A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 1381 



2. The application of pulping processes to new species. 



3. Increase in efficiency and knowledge of the fiber processing 

 operations beating, bleaching, refining. 



4. Investigations of the variables of paper manufacture and of the 

 mechanical factors underlying sheet formation and the production of 

 finished papers. 



5. Effective utilization of woods and mill waste. 



The wood-pulping industry as it exists today has largely been 

 developed by research, and the difficulties that the domestic producer 

 has lately experienced in meeting foreign competition can be removed, 

 not by less research but by more research, better integrated and 

 consistently followed up in production. 



IMPROVEMENT OF PULPING PROCESSES 



The so-called standard pulping processes include three of chemical 

 nature known commercially as the soda, sulphate, and sulphite 

 methods. The first two are alkaline and the third is acid hi character. 

 The fourth process is strictly mechanical, disintegration being accom- 

 plished by means of a grindstone. A large volume of empirical 

 research underlies the standardization of these processes throughout 

 the American pulp and paper industry. There is a great need, how- 

 ever, for more fundamental information on the physical and chemical 

 laws involved in pulp production by these standard methods than yet 

 exists. Such objectives require intensive and continued research, 

 which will coordinate knowledge of raw materials and chemical 

 reagents with a fundamental picture of the reactions occurring in the 

 pulp digester and of the effects of the disintegrating agency, such as 

 the grinder stone. Studies in connection with both the chemical and 

 the mechanical processes have resulted in material improvements, 

 with results in increases of yields and improvement of pulp quality. 

 However, only a beginning has been made, and immense returns 

 should result from a continuation of this line of effort. 



NEW PROCESSES 



Studies of established processes logically lead to the development 

 of modified or new processes. A recent step in this direction is the 

 replacement of the lime in the normal sulphite method by soda or 

 ammonia, resulting in the extension of the application of the sulphite 

 process to more resinous species. This development has required the 

 working out of a recovery system which will return the more expensive 

 chemicals cheaply and at the same time alleviate a serious situation 

 in stream pollution which now confronts the sulphite pulp industry 

 and is a menace to aquatic life in our lakes and streams. Increases in 

 the quantity of pulp returned per unit of wood have been effected 

 through new semichemical pulping processes, which are combina- 

 tions of chemical and mechanical action on wood. Whereas the 

 standard chemical methods return only about 40 to 50 percent of the 

 wood as useful fiber, the new methods return from 55 to 80 percent. 

 A so-called semi chemical process using neutral chemicals, a semi- 

 sulphite process using acid sulphite liquors, and a semisulphate proc- 

 ess using alkaline reagents have all been developed in the course of 

 work on this problem. On account of their high noncellulose content, 

 the semichemical pulps are unbleachable by present methods and are 

 limited in their application to light-colored woods or to the production 



