Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1888-08-31
HOW PAPER Is MADE.
An Ingenious. Rapid and Effective Pro-
cess of Manufacture.

at Bellows Falls. There are several mills
belonging to the company, containing a
number of Fourdrinier machines and
cylinder machines, Voelter wood pulp
grinders and paper engines. The steam
for heating and drying is fur
nished by large ,steel boilers. The
coal used is loaded on cars in
Pennsylvania. and unloaded from
the cars within the mills. The floor area
of the mills is over 200, 900 square feet.
A machine shop in connection with the
mills employs from thirty to fifty hands.
For the MANILA paper made here, jute
butts and threads are used, coming prin-
cipally from India, but partly from Dun
dee in Scotland, and old cordage, which
is chiefly supplied by the shipping yards
of England. The wood pulp made in the
mills is not all used here, part of it is
sold to other manufacturers. The wood
from which it is made is, as before
stated, foated down the river from the
northern forests, and stopped just above
the big dam, near the railway bridge.
The booms, which check the passage Of
the logs and prevent them from going
over the dam, not un~frequently hold
back many thousand logs at one time.
The river has actually a wooden covering
that stretches, almost unbroken, a mile
or two to the north and around the bend.
Standing upon the ''slip," where the
wood is taken from the river, one can
see the logmen skipping about away in
the center of the stream, pushing and
pulling and polling at the logs, and run
ming about quite as freely as if they were
on the land. The "slip' is not unlike a
~toboggan slide, fully as steep and quite
as long. Over it passes an endless chain,
by which the logs are drawn upward
from the river and passed to the steam
saw mill several hundred feet away.
Outside of this mill are mountains of big
timber from which the necessary stock is
drawn and conveyed upon q little car di-
rectly to the big circular saws, which are
very terrible affairs, and would cut a
man in two in less time thar it takes to
wink. These saws cut the wood to the
requisite length, and the blocks are then
carried to splitting machines, the bark
having been first removed by a horrible
looking instrument that bristles with
knives. Thirty men are employed in
this mill.
After saving and splitting, and having
the knots removed. the wood is loaded
upon wagons and conveyed to the grind
ing mills, where there are several huge
grinding machines. In each of these
machines there is q grindstone that re-
wolves with extraordinary rapidity. By
an automatic arrangement the blocks of
wood are pressed against the stone, and,
by the process of grinding in water, they
n ,O e,,aaltlx- .al,,a,1 30 ,-1& ,-1,ol
looks not unlike thin oatmeal cruel. The
grinding machines reduce many cords Of
wood to pulp every day. The grind
stones hav to be recut on their faces
every twenty-four hours. From the
grinding machines the pulp runs through
pipes to the paper mill. 1t is here run
over what Is called the wet machine"
which extracts the water, COMPRISES the
pulp, and leaves it in sheet form, SO that
it can be easily handled. 1t is not, how
ever, at this stage sufficiently strong to
serve as paper, SO 1t is then taken to
great tubs, where, together with the
other stock, it is beaten and mixed by the
paper engines The compound which
is the result Of this operation is drawn
off below into a monstrous tank, capable
OF holding many thousands of gallons,
and from here the pulp is pumped as
wanted to the paper machines.
In speaking of this new process-the
wood pulp process of paper making-one
has, Of course, to consider first the re-
Guction Of the different materials into
fbers of suitable lengths to weave into
sheets. In all kinds of paper making,
whether from the bark of trees or other
! fhrC,,- ,,,ntrar ~ FROM, 80 ne tho ,N,o,,a 49,,
tory process is substantially the same, the
materials being cut into pieces from one
to two inches in length, and then bruised
Or drawn out in water into short and
uniform Elaments called pulp"
Of course, a considerable item in the
list of mill stock supplies is the quantity
of rags received. To be sure, most of "A
sheet of newspaper as it leaves the mill
is, to speak in legitimate paradox, made
of wood. but as vast quantities Of the
paper are made, of course vast quantities
of other stock have to be kept on hand.
The rags when received are sent to the
sorting rooms, where a lot of dusty men
and women are engaged in picking the
bales to pieces, and taking out all foreign
matter. These rag sorting rooms are not
very agreeable places TO stay in, that is
for the visitor, there is SO much dust
floating in the air. After leaving the
sorting room the rags are cooked, -
washed and bleached, and put into a
mixture that is called ''half stuff, -
which forms an inconsiderable percentage
of the paper stock, the wood pulp com
prising the great bulk.
After the wood pulp has been thor
oughly mixed with the other ingredients
necessary for the manufacture of paper,
the compound is pumped directly upon
the paper machine, where it mingles
with clear water. 1t passes over an end
less copper wire which is continually
moving forward, while it has at the same
time a lateral or oscillating motion, the
water dropping through the wire, and
the fbers becoming woven or knit to
gether. The prepared fiber, suspended
in water, flows evenly upon this contin.
ually moving wire in such quantities al
: to produce the required thickness o.
sheet, instead of being dipped from thu
- =: A. 1oca 80 - .,o1 5000.