Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1915-12-17
WOOD PULP
Silk Stockings, Clothes and Other
Articles Made from Trees.


Silk Stockings, Clothes and Other
Articles Made from Trees.
The claim of the Germans to have
substituted wood pulp for cotton in
the manufacture Of explosives
whether the claim be true or false
calls attention to the properties
Of this wonderful product, which has
already wrought more than one re-
volution in the manufacturing world.
Wood pulp is Just what its name
implies, and Is obtainable by disinte-
grating wood either by mechanical
or a chemical process. The former
variety is prepared by grinding 1t
under water. It Is inferior in quality
as the fibres are short and the pro-
duct readily discolors. Under the
chemical process the wood is cut up
and boiled under pressure with solu-
ton Of caustic soda, sodium sulphide,
or, best Of all, calcium bisulphite, and
the resulting sort product is pulped,
pressed, washed and bleached.
| 1t was the use of this material that
so reduced the cost Of paper as to
make the halfpenny newspaper pos
sible. So rapidly. indeed, did paper
cheaper from 1875 to 1885 that the
introduction Of wood pulp is said,
within those years, to have trebled
the circulation Of England's news
papers.
1t is a far cry from high explosives
and halfpenny newspapers to ladies'
stockings and silk" neckties, yet the
latter no less than the former are now
adays commonly products Of the same
origin.
1t is years ago since the writer,
on a trip in the states, was invited to
inspect knitted silk" tie Of wonder
full color and softness He inquired
its price, and expected to hear q "tall''
one for so handsome an article. Yet
the figure was negligible-ninepence
or so-and the silk" was only wood
pulp. Thousands of the silk" stock
ings that flash in the sun along Pic
cadilly and on the seaside prom" are
made Of the same material.
All sorts Of hardware articles are
now compounded Of the pulped It's
sues of trees that once swayed grace
fully in some northern forest-cigar
and cigarette holders, fancy combs,
umbrella handles, buttons, insulating
materials. films and hundred other
things.
OF course, the extensive use of
wood pulp for articles Of clothing is
not strange. Cellulose, which Is en-
ployed in enormous quantities in the
fibrous state in the form Of cotton,
linen, jute, hemp, ETC., is the chief
component Of all vegetable tissues, in
which it exists in elongated cells or
fibres. Cottonwood and fibre-paper
are matter of technical skill to con-
vert to textile uses the cellulose Of the
spruce tree instead Of using that of
the cotton plant. In the manufacture
of hardware purity is not so essential,
high pressure and strong adhesive
being the great factors.
Nor is the course Of wood pulp run
! when it is made into textiles. or pap
ers, The paper itself, when 1t has serv-
ed it's turn, goes back into the boiler
and once more becomes pulp. Mixed
with starch paste or glue and pressed,
it is then forced into moulds, pre-
viously oiled and we have that useful
product papier mache.
The commercial value Of this COM
modify has Of late years been greatly
enhanched by the ingenuity and skill
of decorative artists, especially the
French. The rich mural holdings that
give so imposing an aspect to GER
tain of our public buildings are a
superior kind of pulp product.
Carton pierre-an article that the
French have carried to a high state of
perfection-perhaps marks the acme
Of this line of manufacture. 1t consists
of paper pulp, whiting and gum,
pressed into plaster molds and stove
dried. Improved so as to admit of
gliding easily, it decorates portions of
the Tuilleries, the Louvre and the
Palas Royal at Paris.
The demand for wood-pulp articles
is said to be rapidly increasing, and
in some of the factories they are un-
able to cope with it. The making of
propulsive explosives does not eX-
haust the uses of the pulp even from
military point of view. In the form
of a solution it is extensively used in
the treatment of fabrics for ac-
countrements and in other ways. -
Answers.
Would Be a Cruet.-A lady told me,
as true story of a soldiers wit, that
soldier in hospital on recovering
consciousness said: Nurse. what Is
this on my head?"