The times., 1899-12-10
Old Methods improved.


The efforts of Jacob Christian SchoaRer
Matthias Hoops and others. have been i'm
proved upon. so that waste paper straw
wood. esporto cane and several other
vegetable substances of less Importance
are at present used in large quantities in
the manufacture OF paper Paper was
made from wood as easily as from straw
but only on a small scale until the works
of the American Paper Company
had been erected
Carl Holman, who was superintendent of
paper mills in Germany and later owner
of the Public Ledger Paper Mills. at Elk
ton, Nd. is authority for the statement
that Charles Watt and Hugh Burgess re-
ceived a patent Of invention in England
August 10, 1853, and in the United States
July Is, 1854, in which they claim: The
pulping and disintegratng of shavings Of
wood and other similar vegetable matter
for making paper. by treating them with
causJic alkali. chlorine, simple or its
compounds with oxygen and alkali, in the
order substantially as described %
The wood mostly poplar, is brought to
the mill as cord wood, usually in Gve-foot
lengths. The bark is taken of by hand.
and the wood is sliced in thin strips across
the grain. The slices afe then conveyed to
the boilers Solutions of caustic soda are
introduced and the fires started The mass
is boiled for several hours. The pulp is
finished Poplar produces white fibre. but
other woods used in the manufacture Of
paper are maple, cherry, yellow pine hem
lock spruce pine dogwoOd white pine and
birch.
DR.. Charles NJ. Cresson, an expert an pa
per, has written as follows upon results
obtained by him from the treatment OF
wood pulp with chlorine in solution
Chlorine acts with much energy upon
portions of the inteTcellulosc matter. espe-
cially upon that adhering 10 the surface of
the fibre, but ! have failed TO produce a
satisfactory pulp by its use alone. It's use
as bleaching agent upon pure ceilulose
obtained by the full action of an alkaline
bath under proper pressure, ] suppose to
be purely molecular"
Following the chlorine system came the
use of nitric acid. hydrochloric acid, sui
phide Of sodium. and beHzine,
Paper Used in Europe.
IN Europe it is said that the materials
/ used in making paper for newspapers aver
ages 90 parts Of birch wood, 20 parts of
/ kaolin and % parts Of course grey rags.
/ Good paper for ordinary printing purposes
is made in the United States without rags
at all. but it is quite common to add straw
( pulp to the wood pulp. 1t is particularly
/ this paper which gives concern to libra
+ rians and custodians Of documents.
/ Comparatively little attention has been
paid in this country il is said, to the chem
! ical and microscopical examination of
papers, although in Germany much work
has been done 10y Herzberg, Martens, Har-
( tig, Weisner, and others who have so fan
developed their methods and brought theiI
result into line with practical work that
! paper testing is now one of the regular
departments of The Koniglchen, Mechau-
/ Technschen Versuchs Anstalt at Char
Gutenberg, and in similar institutions in
! Berlin. As a result Of this work official
! specifications are now prepared under a
( system of classification to which papers
must conform 70 be regarded as normal
/ paper, so-called. According to their com
/ position normal papers are divided Into
four classes. as follows:
Class Paper composed entirely OF
rags and with per cent OF ash as a maxi
/ mum.
Glass Paper composed of rags, with
a mixture of sulphate pulp, straw or es-
porto. but free from ground wood and with
not over 4 per cent OF ash.
Glass 3-Papers composed of various