THE WOOD PAPER INDUSTRY. 403 



THE WOOD PAPER INDUSTY. 



H. B. AYRES, CARLTON. 



American strides in the development of industrial appliances 

 are hardly less in the line of paper making than in any other. There 

 are now about i,ooo mills engaged in its manufacture, which turn 

 out nearly 6,000,000,000 pounds annually. 



In wood pulp making the advance has been especially rapid. 

 The first patent was secured in 1844, by Keller, in Germany, and in 

 1858 improved by Voelter, in the United States. The first wood 

 pulp mill was built in Franklyn, N. H. It started under the usual 

 difficulties of introducing new material when expensive machinery 

 was to be risked in its trial, and only by passing it off for rag paper 

 could the first trial be induced. The result was a great preference 

 for the new paper, especially when rapid printing was to be done. 

 The general introduction of wood paper came in the later seventies, 

 doubtless the result of investigations stimulated by the high prices 

 of paper during the early sixties. 



During this investigation almost every vegetable fibre has been 

 tried for paper making. Aspen and pine seem to have been the first 

 wood fibres to find favor. 



There were in 1885 several processes for treating the wood. 

 By one the material was chopped into small strips and then steamed. 

 Its acids were neutralized by alkalies, then ground by revolving 

 stones. Some treatments aided the grinding by softening the fibres 

 and at the same time loosening them — such were the hot lime and 

 soda ash processes. In these processes the wood was left in large 

 blocks, and after soaking was ground on the rims of revolving stones 

 under a stream of water. The grinding was not across but parallel 

 with the grain of the wood. 



The field once opened, endless patent appliances for grinding 

 and digesting wood lay at the choice of the manufacturer, especia'fly 

 in America, and here unquestionably the industry has led — and the 

 American manufacturer has little to learn by a study of European 

 methods. 



Here, too, one has in our remaining primeval forests and in 

 the possibilities of our non-agricultural lands, interesting fields for 

 pulp making. In choosing a site for such work, power accessibility, 

 water and wood supply are very important. Water power is, of 

 course, best, and in Minnesota we have it. Accessibility by lake and 

 established rail routes can not be rivaled elsewhere. Pure water 

 can be had in abundance by proper care, and for a supply of raw 

 material in northern Minnesota is found the greatest properties of' 



