476 USES OF WOOD PULP. 



Besides the home product, Germany has imported, during the 

 first eight months of the present calendar year, 10,621 tons of wood 

 pulp from four European countries, as follows: From Finland, 1,458 

 tons; from the Netherlands, 176.5 tons; from Austria, 6,208.8 tons; 

 and from Sweden, 1,698 tons. 



During the same eight months, there were exported from Germany 

 38,755 tons of wood pulp, of which 10,304 tons went to France, 

 815.5 tons to tne United States, and the remainder to Great Britain, 

 Russia, Switzerland, Italy, Spain, and Argentina in the order named. 



Wood pulp is known commercially in three forms, according to 

 the process by which it has been prepared, as follows: 



First. Simple wood pulp (in German, "Holzstoff") is wood fiber 

 that has been reduced to pulp by mechanical means that is, grind- 

 ing in power mills without the action of chemicals. 



Second. "Cellulose," or chemically prepared wood pulp (in Ger- 

 man, "Holzzellstoff "), which is made by one of two processes: 



(a) By the use of sulphurous acid as a solvent, in which case the 

 product is known as "sulphite pulp." 



(b) Where the chemical used is caustic soda, and the finished 

 product is called "soda pulp." 



German cellulose ranks very high in quality, due not only to the 

 high standard of chemical skill that is employed in its manufacture, 

 but also to the long, silky fiber of the wood, "Tannenholz," that is 

 mainly used in this country. German cellulose is used in France 

 for making some of the finest grades of stationery and certain arti- 

 cles of papier-mache. 



Almost the entire output of wood pulp and cellulose, as well as 

 the imported supply, is used for the manufacture of some form or 

 quality of paper, although a considerable quantity is used as material 

 for filters in breweries and sugar factories. It is also used to some 

 extent as material for papier-mache, as, for instance, by the firm 

 B. Harras, at Gross-Breitenbach, in Thuringia, which makes, among 

 articles from cellulose, panels and artistic forms in imitation of wood 

 carving for decorating furniture and other purposes. 



I can find no one who knows anything of the manufacture of 

 chairs or other articles of furniture from wood pulp, as suggested 

 by the correspondent who is quoted in the instructions of the De- 

 partment now under consideration. The nearest approach to this 

 is the manufacture of chair seats from pressed wood pulp by the 

 firm Gebriider Adt, in Forbach, Alsace, who also make other articles 

 of decoration and luxury from the same material. 



Another important use of cellulose is as a material for the pro- 

 duction of nitrocellulose, which in turn forms the principal material 

 used in the manufacture of celluloid, out of which a vast range of 



