104 REPORT — 1855. 



On Papyru?, Bonapartea, and other Plants tohich can furnish Fibre for 

 Paper Pulp. By Chevalier De Claussen. 



The paper-makers are in want of a material to replace rags in the manufacture of 

 paper, and I have therefore turned my attention to this subject, the result of which 

 I will communicate to the Association. To make this matter more comprehensible, 

 I will explain what the paper-makers want. They require a cheap material, with a 

 strong fibre, easily bleac! ed, and of which an unlimited supply may be obtained. I 

 will now enumerate a few of the difterent substances which I have examined for the 

 purpose of discovering a proper substitute for rags. Rags containing about 50 per cent. 

 of vegetable fibre mixed with wool or silk are regarded by the paper-makers as use- 

 less to them, and several thousand tons are yearly burned in the manufacture of 

 prussiate of potash. By a simple process, which consists in boiling these rags in 

 caustic alkali, the animal fibre is dissolved, and the vegetable fibre is available for 

 the manufacture of white paper pulp. Surat, or Jute, the inner bark of Corchorus 

 iiidicus, produces a paper pulp of inferior quality bleached with difficulty. Agave, 

 Phormium tenax, and Banana or plantain fibre (Manilla hemp), are not only 

 expensive, but it is nearly impossible to bleach them. The Banana leaves contain 

 40 per cent, of fibre. Flax would be suitable to replace rags in paper manufacture, 

 but the high price and scarcity of it, caused partly by the war, and partly by the 

 injudicious way in which it is cultivated, prevents that. Six tons of flax straw 

 are required to produce one ton of flax fibre, and by the present mode of treatment 

 all the woody part is lost. By my process the bulk of the flax straw is lessened 

 by partial cleaning before retting, whereby about 50 to 60 per cent, of shoves (a 

 most valuable cattle food) are saved, and the cost of the fibre reduced. By the fore- 

 going it will be seen that the flax plant only produces from 12 to 15 per cent, 

 of paper pulp. All that I have said about flax is applicable to hemp, which 

 produces 25 per cent, of paper pulp. Nettles produce 25 per cent, of a very 

 beautiful and easily bleached fibre. Palm-leaves contain 30 to 40 per cent, 

 fibre, but are not easily bleached. The Bromeliacese contain from 25 to 

 40 per cent, fibre. Bonapartea juncoidea contains 35 per cent, of the most beautiful 

 vegetable fibre known ; it could not only be used for paper pulp, but for all kinds of 

 manufactures iu which flax, cotton, silk, or wool are employed. It appears that this 

 plant exists in large quantities in Australia, and it is most desirable that some of our 

 large manufacturers should import a quantity of it. The plant wants no other pre- 

 paration than cutting, drying, and compressing like hay. The bleaching and finishing 

 it may be done here. Ferns give 20 to 25 per cent, fibre, not easily bleached. 

 Equisetum, from 15 to 20 per cent, inferior fibre, is easily bleached. The inner bark 

 of the lime-tree {Tilia), gives a fibre easily bleached, but not very strong. Althea 

 and many Malvaceae produce from 15 to 20 per cent, paper pulp. Stalks of beans, 

 peas, hops, buckwheat, potatoes, heather, broom, and many other plants contain 

 from 10 to 20 per cent, of fibre, but their extraction and bleaching present diffi- 

 culties which will probably prevent their use. The straws of the Cereales cannot be 

 converted into white paper pulp after they have ripened the grain ; the joints or knots 

 in the stalks are then so hardened that they will resist all bleaching agents. To 

 produce paper pulp from them they must be cut green before the grain appears, and 

 this would probably not be advantageous. Many grasses contain from 30 to 

 50 per cent, of fibre, not very strong, but easily bleached. Of indigenous grasses, 

 the Rye-grass contains 35 per cent, of paper pulp, the Phalaris 30 per cent., Arrena- 

 therum 30 per cent., Dacfylis 30 per cent., and Carex 30 per cent. Several reeds 

 and canes contain from 30 to 50 per cent, of fibre, easily bleached. The stalk of the 

 sugar-cane gives 40 per cent, of white paper pulp. The wood of the Coniferae gives 

 a fibre suitable for paper pulp. I made this discovery accidentally in 1851, when I 

 was making flax cotton in my model establishment at Stepney, near London. I 

 remarked that the pine wood vats in which I bleached were rapidly decomposed on 

 the surface into a kind of paper pulp; I collected some of it, and exhibited it in the 

 Great Exhibition, but as at that time there was no want of paper material, no attention 

 was paid to it. Tlie leaves and top branches of Scotch fir produce 25 per cent, of 

 paper pulp. The shavings and sawdust of wood from Scotch fir gives 40 per cent, 

 pulp. The cost of reducing to pulp and bleaching pine wood will be about three 

 times that of bleaching rags. As none of the above-named substances or plants would 



