The Press., 1898-02-03
[From the New York Evening Post.l
WOOD PAPER IMPROVED.

cbAO W u1SCICO11
the doubts about the durability of their
modern product 81 find," said one of
them in Reade street yesterday, ''that from
the beginning of paper-making people have
questioned it's lasting qualities. Yet the
old italian and German papers have endur-
ed to this day; and, although we have
used new processes and materialsin the last
is or 90 years, we know of nothing which
really makes the durabilityof present pa
pers problematical Recently in England
u commission was appointed to finally re-
port upon the question, after using all
means of investigation and applying all
possible tests.
OF course the interest in this question
has been owing to the other question in
Eyolved. Was printing soon to be deprived
of it's character as the art preservative 2''
1t was feared that wood could not, as well
as rags, withstand the influence of air and
time, especially after chemicals had been
used in turning it into paper. But in this
country wood has served as the basic ma
terial for 80 years, andis more and more es-
teemed. In Germany it has served dur
ing a longer period Keller discovered
that wasps made their nests of stuff WOW
en- from wood fibers, and Voelter invented
a machine that would reduce wood to an
elementary state as well as wasp could
do it.
Better paper is made to-day in America
than ever before anywhere, and for books
| it is unnecessary to use the ground wood
Wood papers are of two kinds; ground and
chemically prepared. Ground wood paper
| is brittle, the grinding being fatal to thief
ores, and, as it discolors quickly is used
o ly for newspapers and books not meant
to last. Of the chemically prepared there
are two varieties-the sulphite and the SO
da. These chemicals seperate the wood
into fibre and the soda, though manufactur-
ers are not so sure regarding sulphite
produces a lasting article. Nearly all
New York newspapers use groundwork
paper; that of the Evening Post, however,
J is only Is per cent ground-wood, the re-
mainder sulphite fibre. Lately an atwood
serviceabl book, magazine and lithograph-
ing paper has been produced with a mix
ture of sodo and sulphite. 1t isn't as tough
as though made partly of rags, for wood f.
bres at best are straight, and lie almost
parellel instead of INTERVENING, as linen
or cotton fibres will do.
Rags are chiefly used now for writing
and bond papers. Old linen rags and new
cotton clippings sized with animal glue
combine in the finest paper known, and
they are not made by hand, but by ma
chine. Holyoke being near the cotton fac
tories of New England, turns out most of
the ffnepapers: Niagara Falls, Glens Falls,
a valley in Wisconsin, points near the
Maine rivers-places to which the spruce
timber can be easily transported, and from
which the finished product can be shipped
in many directions are famous for wood
papers. The largest paper-machine in the
world is in Schuylerville, of this state, and
the smallest in Newark, n. J.; the one, if
erected in a straight line. as is the custom,
measuring 27j feet in length, and the 9TH
er, used for getting out samples being only
13 feet-even a toy paper-machine being a
considerable monster as machines go. Not
withstanding the increase of fine papers i'm
ports are comparatively small. Russian
linen rags have almost stopped coming,
Catania and Trieste, Salonica and Con-
stantinople have ceased to furnish any rags
though 20 years ago they sent here thous-
ands of tons. It must have been observ-
ed by many that the business Of rag-collec-
ting has fallen off at home, and thereby we
have all but lost two rather picturesque
features of our country and city roads
the tin-peddler's cart, and the Irish hand.
cart ragman, with his strings of bells.
In spite of the size and alacrity of the
present production, one of the problems o1
the paper makers is how to increase the
output. Not long ago the staff of paper
machinery firm were called to the Office o!
the senior partner, who reminded then
that years ago he had urged them to try
to get out machine that would make 30C
feet of paper minute; that later he haC
appealed to them for machine with ca
pacity of 500 feet a minute, that now {
speed of 512 feet had been achieved, anC
maintained day after day and week aftel
week; and he ended by saying that ''tht
new century mus tfind paper-machinesm max
ing sheets of newspaper successfully 1OO(
feet long every minute of the day!"
Doubtless the home demand will no
keep pace; indeed, it is not expected to; bu
the export trade is all the time growing
in volume. Between 1890 and 1895 WI
had doubled our paper exports, while
Great Brltian and Germany had lessenec
theirs. Germany is still a great dea
ahead Of US in quantity of EXPORTS tha
she is not so in quality and price constitut
es our hope in the future. Great BritiaI
and Japan buy our paper machines, ye
even were they to use American machines
exclusively: it is declared by an expert il
a recent Paper Trade journal that it is
safe to say that the cost per pound for la
bor in the paper mills of the United States
is little if any more than in the mills Of
the Old World" Paper-making, at leas
is not among the American industries thai
cry for a protective tariff" 1t can holC
its own just by virtue of the country's nat
ural resources and the energy and inven
tiveness of it's people.