The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1908-11-08

jumped from sass, IN 1905, to $7.o1
la 1906, and to $S.lT last year, is still
upon the ascendant.
150,Ooo,0Oo Tons of Stalks Yearly Rot.
Meanwhile we have l0O,0O0,000 acres
of corn, with one and half tons of
stalks to the acre, or total Of 150 ,000,-
900 tons of cornstalks annually rotting
on the ground, Professor Galloway
considered these as supply for paper
making some years ago, aud had a pa
per mill make some tests, but they were
not promising. But here lately big
paper mill up in Maine did make sew.
eral grades Of book papers out of corn
stalks whose pulp was found to be
satisfactorily, From these mills the
government obtained au expert paper
chemist, and the experiment was com
mepced this summer.
I went through Mr.. Pinchot's paper
factory yesterday and saw the whole
OF the process, step by sten. The little
building, about the size of a village
smithy, stands at the very eastern end
OF Pennsylvania avenue. Over against
the eastern wall lay the bundles OF
corustalks just received from a Mary
land farm, while near the west wall the
extracted pulp was being turned out in
crisp waters.
Process of Extraction.
At first the stalks were run through
clipper which cut them in bits two to
four inches long Then. after being
shaken for the removal OF field dirt and
further cleansed in water, they were
steel-walled kettle covered with mag
nesia. This holds about los pounds of
wet and twenty-five pounds Of bone
dry stalks. After they have here been
packed and tamped twenty gallons of
water are added, aud in this they are
boiled for two hours alone, under ten
pounds of steam pressure. This boiling
with simple water having been repeated
TWICE, the stalks are given two wash
lngs of cold water aud are then re-
turned to the digesteT, where, in Is
TO 1S per cent solution of caustic soda,
they are cooked at live steam pres
sure of 95 to Ito pounds. The cooked
material is next blown into a trough
having n strainer at the bottom, and
here is washed with hot water, while
the waste liquors drain of. This meth
cd of extraction. known as the 'soda
process, is one of the two chemical
processes used by paper makers The
other, the 'fsulpbite process princi-
pally used in wood pulp extraction, was
first tried, but did not prove as salts
| factory.
| b' Soi hSldlh uON d HJ5FlSD
brown mush. is run through a secret
machine, a description OF which the
chemists In charge of the work will
not give out for publication. The sue.
( cess of the entire corn-papcr enterprise
| rests upon this piece of apparatus, ia
/ large extent. 1t must now suffice ia
3 state that it is couple OF very In
/ geniously devised trougbs which very
/ completely separate the long fiber pull
! Of the outside Of the stalk from tho
short fiber pulp of the pitch of the
stalk and also extracts the food value
Of tine pulp as whole. The short fiber
pnlp from the pitch comes out gray
ish green, while the long fiber pulr
from the outside of the stalk is about
as light IN color as corDmeal nush
Both come out in about the consistency
of well cooked cream of wheat.
The two grades arc made into sepa
rate sheets in "band mold an OBJ
long tray with bottom OF fine wire