The increase of paper-mills in the United States had been so rapid that in 1810 the number in the country was stated to be 185. In 1811, Zenas Crane, who had built the first mill at Dalton, since known as the Berkshire Mills, erected a new mill at the lower falls of the Housatonic. These pioneers gave a great impetus to the manufacture, and paper-mills sprang up as if by magic along all the swift-flowing mountain streams of New England.
A paper-mill, the first built in the British American provinces, was erected at what is now Bedford, and in the same year, 1816, a paper factory was put into operation at Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. It was operated by a 16 horse-power steam-engine, employed forty persons, and with an annual output valued at only $20,000 required the consumption of 10,000 bushels of coal and the use of 120,000 pounds of rags, showing that the method must have been slow and cumbersome, and the margin of profit small.
♦Duty on books♦
It is believed that the Gilpins, who were celebrated paper-makers on the Brandywine, near Philadelphia, were the first to introduce paper machinery from France and England, about the year 1820, but the experiment proved so expensive that it met with little encouragement at that time. Some interesting facts were brought out during this year by a petition to Congress from the paper-makers of Pennsylvania and Delaware, who asked for a duty on paper, claiming that seventy paper-mills, with ninety vats, employing 950 persons, and using 2,600 tons of rags, with an annual output of $500,000 in value, had by foreign competition been reduced to seventeen vats. The allied trades of printing and publishing were so closely connected with paper-making that what affected one affected all; it was this community of interests that led representatives of the three industries to unite, in 1822, in a memorial to Congress, urging that the duty on books should not be reduced, as the books, entirely of American products and manufacture, which were issued in the country, amounted in value to more than $1,000,000 per annum.
Cut—[Page 59] Washed—[Page 62] Bleached—[Page 63]
RAGS IN VARIOUS STAGES
♦The calender invented♦
Notwithstanding foreign competition, possibly because of that stimulus, improvements were constantly being made in methods and machinery. The agitator now used on paper machines, consisting of a semi-cylindrical cradle vibrating so as to prevent the fibers from being arranged parallel one to another, the result of which would be to make the paper weaker in one direction than in the other, was patented by Reuben Fairchild of Trumbull, Connecticut, in 1829. In the following year Thomas Gilpin of Philadelphia invented what are called “calenders,” for giving the polished surface to paper. These are described later, in [Chapter V]. True cylinders were first made in this same year by an inventor in England. The result was gained by grinding the rollers together while a stream of water flowed over them, this operation requiring many weeks. Through these various inventions and improvements, and through the introduction of machinery from Europe, by means of which the coarsest of rags and other materials were cleaned, bleached, and purified, and increased three hundred per cent in value, a decided impetus was imparted to the manufacture. ♦Improved machinery♦ The advance in the industry during the following years was so marked that in 1842, according to an estimate made at a meeting of paper-makers held in New York City in that year, the paper-mill property of the United States was valued at $16,000,000, and the annual output at $15,000,000, while the value of rags imported from Europe amounted to $468,230, and the raw stock, rags, and other material collected in the United States to $6,000,000. With the adoption, in 1843, of the devices for a rotating strainer, for draining water from the pulp in the washing or beating vats, came another advance in the process of paper-making.
♦The first paper-house in Chicago♦