GERMANY. 47 1 



apprenticeship that a workman is at all capable, and even then he must have a 

 special aptitude and taste for the business. 



This manufacture is not recent; it is over twenty years old. There is no book 

 published upon the subject. 



SUZANNE, December 9, i8g8, 



There is no secret in my work, the transformation not being visible. 

 As I have said, I do not know of other houses in France engaged in this manu- 

 facture. The product most resembling the bois durci (and then in color only) is 

 the caoutchouc durci (hardened rubber). This fabrication is employed for different 

 uses. These goods often get out of shape when subjected to varying temperatures. 

 There are several establishments making these goods: Torrilhon & Co., Cham- 

 aliers, Department Puy-de-D6me; Michelin & Co., Clermont-Ferrand, Department 

 Puy-de-D6me. 



GERMANY. 

 REPORT FROM CONSULATE-GENERAL AT DRESDEN. 



The wood-pulp industry is divided into two distinct classes, viz, 

 mechanical wood pulp and chemical wood pulp. The Kingdom of 

 Saxony takes the lead in the production of wood pulp in the Ger- 

 man Empire, inasmuch as the wood pulp produced in Saxony oc- 

 cupies 260 paper mills nearly 45 per cent of the total number in 

 Germany, which is 580. Saxony is rich in water power, and this 

 fact has mainly determined that it should become the center for 

 this production. 



MECHANICAL WOOD PULP. 



Since the invention of wood pulp in about 1860, by Fr. Gottlob 

 Keller, the manufacture has extended over all the pine-wood dis- 

 tricts of Europe and America. The immense importance of this 

 material for the manufacture of cheap paper, especially printing pa- 

 per, was for the first time demonstrated at the Paris International 

 Exposition in 1867, creating general and widespread astonishment 

 in industrial circles. From that time, this industry has rapidly de- 

 veloped. About 1884-85, the production of wood pulp exceeded by 

 far the demand of the paper mills, because Norway, Sweden, and 

 Finland, which up to that time had supplied the English market, 

 succeeded in obtaining control of the French and Belgian demand. 

 To avoid the impending depression in price, a large number of grind- 

 ing mills started to manufacture pasteboard, but this effort also soon 

 resulted in overproduction. 



In 1887, the first general meeting with the object to establish a 

 uniform market price for wood pulp was held at Cologne. This 

 meeting covered about 15 mills, with a normal production of 9,000 

 tons of air-dried material, or a freight weight of about 24,000 tons. 



