Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1920-07-10
WIDE EXPERIMENTS
T0F|ND WOODRUFF
PAPERSUBST|TUTE
Nothing Yet Developed to Ap-
proximate Requirements of
Increasing Demand.


middle Of his forehead. For upon the
supply Of newsprint depends the lives
of thousands Of news publications.
1t was only in the last fifty years
that paper manufacturers abandoned
the use of straw, rags and waste ma
'erial FOR the composition of large
quantities OF newsprint. The dis
covery that paper from pulp wood
could be made at less than one-half
the cost of paper manufactured from
these waste materials rought about
the b rsh of the industries now en-
gagged in cutting down forests of trees
Tor heir conversion into newsprint.
W tn the characteristic attitu lie Of
Americans toward the future. treas
were cut in the east and lake state
regions with such abandon that what
promised at one time to be never
ending supply has dwindled to moth
ingness, compared with the demand.
Alarmed over what the future has in
store, the government is experiment.
ing with substitute material for the
manufacture of newsprint.
How to Meet Future Demands.
Results shown so far convince Off
clals OF the government that the real
solution of how to meet the future
demand for new'sprint in this coun-
try lies in the conservation of forests
development of new forest lands in
ern Alaska and the perpetuation of
forests already cut in the east and
lake states.
But such steps need large govern
ment appropriation. and Congress in
its last session failed to make pro-
visions for the enterprise. So in the
meantime the bureau of chemistry of
the Department of Agriculture is
going forward with experiments to
discover substitute for wood pulp
There are several substitutes under
test at the bureau now. but they are
kept secret until it is definitely
proved whether they are practical
This is done to protect the public,
for the discovery of a substitute in
paper manufacture is gold mine"
and false alarms always lead to gold
bricks"
Experimentation with substitutes
for pulp wood is nothing new Bus
recently the price of newsprint has
risen so that the cost of its produc-
ton from pulp wood nears the cost
of manufacture from substitutes.
This has encouraged tests for new
material.
Not Sufficient Quantity.
The chief difficulty in the manufacture
of ncwsprint or any other sort of paper
from subst. tutes for pulp wood is that
the substitute cannot be found in Suffi-
cient quantity per unit area to compete
with the amount of wood pulp found in
the same area. While there are many
substitutes from which can be made
newsprint resembling in every respect
! tho paper which comse from pulpwood,
the cost OF production ranges from SO
per cent upward more than the cost Of
manufacturing paper from wood pulp.
For thirty years. for instance, the De-
partment Of Agriculture has tried at va
rious times to manufacture paper from
I Toll SAl to-
| turing paper from cornstalks, but COM
pare the amount of pulp in a cornstalk
| to the amount in a tree, and the diff
Guilty becomes apparent. There are more
| cornstalks available every year than
| there are trees but the process of CEN
i traiizing the industry and gathering the
stalks would be more than double the
cost OF the present method.
| Not long ago there appeared in a
publication an article dealing with the
! discovery of okra stalks as a substi-
| tute. II all the okra stalks in the
per the supply would be negligible
| compared with the demand, govern
! ment officials say.
Paper From sawgrass.
A recent proposition, which has led
| to the establishment of a commercial
| enterprise. is to make paper from
| Florida sawgrass. Sawgrass grows
| over large part of Florida in great
| quantities. 1t has been considered a
pest by the farmers and numerous ex-
/ periments have been made to utilize
! the unusually long, strong and fine
! fiber. The promoters of the present
scheme claim the grass Is in such
quantity that enough paper could be
| made from 1t to supply the eastern
| United States. They claim in addi-
| tion that the cost of production will
4 30
pulp paper.
Unofficially. the government experts
who have substitute experiments in
! charge. believe that further tests
with Florida sawgrass will lead to the
F, same result-the discovery that the
raw material, however rank, cannot
| be found in quantities large enough
| to insure a practical business venture.
| Sawgrass as "A substitute has been
known for some time. but abandoned
by the Department of Agriculture.
| One of the most promising substi-
tutes for wood pulp was found in
what is left after the cotton has been
what is left after hte cotton has been
| removed from the boil. 1t was found
that paper. of an excellent grade
could be manufactured from this ma
| terial. But if all the cotton linters
in the country were ground into pulp
for paper the manufacture would
! be inadequate to meet one years in
| creased demand for the finished prod
! uct.
! PrOhibitive Price on News Print.
| Straw of all kinds. wheat. oats. rye
/ and rice, has been tested. But to
pay SIS a ton for the raw material
| then haul it to a central point for its
| conversion into pulp and manufac ture
| into paper would put a prohibitive
| price on the news print made there.
| from.
! long ago for the manufac ture of paper
| from straw pulp is characteristic. The
| company was capitalized and ma.
chinery bought. Paper of goo6
quality was turned out. but the cost OF
| production was SO high that the selling
price Of the product could not com.
pete with that Of the paper made from
wood pulp. The concern failed.
There are millions Of newspapers
printed and distributed daily to theil
millions Of readers in the United
States. They are read and thrown
away. A small percentage is col.
lected and remade into paper prod
ucts. chiefly the rough, brown wrap.
ping paper, where the color is imma.
terial, and the Corrugated pasteboart
! which is used for packing. There IL
a large industry engaged in this man
ufacture of paper from used new,
print. but the paper used again IL
said to be small compared with tina,
which goes to waste.
Several patents have been taken out
| recently for processes which would
make news print from used news prin
The difficulty lies in Graduating the
ink without destroying the texture
of the paper and at the same time