Paper-Making
an account of paper-making from its earliest
known record down to the present time by
J.W. Butler Paper Company 1901
repress the wish that rags might be bought otherwise than by
the pound, for, unfortunately, filth, dust, and dirt weigh, and to
wash rags only reduces the weight. While this is a true reflection
of the condition in the average mill, it is pleasant to know,
however, there are others of the higher class that are decided
exceptions, as far as dust and dirt are concerned. Such are the
mills making high grade ledger and bond papers, as well as the
mill manufacturing the paper that is used for the printing of our
"greenbacks," to which further reference will be made later. In
these exceptional mills everything is neat and perfectly clean, all
the stock used being new and fresh from the cotton or linen mills,
or from factories producing cloth goods, like shirt and corset
factories, and others of the same sort. The sorting and shredding
room is always large and light, with windows on all sides, and is
well ventilated, offering a decided contrast in many respects to
the less cleanly mills first referred to, where the women must
wear bonnets or hoods for the protection of the hair. In either
case the process is certainly an improvement over the old plan of
women must wear bonnets or hoods for the protection of the hair. In either case the process is certainly an
improvement over the old plan of leaving the rags to decay in a cellar to expedite the removal of the glutinous matter.
From the “sorting" and “shredding" room the rags are conveyed to the “cutter," where they are cut and chopped by
revolving knives, leaving them in small pieces and much freer from dust and grit. Various ingenious devices are
employed for removing metal and other hard and injurious matter, magnetic brushes serving this purpose in some mills.
When the “cutter" has finished its work, the still very dirty rags go for a further cleansing to the “devil," or “whipper," a
hollow cone with spikes projecting within, against which work the spikes of a drum, dashing the rags about at great
speed. Human lives are often freed of their baser elements and restored to purity and beauty through the chastening
influences of tribulation or adversity; in like manner the “whipper" carries the rags forward a step in the process of
purification that is necessary before they can be brought to their highest usefulness. But the cleansing process, which
is only a preparation for what is to follow, does not end with the "whipper," the latter having served merely to loosen,
not to dislodge, a great deal of dust and dirt. The final operation in the preliminary cleaning is performed by the
“duster" proper, which is a conical revolving sieve. As the mass of rags is tossed and shaken about the loosened dust
is carried away by the suction of the air, which draws the dust particles into tubes furnished with suction fans. In most
modern mills the rags are carried forward from the “duster" on an endless belt, and a careful watch is kept upon them
as they emerge to detect the presence of unchopped pieces, buttons, or other foreign substances. The journey of the
rags over this endless belt or conveyor terminates in a receiving-room, in the floor of which there are several openings,
and immediately below these the mouths of the “digesters," which are in a room beneath. The “digesters," as they are
suggestively and appropriately termed, are huge revolving boilers, usually upright, which often have as great a
diameter as eight feet, with a height of twenty-two feet, and whose digestive capacity is upward of five tons of rags
each. The rags that are to be "cooked" are fed into the “digesters" through the openings in the floor, and the great
movable manhole plates are then put in place and closed, hermetically sealing the openings or mouths through which
the boilers have been fed, these having first been charged with a mixed solution of lime and soda, and with live hot
steam in lieu of gastric juice as a digesting fluid and force. In some mills the boilers are placed in a horizontal position,
while in others they are in the form of a large ball or globe, in either case being operated in the manner described;
those of upright form, however, are most commonly in use. The rags are boiled under steam pressure of about forty
pounds to the square inch, and the cooking is continued from twelve to fourteen hours.