Evening star., 1928-12-25

To travellers in the corn belt and the
wheat belt of the United States, 1t has
long appeared a wicked waste of raw
skies with huge blaZes. destroying their
skies with huge blazes. destroying their
straw and their cornstalks. This refuse
was not only of no commercial value,
but it costs thousands of dollars to get
rid of it.
For many years the problem of how
to utilize constalks and wheat straw
has vexed inventors and scientists.
Twenty years ago it was thought that
some methods had been found for using
the cellulose of the vegetable matter.
Announcements were made that, with
cellulose, patent leather could be manu-
factured packing for the walls of ships
would be made of it, for, in case of
leak. the cellulose would instantly
swell and close the Leak enamelS were
to be produced with it,~strawboard
building boards and wall plasterboards
and various other uses were proposed
some of which have long since been for
gotten.
1t was we'll recognized that from
straw coarse paper could be pro-
duced and factory for that product
~,
ing upon the straw from the great
wheat region northwest of there. But
it was soon found that, owing to bulk
and waste, the straw could not be
gathered with commercial profit. To
get quantity sufficient it had to be
hauled long distances.
AT last the problem, so far as con-
Germs paper made from cornstalks, has
been solved. The December Is issue
OF the Prairie Farmer of Chicago, with
a circulation exceeding 250,000. was
printed on cornstalk paper - the first
publication in all history using such
paper. The paper was all made in a
special factory located at Danville, Ill.
and the raw material was all grown in
Illinois and Indiana cornfields. This
marks new epoch In agriculture. as
we'll as in the paper-making industry.
The successful invention of the new
process is of such recent date that its
use now on commercial scale is SEN
Sational, and its possibilities for the
immediate future are decidedly dizzy
ing. just when farmers were looking
toward failure and farm abandonment,
unless the Government came to their
relief in organizing a foreign market
for grain and other staple products,
chemistry finds way of "subsidizing"
agriculture with market for its waste,
worth at least $200,000,000 year. Just
when the paper market had despaired of
ever again finding enough raw material
whether cotton or wood pulp, within
the domain of the United States-and
beheld our annual tribute to the
forests of Canada, doubling every nine
years-from 100000 tons in 1919 to
12.000,000 tons in 1928-at last, the ef-
forts which reawakened in America in
1927 reached success in August, 1928,
and produced paper, better than wood
pulp print, in time for weekly pub
lication dated December Is.
Short-fiber cornstalk paper better
than long-fiber wood print? Yes.
cheaper to produce and tougher, and
with a superior finish. Instead Of each
years demand eXhausting hundreds Of
square miles of spruce forest. which
can never be replaced within the pres
ent generation, the new raw material is
a by-product of King Corn and re-
produces its supply annually.
Just why the Short-flber cornstalk
paper is tougher than that made Of long
fiber wood pulp is mystery, but Is as
serted as a fact. The tensile strength
of all papers is tested regularly, with
mechanisms for that purpose.
X X X
1t Is we'll understood that experiments
for methods of making cornstalk paper
have been tried out for many years.
How to free the celluloSe of the stalks
from other chemicals and how to get
the raw material in commercial guam
titles to the center of manufacture were
two puzzling problems.
The successful inventor is an Aus
trian, named Bella Dorner, chemist.
He has been working on the problem
for 20 years. In 1912 he believed he
had found new sources for celluloSe,
and he patented his method. Then he
sought capital, in vain, both in Europe
and America.
Two years ago an Indiana chemist,
Frank K. Gardner, was in Austria, seek
ing to make arrangements for a New
York financial syndicate to handle a
certain issue of Austrian bonds. He
had finished his mission and was wait
ing in the station at Budapest for
his train. which would carry him out
of Austria. when he accidentally met
a fellow traveller, Herr Dorner. and, as
they both were chemists. their ac-
quaintance quickly grew. Dorner told
now has been gathering children into
- Il. l.