MATAURA. FALLS PAPER MILL.

Mataura Ensign, Volume 7, Issue 356, 13 May 1884, Page 5

MATAURA. FALLS PAPER MILL.

"We are sure our Mataura friends will be anxious to see all that is said in distant places regarding the mill at Mataura. Thus the Dum.-din ' Star ' : ■ — The manufacture of paper being a local industry of some interest, we recently paid a visit to the mill at Mataura. It is on the right bank of the Mataura River, near where one or two minimum; falls occur, to the north of the township, and its situation could not well be improved. Its establishment dates as far back as nine or ten years ago • but the old company lately sold the concern to Mcwrs Conlls, Culling, and Co., of Dunedin. who have been engaged during <h^ past few weeks renovating the builuin«r nnd machinery, and preparing to con.iuov, the venture on new lines. A gm.! many difficulties have had to be supj mounted ; but the new proprietors have | gone very earnestly to work, nnd ; evidently are intent upon ascertaining I whether the industry really can be | made a payable one or not." It is to be hoped that their efforts will be | crownpd with success, for the ruanu. : facture is one which we should be very sorry to see abandoned. The raw materials brought into operation at the : Mataura Falls Mill at present are rags, canvas, old rope, sacks, and tussockgrass, and about fifty tons of this raw material is to be seen piled up in the mill yard. The tussock grass is obtained in the district, but is not much used. When the rags come into the factory [they have first of all to be | chopped up to a small size. At the time of our visit this was being done iby manual labor ; but a machine has I been shipped from Home, which will do as much in two hours as a man can in a week. The tussack grass has to be cleansed from all vegetable matter and made soft and pliable by being boiled Cor seven hours with caustic soda, and this has also to be done in the case of waste paper and dirty rags. Then comes the process of reducing the material to pulp. Three beating engines are used at the mill for this purpose. They consist of vats containing revolving cylinders, which are furnished with cutting bars of steel bo arranged as to drag the material through stationary teeth underneath and separate it into the finest filaments. Immersion in water being necessary at this time, it is pumped from the river, and coloring matter, according to the class of paper desired, is mixed. If a pure white is wanted, the material has to be removed to the bleeehing wells, as the chemical used would destroy the iron of the beating machines. The pulp obtained, it is shot into two-ton " stuff chest," which are needed for storing a large quantity of the same description of material, and thence as required it is conducted to a sand-trap, where all dust is collected on a bottom of felt and by means of boxes, whence it is afterwads removed. More water is here mixed, and the pulp then falls through what are technically known as " strainer plates," which act as a sieve to retain all knots or lumps, and thereafter it enters a Fourdrinier paper-mak-ing machine 50in wide. The process of manufacture from this point is most interesting. The first portion of the machine is known as a " mould, 13 or " deckle," and consists of an endles« web of wire gauze 30ft long, which is kept revolving on rollers. As the pulp passes over this to a couple of couch rolls, all the water falls through to be pumped by a centrifugal machine back tojthe sand trap. The wire gauze, by an appliance, is kept shaking from side to side as it revolves, and by this means the fibres of the pulp are woven sideways as well as in length ; and for the removal of water which doerf not fall through the web three vacum pumps are brought into play, the couch rolls are for the purpose of reducing to something like uniform thickness the pulp, which now consists of an endless compact stripe like a piece of cloth. They are covered with a jacketing, which, like the webs afterwards used, is specially woven without a joining, so as to prevent the paper being marked in any way. The strip of embryo paper — it can hardly now be called pulp — is then conveyed by an endless piece of felt through a press having two iron rollers,' which by means of screws can bring a pressure of half a ton to bear. Passing through another press of reverse action, so that it is reduced equally on both sides, the paper is brought to a set of seven cylinders, 4ft. in diameter, to be dried. These are supplied with endless pieces of felt, the revolutions of which cause the paper to pass over and under the cylinders alternately. They are heated by means of steam pipes, and the temperature is gradually reduced as the paper pa3ses on to the calender 1 rollers, which are for imparting si Bmooth ' surface. They are five in number, of an average weight of Bcwt, having a polished surface. The paper, as it comes through this last process, is caught on a reel, and the manufacture is complete. A cutting machine, which operates on four Bheets simultaneously, divides the paper as required ; and a hydraulic press is afterwards used for reducing bales. It is estimated that the mill is capable, of producing from ten to twelve tons of paper a week. Of course, the Company do not produce other than the roagher kinds of paper suitable for wiapping purposes ; but they intend to enter largely .into the manufacture of bags, and have ordered a machine wljich will turn out 2000 an hour. A tremendous waterwheel of 50 horse power keeps the beating engines in motion, but tor the other machinery it is unsuitable ; and a 20 horse double cylinder horizontal steam-engine, which has come from the foundry of Messrs Johnston ami Co., » Invercargill. is used. This is laid in a (concrete bed 6ft deep. The boiler, (which has taken the place of two small

■ On -es used by the old company, is a 1 one, of 30 horse power, -°M was manufactured by Messrs -^erud and M 'Queen. The saving of c °al O y t>-iis improvement is twenty-tln-ee tons per week. Three of the drying cylinders were made by Messrs Palmer, Booth, and Co., of the Otngo foundry, under the supervision of Mr J- -Pweedie, late managing foreman at i Bertram and (Sons' Leith Walk Foundry, Edinburgh, and they are represented as giving greater satisfaction than the other four which came from Australia. It is necessary to explain : that the latter were all the original , proprietors had, and the others have '•since been added by the present Com--1 P an y- Sixteen operatives are now employed by the Company, and on the arrival of new machinery the staff will be increased. In connection with the mill there is a smithy, a screw-cutting lathe, and other appliances ; and all the lignite used is obtained from a pii hard by, which is owned by the Com pany. Mr C. W. Anderson, C.8., i« resi'it.iit. manager, and Mr J. Thornley fori:!i::m u t the mill. We understand tluit the proprietors of the paper >; ill have arranged with the well-known firm of P. Haymau and Co. that they sliall act as agentp in uliis Colony i'i>r the. sale of the products of the mill. From the fact that Messrs H:t) man and Co. have branches at Christchurch Wellington, and Auckland, and their travellers visit every town and hamlet in the Colony, the Mataura paper ought to be brought into pretty extensive notice, and will, it is to be hoped, meet with ready sale.