Paper machine

“ The drawing represents the modern paper-machine as manufactured by Bertrams, Limited, who supplied one of these machines to Mr. Edward Lloyd, for the Daily Chronicle Mill, at Sittingbourne, which runs a wire 40 feet long by 126 inches wide, this being, we believe, the largest and widest paper-machine in the world. It is provided with 20 cylinders, chilled calenders, double-drum reeling motion, with slitting appliance for preparing webs to go direct to the printer's office without the assistance of a re-reeling machine, and is driven by a pair of coupled condensing steam-engines. ”

“ The “wet” end of this machine is a Fourdrinier type.
The arrangement and number of smoothing and calender rolls is also dependent on the class of paper to be made. Most writing-paper machines have no calenders at all as the surface is obtained on special machinery such as platers and sheet calenders after the paper comes from the drying loft. One can easily appreciate that, while the general principles of all paper-making are identical, there is a call for a wide variety of arrangements, such as those cited, to meet the varying requirements of different classes of paper. ”

“ Papers which are merely to have "machine-finish," that is, the surface imparted by the calenders of the paper machine, receive no further treatment before being cut into sheets. Those papers which are to be super-calendered (S.C.) pass through a large super-calendering machine, consisting of a number of chilled iron rolls and rolls of compressed cotton or paper alternately. ”

“ From the sand settlers the stock runs on to a screen, through which it is drawn by means of suction. This process prevents fibres which are lumpy and too long from getting on to the machine, and allows only those of a certain size and length to go forward to be made into paper. An endless and very fine wire cloth, which is continually moving at the same rate of speed as the rest of the paper machine, takes the stock after it has been screened. This is the first step toward making the material into actual paper. Thick rubber straps on each side of the wire determine the width of the paper. ”

“ Bertrams' Large Paper Machine.—The principal aim in the construction of the paper-making machine has been to imitate, and in some particulars to improve, the operations involved in the art of making paper by hand, but apart from the greater width and length of paper which can be produced by the machine, the increased rapidity of its powers of production are so great that one machine can turn out as much paper in three minutes as could be accomplished by the older system in as many weeks. ”

“ The paper-machine which gave long rolls of paper enabled hangings to be printed by cylinder, as calico is printed. The absence of tax, and the improvement of the manufacture by machinery, have enabled every man to repaper his filthy and noxious room for almost as little as its whitewashing or colouring will cost him. ”

“ This can be accomplished to so fine a degree, by a skilful man, that the difference between the two sides of the paper is scarcely discernible. The fineness of weave of the one cloth also is an important bearing in securing an even sided sheet.
Thus we see that it is well-nigh impossible to reduce the making of paper to an exact science, and a reasonable variation must be expected, both in weight and finish. The successful management of a paper-machine depends, from start to finish, on careful, experienced judgment and alert attention. ”

“ The invention of the paper-machine was concurrent with the invention of the printing-machine. Without the paper-machine, the material of books, and newspapers, and journals, could never have been supplied with any reference to cheapness. ”

“ The manufacture of four or five hundred square feet of paper per minute, and 12,000 impressions per hour, are now matters of every day occurrence, although it should be borne in mind, that without the paper machine, pouring forth its miles of web, these corresponding advantages in printing could not have been developed. ”

“ The rotary machines, with endless paper, take thirty-five thousand impressions an hour. In the newspaper machines of Marinoni, the great inventor, the paper is unrolled, printed, cut, and folded without leaving the machine, and falls into a place from which it is taken ready for the subscriber. The latest perfection of the printing press is the Walter press and the rotary machine of R. Hoe and Co., of New York, extensively used throughout the world. ”

“ Other colours are required in the manufacture of papers of different tints, and with one or two exceptions they must be mixed with the pulp in the beater.
There are two distinct processes of producing the finished paper from the pulp, known respectively as “hand-made” and “machine-made.” The expense of manufacture of hand-made paper and the consequent high price render it too costly for ordinary use; the entire process on the machine occupies a few minutes, while in the ordinaryPaper Machine. ”

“ The web of paper is now wound up in long reels at the end of the machine.
Paper-machines are now usually driven by two separate steam engines. The first, running at a constant speed, drives the strainers, pumps, shake motion, &c., while the second, working the paper-machine, varies in speed according to the rate at which it requires to be driven. ”

“ The behaviour of papers when damped is a peculiarity well known to paper-makers and printers. For certain purposes it is desirable that paper should not show any material alteration when damped, since any expansion of the sheet is liable to throw the printing out of “register.” The liability of papers to such stretch or expansion is largely minimised by careful manipulation of the pulp during the process of beating, and also by a proper regulation of the web of paper as it passes from the wet end of the paper machine over the drying cylinders to the calenders. ”

“ Single Web Winding Machine.—This machine (Fig. 47) is constructed for preparing webs of paper for continuous printing-presses. The roll of paper to be prepared is carried by brass bearings having vertical and horizontal screw adjustments attached to standards mounted on a slide, and movable by a screw transversely on the machine to accommodate the deckle edges. ”

“ It has supplied no fewer than 133 complete automatic paper machines, each of a value of from 1200l. to 2000l., to different manufactories, not only in the United Kingdom, but in all parts of the civilized world; as mentioned in the second paragraph of the present article. Each [933] machine is capable of making, under the impulsion of any prime mover, all unmatched by a human eye, and unguided by a human hand, from 20 to 50 feet in length, by 5 feet broad, of most equable paper in one minute. Of paper of average thickness, it turns off 30 feet.
Fig. 788 enlarged (288 kB)
Fig. ”

