1079 
PREPARATION OF PAPER CELLULOSE FROM BAMBOO. 
The procedures employed for obtaining paper cellulose from esparto 
and the cereal straws are applicable to bamboo as well. Because of the 
great solvent action of alkaline solutions, comparatively little pains are 
necessary in the preparation of bamboo for the digestion process. First, 
there is no bark to be removed, as in the case of the dicotyledinous pulp 
woods; fresh, mature stems need simply to be chipped, or better, cut in 
suitable lengths and crushed by passing between heavy, fluted rollers. 
The quantity of alkali required to produce a well-boiled pulp from 
mature stems of the above-mentioned species of bamboo we have found 
to be 15 to 20 per cent caustic soda, calculated upon the gross weight of 
the material digested, which concentration yields from 40 to 50 per cent 
of a light-brown fiber, which has a clean and soft appearance suitable 
for wrappings, news, and book papers. 
This consumption of alkali is not greater than is frequently necessary 
in practice for cooking esparto grass,’ and other graminaceous plants, 
such as the cereal straws, which are so largely employed in Europe for 
fine paper stock. These require from 10 to 15 per cent of caustic soda 
to yield 33 to 37 per cent of pure fiber. 
On the other hand, the commercial pulp woods used in the production 
of soda fiber demand a much greater proportion of alkali for their com- 
plete resolution; the amount of caustic soda employed in practice, in 
making soda wood pulp can only be approximated. It is customary to 
add sufficient liquor of a known strength to cover the chips, and this 
volume depends of course upon the state of division of the wood, the 
thoroughness with which it is packed or tamped down, and the form of 
boiler employed. Griffin and Little give 700 gallons of liquor per cord 
of wood when rotary boilers are used, and a much larger volume in case 
stationary, upright digesters are employed. One thousand gallons of 
liquor, carrying 7} per cent caustic soda (the average strength employed), 
would contain about 284 kilos (625 pounds) per one cord of chips, but 
the weight of a cord of’ pulp-wood chips is very indefinite. Its ap- 
proximate weight may be deduced indirectly, by knowing the amount of 
pulp a cord of wood will yield and the average percentage yield of pulp 
from a given wood by the soda process. ; 
454.5 kilos (1,000 pounds) of pulp is considered an average yield from one 
cord of poplar wood. ‘The average percentage of yield of wood pulp by the soda 
method of treatment may be given as 40 per cent. Thus 454.5 kilos of pulp 
represent 1,136.3 kilos (2,500 pounds) of wood, and one cord of wood (15136.3 
kilos) consumes 284 kilos of caustic soda, or 25 per cent, calculated on the gross 
weight of the wood. 
The above calculation demonstrates that mature bamboo is much more 
easily resolved into paper fiber than is the most generally used wood 
employed for the manufacture of paper pulp by the soda process. 
"See footnote No. 5, page 437 of Phil. Journ. Seience (1906) 1. 
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