Paper-Making
an account of paper-making from its earliest
known record down to the present time by
J.W. Butler Paper Company 1901
the modern paper-maker marvelous machines by which the
output is increased a thousand-fold over that of the old, slow
methods, he still has many of the same difficulties to overcome
that confronted his predecessor. While the use of wood pulp has
greatly changed the conditions as regards the cheaper grades of
this staple, the ragman is to-day almost as important to the
manufacturer of the higher grades as he was one hundred years
ago, when the saving of rags was inculcated as a domestic virtue
and a patriotic duty. Methods have changed, but the material
remains the same. In. a complete modern mill, making writing and
other high-grade papers, the process begins with unsightly rags
as the material from which to form the white sheets that are to
receive upon their spotless polished surface the thoughts of
philosophers and statesmen, the tender messages of affection,
the counsels and admonitions of ministers, the decisions of grave
and learned judges, and all the
"Wisdom of things, mysterious, divine," that ”iIIustriously doth on
paper shine,"
end of next month," it announced, and appealed to the inhabitants of that modern seat of learning and philosophy to
save their rags for the occasion, and thus encourage the industry.
The rags do not come to the mammoth factories of to-day in "bell carts," but by the carload, in huge bales, gathered
from all sections of this great Republic, as well as from lands beyond the eastern and the western oceans. The
square, compact, steam-compressed bundles are carried by elevators well up toward the top of the building, where
they await the knife of the "opener." When they have been opened, the "feeder" throws the contents by armfuls into
the" thrasher." The novice or layman, ignorant of the state in which rags come to the mill, will find their condition a
most unpleasant surprise, especially disagreeable to his olfactory nerves. Yet the unsavory revelation comes with
more force a little farther on, in the “assorting-room." The “thrasher" is a great cylindrical receptacle, revolving rapidly,
which is supplied with long wooden beaters or arms, passing through a wooden cylinder, and driven by power. When
the rags have been tossed in, there ensues a great pounding and thrashing, and the dust is carried off in suction air-
tubes, while the whipped rags are discharged and carried to the "sorting" and "shredding" room. Here the rags are
assorted, as to size, condition, and the presence of buttons, hooks and eyes, or other material that must be removed.
Then those that need further attention are passed on to the "shredders," these as well as the "sorters" being
women. The" shredders" stand along a narrow counter; in front of each one there is fastened a long scythe-blade,
with its back toward the operator and its point extending upward, the shank being firmly fixed to the table or
operating board. Here buttons, hard seams, and all similar intruders are disposed of, and the larger pieces of rags are
cut into numerous small ones on the scythe-blades. The rags thus prepared are tossed by the women into receptacles
in the tables. The work in this room is the most disagreeable and unwholesome of any in the entire process of
manufacture, and this despite the fact that these rags, too, have been thrashed, and freed from an amount of dust
and dirt beyond ordinary belief.