The independent-reporter. [volume] (Skowhegan, Me.) 1909-1955, 1910-09-01
SAVAGE PULP AND
PAPER MILL
Only Tissue Paper Mill
In Maine
The Whole Process From Wood to
Pulp and Then to Paper.

crew of men is now busy at the
Savage pulp mill putting in the foun-
dation for machinery for the new It's
sue paper mill which is to be estab
lished here; and buildings recently
acquired by Mr.. Savage from the
Maine Central Railroad Co., are be-
ing remodeled and fitted up for the
use of the mill. 1t is expected that
the manufacturing of the paper will
begin about December l. Mr. Savage
is already manufacturing pulp in the
old Anderson mills which he bought
about a year ago. The buildings that
he has recently bought are arranged
in a most convenient way to carry on
his business of making the pulp and
manufacturing the tissue paper. He
will do the entire work. making his
pulp from the wood and making it in
to the finest grade tissue paper. This
will be the only tissue paper mill in
the State and one of a few in New
England.
In an interview Monday with the
engineer in charge of the work of
fitting up this plant, the writer was
very much interested to learn the
process of taking wood and turning it
into the finest grade Of tissue paper.
On entering the wood fitting room
one sees saws for cutting wood the
proper length and bankers for remov-
ing all bark making it perfectly clean,
for it is one of the most essential
things that the wood be clean. This
way to the room with grind
ers. The grinding machines
are of a very heavy make as they
must be very heavy to make the finest
pulp Here the wood is fed by hand
into the grinders and from them it
goes onto the screen. These screen
plates are cut by saving numerous
fine slots through them, being $1,000
inch wide, meaning that no fiber larg
er than the above sized opening can
pass through or be used. On leaving
this screen this mixture contains SO
per cent water and per cent pulp.
1t passes to a machine specially de-
signed and the water is reduced leav-
ing the mixture 80 per cent water and
so per cent pulp.
1t then leaves this machine and
goes into a large tank of special de-
sign, something on the plan of
large elevator constituted by laying
one plank on top of another and spik-
ing securely until the proper height
OF ten feet is reached. In this tank is
stirring arrangement patented by
Mr. Savage which enables it to keep
the great mass of pulp in the same
homogeneous mass as when it went
in. From this tank pulp is taken by
large brass piston pump and deliv
cred to the beating engines on the
same floor level as the wood filling
room. There it is manipulated and
the proper ingredients added, the Sc
cret of which the writer could not
obtain. Here the pulp is constantly
beaten for 10 hours to further reduce
the fbers to fineness, bringing them
down so that the coarsest of them are
4-1000th of an inch. When the pulp
leaves this beaten it is discharged in
to another large tank having a circu
lar bottom. From here it is pumped
with another brass piston pump to a.
refining engine known as the Jordan
engine located on the floor above. The
object of this machine Is to catch any
and all the coarser fibers that are too
coarse to make a fine paper The
pulp travels from this machine to the
floor below to another tank with a
circular bottom the same as above
but located nearly beneath the ma
chine that makes it into paper.
From there it is pumped with a
special machine that will supply a
uniform amount constantly to a
screen containing very fine plates, the
exact fineness not being known. From
this screen the stock goes into a large
centrifugal pump and is mixed with
water at the proportion of about five
hundred parts water to one part pulp.
This is delivered to the paper ma
chine, and at a rate of about 900 feet
a minute 1t is delivered at the oppo-
site end in finished paper which is to
be taken up in an elevator to the floor
above, there to be cut into sheets of
various sizes according to demand
and packed into packages to suit the
requirements of customers. These
packages are then taken by elevators
To room on a level with the stock
ROOM
To run this paper machine two
steam engines are required. This has
heretofore been done by one engine
with the use of cone pulleys but the
Two engines bring the equipment up
to-date II not a little in advance of
others. The stone which the pulp is
ground on is special grit imported
from England.