Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1912-04-02
HOW PAPER Is MADE.
Development Of the Industry Since
Wood Pulp Was First Used In 1870.

INV 10 WSSss
Development Of the Industry Since
Wood Pulp Was First Used In 1870.
It would be hard to imagine New
York or any other modern community
getting along without paper. The pa
per makers say It could not be done,
and when any one starts to count up
the many purposes to which paper is
applied 1t seems that the paper men
are right. We should have hard
time to get along without the product
of the pulp mills. For one thing, and
perhaps the thing we should miss most
there would be no printing unless the
presses could be adapted to impressing
the type on bolts of calico. The knowl-
edge of steel and electricity which Is
passed on from year to year would de-
generate into gossip.
The real development in the printing
business began when the machine pa
per was brought out. In the early
days, when all paper was made by
hand, five TO ten reams day were con-
sidered a fair showing for one mill.
The first paper mill in the United
States turned out hand made paper.
the mill having been started at Troy
in 1894. This mill, as we'll as the other
pioneer mills, used rag pulp. Then In
1917 the first steam pulp mill was es-
tablished at Pittsburg. The Fourdri-
nier brothers had invented a paper
making machine in 1900, and within
few years other materials beside rags
were utilized in making paper.
Pulp made from straw made its ap-
pearance in 1857, coming from fac
tory at Fort Edward, N. Y, and by the
time the civil war began the newspa-
pers were using this paper in such
quantities that the price went up from
So to $50 a ton. This straw paper was
Of poor quality, brittle and hard on the
type. During the war the demand for
news of the exciting events Of the day
made the demand for newspapers very
heavy, and as early as 1851 the Ameri-
can paper mills were turning out more
paper than were those Of Great Britain
and France. .-----.--a r. - --4-.ss.-rf -
The first wood pulp paper made Its
appearance in 1870. Its merits were
not appreciated at first, but when the
makers had learned to strengthen and
improve it in various way, the call for
wood paper increased rapidly. Nine
ty-nine per cent Of the paper used to-
day is made from wood pulp and all
grades are represented, from the
cheapest up to the finest kinds Of cal
endered paper for artistic printing.
The wood pulp industry begins in the
wilderness. Starting with the cutting
down Of the tall trees. the paper indus
try has some atmosphere Of romance.
When the hardy lumberman has cut
the tree down and Topped on its
branches, the boss Of the camp exer-
cises his ingenuity to get the logs to
market. Advantage is taken Of natu-
raj slopes leading to the nearby
streams, and the logs are shot down
those slopes to the water. II there are
no slopes handy, rude railways must be
devised. Once in the stream the
drive" begins. The logs frequently
form jams in the stream, and then one
of the lumbermen must walk over the
floating trunks, find the one that forms
the key to the jam, and cut 1t away.
When the jam begins to yield 1t Is
time for the lumberman to make a
quick getaway, for his life hangs In
the balance. A misstep means
plunge down among the rushing logs,
and in the grinding, crushing mass the
lumberman would never have a chance
Of escape.
When a large piece Of water is reach
ed the logs can be made up into RATS
and towed , the mill. At the mill they
are cut up into suitable lengths by a
big circular saw and brought under the
influence of the barker" at the same
time. The barker is a machine with
rotating blades that gnaws off the bark
and makes a frightful noise over IL,
too. It is said by people who nave
heard this voracious machine scream
ing over its food that it makes the
worst noise that ever assaulted hu-
man ears. The saws are not far be-
hind in this Wagnerian concatenation.
Except for use in the higher grade
of papers the cut up logs are next
ground up in grinding machines. The
best pulp is produced by a chemical
process that does not break up the
fibres as the grinding machines do.
Paper machines have two ends. One
ia the dry end and the other the wet.
The pulp enters via the wet end, where
IL passes through a screen and flows
along like thin milk. The standard
width of the wet machines is seventy
two inches. In one form Of machine
the pulp flows along on an endless wire
straining cloth Of a fine enough mesh
to permit the water to drain off with
out losing any Of the pulp. The water
mark is produced by the wire, and the
arrangement of the wires at what Is
called the dandy roll serves to deter
mine whether the paper Is to be laid
or wove While the thin stream OF
pulp is travelling along on the wire
cloth 1t is mechanically shaken side
ways so that the fibres Of the pulp
cross each other at all sorts Of angles
to give strength to the paper.
After the pulp has passed through
several kinds of rolls 1t passes on to
an endless wet felt apron, and so goes
along to the pressure rollers. These
rollers press out nearly all the water
left in the pulp after straining on the
wire cloth and here the pulp takes on
the character of paper and Is able to
continue through all the other rollers
without the blanket support. 1t passes
between the drying and calendering
rolls, some Of which are heated to re-
move the last bit Of dampness. AS 1t
comes out of the machine in its finish
ed state the paper Is wound up into
enormous rolls, which may contain a
mile or more Of paper.