Omaha daily bee., 1896-11-01

wheels. and horseshoes, imitation porcelain
ware barrels, boats, window panes, furni-
ture of many kinds, telegraph poles, drain
pipes and tiling. paving brick, collins, car
pets, thread heavy guns, matches yes, and
portable houses, paint, artificial teeth ana
even bicycle frames.
IL would, indeed, require a long catalogue
to tell of the protean forms which wood
pulp is now made to assume. To 1t we owe
the penny blanket sheet newspapers 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 a year more paper than
was produced in the whole country twenty
five years ago. and there are five of six
newspapers in the United States which
together use up more paper than was made
in the whole world at that period, Today
great forests are being annually slaughtered
to afford material for the wood pulp ma
chimes An enormous industry has been
built up in this and other countries, whose
capitalization and annual product runs up
into the hundreds OF millions. And still
those engaged in tho industry regard it as
yet in the stage of short dresses.
SILK FROM WOOD PULP.
The latest application, to the manufac-
ture Of silk, seems to confirm this view.
Almost all the uses of celulose, indeed,
aside from that for paper making, have
come within the last ten years, and prob
dblS AHc ldSN year HdS Sttu llulC new ustS
made of this remarkable substance than
in all the other ten put together. New
patents are being taken out every month.
and with the enormous extension that will
be made by tho invasion of the vast spruce
and fir forests Of the North Pacific coast
in this country and OF Siberia, it is en-
tirely probable that the next few years
will witness a still more remarkable ad-
vance.
This late development is somewhat
curious in view OF the fact that the idea
OF grinding wood up into pulp and employ
ing 1t for various purposes is nou nearly so
new as mcst people suppose. As far back
as 17l9, Frenchman named Reamur pub
lishod an essay upon the subject taking
his hint from the wasps, whose paper-like
nests are literally made from wood pulp
manufactured by these insects. But 1t was
only something like thirty or forty years
ago that any practical trial OF the matter
was made, and 1t is almost wholly within
the last quarter OF a century that the in
dustry has begun to assume any impor-
tance. Its first, and stlll Its principal ap.
plication was In the manufacture OF paper.
In the beginning, II was used purely ms an
accessory to rags and straw fiber, 1t being
originally the belief that paper OF suf-
ficlent strength and frmness OF texture
could not be made from wood pulp alone.
Now however, not only the paper upon
which this article is printed, but the maya
zines and very large proportion of the
books now published are made wholly from
pulp.
PRODUCTION OF PULP.
OF the latter, however, there are two dis
tinct varieties, that OF wood pulp proper
and that which Is more properly described as
wood fiber The first is obtained by
purely mechanical and the second chiefly
by a chemical process Tho production of
wood pulp proper is simplicity itself The
logs, usually OF spruce or FIR, are cut into
suitable lengths. from q foot and II half to
four feet long, and these are then ready
for the grinders" These pieces have been
carefully freed from any knots and dcnuded
OF bark, and caro is taken that they shall be
free from amy defects or rot. The grinders
are heavy machines. usually driven directly
by watcf-N heel. and very much resemble
wheat grinding burr very much enlarged
and net on Its side They consist OF large
rotary gTindstOnes Of special strength. and
Of grips to hold the blocks against these
stones Hydraulic pressure forces the blocks
OF wood against the grinders, while a stream