The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1893-07-13
THE PEJEPSCOT MILL.
Half a Million Dollars to be In.
vested There.
SUCCESSFUL PAPER INDUSTRY ON
THE LOWER ANDROSCOGGIN.

L Os ttHlbcAouSc w IL s5oOI OC <1pic "
Produce a Hundred Tons of Paper a
Day-ParticuIars of the Work Going
On.
The wooded and picturesque banks of
the Androscoggin, four miles above
Brunswick, are the scene of great activ-
ity this summer. Mention has been made
heretofore of the new paper plant which
the paper company are building, but no
description of length commensurate
with the magnitude of the work has
been given of this important undertake
ing. The plans upon which the Pejep-
scot company are now working contem-
plate the expenditure of half million
of dollars. This means an immense
plant, fitted up in the most approved
method, for the production Of an
article which is rapidly becoming
a specially for Maine. Quietly and
constantly, while the eyes of the people.
of Maine have been turned to their in
vestments in the West, capital has been
coming into the neglected water privil-
eyes. The same association of capital
lists, w. II. Parsons & Co., of New York,
who are interested in the new Pejepscot
mill, have been improving along the An
droscoggin for some time at Brunswick
and Lisbon Falls; and when their new
mill is completed they will utilize about
10000 horse power in all, employ about
$50 hands, and turn out daily 100 tons
of paper, to be sold in the markets of the
world, from Maine to England and Aus
tralia. Already in the mill at Brunswick
and the Lisbon Falls mill the united pro-
duction is about so tons day. This
does not take into account the sulphite,
of which the Lisbon mill makes about
fifteen tons day..
The paper used in the modern news
paper is made entirely of wood. By the
sulphite process wood fibre is made into
very tough product, which, when
added to ground wood pulp gives to
obtained by mixture of rags. The Par
sons mills, which are all consolidated as
to management under the charge of Mr..
F. G. Whitehouse, SO long known in the
paper trade for his very successful man
agement of the Bowdoin Paper Compa-
ny's mill at Brunswick, now make their
own sulphite, but buy their ground
wood pulp The new Pejepscot mill is
intended to supply this ground wood, as
well as to have machines for turning out
40 or so tons a day of the completed
product. The industry represented by
the allied mills will take 1000 cords Of
spruce lumber a year. Both the rail
roads and the river will be looked to for
this supply, the management believing
that the railroads furnish a means about
as cheap as the river for obtaining their
wood.
The new Pejepscot mill is to be stu
ated on the Androscoggin on the Tops
ham side, about four and half miles
above Brunswick The company have
secured $50 acres of land on both sides
of the Androscoggin, and lying along
both banks of that river four and a half
miles. At the point where the erection
of the mill has been begun the river
flows between high ledgy banks, and is
about 300 feet wide. The dam, however,
will be built in form somewhat elipti-
cal in order to give a rollway of $50 feet.
This will prevent the raising of the
water at so great a height as to
make trouble at the mills at Lisbon.
This dam will be of wood, and is being
built under the direction of Mr.. A. P,
Richardson, of West Chesterfield, N. H.
Mr.. Richardson has been building dams
for the last twenty three years and in all
has about seventy-five on his list. He is
a native of Clinton, Me-, and is now
since the death of "Tom' Emery. the
most famous dam builder in this por-
ton of New England. The dam will
give twenty-one feet of head, and 5000
horse power, of which 540O are to be
used in the mills now planned, and the
remainder reserved for future construc-
ton on the west side of the river.
The work planned for the east side
contemplates the
Expenditure of 100000.
The water development and the pulp
mill now begun will require $500, 900 and
the paper mill to begun next will cost
$4,000 more. The plan has been made
by Engineer J. Herbert Shedd, of Provi-
dence, r. l., and the construction is 60
ing on under the direction of Mr.. F. H.
Baldwin. the resident engineer The
pulp mill, of which the foundations are
now being put in by Hacker and Cobb,
of Brunswick, will be 1870 feet long by
80 wide, two stories high and built Of
brick. 1t will produce Is or so tons of
pulp per day. The paper mill, which is
to be built next will be fitted out with
four large machines, capable of making
fifty OF sixty tons of paper a day.
The Maine Central is laying spur
track of mile and a quarter SO that cars
may be run to the mill doors.
The officers of the Pejepscot company
are President David S. Cowles, of New
York, treasurer and resident manager F.