INDIAN FOREST RECORDS. 
Vol. HI.] 
1912 
[Part HI, 
Report on the Investigation of Bamboo as Material 
for Production of Paper-pulp. 
By 
W. RAITT, F.C.S., 
Cellulose Expert attached to the Forest Research Institute, *Dehra T)un. 
INTRODUCTORY. 
D URING the past ten years a considerable amount of research and 
investigation work has been done on the subject of utilisation 
of bamboo for the manufacture of cellulose, or pulp, for paper-making, 
principally by Sindall, Richmond (American Bureau of Science, Manila) 
and myself. To the reports of Messrs. Sindall and Richmond I am indeb¬ 
ted for much valuable information and I have, to a large extent, made 
use of these as guides and foundations for the investigations herein 
detailed. The results of a considerable number of trials and experiments 
by pulp and paper-makers have also from time to time been published, 
but the general impression derived from a review of the whole is one of 
disappointment at the want of harmony in their conclusions. The one 
point on which all are agreed is that bamboo yields excellent cellulose, 
but scarcely any two agree, even approximately, on the yield which has 
varied from 33 to 50 per cent., on the soda consumption which has been 
reported as low as 16 and as high as 40 per cent, or on the bleaching 
powder required which has been quoted at Irom 9 to 40 per cent. There 
has also been considerable difference of opinion as to its behaviour under 
digestion, some experimentalists claiming even and regular digestion 
throughout the mass, while others assert that the results are irregular 
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