The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-02-15
From the Pharmaceutical Era.

From the Pharmaceutical Era.
"HOMAS ]. KEENAN, presented
some very interesting notes on
j the chemistry of papermaking
before the Kings County Pharmaceuti-
cal society at it's January meeting
Filter papers. said Mr.. keenan,, are
made exclusively from rags, the best
coming from Sweden, low temperatures
being essential to success in this man
ufacture.
The simplest form of wood pulp,
"ground wood" which forms the body
of newsprint paper. is produced by
pressing logs of cone-bearlng trees
freed from bark and cut into short
pieces, against revolving grandstones.
under a stream of water, so that the
disintegrated pulpy fibres, torn away
from the log, obliquely or against the
grain, can be run off into tanks and
thence flowed away to undergo screen
ing and straining operations for the
removal of refuse and unground Jumps.
As the pulp obtained in this way con-
tains the sap, lignin and resin of the
raw wood, substances that are prone to
rapid oxidation and discoloration, pa
per made from it soon deteriorates, be-
coming brown and brittle. Pulp of this
kind is only used as an admixture with
prepared pulp in the manu-
facture of. newsprint and cheaper
grades of book paper.
Pulp is produced chemically by the
sulphite, soda and sulphate methods.
Cellulose to the extent of nearly SO per
cent of the wood weight is recovered
by the solvent action of the chemical
solutions upon the nonfibrous constitu-
ents of the wood Extracted material,
the gums, resins, tannins and other
valuable plant principles which encrust
the cellulose., represents to the paper
maker so much waste. In the soda prac-
tice it is burned to recover the soda; in
the sulphite method it Is washed into
rivers.
Mr.. Keenan, described in brief the sui
phite process of pulpmaking, in which
the disposition of the spent liquor con-
stitutes one of the weightiest problems
confronting the manufacturerer of
chemical pulps today. He is eager to be
informed of a means of utilizing the
liquor that will obviate the necessity
of throwing 1t into rivers and streams
and endangering the industry by the
enactment of laws that will prohibit
the practice In several pulp plants in
Sweden alcohol of low grade is pro-
duced by neutralizing tho liquor and
starting fermentation of the contained
sugars. But the profitable recovery of
\
in the sulphite process is still an un-
solved problem. The pulpmaker consid-
ers the recovery of the innumerable orr
ganic substances dissolved in it, of
minor consideration as compared with
the question of getting rid of the
liquor in some inexpensive and expe-
ditious way agreeable to the authori-
ties.
In the soda and sulphate process the
organic derivatives are lost. although
In the former the soda itself is regen-
Grated. The soda process is used for
soft woods. the sulphite for coniferous
woods. Here Mr.. Keenan, presented brief
descriptive notes of the soda and sui
phate processs the latter not being a
popular one, the gases formed being
very offensive.
Some of the technical operations of
the papermaker afford abundant oppor-
tunity for exercise of the galenical in
genuity and skill that is second nature
to the pharmacist of careful training
and experience; as, for example. in the
sizing of paper to give it surface re-
sistant to ink. In sizing newsprint and
the ordinary grades of book paper or
dinary rosin of commerce. added in the
form of rosin soap. is employed. This
soap is added to the cellulose mass in
the final stages of beating and precipi-
tated by alum. after the proper propor-
tion of kaolin or china clay has been
added and the yellowish color of the
ground wood has been toned up by the
addition of sufficient blue and red ami
line dye or other colors required to inn
part white appearance to the finished