Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1907-02-28

TAe raw material for our modern
paer comes from one of two widely
different places-the depths of a
dreary forest or the back streets of
crowded city. In other words, the
raw material is either rags or wood.
The city rag picker pays one rate for
all the rags he buys, but, after he
gets them to his headquarters, they
are sorted into numerous bins or
boxes. The cotton ones go to the
makers of paper and others to makers
Of certain kinds of clothing. After
being sorted they are baled by ma
chipery.
The wood which goes into pulp for
paper is chiefly spruce and poplar.
This is becoming scarce both in the
United States and in Europe, and the
paper mills in this country bring large
quantities from Canada, where in the
districts of Algoma it is plentiful.
Arriving at the paper factory, the
wood in the form of logs is piled up
ever wide area 1t is not unusual
and factory buildings in connection
with one paper mill, In the United
States there are nearly 500 paper and
pulp mills. and the value of the prod
ucts which they produce is more than
S1S7, zoo, 900. The use of wood pulp
dates back only about half century,
but it has now come to take place
Of rags to a very great extent The
high price of rags about the time of
the civil war assisted greatly in the
introduction of wood as a substitute.
In making paper from rags, the rags
are first sorted anu the dust is elimi.
mated from them. Girls do this work
by tSe aid of wire screens through
which the dust Sits They also sort
the rags into different colors and cut
eff the buttons on garments. After
the rsgs are cut up into pieces two
inches long, they go into washing
tub, where they are stirred by means
of revolving machinery, care being
taken that no dirt shall be ground in
to the fibre. The pulp in this form
may be bleached by a bleaching
powder which, irrespective of its
former color, brings 1t to a creamy
white. Next the pulp goes into the
beating machine where it is Thorough
ly cut up and mixed by chemical
knives. Here the coloring and siz-
ing are put in before 1t is ready for
the wonderful paper-making ma
chimes.
Where the pulp is made from wood,
the logs are brought from the areas OF
log piles about the factory and sawed
into short lengths and, by an ingenious
device, the bark is stripped from each
enc. Next the lengths of wood are
ground into mere chips, after which
they go to the digesters-huge tanks
where they are dissolved by cook
ing with sulphurous acid. One OF
the digesters will thus handle 10 or
- tons II a day. Next, as in the case
Of tse rags, the pulp is bleached and
washed and carried into the midst OF
the revolving knives of the heaters
and the coloring and sizing added
The tints and colors Of the finished
product depend upon its treatment
acre. The sizing which is put into
it at this point keeps the finished
product from absorbing the ink which
we apply in writing letters or. If bool
paper. in printing upon it. From tn,
heaters the pulp is placed in what ar,
knswn as stuff chests" and is KEEP
agitated until it cones time to puml
il INTO the paper machines.
From this point the early making o
the paper proper by hand is easily un
derstood. and the modern automati
method is even more interesting BE
fore the introduction of the automati
method, the fibre, as it came froa
the beating machine was laid out II
sheet upon a wire sieve whic
acted as a mold at the same time a
lowing the water to drain of. Tn
pulp, thus in the form of wet sheet
was turned upon a felt and presse
out into the desired thicknesses. !
is said that the paper which Benjami
Franklin used for printing purpose
was made in this manner.
The machine which has taken th
place Of this crude and slow process
receives the pulp upon a moving enc
less wire cloth which is supported b
q series Of metal rollers so set that
perfectly even surface IS maintaInet
BY lateral motion OF the rolls tn
ibres are simultaneously made to Il
terrace. AS the pulp hastens Of
much Of the water which IT contain
passes through the meshes Of the VIII
cloth and, soon the web Of pulp come
TO rollers covered with felt ard her
leaves the wire cloth for a iourne
upon endless rolls Of wooden felt
is carried between the rolls Of Sc