July, 1911 
AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 
WOOD PULP 
OOD fibre has come into generai 
use as a substitute for the cotton 
rags and other materials former- 
ly employ edi in the making of paper. This 
fiber is called pulp, Ravine taken the 
name which used to be given to the cotton 
and linen fiber when it had been prepared 
by maceration for spreading into sheets of 
paper. The wood fiber used to be prepared, 
not so many years ago, by a wholly mechan- 
ical process. The “blocks of wood were 
ground or rasped off by action applied 
obliquely to the grain. The length of fiber 
depended partly upon the angle at which 
the block was held during this process. 
In place of the old mode of obtaining 
wood pulp, chemical treatment of the 
wood is now in vogue. As formerly, the 
bark is stripped from the wood to secure 
fibers of uniform quality. All discolored 
or decayed parts are removed for the same 
reason. Then the wood is cut across the 
grain into thin chips, which are carried 
to the top of the mill and dropped into 
large drums about fourteen feet in dia 
meter and twenty-four feet long. 
The drums are made strong enough to 
bear a pressure of from seventy-five to 
two hundred pounds to the square inch. 
When a drum is packed full of chips it 
is filled with sulphuric acid and other 
chemicals. The wood is converted into 
a cotton-like product, which is then 
pressed dry and mashed. It is next mixed 
with water, rolled flat, and cut into shape 
for bundling. In this condition it is said 
to be made up of sixty per cent. moisture 
and forty per cent. fiber. In this shape 
it goes to the paper mill. Generally 
speaking, it is found better to pay the 
freight on the contained water than to 
cheapen the cost of transportation by 
pressing out the water, for the pulp packs 
hard when it is dry. 
One cord of spruce wood is estimated 
to make twelve hundred pounds of dry 
fiber. 
THE ASIATIC BRICK 
E SHOULD hardly expect to 
learn much of the arts of civil- 
ized life from the tribes of Cen- 
tral Asia, yet, it seems, they make better 
brick than we turn out. The barbarians 
employ the same material that we do, and, 
curiously enough, the thing that imparts 
superiority to their process of brick mak- 
ing is one of the most powerful agents of 
western civilization—steam. 
When the Asiatics have baked their 
bricks for three days, the opening of the 
oven is closed with felt which is kept wet, 
so that the bricks still intensely heated 
are enveloped in steam. 
The process causes a _ remarkable 
change in the character of the bricks. 
From red they turn gray, and at the same 
time acquire a remarkable degree of 
toughness and hardness. Although por- 
ous, they give out a sound, when struck, 
like that of clink stone; and they are said 
to resist the effects of weather much bet- 
ter than do the bricks of western make. 
Necessity was the mother of invention 
in this case, for the climate in which these 
ingenious Mongols live is subject to great 
extremes of temperature, having a dis- 
astrous effect upon bricks made by the 
ordinary process. 
If you expect to build or 
i 
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Hardware 
The beauty of a house interior is 
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Our Colonial Book also will be— 
sent if you mention an interest in 
that period. 
SARGENT & COMPANY 
156 Leonard St., New York 
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Much 
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Distributed by Morgan Sash and Door Co., Chicago 
Morgan Millwork Co., Baltimore, Md. 
) Morgan Doors handled by dealers who do not substitute | 