“ Letterpress printers prepared to execute all classes of work must of necessity carry a more varied stock of papers than one who specialises in one or two lines. It is convenient to have printing papers in several qualities and weights, the sizes being governed by the sizes of machines available. With a double demy cylinder machine it is not wise to stock quad demy paper ”

“ If the beater-man dilutes one batch of stuff more than another, the variation will show the minute the altered stuff appears on the machine, and only an immediate readjustment at the wet end can avoid considerable variation in52 the product. Then, from end to end, the long machine must be watched carefully, so that the pressing, drying and calendering may all be kept uniform. A bungler should find no place in the machine-room, but it is desirable that consumers have sufficient appreciation of human limitations, as applied to paper-making, to admit proper allowances for normal variations. ”

“ It is not possible within so small a book to give complete detailed instructions for all the different conditions which may arise in the many kinds of work done in establishments where paper-cutting machines are used. Each of these places has its own particular requirements; and while the machine can do its part quickly and efficiently it needs the intelligent and skillful operator to get good results. ”

“ The patient striving toward something better, which has marked all the centuries since man first learned to carve his rude records, finds its consummation in the process of making paper in a continuous web. This result is accomplished by a machine first invented by Louis Robert, a workman in a mill at Enonnes, France, who obtained a French patent, with a bounty of eight thousand francs for its development. ”

“ There's a grand machine in our place that prints the papers. You put a big roll of white paper on to it, and you turn a wee handle, and the machine sends the roll spinning round and round until it's done, and a lot of folded papers, nicely printed, come tumbling out in counted batches, all ready to be taken away and sold in the shops and streets. ”

“ The printing is effected by steam-worked presses. The ink is blue, and its composition known only to a few of the authorities. An inspector goes his rounds during the continuance of the operations, watching every press, every workman, every process. A beautiful machine, distinct from the press, is employed to print the variable numbers on the note; fed with sheets of paper, it will number a thousand of them in succession, changing the digits each time, and scarcely requiring to be touched meanwhile; even the removal of one note and the placing of another are effected by automatic agency. ”

“ In some cases the paper is hung over lines, about a quire at a time, exposed to the atmosphere and dust of the machine-room. Hanging frames are supplied by vendors of printers' supplies, in which the paper is clipped by a ball or swinging lever, and about a quire is held in each of the clips, a perpendicular position minimising the danger of dirt. By use of these frames a large quantity of paper can be treated in a comparatively small space. The "Swift" machine is another method of maturing paper. The claim made for the machine is that it matures large quantities of paper in a short time. ”

“ The machine weighs about fifty-eight tons. It is massive and strong, with the strength of a thousand giants. And yet, though its arms are of steel and553 its motions are all as rapid as lightning, its touch is as tender as that of a woman when she caresses her babe. How else does the machine avoid tearing the paper? Paper tears very readily, as you often ascertain accidentally when turning over the pages. Truly wonderful it is, and mysterious to anybody but an expert, how this huge machine can make newspapers at the rate of twenty-five a second without rending the paper all to shreds. ”

“ The quantity of ink daily consumed in the printing is upwards of two hundredweight. The machine is worked by two steam engines, each of 16-horse power; and the noise of the numerous wheels and rapidly revolving cylinders is almost deafening.
The great rapidity and the comparative cheapness of printing by machines, together with the greater facility of making paper by machinery, have been the means of creating a demand for books which it would be impossible to supply, unless those means were at command. ”

“ A well designed and built paper-cutting machine will last with care nearly half a century. The prudent manager, however, will find he is obliged to discard most of the machines of various kinds in his plant in much less than twenty years in order to keep pace with the newer shops starting with the advantage of later-designed machines. ”

“ The entire length of a paper machine, from the screens to the calenders, is about one hundred and twenty-five feet, while the height varies, the average being about ten feet. The machines, while necessarily of the finest adjustment, are ponderous and heavy, weighing in some cases as much as four hundred tons, this being the weight of the80 machine itself, exclusive of its foundations. ”

“ From this the great advantage of the modern engine over the old fashioned mortar machine, in turning out a quantity of paper pulp, will be at once apparent.
The operation of paper making, after the rags or materials to be used have been thus reduced and prepared, may be divided into two kinds; that which is carried on in hand-mills, where the formation of the sheet is performed by manual labour; and that which is carried on in machine-mills, where the paper is produced upon the machine wire-cloth in one continuous web. ”

“ One great difficulty of most printing machines is that of securing perfect register (the exact coincidence of the printing on opposite sides of the paper) . This was anticipated and met by the patent. The one thing the inventor failed to do was to overcome the resistance the collectors of the stamp duty presented to this printing on a continuous roll, and to the affixing of the stamps to the newspapers at the proper intervals during their passage through the machine. ”

“ It must be remembered, however, that most modern printing is done by machinery on soft paper, and not by the hand press, and these somewhat wiry letters are suitable for the machine process, which would not do justice to letters of more generous design. ”

“ Now the chief marvel of a modern combined printing press is its power of being used to print separately a large number of small sized papers or by leading the paper through the press in a slightly different way to print a mammoth paper folded all together and receiving contributions from all six reels at once. In the particular machine in question, which is used to print a comparatively small sized paper, any six of the separate machines can be run separately, if a small paper and a small output only is wanted. ”