The Pascagoula democrat-star. (Pascagoula, Miss.) 1878-1920, 1894-12-21
WOOD PULP PAPER.
Spruce Trees Of To-Day Become Great
White Rolls Tomorrow.
Chicago Record.

Vultc ISOllS 1O M0II0Ws
Chicago Record.
Somewhere in the forests OF North
ern Michigan great spruce tree Is
growing. When the SHOWS OF the COM
ing winter have whitened the charred |
stumps and gray ashes left by the
forest fires the wOOdman's axe will lay |
the spruce tree low, its graceful
branches will be cut away and the
hacked, gashed, ugly trunk will be
rolled onto a sled and carried to the
banks of the frozen river. There it
will await the spring freshet, which
will free the stream and carry the
spruce 10y on the current down the
river, over the rapids, battered by
rocks and SCARED by huge pine logs.
until it comes to rest In the quiet
waters of the boom below the wood
pulp mill.
When next it is touched by man the
spruce log will have no rest until it is
cast aside in great city, as thousands
of sheets OF a newspaper published the
day before.
The transformation Of the spruce
log into the white paper upon which
the news of the day is printed gives
employmentto to thousands ofmen, puts
millions Of dollars into homes and
utilities the skill of the hydraulic en-
gineer, the mechanical engineer and
the chemist. Paper made from wood
is the result OF war measure. Old
rags, from which almost all paper was
made before Fort Sumter was fred
upon, rose in value during the dark
days which followed. The paper max
crs were compelled to look around for
a substitute. A bright man thought
of wood pulp, and before long machin-
cry and chemicals were doing what
the wasps and hornets had been doing
for thousands Of years-making paper
out Of trees.
When the patents on the process and
machinery for making wood pulp had
expired wood pulp paper mills sprane
up wherever spruce, water and rail
road transportation combined to I'LL
out the necessary condition for desir
able sites. Improvements in the pro-
cess and the machinery lowered the
cost OF production; competition
brought prices down and the poorest
man in the country was able to read
the newspapers.
The lumbermen, who spend the
winters in the hearts OF the forests in
the northern tier of States cutting
down spruce trees, select trees varying
from seven inches to eighteen inches
in diameter. When the spruce log
reaches the wood pulp mill it is cut
into short lengths, from sixteen inch
es to four feet long. Before 1t is ground
into pulp the bark must be removed,
and this is done rapidly by means of a
machine called the barker, a sort OF
circular plane, which revolves at
high speed.
Stripped OF its bark, the block OF
wood is carried to the grinder" This
is a large grindstone, sometimes two
feet thick. The log is held by hydraulic
pressure against the stone, and watel
is kept running on the stone to pre-
vent the wood from burning. The
stone rubs or grinds the log into pulp
which falls down on a screen, where
the splintcrs and slivers are caught
the fine pulp passing through th'
meshes. A pump sucks up the pull
through the vat or box to a smal
hole. The pulp is really a liquid cap
able of being pumped or carried in
: stream from place to place, and it Il
next pumped upon what is called th,
"wet machine" Here it is spread on
woollen blanket or on felt, wher
some, but not all of the water is press
ed from it and is left in layers, whicl
} are called ''laps." In this condition i
, looks like newspaper which, afte
being soaked in water, is squeezed Il
the hand. 1t is solid enough to b
carried about and the "laps" are mad
into bundles, each weighing about on
I hundred pounds. In this shape it |
shipped to the paper mill, for onl,
the larger mills make their own WOO
pulp.
Paper made entirely of wood pul
: would not be strong enough to stan
S the wear and tear of the huge printin
!. presses which turn the "white paper
d into newspaper. The grinder" break
y up the flbres so that the paper woul
= not hang together in passing over I'll
: types, through the rolls and cylinder
t and folders. To give it strength tt
y paper maker must restore the hbr
|. Until within few years this wa
d done by cutting up rags, FAX, cottt
+. waste and other flbres and mixing u
!. fragments with the wood pulp. 81
d most Of the newspapers now are mat
!. entirely from wood. for what is know
Is as ''sulphite fibre" has taken the pla
g of the other Hbres. The sulphite tibl
or, an it is commonly called, Isl
phite," Is really wood pulp also, but
! Is not made by grinding, and the 6brt
y u therefore, are not broken up. i
. sulphite is made by boiling the wo
;, In a large boiler called "digeste'
~ with steam and u product at sulphl
The wood Ia disgested or disintegrat
X into It's dbres, which, however, fcta
~ THAR fnll strength,