The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-11-30
PAPER FROM WOOD PULP.
Spruce Trees Of To-day Become Great
White Rolls on the Morrow.
From the Chicago Record.

Somewhere in the forests of Northern
Michigan great spruce tree is growing.
When the SHOWS Of the coming winter
gray ashes left by the forest fires the
woodman's AK win lay the spruce tree
low, it's 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 log
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-puip mill.
When next it is touched by man the
spruce log will have no rest until it is
cast aside in a great city, as thousands
of sheets of 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 employ
ment to thousands of men, puts millions
of dollars into their homes and utilizes the
skill of the hydraulic engineer, the me-
chanical engineer and the chemist. Paper
IL
measure. Old rags, from which almost
all paper was made before Fort Sumter
was fired upon, rose in value during the
dark days which followed. The paper max
ers were compelled to look around for
substitute. A bright man thought of wood
pulp, and before long machinery and chem
icals were doing what the wasps and hor-
nets 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 eX
pired wood pulp paper mills sprung up
wherever spruce, water and railroad
| transportation combined to fill out the nee
essary condition for desirable sites. I'm
provements in the process and the ma
chinery 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 win
ters 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 inches TO four feet long. Before
it 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 a high speed.
Stripped of it's bark, the block of wood is
carried to the grinder" This is a large
grindstone sometimes two feet thick. The
log Is held by hydaulic pressure against
the stone, and water is kept running on
the stone to prevent the wood from burn
ing. The stone rubs or grinds the log into
pulp, which falls down on a screen, where
the splinters and silvers are caught, the
fine pulp passing through the meshes. A
pump sucks up the pulp through the vat
or box to a brass plate which is perforated
with small holes. The pulp is really a
liquid capable of being pumped or carried
in a stream from place to place, and 1t is
next pumped upon what is called the wet
machine" Here it is spread on wooden
blanket or on felt where some, but not all
of the water is pressed from it and 1t is
left in layers, which are called laps" In
this condition it looks like newspaper
which, after being soaked in water, is
squeezed in the hand 1t is solid enough TO
be carried about and the laps" are made
into bundles, each weighing about 100
pounds In this shape ii Is shipped to the
paper mill, for only the larger mills make
their own wood pulp.
Paper made entirely of wood pulp would
not be strong enough to stand the wear
and tear of the huge printing presses
which turn the white paper" into news
paper The grinder" breaks up the fbers
so that the paper would not hang together
in passing over the tapes, through the rolls
and cylinders and folders. To give II
strength the paper maker must restore the
fiber. Until within a few years this was
done by cutting up rags, fax, cotton waste
and other fibers and mixing the fragments
| with the wood pulp. But most of the news
! papers now are made entirely from wood
| for what is known as 'sulphite fiber" has
! taken the place of the other fbers. The
| sulphite fiber or, as it is commonly called
] I,f4, F- Nv rTnn1 a
| is not made by grinding, and the fibers,
therefore, are not broken up. The sulphite
| is made by boiling the wood in large
! boiler called a "digester," with steam and
a product of sulphur. The wood is digested
| or disintegrated into it's fibers, which,
| however, retain their full strength.
The wood pulp and sulphite, in proper
| proportions, are mixed together in an OBJ
| long tub called the engine" after they
! are thoroughly mixed, colored and sized,
| the pulp becomes 'balf-stock," and is
| pumped into tanks or watts and then upon
| a screen which catches any foreign sub
! stance which might have fallen into the
half-stock. Then it is ready for the paper
machine. Here the pulp, which looks like
! rich milk is spread over an endless mesh
| or screen which carries 1t toward the cyl
| inders and rollers which make the finished
| paper AS the watery pulp travels toward
! the rolls. the screen vibrates, the water
| drops through, leaving the pulp broad
sheet of mushy paper. This sheet passes
| over perforated plates through which the
remaining water is sucked by pumps; be-
| tween rolls which press 1t into more
! compact condition and make it stronger
| between other rolls which squeeze IL again
and then deliver it on to an endless belt
| of felt. which carries 1t over and under
| large cylinders heated by steam and finally
| feeds il into the calender rolls, where
| the paper is smoothed and pressed into
! the finished product. From the last stock
of calenders the paper is made into rolls
which are shipped to the newspapers
| ready for the press.
| The spruce tree which is now growing in
| ITpper Michigan may be in the hands OF
| the newsboys next summer, for after
! MEntNh