El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1910-05-03
The Making Of Paper
OVER $50 MANUFACTURERS IN UNITED
STATES; RAGS USED FOR FINEST LINEN

which print paper pulp Is produced.
/ The bark is removed from sticks Of
! timber and they are pressed down
! against huge grind stones by hydraulic
pressure. If the end of the stick were
pressed against the revolving stone i
would produce a kind of fine wood
flour; but by pressing the sides agains-
it the fbres are torn loose and they
give the necessary strength to the pa
per When the pulp is ground water
I is kept playing on the grindstOne IL
/ order to carry off the other elements
and to prevent the wood from becoming
: dangerously heated by the great fric
/ ton
Spruce Timber Demanded
The-supply of spruce timber from
which the major portion of the ground
wood pulp is made. is estimated at
100000 cords in the United States,
and many times that much in Canada
The average cost of spruce timber in
Canada is about Sc a cord, whil2 in
the United States the cost is about
$3.50 per cord. The average transport
alton charges from Canada amount II
approximately $3.50 per cord. so il
will be seen that the transportation
charges place the cost OF Canadian
logs on about an even footing with
those of the United States. Wood pulp
cannot be produced profitably with
steam or othed expensive power. l.
requires from 10 to 100 horsepower
day to turn out one ton of mechan-
icaIly ground wood pulp. and the pulp
will not be worth as much as SIS a
ton when made. 1t is only by the ut:l'-
cation of extremely cheap power that
mechanical pulp can be produced at
a profit under present conditions
There were PSI factories in the
United States engaged in the produc-
tion of wood pulp IN 1908. They used
3.346.000 cords of wood, with value
Of SIS, 0O0 000 Counting five cords 10
the acre it will be seen that this
means the annual deforestation of
$4,000 acres of land for paper max
ing purposes alone. or a territory equal
in area TO the state of Rhode Island
Of the total amount of wood consumed
1,4S7.00 cords were spruce wood. The
principal woods. other than spruce
were poplar. hemlock, pine and fir.
Spruce and poplar comprised two
thirds of all the timber used in paper
manufacture. Of the spruce. one-half
was made into pulp by the use of sui
phite and the other half by the me-
chanical grinding. Caustic soda was
the reducing agent of nearly all of the
poplar
Cooked Under Pressure.
In making sulphite pulp the wood is
first "rOssed" or deprived of its bark.
1t is next cut into very fine chips and
then placed in a machine known as the
digester. Here it is cooked for eight
or twelve hours with sulphurous acid
under pressure. and is then taken out
and the refuse separated The same
process is followed in the use of caus-
tic soda The chips must be short so
as 10 afford the digesting agent op-
portunity to follow the fiber, as very
little of it would soak in across the
grain
Best Paper From Rags.
The best papers are made from rags. F!
come from rags taken from shirt and !
other garment factories The rags are :
baled. like hay. with huge steam COM |
pressors. They are first opened and i
then placed in the 'thresher." where !
they are beaten and threshed by me- !
chanical apparatus and the dust car !
ried off by suction tubes The 0dor Of :
old rags is almost unbearable. Fr I'M /
the thresher they are taken TO thu i
asserting room where they are sorted I
and all buttons and other foreign ma
terials removed by women sorters and
shredders From here they are taken
TO the cutter which chops them I'D
Then they go into the devil a ma
chine that gives them such a chasts1-
ing with its spike teeth that they are
ready 70 release their final hold on
all the dust and dirt that las eccumu-
ated during their journey from tGe
cloth mill to the rag pile They next