NATORE 
289 
THURSDAY, JANUARY 24, 
1907. 
SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY OF PAPER. 
Paper Technology. An Elementary Manual on the 
Manufacture, Physical Qualities, and Chemical 
Constituents of Paper and of Paper-making Fibres. 
By R. W. Sindall. Pp. xv+253. (London: Chas. 
Griffin and Co., Ltd., 1906.) Price 12s. 6d. net. 
N the author’s preface it is stated that this work 
took shape in a course of lectures delivered at 
Exeter Hall in 1904-6. There is a suggestion here 
that ‘‘ Exeter Hall ”’ extended its ‘* mission ”’ 
sphere to the paper-maker, but the impression is only 
momentary. 
As a matter of fact, the treatise is designed more 
expressly for the other side of the paper industry, the 
buyers and consumers, that is, it deals with paper 
from the point of view of the stationers, printers, 
bookbinders, and publishers; moreover, the treatment 
is severely material, strictly limited to ‘‘ things ’’ and 
to the exposition of their relations in accordance with 
the title and subtitle. 
The first page reveals the author’s purpose and 
method, which are entirely practical. There may be 
some who would question the ‘‘ practical ’’ qualifica- 
tions of a technologist who gives prominence to the 
‘ideal paper,’? which subject is treated in chapter i. 
as a résumé of the discussion of the important section 
on chemical and physical constants. 
We may clear away an ambiguity associated with 
this well-known adjective in relation to our subject. 
The “‘ practical paper-malxer,”’ as ordinarily so defined, 
limits his conduct and control of the processes which 
he superintends to sense impressions—what he can 
see—the appearance of the “‘ stuff’’ in the beater or 
on the machine wire; what he can feel—the ‘‘ handle ”’ 
of the stuff in the beater or of the finished sheet; 
what he can hear—the hum of the beater roll as the 
measure of the distance from the bed-plate, and the 
beating work of his machine; what he can smell and 
taste are also taken as evidences of states and con- 
ditions of his material in process. 
The “ practical’? buyer judges a paper by the eye, 
the hand, the tongue—an excellent provider of a 
slightly alkaline fluid for testing “‘ sizing ’’ efficiency 
—the ear for ‘‘ rattle ’’—and he avails himself also of 
the sixth sense, muscular sense, in measuring the 
mechanical properties of resistance to pulling or tear- 
ing strains. 
The technologist, on the other hand, sets out from 
the position that the actual phenomena which con- 
dition the qualities of the finished paper are mainly 
the invisible and intangible; they are molecular, and 
belong to the invisible region of the scientific imagin- 
ation, and can, therefore, only be followed by the 
methods of science. ‘ 
If we substitute for ‘‘ practical ’’ the word thorough, 
the technologist may leave the empiric invested with 
his lesser qualifications, and appropriate the higher 
designation commensurate with his comprehensive 
survey of fundamental principles. 
NO.194 3. VOL. 75] 
has 
The author’s present contribution to the technical 
literature of paper-making is entirely in this spirit. 
The second chapter, on “ technical difficulties, ’”’ 
enforces the useful moral of the relation of difficulty 
and the critical investigation of defects to progress. 
The examples are well chosen, and it is easy to see 
that they represent actual working experiences. 
Following these preliminary chapters we have a 
brief account in successive chapters of paper-making 
processes, Classified in the accepted order, rag papers, 
esparto and straw, wood pulp, and the miscellaneous 
group of packing papers and boards. A feature of 
these chapters is the generalised summary of technical 
effects given in tabular form. Thus on pp. 48-9 is 
a tabulated outline of the processes involved in the 
preparation of half-stuff of the six leading types and 
grades; Table vi., p. 51, is a comparison of times of 
beating in relation to half-stuff and to quality of 
finished paper. 
Table ix., p. is a fitting conclusion to the 
section on wood pulp, giving the details of consump- 
tion of fibrous materials, fuel and water for pro- 
viding the paper for a daily journal with a circulation 
of 200,000. 
It may be noted that one average conifer furnishes 
the pulp for 1000 copies of the average ‘‘ daily,’’ and 
the coal consumed is equal to the weight of the paper 
produced, and may, by the way, be taken to represent 
many times this weight of the products of antecedent 
forest growth. Such tables occur throughout the 
book, and give an original impress to matter which 
otherwise treated would have the unrelieved character 
of ‘stock ”? information. 
The section on ‘“‘art’’ papers is an original dis- 
cussion of their qualities and defects, with indications 
of the lines of investigation along which progress 
may be made, to the much desired ideal printing 
surface, which shall not involve the sacrifice of those 
qualities in the body-paper conditioning permanence. 
Our ‘‘art”’ papers are an interesting study in com- 
promise, and our ‘‘imitation art’ papers are still 
more interestingly artful. The author treats them 
with respectful impatience ! 
Upon this necessary groundwork the manual pro- 
ceeds to develop the subject of physical, mechanical 
and chemical qualities and properties of papers, the 
methods of investigation adopted by the “ expert,” 
the numerical expression of the results, with a critical 
discussion of the value of the constants arrived at. 
In this section the author devotes a chapter to a 
further exposé of the ‘C.B.S. units,’ in which 
special attention is paid to the volume-composition of 
papers and to breaking ‘strains reduced to the actual 
unit of sectional area of the paper. These units have 
proved of value in practice, and their usefulness must 
be insisted upon, especially in educating the young 
technologist to associate with his tests mental pic- 
tures conformable with the actualities of paper. In 
these respects the otherwise comprehensive unit of 
the “breaking length’? adopted by the German 
pioneers in this branch of technology has been found 
wanting. 
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