Year: 1861

I


According to a French journal the man
ufacture Of paper from corn leaves may
be now regarded as an accomplished sue
cess.


The conversion Of the fibers of maize
into paper is to day an industrial fact
confirmed by extensive success, and this
discovery cannot fail to influence consid-
erably the price of paper. The discov-
cry it IS true is not absolutely new in
the eighteenth century the manufacture
was in operation in Italy with remarka-
bic success; but strange to say, the secret
was kept by the inventor, and was lost at
his death. Many attempts since made to
revive the manufacture have all recoiled
before the difficulty of removing from
the leaves the silica and resinous matter
which they contain, aud which obslructs
the conversion of pulp into sheets. Hap
PLY this secret has Just been rediscover-
cred, and not, as would have been an
ticipated, by chemist. but by a Jewish
writing -master-M. Moritz Diamant, an
Austrian subject-to whom the new dis
covery is going to give a considerable





fortune. His process is applied at the
present moment on a very large scale, at
the Imperial manufacture of Schlogel-
berg, in Lower Austria. Although the
machinery of the establishment was con.
structed for working rags, and is not all
adapted TO the kind of preparation hat
corn leaves require, the essay which has
been ma lie has had a prodigious success
the paper obtained leaves nothing to be
desired in strength, homogeniety, polish
and whiteness. In the last point, partic-
larly, the sheet from corn surpasses that.
from rags, which always contain impuri-
ties that can be removed only with great
difficulty.


Il is Count Carl de Lippe Weissenfeld
who operates at this moment the discov-
cry of M Moritz Diamant, Interested, as
may well be Supposed, in the fabrication
Of paper from maize.


According to the German journal from
which we have borrowed the proceeding
details, the principal advantages OF this
new manufacture are the following:-


i. 1t is not solely possible to produce
from the leaves of maize all the species
of paper manufactured at this day; but
it happens, furthermore, that in several
respects this paper is superior to that
made from rags.


q Bot little starch IS required 70 pre-
pare the paper foe receiving writing
1Fhich res0lis from the facl that PIE corn
leaves already contain a natural ingredi-
ent that takes the place of starch. This
ingredient may easily be removed if de-
sired.


8. The bleaching of this paper is effected
almost instantaneously by a process the
most simple and most efficaclons It is,
furthermore, only feebly colored, and for
wrapping paper the bleaching is entirely
unnecessary.


A. The paper from maize is stronger
more tenacious-than the best paper made
from rags. There Is none of the fragility
which characterizes paper into the COM
position of which ordinary straw enters
a fragility which is principally due to the
of saiica contained in straw.


5. In TIE process invented by NJ. Nor
itz diamant, no species of machinery being
necessary to convert the fbers of maize
into paper pulp, and this conversion being
made by means entirely different from
those employed in working rags there
results a great simplifcation in the appa-
ratus, ard consequently a notable reduc-
ton in the manual labor and the expense
of the manufacture.