Fibres. 



112 



[AUGUST, 1909. 



venience the division suits both parties. 

 The pulpmaker's principal interest is to 

 be near his sources of raw material, and 

 the paper-maker's to be close to his 

 market, since he has to meet a demand 

 which is continually varying in its 

 requirements of quality, colour, size, 

 weight and finish. 



The search for new sources of paper- 

 making material can therefore be con- 

 ducted solely from the view point of the 

 pulp maker, and it may be useful to the 

 non-expert observer if we conclude this 

 series by indicating the chief consider- 

 ations ofcher than an abundant supply 

 of raw material necessary to the success- 

 ful e mduct of a paper-making enter- 

 prise. Unless these exist in association 

 with, or within economic reach of, the 

 material, the most promising supply of 

 the latter may be comparatively useless. 

 If they do exist in more or less abund- 

 ance, a prima facie case may be estab- 

 lished for submission to expert examina- 

 tion to ascertain their exact value, and 

 the compensatory effect which the 

 excellence or abundance of any one or 

 more of them may have upon the 

 deficiency or inferiority of others. 



We will assume that a perennial supply 

 of raw material, yielding a paying per- 

 centage of useful cellulose is in sight. 

 The most important of the other neces- 

 sary factors are as follows :— 



(a) Site for mill — its position with 

 respect to export of the manufactured 

 goods, and the facilities for bringing the 

 raw material to it, in eases where it 

 must be at some distance from its 

 supplies. Cases may occur where it may 

 be important to decide whether the mill 

 had better be situated close to the raw 

 material, or near a port of export. The 

 ideal, of course, is for material, mill site, 

 and port to exist together. 



(6) Labour —especially the forest labour 

 required for cutting, collection and 

 transport of material. 



(c) Source of Power — either steam or 

 water-power. In the case of the latter 

 electrical transmission from a distance 

 may be feasible. 



(d) Fuel for manufacturing purposes — 

 waste timber will usually be available, 

 but where the driving power must be 

 steam, it may be necessary to have a 

 supply of coal. 



(e) Water for manufacturing pur- 

 poses—a plentiful supply, clean and 

 bright, or capable of being made so 

 by simple settling and filtering arrange- 

 ments. 



(/) A supply of lime within economical 

 reach— with these in sight plus raw 

 material, a fair case cau be made out for 

 full and exacting enquiry into the 

 possibilities of a pulp-making industry. 



Judging from some enquiries received, 

 it seems necessary to specify exactly 

 what is meant by " pulp " in this connec- 

 tion. I have, for instance, been asked if 

 the waste ' pulp ' produced in separating 

 Aloe fibre from tne leaf is of use. The 

 more technical term of ' half -stuff ', that 

 is, half-made paper, describes it more 

 precisely. It consists of the nearly pure 

 fibre or cellulose of the plant, separated 

 and isolated from the lignose and 

 pectose constituents by chemical and 

 mechanical means, made into thick 

 slabs and dried. Though sometimes 

 bleached by the Europeau and American 

 paper-makers, it will be preferable to 

 export it from the tropics in the un- 

 bleached condition, and the bleaching, 

 if necessary, done by the paper-maker. 



As we have been dealing with new 

 fibres for paper, we have not considered 

 it necessary hitherto to make any 

 reference to new sources of old fibres. 

 In South Eastern Asia these may be said, 

 speaking broadly, not to exist ; but an 

 exception must be made in favour of the 

 higher rauges of the Himalayan region 

 containing varieties of Spruce aud pine 

 similar in composition to those now 

 being used in Europe and America as 

 pulpwoods. When we consider the 

 splendid floatway and water powers 

 afforded by the Himalayan rivers, the 

 possibility of pulpmaking there does not 

 appear to be remote ; but apart from 

 this, suitable soft-wooded non-resinous 

 timbers are, in the tropics and sub- 

 tropics, conspicuous by their absence 

 in sufficient abundance to warrant 

 attention. 



Mr. Gladstone's phrase, "the con- 

 sumption of paper is the measure of a 

 people's culture," has passed into a 

 commonplace, and although doubts may 

 be held as to what extent the consump- 

 tion of the yellow press, the penny 

 dreadful and the sixpenny awful, is 

 represented by culture, yet in the main 

 it may be accepted as a pregnant and 

 suggestive truth, and especially so in the 

 case of a people just emerging from 

 ignorance into knowledge, The struggle 

 to reach a higher plane may be pro- 

 tracted and apparently doubtful, the 

 gropiugs in the dim of the dawn weari- 

 some and disappointing, but the bound 

 into fuller light is apt to come with the 

 suddenness of sunrise. It is this which 

 makes any prophecy as to the future 

 requirements of the chief medium in the 

 distribution of culture somewhat like 

 guesswork. In the United Kingdom the 

 average consumption per head of popu- 

 lation is something like 50 lbs. per 

 annum. In Bosnia it is 1 lb., in India 

 one-tenth of a pound At auy moment a 

 suddea advance of such communities in 



