The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1929-04-17
Corn Pulp Enters
Expanding Field
Successful in Newsprint and
High Grade Book and
Bond Papers.

Cornstalks were made into paper.
eXperlmentalty, many years ago.
What, then is new about the cornstalk
paper now appearing in steadily in
creaslnb use since the first production
of 20 tons on October 10, 1928?
Only this:
A century and a half of intermit-
tent research within and without the
paper industry failed to disclose a
. successful process. Then a group of
Americans with pioneering spirit took
up two years ago an absolutely new
theory of a Hungarian chemist, Bella
Dorner- They built up on his dis
covery with the knowledge and adj
ditional research of staff of Ameri-
can chemists and engineers. They
spent close to $1,500,OO0 and brought
a corn stalk paper pulp process to
actual, practical commercial produc-
tion. Isn't that new"
1t is true that the United States
Department of Agriculture, through
its Bureau of Chemistry and also
through the Forest Products Labora-
tory at Madison, Wis, has made
cornstalk pulp and paper expert
mentally; but the yield was never
sufficiently high, nor were economic
conditions at the time such as to justi-
fly an attempt to commercialiZe the
process. The indicated yield, accord
ing to Charles J. Brand, who was in
charge of the government expert
ments, was never more than two
thirds of the cellulose content Of the
stalks.
Who is Responsible
Little handmade sheets of corn
stalk paper produced in laborato-
ries by processes which have never
been carried to a commercial demon
stration are shown occasionally. AS
a result, many erroneous statements
appear in print concerning the origin
of the cornstalk paper development.
Another source of public misinfor-
nation is a professional propagan-
dist in Washington. Immediately
following the first production of corn
stalk paper he flooded Corn Belt news
papers with free articles attributing
and revolutionary processes for max
ing paper from farm waste products
to scientists of the United States
Bureau of Standards. Before the
Bureau could issue it's denial of hav-
ing developed or even experimental
with any such new processes, the
transformation was made the basis
of proposed legislation to build Fed
eral governments plants at cost OF
S6,5OO0,OOO to demonstrate" the COM
mercial possibilities of these myth
cal discoveries"
There is only one plant in the world,
that of Cornstalk Products Company,
of Danville, Illinois, producing or
which ever has produced paper pulp
from cornstalks on a commercial
scale. All of the cornstalk paper on
the market originates in that COM
pany's pulp, which has been goirg in
carload lots to paper mills since last
October.
Cornstalk Products Company owns
the American, Canadian and Cuban
rights to the Dorner process and to
processes and equipment developed
by its own chemical and engineering
staff for recovering chemical by-pro-
ducts and making pulp from other
farm wastes. Altogether it has more
than fifty patent cases pending.
Suitability of Product
The commercial production of corn
stalk paper last October was a blend
of IS per cent cornstalk and So per
cent wood sulphite pulp. In texture
and finish it was more of bond than
a newsprint sheet, tough, strong, but
harsh and transparent.
Eagerness of publishers to be
-'frst' to use the new farm relief
paper caused them to scramble for
this early product to try as substi-
tute for newsprint. These early pub
LEGATIONS resulted in much misunder-
standing; many publishers did not
take into consideration that the pa
per was never intended for a news
print stock. 1t was altogether too
good a paper for their purpose.
As to price, it was of course much
more expensive than newsprint, but
it was sold by the paper mill at an
advance of only per cent over the
price of equivalent grades of paper
made entirely from wood pulp. High
err grades of book and bond paper, In
which 70 to 80 per cent of cornstalk
pulp is blended, are available now In
limited quantity. The demand is
many times the present supply viii
soon be increased.
The early conclusion of some pa
per manufacturers that cornstalk
pulp could be used only in hardsur'
faced, semi-transparent papers, such
as bond, proved to be premature
General adaptability of the pulp IN
the paper industry in practically
ever class of paper has been proved
by tonnage runs in several of the
leading paper mills of the Middle
West.
First COrnstalk Newsprint
The first run of a genuine news
print stock was made at the plant o.
L