Chemical wood pulp of the best quality makes an excellent product, and is largely used for both print and book paper; it is frequently mixed with rag pulp, making a paper that can scarcely be distinguished from that made entirely from fine rags, though it is not of the proper firmness for the best flat or writing papers.  All ordinary newspapers, as well as some of the cheaper grades of book and wrapping paper, are made entirely from wood, the sulphite or soda process supplying the fiber, and ground wood being used as a filler.  In the average newspaper of to-day’s issue, twenty-five per cent of sulphite fiber is sufficient to carry seventy-five per cent of the ground wood filler.  The value of the idea is an economical one entirely, as the ground wood employed costs less than any other of the component parts of a print-paper sheet.

The cylinder machine, to which reference was made earlier in the chapter, was patented in 1809 by a prominent paper-maker of England, Mr. John Dickinson.  In this machine, a cylinder covered with wire cloth revolves with its lower portion dipping into a vat of pulp, while by suction a partial vacuum is maintained in the cylinder, causing the pulp to cling to the wire until it is conveyed to a covered cylinder, which takes it up and carries it forward in a manner similar to the system already described.  This machine is employed in making straw-board and other heavy and cheap grades of paper.

Generous Mother Nature, who supplies man’s wants in such bountiful fashion, has furnished on her plains and in her forests an abundance of material that may be transformed into this fine product of human ingenuity.  Esparto, a Spanish grass grown in South Africa, has entered largely into the making of print-paper in England.  Mixed with rags it makes an excellent product, but the chemicals required to free it from resin and gritty silica are expensive, while the cost of importation has rendered its use in America impractical.  Flax, hemp, manila, jute and straw, and of course old paper that has been once used, are extensively employed in this manufacture, the process beginning with the chemical treatment and boiling that are found necessary in the manipulation of rags.  The successful use of these materials has met demands that would not otherwise have been supplied.  As a result, the price has been so cheapened that the demand for paper has greatly increased, and its use has been extended to many and various purposes.

Many additional items of interest might be described in connection with the methods of manufacturing paper, but as this work is intended for the general reader, rather than for the manufacturer, those wishing further information are referred to technical works on the subject.