GERMANY. 481 



dolomite on racks in tall, wooden towers, through which the gases are made to rise 

 as in a chimney, while the sulphite solution is washed down by water introduced at 

 the top and slowly dripping down over the stone during the action of the gases. 



The milk-of-lime method requires even simpler apparatus, and, being therefore 

 less expensive and equally satisfactory, is generally used. As crude sulphur is not 

 found in Germany, pyrites, which are abundant in the country, are usually em- 

 ployed, and for that purpose are roasted in kilns similar to those used in the manu- 

 facture of sulphuric acid, the gases being purified from dust and cooled by passing 

 through long brick flues and cold iron pipes before coming in contact with the milk 

 of lime. 



There is no secret or mystery about any part of the process; but care, experi- 

 ence, and good management are required at every step to secure satisfactory results 

 and enable a manufacturer in these days of keen competition and close profits to 

 maintain his trade. So confident are the Germans of their ability to do this that, 

 notwithstanding the increased cost of labor and materials and the low import duty 

 which enables Austrian pulp to be sold at a profit in Germany, the number of fac- 

 tories is still increasing, and a large establishment at Aschaffenburg is now erecting 

 new works which will double its present capacity. The frequency of cholera and 

 other epidemics which increase the cost and trouble of making paper from old rags, 

 added to the steadily increasing consumption of paper in all civilized countries, 

 which requires to be met with some new and innocuous material, opens, it is be- 

 lieved, a secure future for the production of wood pulp, in which the American 

 manufacturers, notwithstanding their present alleged disadvantages in point of 

 material and skilled labor, will assuredly play an important role. 



FRANK H. MASON, 



UNITED STATES CONSULATE-GENERAL, Consul-General. 



Frankfort, February 23, 



PULP TRADE OF GERMANY IN 1899. 



A friend of mine who is engaged in the manufacture of paper in 

 Wisconsin wrote me recently as follows: 



Since you left this country, the business in the United States has assumed an 

 entirely different aspect from that which you witnessed during the last five years of 

 your residence here. We now find it difficult to buy raw material, whereas our 

 former difficulty was in selling our manufactured goods. 



I am particularly desirous of examining into the situation relative to bleached 

 sulphite made in Germany, with the possible hope of being able to obtain therefrom 

 a portion of our supply, and, by dealing direct with the manufacturers, making it to 

 our advantage to import at least a fair proportion of such sulphite as we may use. 



It occurs to me to ask you to give me, if possible, a list of the reliable large 

 manufacturers of bleached sulphite in Germany. 



From inquiries made, I have ascertained that the makers of 

 mechanical wood pulp in Germany were fully occupied during 1899, 

 but that profits were unsatisfactory. Prices of chemical pulp were 

 well maintained. In pulp boards a scarcity was experienced, but 

 nevertheless the manufacturers found it impossible to increase prices. 



They complain that the cost of manufacturing had been increased, 

 with no adequate advance in the price of their manufactured goods, 

 s c R P & p 31. 



