MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. 105 







the United States, during the past season. Efforts have accordingly been 

 made to introduce new materials to serve as paper stock, to improve the 

 method of working old materials, and to diminish the cost of the me- 

 chanical operations. The cause of the scarcity of paper-stock, in spite of 

 an increased demand, would appear to depend on the circumstance, that 

 the raw material of paper making is, in reality, the product of the wear 

 and tear of a substance of very advanced manufacture, and depending for 

 its quantity on the collateral causes which produce a greater or less activ- 

 ity in the latter. Hence, the stoppage or partial suspension of cotton and 

 other textile manufactures is sufficient to account for occasional, and 

 especially for local, scarcity. 



It would appear, also, that, apart from occasional depressions of the 

 manufactures, or the wear and tear of which the raw material of paper 

 chiefly depends, the demands of the paper makers have been greater than 

 can be supplied by the less increased rate of consumption of the manu- 

 factured products. While this has been the case, other consumers of the 

 raw material have come into existence, railroads and steamboats now 

 exhausting a very large quantity of cotton and other waste for wiping 

 machinery. 



The disadvantage of the raw material of paper making being dependent 

 upon manufactures, having no immediate relation to its supply and de- 

 mand, and the fact, also, that the growing thirst for literature is at a greater 

 rate than the increase in the manufacture of cotton and flax, seem to fur- 

 nish adequate reasons why the supply of rags does not meet the increased 

 demand. 



Before noticing the various improvements that have recently been 

 brought forward or suggested, let us glance at the present actual condi- 

 tion of the business of paper making in the United States. 



We find that there are, in the United States. 750 paper-mills in actual 

 operation. Allowing 4 engines to each mill, and calculating that each 

 engine will make 300 pounds of paper a day, the quantity of paper made 

 in the year will be as follows : 



Number of mills, 750 ; number of engines, 3,000 ; number of pounds 

 of paper per day, 900,000 ; number of pounds of paper in the year, 

 allowing 300 days to the year, 270,000,000 ; value of this paper, at 10 

 cents a pound, $27,000,000. 



It is estimated that one and a half pounds of rags are required to make 

 one pound of paper. Adopting these data, we find that 405,000,000 

 pounds of rags are consumed in one year ; their value, at -i cents a pound, 

 being $16,200,000. 



The cost of labor is one and a quarter cents upon each pound of paper 

 manufactured, and is, therefore, ;f 3,375,000 a year ; and the cost of labor 

 and rags united is $19,575,000 a year. 



The cost of manufacturing, aside from rags and labor, estimated from 

 adding together the cost of felts, wire-cloth, bleaching powders, fuel, ma- 

 chinery, interest and fixed capital, insurance expenses, &c., we find to be 



