The record-union., 1896-11-15
WOOD PULP MARVELS.
Manufacture Of Silk Directly From
Wood Pulp.
Also Car Wheels, Paving Brick, WIN
dow-Panes, Drain Tiles, 1ele-
graph Poles and Paint.

discovery OF prOCtSo AOA 'AA~ N
ufacture of silk directly from the Wooo
pulp has proven an unquestlohaple
commercial success, means not only
that the silk worm raising industry,
as well the silk worm itself, IS doomed,
bat it marks the latest step IN that
wonderful advance within the last ten
Years, in the use of wood pulp as
material for manufacture. very rev
people probably are aware Of the va
Iied uses to which this product tech
nically known as "cellulose, is now
put that from it now comes the
larger part of the paper which we use,
and most of the car wheels OF the
coaches upon which we ride, and rails
for railways and wagon wheels, and
horseshoes, imitation porcelain ware,
barrels. boats, window panes, furni-
ture of many kinds, telegraph poles,
drain pipes and tiling, paving brick,
collins, carpets, thread, heavy guns,
matches. yes, and portable house, paint,
artificial teeth and even bicycle frames.
1t would require a long catalogue
to tell of the protean forms which wood
pulp is now made to assume. To it we
owe the penny blanket sheet newspa-
pers, and the marvelously low priced
magazines, and cheap books and cheap
wrapping paper. There are in the
United States two newspapers which
alone use up in year more paper than
was produced in the whole country
twenty-five years ago, and there are
five or six newspapers in the United
States which together use up more pa
per than was made in the whole world
at that period. To-day great forests
are being annually slaughtered to af-
ford material for the wood pulp ma
chimes. An enormous industry has
been built up in this and other coun-
tries, whose capitalization and annual
product runs up into the hundreds of
millions. And still those engaged in
the industry regard it as yet in the
stage of short dresses.
The latest application to the manu-
facture of silk, seems to confirm this
view. Almost all the uses of celluloSe,
indeed, aside from that for paper MAX
ing, have come within the last ten
years, and probably the last year has
seen more new uses made of this re-
markable substance than in all the
other ten put together New patents
are being taken out every month, and
be made by the invasion of the vast
spruce and fir forests of the north Pa
ciic coast in this country, and of ST.
IBERIA, it is entirely probable that the
next few years will witness still more
remarkable advance.
This late development is somewhat
curious in view of the fact that the
idea Of grinding wood up into pulp and
employing it for various purposes is not
nearly so new as most people suppose.
As far back as 1719, a Frenchman
named Peamur published an essay up
on the subject, taking his hint from the
wasps, whose paper-like nests are lit
orally made from wood pulp manufac-
tured by these insects. But it was only
something like thirty or forty years
ago that any practical trial of the mat
ter was made, and it is almost wholly
within the last quarter of a century
that the industry has begun to assume
any Importance. It's first, and still its
principal application, was in the manu-
facture Of paper. In the beginning it
was used purely as an accessory to rags
and straw fiber, ii being originally the
belief that paper OF sufficient strength
could not be made from wood pulp
alone. Now, however, not only the pa
per upon which this article is printed,
but the magazines and a very large pro-
PORTION of the books now published are
made wholly from pulp.
OF the latter, however, there are two
distinct varieties, that of wood pulp
proper and that which is more properly
described as wood fiber. The first is
ytaf J,1x
the second chiefly by chemical pro-
cess. The production of wood pulp pa
per is simplicity itself. The logs, usu-
ally of spruce or fir, are cut into suit
able length, from foot and a half to
four feet long, and these are then ready
for the grinders" These pieces have
been carefully freed from knots and de-
nuded of bark, and care is taken that
they shall be free from any defects or
rot. The grinders are heavy machines.
usually driven directly by a water
wheel, and very much resemble
wheat-grinding burr very much en-
larged and set on its side They con-
sist Of large rotary grindstones of spe-
cal strength. and of grips to hold the
blocks against these stones. Hydraulic
pressure forces the blocks of wood
against the grinders. while stream of
water prevents their being burned by
friction, and at the same time carries
off the ground-up pulp. The latter is
either fed directly to the paper making
machine or else carried to dryers and
compressers, known as wet" ma
chimes. In case of the latter the pulp Is
made UP in blocks, consisting of about
two-thirds water and one third pulp.
and in this shape is ready for shipment.
II. however, the pulp is fed directly TO
the paper making machine, 1t is first
taken IN hand by engines or beaters,
very much similar to those which handle
the rags in rag paper making, which re-
duce the fibers to the proper length and
give them the desired consistency
When a vat Of pulp has been properly
treated the mash is transferred to a re-
oeptacle, where II awaits its use by the
per-making machine. BY the latter
Il Is taken UP on an endless brass wire
cloth the meshes of which permit the
water to escape as the cloth slowly
travels forward. A simple conTiyance
keeps the wire cloth vibrating and as
sists In the knitting of the fiber. Next
an endless web of felt takes this thin
layer Of partially dried pulp and runs
II through several large rollers, which
remove the most of the remaining
moisture and press the fbers into a
closely knit strip. From this point to
the hot rollers the paper is carried with
out assistance of further webs, and as
the successive hot rollers pass over 1t
the paper becomes dry and firm Sc
ries of calendar rollers next take it in
fas.r = -s,-fxI II