Pulp magazine

“ Steam is then turned on, and the cylinders are set in motion. When the bills have been thoroughly macerated the pulp is drawn off and taken to a paper-machine, where it is made into sheets of paper, and afterwards sold.
Some one suggested the idea of using part of the pulp to make little fancy images. The idea was adopted, and dainty little knick-knacks made of the pulp can be bought in the stores in Washington. The salesmen often induce the possible purchaser to buy by telling him that the image at one time represented a large sum of money. ”

“ The object being merely to dry the pulp, a very heavy web can be obtained, since the water leaves this pulp very freely. The wood pulp thus obtained is perfectly clean, of a soft, white spongy fibre, and a greater portion of it is mixed with a small proportion of rag pulp and worked into book and fine printing papers. Sometimes the wood pulp is used alone or mixed with white paper shavings for book paper. The fibres are rather deficient in strength, but as a material for blotting paper they are said to be unsurpassed, while the wood paper is much liked by printers. ”

“ Rude as this process may seem, it is, in its more important features, excepting that of pulp-beating, the process that was used in Europe until the invention of the cylinder and Fourdrinier paper-making machines. Nor is this process entirely out of fashion. There are paper-makers yet living who have p137 taken pulp out of the vats with hand moulds and deckle, and have couched it on felts, substantially by the same method that was in use in Asia fifteen hundred years ago.
Oriental paper-makers do not use rags nor raw cotton for making their pulp. ”

“ Two kinds of wood-pulp are used for paper manufacture, one prepared mechanically and the other chemically. The former is obtained by disintegrating the wood entirely by machinery without the use of chemicals, and is, as may readily be understood, a very inferior pulp. In the manufacture of chemical wood-pulp, very great advances have been made since 1880, and wood-pulp has grown to be one of the most important fibres for paper-making purposes. ”

“ Chemical wood pulp of the best quality makes an excellent product, and is largely used for both print and book paper; it is frequently mixed with rag pulp, making a paper that can scarcely be distinguished from that made entirely from fine rags, though it is not of the proper firmness for the best flat or writing papers. All ordinary newspapers, as well as some of the cheaper grades of book and wrapping paper, are made entirely from wood, the sulphite or soda process supplying the fiber and ground wood being used as a filler. ”

“ The matted pulp, now having sufficient body, passes on between two rolls covered with felt which deliver the web of damp paper upon an endless belt of moist felt, while the "wire" passes under and back to continue a fresh supply. The paper is as yet too fragile to travel alone, and the web felt carries it between two metal rolls called the first press-rolls. These squeeze out more water, give a greater degree of compactness to the fibers, smooth the upper surface, and finally deliver the web of paper to a second felt apron which carries it under and to the back of the second press-rolls. ”

“ The grim old man who may be seen at the upper part of the illustration, with a leg in one page, and with head and body in another, is beating paper stock to a pulp. [2] His only tool is a forked club, with which he pounds on the stone, and macerates the leaves and inner bark of various trees that have been previously saturated in an adjoining tub that is supposed to contain a solution of caustic alkali. How the stock could be reduced to the requisite smoothness for paper pulp by this rough manipulation is a problem that no American paper-maker will undertake to solve. ”

“ Pulping the fibre by softening it in water and beating the same had then been practised for four centuries. Rollers in the mills for rolling the pulp into sheets were introduced in the fifteenth century, and paper makers began to distinguish their goods from those made by others by water marks impressed in the pulp sheets. ”

“ The material generally used for this class of paper is poplar chemical fibre and waste paper to the extent of 50 per cent., and even up to 75 and 80 per cent. of the total fibre, the balance being rags, or, in cheaper qualities, sulphite wood pulp; the stuff is all mixed together in large beaters, holding from 800 lbs. up to 1,500 lbs. of pulp, where it is about half beaten, and then finished in one or other form of refining-engine.
"The Americans have, I think, more thoroughly studied the question of super-calendering paper than we, and in this respect get better results and better work. ”

“ Why, friends of mine in England and Germany will take this magazine if I send them a sample copy. And so a list grows when everyone tries to help.”
“If we are only printing this magazine to help along our farms for poor children I don’t see why anyone in Europe would want to take the paper,” said Dot.
“Don’t you be so sure about that, Miss Dot!” said Aunt Selina. “After this organization gets agoing I believe it will make such a stir that its light won’t ‘be hidden under a bushel’ very long. Only keep your magazine at high-water mark, and you will see a marvel before the year is over.” ”

“ The use of mechanical wood pulp is generally confined to the manufacture of news, common printings and packing papers, cardboards, and boxboards. It possesses very little strength, quickly discolours when exposed to light and air, and gradually loses its fibrous character. The chemical wood pulp is a strong fibre, from which high-class papers can be manufactured, the colour and strength of which leave little to be desired. ”

“ The water escapes rapidly through the close wire web. In order to limit the form on the sides two endless leather straps revolve around the rollers on each side, which touch with their lower parts the form on both sides and confine the fluid within a proper breadth. The thickness of the pulp is regulated at the head of the form by a brass rule standing at a certain height; its function is to level the pulp and distribute it at a certain thickness. The continually moving pulp layer assumes greater consistency the nearer it approaches to the dandy roll. ”

“ Within this brief space of time, and the short distance of thirty or forty feet, a continuous stream of fluid pulp is made into paper, dried, polished, and cut up into separate sheets ready for use. The paper thus produced is moderate in price, and, for a large number of purposes, superior in quality to that which was formerly made by hand. In fact, the machine-made papers can be produced of unlimited dimensions; they are of uniform thickness; they can be fabricated at any season of the year ”

