The Adair County news., 1922-10-31
$500 Tons Gathered Daily win
Equal the Daily Cut on About
275,000 Acres.
PERFECT DE-INKING PROCESS
Agricultural Department Conducts
Laboratory Tests and Finally Per-
fects Process to Use
Old Newspapers.

In the manufacture of neWSprlnt may
seem far removed from the problems
of forest conservation, but as a mat
ter of fact it is directly connected
with the work in which the forest serv-,
ice of the United States Department
of Agriculture is interested. This
branch of the governments many &C
tivities has recently been conducting
a series of experiments in the de-ink-
ing process and now announces that
it has been perfected and is practi-
cable.
About $500 tons of old newspapers
can be gathered daily in the larger
cities, it is estimated, and turned into
newsprint by this. process. In terms
of forest acreage this means roughly
= the saving of the cut each year on
about 275,OOO acres. This acreage car
ries a crop not produced in a year,
but a spruce forest requiring 100 years
or longer to grow. That is regarded
as an important saving, in view of the
fact that the daily consumption of
newsprint in the United States is ap-
ttOOO lOhS
In its modern development the pro-
duction of newsprint depends upon
the forest for its raw NATAL. The
present supply, coming largely from
mills in the northeast and lake states
is derived from foro~,~ i the United
States now serious - .,leted, or from
less accessible for is in Canada. The
latter now furnis 4 65 per cent of
the raw pulp used by mills in this
country.
Raw Material Scarce.
Many of these mills, representing
Immense investments, no longer have
a supply of raw material of their own,
but are dependent either on a foreign
supply of pulp or on pulpwOod that
must be hauled long distances in the
United States. Some of these mills
have their own supply for only ten or
twenty years In advance and but one
mill is known that has a supply strict
ly its own that is good for more than
half century.
The increasing distances to the fast
ICCCulliS luCdu
costs and a higher priced product,
while hanging over mills operating on
imported pulp is the ever-present pos
sibility Of embargo, even now far from
a theoretical menace. Thus the incen-
tive to the development of a de-inking
process is apparent.
The use of old paper stock for the
manufacture of paper is very old, and
we find mention of the process in Den
mark as early as 1895.
II is only in recent years, however,
that 1t has been realized that it would
not only be good business to utilize
the enormous waste represented in
printed paper, but was an absolute
necessity If the consumption of news
print continues to grow and the sup
ply of spruce timber to diminish.
Early In 1921 the forest products
laboratory of the Department of Ag-
riculture undertook a series of COM
parative tests to determine the eff
cheney of a process using bentonite to
accomplish the heretofore almost i'm
possible task of washing all the carbon
black out of the macerated pulp after
it had been lOosened by alkalies. S.
D. Wells, the engineer in charge of
the experiments, now reports that they
were successful.
Find Right Dope.
I'm de-inking printed paper and espe-
cially newspaper" says Mr.. Wells, "it
fS oonnarot{voIv aoSv 70 lOoSoy, tho
carbon black by dissolving the varnish
of the printing ink by use of alkalies
Such treatment will not injure ground
wood pulp and If the carbon black
could be completely washed out after
liberation, a satisfactory material
would be obtained.
Unfortunately the fibers of the paper
stock serve as very effective filter in
enmeshing the particles of carbon and
there is no means of washing in COM
mon use that will permit the complete
removal without excessive loss of pulp
or expenditure of time, water and
power that are prOhibitive In fact.
a point seemed to be reached beyond
which it is impossible to remove the
remaining traces of ink. With benton
ite, however, we have a substance that
will pass through ordinary filters and
with its enormous surface, on account
of the extreme fineness of its parti-
cles. will carry all the carbon black
along with it."
"The possibilities of a process for
the recovery of old newspaper stock
are apparent to any one familiar with
the paper industry" says Mr.. Wells.
"When the price paid for old paper
stimulated collection it is reported
that about 25,OO0 tons per month
were collected in Chicago, of which 40
per cent was news. During the same
period Cleveland is reported to have
handled $50 tons per day, Of which $50
tons were news.
ain our large metrepolitaa cente-s
probably $500 tom re.. dry were col
Iect :, which wo u very
cor orable porto q 80 ~ con
sui "a Of 1000 tons OF a sprint