The pulp is pumped from the stuff chest into a small regulating box placed above the machine wire, and this box is kept full of beaten pulp so that the supply of pulp and water to the machine is perfectly constant. The pulp, diluted with the proper quantity of back-water, is carefully strained through rotary screens and allowed to flow through a distributing box on to the machine wire, where it rapidly forms a sheet of paper.
The excess of water, together with a certain proportion of fine fibre and china clay, falls through the wire, and is caught below in a shallow box, called the save-all. This back-water, as it is called, is used over again for diluting the beaten pulp to the right consistency, as already described.
The whole of the water obtained in this way is not all utilised in the regulating box, and any surplus is pumped up continually into large store tanks and used in the beating engines for breaking down the dry pulp.
In many cases, where a large quantity of water is used on the machine, special methods have to be adopted for the recovery of all the fibre and clay, which would otherwise be lost, and there are many ingenious systems in use whereby this saving is effected.
The most usual practice is to allow the excess of water, which contains from 8 to 15 lbs. of suspended matter per thousand gallons, to flow through a series of brick tanks at a slow rate of speed. The clay and fibre settle to the bottom of the tanks, and the water passes away from the last tank almost clear and free from fibre and loading.
The drying of the moist paper leaving the press rolls of the machine is effected in the usual manner by means of drying cylinders. On account of the great increase of speed at which the paper is produced, the number of drying cylinders has also been increased, and at the present time a machine of this description is provided with 28 or 32 cylinders, the object being to dry the paper economically.
Mechanical Wood Pulp in Paper.
The presence of mechanical wood pulp in paper is detected by means of several reagents, which produce a definite colour when applied to a sheet of paper containing mechanical wood. The depth of colour obtained indicates approximately the percentage present, but considerable practice and experience is necessary to interpret the colour exactly. A more reliable method of estimating the percentage of mechanical wood in a paper is by microscopic examination.
The reagents which can be used are—
(1) Nitric Acid.—This produces a brown stain on the paper, but it is not a desirable reagent for ordinary office purposes.