“ Lord Stanhope made several improvements in this, and it is possible that the use of softened paper pulp—flong—for this purpose was his invention. Whether this is true or not, paper was certainly used for stereotyping in France about 1850, and it has been universally used in this important connection ever since.
The paper pulp is hammered on to the type by means of a hard brush, in exactly the same way that antiquaries make impressions from incised rock sculptures. The antiquaries, however, make their casts from the paper moulds in plaster of Paris, but the printer makes his in soft metal. ”

“ The pulp produced from imperfectly sorted rags has a cloudy appearance, in consequence of some parts being less reduced than others, and the paper made from it is also cloudy or thicker in some parts than in others, as is evident on holding a sheet up before the light. When it is necessary to mix different qualities of rags together to produce different qualities of paper, the rags should be ground separately, and the various pulps mixed together afterwards. ”

“ Since that date a good deal of work has been done in connection with the fibre, but not until recently has the investigation been made of a sufficiently extensive character to enable paper-makers to form some conclusions as to the best methods of obtaining a reliable paper pulp. The researches of the writer in India go to prove that with any fibre it is necessary to take into account all the factors likely to affect the final cost of the paper pulp delivered to any given paper mill. ”

“ To keep the pulp well mixed in the stuff-chest, of which two are usually employed for each machine, a vertical shaft, carrying two horizontal arms, each extending nearly across the interior of the chest, are provided, which are only allowed to revolve at a moderate speed, that is, about two or three revolutions per minute, otherwise the pulp would be liable to work up into knots, and thus form a defective paper. Motion being given to the shaft, the rotating arms keep the pulp and water uniformly mixed, at the same time preventing the pulp from sinking to the bottom of the stuff-chest. ”

“ The tools of the primitive paper-maker consisted of a pulp vat for the fiber-laden water, a frame, or mold, across which was stretched a mesh of closely woven wire, and a removable frame, known as the deckle, which fitted around the edge of the mold to keep the moist pulp from overflowing and to help regulate the thickness of the paper. ”

“ Writing papers, formerly made entirely from rags, now are likely to contain either chemical or even ground-wood pulp unless the specifications prohibit it. Without doubt, many paper manufacturers have maintained certain papers up to a fixed standard for a long series of years, but it is equally true that competition has lowered the standard of a great many papers, some of which had acquired a distinctive recognition. ”

“ Mechanical wood pulp which enters so largely into the manufacture of paper is easily recognised by those who have given a fair amount of attention to the microscopical examination of plant life. Wood pulp is always used in conjunction with some binding material such as cotton or flax fibres. Many different kinds of wood are converted into pulp and of course it requires a considerable amount of experience to say exactly what kind of wood has been used in a certain paper. ”

“ When a mould thus fitted with the design is dipped into a vat of pulp and lifted out, the water falls through the wire, and the pulp sinks down on to the surface of the mould, forming a replica, so to speak, of the design, which is easily seen when the dry paper is held up to the light, because the paper is thinner just at those points where the wires forming the design come into contact with the wet pulp. ”

“ Resin is of less use.
One particularly troublesome result of having to deal with wood pulp papers is that it will not hold the threads used in ordinary binding; the thread cuts right through the paper because of the shortness or brittleness of the fibres, and if a book printed on such paper has to be bound, the only safe way to do it is to frame each page in a border of sound rag paper, and then have it sewn as usual. Wood paper will not stand bending, but breaks off short if there is anything like a joint or fold in it, and the framing or mounting prevents this. ”

“ Transfer or carbon papers so much used in making several copies of an article on the typewriter are made by coating paper with starch, flour, gum, and coloring matter. Paper can be used for shoes and hats, ties, collars, and even for "rubbers." It has been successfully used for sails for light vessels, and is excellent made into light garments for hospital use because it is so cheap that it can be burned after wearing. Wood pulp can be run through fine tubes into water and made so pliable that it can be twisted into cord or spun and woven into "silk." ”

“ The pulp is allowed to flow on to the wire cloth, so as to form a thick web of pulp. The bulk of the water passes away through the wire cloth; a further quantity is removed by the {97} vacuum-boxes and couch-rolls. The pulp, containing from 50 to 60 per cent. of water, is wound round an iron rod until a sufficiently large roll is formed.
The advantages of the presse-pâte system are the possibility of the removal of dirt and unboiled portions by means of the sand-tables and strainers, and the very complete washing and removal of the products of the action of bleaching powder. ”

“ At the present time this "deckel-edge" paper is being quite extensively used in high-class bookwork. In the case of writing papers, as has already been stated in the description of the beating engines, a vegetable sizing made from resinous matter is introduced into the paper pulp while it is still in solution, and mixes with it thoroughly, thus filling more or less completely the pores of the pulp fibers. ”

“ In such cases the colouring materials are only loosely held, and a portion must therefore be lost in the machine. If added to the pulp before it is sized they become thoroughly mixed with the fibres, and with them enveloped by the size. The pulp should always be coloured before it is sized, except in cases where the alum or resin soap would injure the colours, or be injured by them. While the pulp is being sized and coloured, the finishing touch is given by the engine-man, who examines it and empties it into the stuff-chest. ”

“ The mechanical pulp, reaching the mill in the form of thick sheets suitably packed up into bales, is first broken up again into moist pulp. Various machines are used for this, such as Wurster's kneading engine, Cornett's breaker, or some similar contrivance. An old potcher, such as is used for the breaking and washing of rags, makes a good pulp disintegrator. The broken pulp is discharged into beating engines in any suitable or convenient manner and the right proportion of chemical wood pulp added in the form of dry sheets. ”