Wood Pulp



 HOW WOOD PULP IS MADE.



So much is said about the paper pulp, which is so extensively used in the manufacture of paper, that a brief description of the process of making it may be interesting. Any white, soft wood may be used. The bark is taken off, the knots and dark and decayed places cut out. It is then put into a large caldron and boiled, which extracts all the glutinous matter and resin, and renders it soft. It is then put on a large stone grinder, with water pouring on it all the time. The grindstone wears off the fibers until they are finer than sawdust, when they float away into a receptacle. The water is drained off by means of a fine sieve, leaving the pulp, which consists of a fine fuzz of splinters of wood. It is white, and requires no bleaching, but is ready to be mixed with rag pulp or anything else that has a strong fiber, and receive the proper constituents to make into paste, after which it is run off into paper sheets; whereas rags have to be washed and bleached with chloride of lime, soda-ash, and alum, and such strong chemicals, to take out the color. 

Then they are picked to pieces and made into pulp. The process by which wood pulp is made is purely mechanical. It can be made cheap, say at about one cent a pound.