WOOD PULP FOR SAUSAGE CASING 



SVUSAGES are now being put in 

 casings made from wood pulp 

 instead of the time-honored in- 

 testinal casings, and it is said 

 these wood casings are more sanitary 

 and more serviceable than the old style. 

 The description of how they are 

 made is written for AMERICAN FORES- 

 TRY by G. P. Cohoe, chemist for the 

 William Davies Company, of Toronto, 

 Canada, which uses them. Mr. Cohoe 

 writes : 



This sausage casing is made of the 

 best quality bleached sulphide wood 

 pulp. The wood pulp is put in solu- 

 tion by any of the well-known methods, 

 which have been in use for a number 

 of years. In practice we use the well- 

 known Viscose reaction, which has been 

 found to be the most economical and 

 easiest of operation. The Viscose when 

 made is stored in containers for the 

 proper length of time, when it is ready 

 for the manufacture into tubes. I can- 

 not give you any information with re- 

 gard to the method of manufacturing 

 tubes, insomuch as we have patents 

 pending, and a further disclosure is 

 impossible under these circumstance?. 

 The Viscose is made into thin walled 

 tubes, which vary in diameter, accord- 

 ing to the uses to which they are finally 

 put. The length of these tubes vary 

 with the skill of the operator. It is quite 

 common in shop practice to get tubes 

 varying from 500 to 600 feet in length. 

 When these tubes are once made, they 

 are reverted, and the impurities result- 

 ing from their reversion are washed 

 out, and the result is that at the end 

 there is produced a clear, transparent, 

 colorless tube of pure cellulose. This 

 cellulose is without fibre, and entirely 

 without seam or joint, which differs 

 from cellulose tubes made by any other 



manner. They are finished in a dry 

 state, but are usually conditioned, so 

 that the cellulose does not become hard 

 and brittle as it dries. In this dry state 

 the tubes are cut to suitable lengths, 

 and prepared for the trade. 



From a sanitary standpoint, this 

 product presents several noted advan- 

 tages, which are freedom from disease, 

 cleanliness of the process of manufac- 

 ture, and absolute antiseptic properties 

 of the final product. It also presents 

 the very valuable property of keeping 

 indefinitely in its dry state, and not 

 being subject to any kind of putrefac- 

 tion. 



From a sausage maker's standpoint, 

 the properties which appeal to the 

 sausage maker are the elasticity of the 

 product, which enables it to expand 

 when the product is filled into it by 

 means of the ordinary filling machine. 

 It also has the requisite strength to en- 

 able the sausage to be filled by the ordi- 

 nary workman, and it is strong enough 

 to stand the subsequent process of 

 handling, cooking and hanging. The 

 casing cuts, as does an ordinary cas- 

 ing, peeling off rather more readily 

 from the meat than does the intestinal 

 casing. Unlike the intestinal casing, it 

 is of uniform diameter throughout its 

 whole length, and thus presents to the 

 purchaser of the sausage a better ap- 

 pearance than is the case with the usual 

 casing. It is also uniform, and does 

 not present the bundles of fibres that 

 are common with the intestinal casing. 

 In the past the sausage maker has had 

 to take the sizes of sausage casing 

 which nature presented to him. In this 

 casing, however, it is possible to pro- 

 duce any size which may be desired for 

 the various purposes of the sausage 

 manufacturer. 



Pennsylvania's Standing 



According to the latest available figures, Pennsylvania stands fifth in the production of 

 wood pulp and is second to West Virginia in the amount of slabs and other sawmill waste used 

 for pulp; Maine stands third. 

 804 



