GERMANY. 477 



articles, from jewelry to brushes, collars, and surgical instruments, 

 is made. Celluloid was originally produced from gun cotton and 

 camphor, but modern chemistry has substituted nitrocellulose made 

 from wood fiber for the same substance formerly made from cotton. 



The manufacture of wood pulp and paper in this district is largely 

 concentrated at Aschaffenburg, Bavaria, besides which there are three 

 detached and independent cellulose factories, as follows: 



Cellulosefabrik P. H. Offenheimer, at Okriftel-on-the-Main. 



Cellulosefabrik A. Bierhauer, at Lohnberg, Hesse-Nassau. 



Cellulosefabrik Kostheimer, at Kostheim, near Kastel. 



For a detailed description of the methods and apparatus employed 

 in the manufacture of chemically prepared wood pulp by the Mitscher- 

 litch process in the Frankfort district, reference is respectfully made 

 to a special report on that subject which was made from this office 

 and published in CONSULAR REPORTS No. 152 (May, 1893). The 

 materials, processes, and machinery therein described are the same 

 as those which are in use to-day. 



FRANK H. MASON, 



FRANKFORT, November 7, 1898. Consul- General. 



MANUFACTURE OF WOOD PULP IN GERMANY. 



[Reprinted from CONSULAR REPORTS No. 152.] 



Nothing can more forcibly illustrate the supremacy of the German people in all 

 that relates to the application of chemistry to practical manufacture than the enor- 

 mous development of the wood-pulp industry in this country during the past ten 

 years. This development is the more remarkable because it has been achieved in 

 the face of several serious disadvantages, with which the pulp makers of several 

 neighboring countries notably Sweden, Norway, and Austria have not to contend. 

 In Scandinavia and the Austrian Empire, the forests are of vast extent and mainly 

 native growth, whereas in Germany they are largely artificial, planted and grown 

 under Government supervision. Wood is therefore nearly twice as costly here as 

 in the other countries named; labor, coal, and railway freights are higher; while 

 water power and interior water transportation are comparatively limited. 



But, notwithstanding all these obstacles, the German chemical-pulp industry 

 has developed until its annual production is now 150,000 tons, of which one-third 

 is exported and the remainder consumed in this country. Ten years ago, most of 

 the wood pulp produced in Germany was manufactured by the soda process; since 

 then the superiority of the sulphite method, as perfected by the brothers Mitscherlich, 

 has been so obvious that the product of 1892 included only 12,500 tons of soda 

 pulp, the remaining 137,500 tons being produced by the sulphite process. The 

 exports of wood pulp and cellulose to the United States from southern and western 

 Germany during the past year were valued at $583,053, of which $10,292 came from 

 the district of Kehl, $12,399 Irom Mainz, $495,592 from Mannheim, $16,669 f fom 

 Munich, and $48,073 from the consular district of Frankfort. 



The inception of the Mitscherlich sulphite process dates from about 1871, and is 

 an improvement on the Tilghman system, which was patented in England in 1866. 



