Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1910-05-11
THE GREAT PAPER INDUSTRY.
2,2O0,O18 Tons Of Paper Made and
Utilized Annually.

P"pSi' L ho pioCcSS Ol lfldklnS paper
| demands a steady and reliable source
Of power and electricity has been
| found by actual test to be ideal for
| this delicate work.
The making of paper is one Of the
| Oldest industries in the world-older
than history itself. Although the
word paper Is derived from "papy-
rus. the beginning Of the paper in
dustry can be traced back to ancient
Chinese history thousands Of years
ago. Even the half-civilized Central
| American Indians, the Aztecs and
Incas, knew the art Of making paper.
William Rittenhouse built the first
paper mill in America, near Philadel-
phia. in 1890. The first paper mill
| In New England was erected in 1928.
Previous to the year 1898 all paper
making was done by hand. but that
year Frenchman patented device
to make paper in an endless web.
This patent was not put into practi-
cal use until further developed i'm
England by the Fourdrinicr Brothers,
who were the real founders of mod
ern paper making. Their early ma
chinery differs only in minor details
, from the machinery in use to-day.
What Paper Really Is.
A sheet Of paper Of the better
grades Is an artificially feited web of
vegetable fibre, purified OF all perish
able material so that the remaining
hDreS arc nearly pure cellulose. The
process of making 1t is simply collect
ing the raw material, cleaning it,
/ grinding it into pulp, diluting it with
water, forming a sheet and allowing
1t to dry. The chemists tell us that
any plant can be used for the raw
material OF paper, as cellulosc is the
structural basis Of all plants. Wood
Is cheapest, so it Is generally used in
paper-making to-day.
There are many different kinds of
| paper, such as wall paper, blotting.
writing, book, news, wrapping, tissue,
etc, but in general they are made
by the same process, the difference
, being in the finishing.
In general way it may be said
that the manufacture Of paper from
wood pulp involves about rs sepa
rate operations, from the harvesting
or the spruce sticks to the market
ing Of the finished product, including
the process of cleaning, barking,
grinding, screening. digesting, cook
ing, washing, pressing. beating, dry
ing, caiendering. etc.
Pulp logs of spruce, hemlock,
beech cottonwood, ETC., are cut dur
ing the entire year The logs are
conveyed from the river or cars to
the mill, where they are cut in sticks
two feet long and dropped into a vat
OF water to remove the dirt. From
This vat the sticks are conveyed to
the barkers, where revolving knives
strip the bark from each stick. The
wood Is reduced to pulp in the
grinders, where each stick is forced
against large grindstonc which re-
wolves at speed of 200 revolutions
minute, rapidly reducing the wood
hbre to pulpy mass. Water l.. zee
ly used in this process to soften the
wood, to wash the pulp from the
stone and keep the wood from burn
ing Ihis pulp is screened to remove
splinters, bark and dirt and then
racked off on wet machines in laps or
large matted sheets a inch thick.
This is the usual method for storage
or shipment, as from these thick
sheets the finished product is rolled
and finished.
In the sulphite process the wood
is first clipped, then crushed to
break up all knots and splinters.
These chips are then placed in
large vat and covered with an acid
solution, which eats ava! everything
hut the cellulose, and 1t is then heat
ed to high temperature by steam.
After this process the stock is screen
ed and washed and finally run over
the wet machines, which consist OF
cylinder molds covered with wire
cloth placed in vats The water is
Withdrawn from the inside of the
revolving cylinders, leaving the fibre
in thick, soft mass on the outer
surface Of the screen, from which it
Is removed by "doctor" and run
into storage tanks ready for use in
the paper mill.
IL Is in the beatcr room that the
finished pulp is prepared for making