Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1895-10-30
LOGS TO PAPER,
Some Processes Employed In
Paper Manufacture.
Cushnoc Fibre Company's Paper Mills
Running Full Speed.
Description Of The Dises,ers Used For
Making suIphite.

Inc manufacture of pulp for paper uses
is one of the greatest of Maipe's indus
| tfies, and aside from being one of the
greatest, is one of the most interesting.
The processes of transformation under
gone, to produce paper out of spruce
trees are various as done by the Cushnoe
Fibre Company they are said to be as
complete as any In the State.
The logs ara hauled from the river by
an endless chain system, and slid into a
room where they are cut into two feet
lengths.
The pieces are then taken in hand by
workmen, and placed lengthwise against
revolving knives arranged ON disks radius
fashion, and deprived of the bark which is
not fit for further use, except to feed the
| fire with.
The two feet sections, thus bereft of all
outer covering which would not be suita-
BILE for making into pulp, are split into
halves. These halves suffer one Of two
fates; either they are placed in box and
jammed by hydraulic pressure against
grlndstones which reduce them to pulp, or
else are chopped into small pieces, called
chips" and taken away to another de-
partment to await the process of the
'digestcr'
The pulp, made by the grindstone Is
then cleansed and worked by various
processes until 1t is of the proper con-
sistency to form what might be called
the substance of the paper. After the
grinding it has undergone it is wholly de-
void of any fibrous qualities, and is virtu-
ally reduced to very fine sawdust
1t is then relieved Of the water and ac-
cumulated layer upon layer, on a roller
until it is of sufficient thickness to be
handled conveniently, when it is folded
and stacked to await mixture with the
| f1brous properties of the paper, called sui
phite.
The process of eliminating the pulpy
substance from the small chips by the
"digesters" is by far the more subtle per-
Torrance of the two.
The chips are blown from the chipping
machine to building devoted wholly to
their treatment. On a screen the pieces
too large, and likewise those too small,
are sifted away leaving the bits to be
digestet Of a practically uniform size, so
that all may be treated to the same de-
gree. The chips are then carried to the
mouth of the digester and spilled in, fill
ing 1t with the exception of about two
feet at the top. The digesters are
immense bottle shaped receptacles, reach
ing from the bottom to the top floor, and
about six feet in diameter. Those in use
by the Cushnoc Fibre Company are of fire
lined brick material. They were substi-
tuted, about three years ago for bronze
ones, which were deemed unsafe, from
terrible explosion which occurred in one
of the southern states about that time of
some of that material
A mixture of sulphate of lime and
magnesia is prepared in a series of three
tanks. At one end sulphuric gas is
obtained from smouldering sulphur, led
through pipes which are submerged in
water, and thus cooled, induced through
the three tanks filled with the solution
of lime and magnesia which absorbs the
sulphuric properties of the gas. Natur
ally, the first tank gets the strongest dose
of gas, and the solution in this is the
most sulphuric of the three. BY mixing
all three, o uniformity is obtained and
it Is then ready for applying to the chips,
in the digesters. The sulphur burning
room is not the plessantest place in the
world, but is beyond any shadow of IA
doubt the most healthy as far as any
contagious disease Is concerned. Those
who work there claim that they like it,
The sulpnate of lime and msgnesia is
then poured in upon the chips, and q
cover tightly bolted on. just what gots
on there is hard to describe, and probably
no one knows precisely. But. after "A
few hours the time depending upon cir
cumstances, the dgester is tapped at the
bottom and when the brewing shows the
proper color, an amber hue the liquid is
drawn away, the pulpy consistency being
eaten out by the action and pressure to
which it is subjected by the acid
Thus the two composites of the paper
have been made; the pulp, or the body,
simply a filling, with no tibrous cohesion
whatever; and the sulphite or wood pre-
paration in which the pulpy properties
are taken, leaving the fibre.
The mixture of the two is made in
great tanks, canal like, where sort of
paddle wheel arrangement mixes the two,
without destroying the fibre. The paddle
wheel is supplied with knives, not unlike
a lawn mower, but does not cut the fibre
rather clongating it. After being
worked into the proper condition, accord