From Paper-mill to Pressroom

by William Bond Wheelwright

After the process has been continued a sufficient length of time, the stuff is emptied into a chest called the “Jordan chest,” because it acts as a reservoir for another type of refining engine known as the “Jordan.” This engine is conical in shape and the inside is lined with knives. A cone-shaped plug, also shod with knives, fits into this shell, and by the turn of a screw may either be moved in or out, thus varying the space between the two sets of knives. By this adjustment the refining of the pulp which flows through the engine is regulated.

The stock passes through one or more of these “Jordans” into the machine chest. Thence it is pumped to a level higher than the machine, and flows through “sand settlers” to a screen. The “sand settler” is a long, open trough containing a series of baffle boards which collect any sediment, preventing it from getting into the paper.

Screens are of various types, the main feature consisting of bronze plates pierced with fine slots through which the fibers are forced. The object is to give uniformity to the stock which reaches the machine, and to exclude any knots of stock, strings or foreign substances.

The width of the slots is varied to suit different stocks—some slots being as fine as 10/1000 of an inch.

We have now described the process of paper-making up to the point where the stuff is formed into paper, and must pause for a description of the paper-machine itself.

PAPER-MACHINE.

The paper-machine may be considered in three parts: The wet end where the paper is formed and pressed, the middle, where it is dried, and the dry end, where it is calendered, slit and wound.

There are two distinct types of wet ends—the Fourdrinier and the cylinder. Both are mechanical reproductions in continuous process of the steps taken in the ancient hand methods, a brief consideration of which impresses clearly on one’s mind the rationale of the machine.

HAND PROCESS.

The tools of the primitive paper-maker consisted of a pulp vat for the fiber-laden water, a frame, or mold, across which was stretched a mesh of closely woven wire, and a removable frame, known as the deckle, which fitted around the edge of the mold to keep the moist pulp from overflowing and to help regulate the thickness of the paper.