\A^ooden Paper 



that mix the contents of the tank into a uniform, pulpy consis- 

 tency. The motion is continuous and vigorous, giving the tank 

 its name — "the beater." This is the stage in paper making 

 where the character of the product is determined. Usually a 

 definite order limits both quality and quantity. Here colouring 

 is put in. "Fillers" of clay, talc or starch add consistency and 

 weight. "Sizing" of alum and rosin or of animal glue bind the 

 fibres and make the paper take a higher polish. There is a recipe 

 for each paper in the sample book. The beater corresponds to 

 the cook's mixing bowl in the kitchen. 



From the beater the pulp is drawn off into the "stock chest," 

 another vat with a slowly moving paddle that keeps the ingre- 

 dients thoroughly mixed. This is close to the paper machine, 

 and the liquid contents of it are screened again to take out still 

 smaller impurities, if the paper is required to be free from specks 

 and other small blemishes. 



The Mill. The paper mill is long and narrov/, with many 

 cylindrical rollers, some covered with revolving bands of cloth that 

 act as carriers — others of bare, shining steel. The fluid pulp that 

 drains through the screens falls on a moving sheet of bronze wire 

 netting, woven so fine that only the water goes through. This 

 netting is like the linen roller towel under the first screens — it is an 

 endless apron, and leads around the lower one of a pair of rollers, 

 bringing to them a thin but continuous layer of wet wood fibre. 

 The upper roller is wrapped with cloth, to which the film of fibres 

 sticks while the wire net turns back clean to the point of begin- 

 ning. Its sole duty is to bring the pulp to the first pair of rollers, 

 and there, giving it up, return for more. Pressed into a sheet 

 by the close-set rollers, the fibres cling to each other and give up 

 more water to the absorbent cloth. The sheet may now be 

 called paper. It gains strength and compactness as it is drawn 

 from one set of rollers to another; it ceases to drip water into the 

 trough below. Taut and firm it winds through a maze of a dozen 

 hot rollers, and the last sign of moisture rises in steam. Next it 

 goes through rollers called calendars, whose high pressure gives 

 the paper a polished surface almost equal to their own. Now 

 knives trim the margins, cut the sheet into required widths, and 

 wind it on wooden spools for market. The machine relinquishes 

 these to men who weigh and mark the spools and stack them aside. 



There is need of but few men in a mill where the machinery 



547 



