FROM THE FOREST

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 2, 24 March 1927, Page 7 (Supplement)

FROM THE FOREST

RIBBON of newsprint 200 miles in length has been unreeled by the mighty modern press of THE SUN for the production of this its first issue. The growth of the New Zealand Press is exampled in the fact that whereas the importation of newsprifit in 1914 was 11,440 tons, it was last year 22,286 tons. Here we do good Empire business, for since 1922 we have bought none of this paper from the United States, the bulk coming from Canada and Britain, with some from Norway. The Canadian production is enormous, last year reaching the total of 1,881,737 tons, but despite this the stocks in hand at the e* of last year were lower than at the end of the preceding year, being equivalent to little more than two days average consumption by the Press of the world. The mills the International Paper Company, from which THE SUN draws Its supplies, convert 700,000 cords of pulp-wood into paper annually, thus eating up the growth of 140,000 acres of forest. In order to command material, the International Paper Company recently acquired 4,460,080 acres of forest land in the United States and C anada, of which 1,589,840 is freehold and the remainder ) leased from the Government. * This constitutes an area of 6969 square miles. The water power used to drive the 23 mills of the company aggregates 272,820 horse-power, which is greater than all that developed at the famous Niagara Falls. The gr a portion of this power is hydraulic, employed through turbines to grind the wood into pulp, but hydroelectric power is used for driving the machinery ~of the mills and for lighting. Additional to this, the mills use annually 500,000 tons of coal to make steam for the main drives of the paper-making machines, to dry the paper, and to make chemical pulp. It is difficult to realise that the production of a leading London daily newspaper represents the denudation of from 30 to 40 acres of forest every day to supply the pulp out of which the paper is made. Then imagine the vast difference between the primitive paper mill plant and the mighty Fourdrinier machine of to-day. This wonder-worker in one of the mills from which THE SUN draws its supplies, is 250 ft. long. It absorbs pulp at one end and delivers the finished paper in huge rolls at the other in a continuous operation. The machine has to evaporate enormous quantities of water from the pulp. Pressrn* rolls, hot drying rolls, calendar rolls and other manipulative mechanisms play their various parts, and yet the adjustment of the nachine is so fine that a semi-liquid mass enters at one end and emerges as fine paper at the other without breaking. Each logging camp employs an average of 50 men, including boss, cooks, lumbermen, timekeepers, scalers and teamsters and will supply from 2,500 to 3,500 cords of wood per season. The trees are fallen with tha crosscut saw, used by two men. Trees of Bin. or under are left standing and hardwood trees remain untouched. The logs—l2, 14 or 16ft. in length—are brought over frozen skidways to the waterways; loads of 46 tons have been pulled by one pair of horses. For long hauls tractors and the railways are used. After reaching the mill the logs are “barked” and all knots removed, when they are ready for pulping. There are two kinds of pulp in the manufacture of newsprint. One is mechanical pulp, made by grinding wood into pulp against revolving stones, like grind ‘ones end the other “ehemical” pulp, is made by soaking the wood in dilute acid baths under pressure. The chemical form is known as sulphite and is used with the ground pulp in the manufacture of

The Maiding of Newsprint

newsprint. The proportion used is 80 per bent, of ground wood and 20 per cent, of sulphite, and on this basis about one cord and a half of rough wood is used in the manufacture of one ton of paper. The dilute pulp then finds its way into the head box of the paper-making machine and is allowed to flow evenly over an endless wire belt made of fine copper or bronze wire, meshed from 60 to 70 to the inch. During the progress of the belt the moisture is sucked out of the pulp, which finally leaves the machine in long rolls, ready for printing. Paper is a very ancient production. It is to be found in the papyrus manufactured in Egypt from water reeds 3,000 years B.C. The stems of the reeds were cut into sections and opened out and the fine pellicles surrounding the stem cemented together on the same principle as three-play wood is now r mfactured. The Romans improved the process and called the reed papyrus, hence our word paper. The sheets of papyrus when prepared were subjected to pressure, dried and afterwards polished, giving a very useful surface for writing purposes by the methods then employed. About A.D. 105, Ts' Ai-Lun, Chines 3 Minister of the Interior, is said to have made paper from fibrous materials reduced to the condition of pulp. Paper discovered in Turkistan, belonging to the 4th century, and even earlier, contains flax and hemp a' minor constituents, but it was not until about A.D. 760 that paper was prepared entirely from linen rags by the people of Samarkand. The art was acquir ri by the Arabs during their conquests of ary, manufactv was established in Egyp. m the 10th century, introduced to Spain by the Moors in the 11th century and brought into Europe proper by the Crusaders. The utility of paper soon became recognised in Europe and steps were taken to manufacture the article, and it is believed that the first mills were erected at Hainault in 1180 at Ravensberg, Germany, by brothers named Holbein in 1336; at Hertford, England, by John Tate, in 1496; at Philadelphia, U.S.A., in 1690, and at St. Andrews, Canada, in 1803. The materials used in these mills for a long time were cotton and linen rags. After being moistened, they were allowed to ferment, were then washed and finally reduced to pulp by stamping machines constructed of stone and wood on the mortar and pestle principle. The industry, however, did not make much headway in England for a long time and Dutch paper dominated the markets of the world, although a tremendous impetus "is given to production by the Hollander beating machine. The first definite progress. step was made in 1725, when a man namiu de Portal was granted a monopoly of making paper for Bank of England notes and Whatman erected a mill at Maidstone. In 1798 Louis Roberts, manager of a mill at Essones, invented a paper machine. In 1801 a man named Gamble took out English patents and interested the brothers Fourdrinier, of London, with the result that the first machine (named after them) was erected at Two Waters Mill, Hertfordshire, capable of turning out a continuous roll of moist pape:r. The increased demand for paper necessitated the use of other materials than rags, and manufacturers set about making; experiments. Berthollet discovered the bleaching properties of chlorine and Leblanc prepared artificial soda. This enabled makers throughout the world to produce paper cheaply from all sorts of cellulose pulp and fibrous material. A book was printed in 1800 upon straw paper, Routledge used esparto and bamboo in 1875; but it was Keller, a Saxon watchmaker, who first produced ground wood pulp. Tilghman, a Philadelphian, took out a patent for hia sulphite process in 1866. and it is to these latter discoveries that we owe our wood papa# of to-day.