Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1907-03-06
FROM RAW MATERIAL TO THE
FINISHED PRODUCT.
MADE OF RAGS OR WOOD
Gathered From Dreary Forests or City
AIleys-Work At the Factory
Benjamin Franklin Used Same
Method-The Process Of Glazing
and Ruling.

paer comes from one of two widely
different places-the depths of a
dreary forest or the back streets of a
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
chinery.
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
over q wide area 1t is not unusual
to find rs to 100 acres Of pulp wood
and factory buildings in connection
with one paper mill In the United
Slatts there are nearly 500 paper and
pulp mills, and the value of the prod
ucts which they produce is more than
1927 900, 600. The use Of wood pulp
dates back only about a half century,
but 1t has now come to take place
Of rags to very great extent. The
high price of rags about the time of
the civil war assisted greatly in the
introduction of wood as substitute
In making paper from rags, the rag
are first sorted and the dust is elimi-
mated from them. Girls do this work
by the aid of wire screens through
which the dust Sits. They also sort
the rags into different colors and cut
of the buttons on garments. After
the rags are cut up into pieces two
inches long, they go into a washing
tub. where they are stirred by means
Of revolving machinery, care being
taken that no dirt shall be ground in
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 1t is thorough
ly cut up and mixed by chemical
knives. Here the coloring and siz-
ing are put in before it 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
one. Next the lengths of wood are
ground into mere chips, after which
they so to the digesters-huge tanks
where they are dissolved by cook
ing with sulphurous acid. One OF
the digesters will thus handle 10 or
II tons in a day. Next, as in the case
of the rags, the pulp is bleached and
waghed and carried into the midst OF
the revolving knives of the heaters
and the 1oloring and sizing added
The tints ard colors of the finished
product depend upon its treatment
here. The sizing which is put into
it at this point keeps the G2ished
product from absorbing the ink which
we apply In writing letters or, if book
paper, in printing upon it. From the
heaters the pulp is placed in what are
known as stuff chests" and is kept
agitated until it comes time to pump
it into the paper machines.
From this point the early making Of
the paper proper by hand Is easily un
derstood, and the modern automatic
method is even more interesting. Be
fore the introduction of the automatic
method, the fibre. as It came from
the beating machine, was laid out in
sheet upon a wire sieve which
acted as a mold at the same time al
lowing the water to drain on The
pulp, thus in the form of wet sheet
was turned upon a felt and pressed
out into the desired thicknesses. IL
is said that the paper which Benjamin
Franklin used for printing purposes
was made In this manner
The machine which | as taken the
place of this crude and slow process
receives the pulp upon a moving end
less wire cloth which is supported by
a series Of metal rollers so set that q
perfectly even surface is maintained
BY a lateral motion of the rolls, the
fbres are simultaneously made to IN
terrace. AS the pulp hastens on
much Of the water which It contains
passes through the meshes OF the wire
cloth and, soon the web Of pulp comes
to rollers covered with felt and here
leaves the wire cloth for a journey
upon endless rolls Of wooden felt II
is carried between the rolls Of sew
eral presses and then onto heated cyl
inders where the paper is dried.
To give the paper a glossy o. glazed
sdrface or other finished appearance
| ii next goes through machines known
as "calenders." The calenders are
equipped with peculiarly adapted
metal rolls arranged one above an
other In several tiers. Through these
the paper passes under pressure. The
paper comes from the machine IN
webs sometimes az great as 16C
inches in width and often at a speed