Belding banner. (Belding, Mich.) 1889-1918, 1917-03-14

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Pulp Industry
March 9Th recorded an anniversary
of peculiar interest to newspaper pub
fishers Of this country, for on this
date fifty years ago, in 1867, the first
ground wood pulp was made at mill
in what was then the village OF Cur
tisville, recently renamed lnterlaken,
in the state of Massachusetts. Up TO
that time paper was made exclusively
Of rags, naturally limiting the amount
produced; but with the successful
conversion of wood into fiber. suit
able for print paper the vast timber
resources Of this continent became
the limitless reservoir of raw material
for any and all future demand.
But the wood pulp fiber also solv-
ed anoaher difficulty for the printer.
for heretofore the speed of printing
presses was limited, caused by the
slow drying of the ks on paper made
of rags, while the trade soon discov-
cred that paper made of ground wood
had excellent absorbing and drying
qualities, and soon thereafter the
printing press manufacturers were
work to develop the high-speed press,
press will print $4,000 16-page papers
per hour.
The idea of making paper from
wood originated in Germany in the
early forties with Gottfried Keller,
tradition having it that he in turn re-
ceived his inspiration from a wasp's
nest. Keller collaborated with a
manufacturer of machinery, Heinrich
IN, xxrhn ha
were executed. 1t was not until
1866 that the possibilities of this in
vention in this country were recogniz-
ed, when Albrecht and Rudolf Pag-
enstecher induced their cousin, Alder
to Pagenstecher to build mill in this
country, and financed the purchase of
the necessary machinery and the
building of mill. The choice of To-
cation fell to Curtisville, where the
outlet of Stockbridge Bowl seemed to
supply an adequate amount of power.
The mill was built and on March 5,
1867, the first ground wood pulp was
produced.
Then another difficulty arose, name
ly the selling of the product. Paper
manufacturers were either strongly
opposed to or extremely pessimistic
of the papermaking qualities of wood
fiber. When one very large manufac-
turer was approached he CURLY an
swered, "Sir, we don't use shoddy."
Finally, however, Wellington Smith,
who owned a mill near Curtisville, at
Lee, agreed to buy lot as an expert
ment, and to Wellington Smith is due
the credit of having made the first
paper out of wood pulp.
This nf1ln WAS IuVOlpad Qt eight
cents a pound, while the normal price
to-day of pulp is under one cent per
pound, and news print paper, then
selling at fourteen cents pound
was reduced to two cents. 1t is fur
thermore remarkable that in the fifty
intervening years no substantial
change in the manufacture of ground
wood pulp has been made, although
the improvement in details of the
grinder has naturally increased its
efficiency and production.
Once the practicability of this new
fiber had been demonstrated, the in
terest in it became general and the in
dustry developed by leaps and bounds.
The Pagenstechers, of whom Albrecht
Pagenstecher is the. sole surviving
member and still largely interested in
many paper-mill enterprises, immedi-
ately. built a second and somewhat
larger mill at Luzerne, N. Y, and in
1869 acquired the water power at
Palmer Falls, where they built what
was to be for many years and is to.
day, with but one exception, the larg.
est mill in this country.
Little remains of the Curtisville
plant. The power was son found to
he totally inadeuuate. and the mill
was eventually dismaptled. But mo-
torists travelling from Stockbridge to
Lenox can still see, when passing
through Interlaken, a square pile of
stone on the right hand, all the re-
mains of the cradle of an industry
destined to become not only one of the
largest but also one of the most i'm
portant in this country.