradual progress from
final discharge at the open end.
The busted rags then go into rotary
boiler made of boiler iron or steel, revolving
on journals, one of which is hollow and ad-
mits steam at a pressure of from forty to
sixty pounds to the square inch, correspond
ing according to Regnault's tables to heat
of from 292 to 30S degrees Fahrenheit. With
the rags is introduced a certain quantity Of
lime water to assist in the cleaning, the OBJ
ject being 70 start the color as well as the
dirt; for white writing paper is made from
colored rags as well as from white rags; only
the finest uote and letter paper being made
from clear white rags. These rotating boil
ers are of a capacity of a charge Of rags
weighing from 4, coo pounds upward. The
boiler is usually rotated by means of worm
wheel on its solid journal and worm screw,
and it is charged though a manbole that
when in place is securely packed
IN THE CLEANSING TANK.
From this boiler the rags pass to a cleans
ing engine, which is a tank of oval plan, the
walls of which rise about thirty inches from
the floor. The tank is partially divided lon
gitudinally by straight portion, the ends OF
the partition reaching toward the walls Of
the tank far enough to leave space of the
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sides and the tanks walls On one side of
this partition, across the center of the tank,
revolves toothed drum, carrying blades that
act On the rags as they pass in the trough be-
tween fixed blades at the bottom of the tank
These blades do not cut the rags, but tear
them, thus preserving the fiber. The clean
ing Of the rags in the process Of tearing is
facilitated by a constant stream Of water.
Il, 4g,,I Io,-
tary sieve of fine mesh that allows the water
to pass, but rejects the rags. The water thus
lifted passes off through the hollow shaft of
the revolving sieve. This, with the action of
the bladed drum, induces and keeps up cur
rent around and around the tank This en-
gine not only cleanses the rags, but reduces
them to semi-pulpy mass known as @half
stuff" which, although clean, is not purely
white. 1t is bleached with chloride of lime
and again passes through an engine, when the
bleached material, in heaps, resembles solid
snow. After this comes the blueing, if the
paper is to have a tint, although what is
called white paper is slightly blued.
The pulp is pumped into an elevated tank,
from which it is fed to the engine by deliv-
cry gate capable of close adjustment, as upon
the amount of pulp fed to the machine de
pulp flows on to the face Of roller and is
passed to an endless apron Of fine wire sieve
that has impaired to it a jarring motion, to
discharge, as much as possible, the water,
while the sieve retains the almost impalpable
pulp. A set of rolls COMPRISES the pulp
web, which then goes over series of boxes
perforated on the side over which the web
passes, the boxes being exhausted of air by
fan as the web moves. This withdraws the
surplus water that has not been removed by
the sieve and rollers
SIZING AND CALENDERING.
The sheet, having acquired considerable
tenacity, is dried by passing between rollers
heated by steam Then comes the sizing,
without which the closest textured paper
would not receive ink and not spread blot.
The size is the common glue of commerce
made from rawlide of cattle, but it Is em-
ployed hot and quite thin. A second partial
drying, edging of the continuous web by ro-
tary shears, and cutting across into sheets,
completes the operations of turning liquid,
milky pulp into elastic, continuous sheets OF
a substance almost impermeable to air.
From @ths machine" the sheets, still damp
from the sizing, are removed to drying lofts,
and are dried by sun and outer air in pleasant
weather, and by steam heat in inclement
weather. They are then subjected to the
action of hydraulic presses. They are then
calendered by means of a machine of rolls,
three of chilled iron and two Of paper. The
paper rolls are formed of disks of thin
manila paper, cut in presses to diameter,
vita holes through their centers for the re
ception of the shaft. These are pressed in
place by hydraulic machine and turEed
like the iron rolls The surface of the turned
paper rolls are remarkably smooth.
The sheets, after ironing in the calender
machine, are cut in reams by knife similar
in form and action to that of the French
guillotine. The sheets are then sorted and
counted, the somewhat defective ones going
TO an inferior grade of paper The company's
stamp is embossed on each sheet under a
press.
Ruled paper has its lines made in a machine
that IS essentially self-actiEg. The ink IS
more fluid than that used for writing. The
ruling pens are of sheet brass and are semi
cylindrical tubes fed from whole tube, to
which the ink rises from a trough by means
of wicks, as oil in an ordinary lamp. The
packing in hoxes supplements sn this work,
and ithe sheets are ready for the market
Boston Budget.