This picture shows the trees as they grow in the woods. These trees are
good for making paper. Your morning paper, may some morning be printed
on what is left of one of these trees.]
It was discovered finally that if wood shavings were boiled in strong
solutions of caustic soda, in receptacles that would withstand very
high pressure, the wood fibers were separated, and a very good quality
of cellulose for paper manufacture produced, provided it was bleached
before being made into paper, and most of our paper to-day is,
therefore, made of wood.
Later on this process gave way to the sulphite process. In the sulphite
process, a solution of sulphite of lime is used. Acid sulphite of lime
results when the fumes from burning sulphur are passed through chimneys
filled with lime. By this process the separation of the fibers and the
bleaching are done at the same time and an even whiter paper making
material is obtained.
The sulphite process is now used almost exclusively in making paper
from wood.
[Illustration: GRINDING ROOM.
In this picture we see how the trees are first cut into smaller chunks
before being reduced to chips for making pulp.]
The discovery of the process of making paper from wood has led to the
use of paper for many purposes for which it could otherwise never have
been used. The wood pulp is also used in the form of papier-mâché, a
tough, plastic substance, which is made by mixing glue with it, or by
pressing together a number of layers of paper having glue between.
Papier-mâché can easily be molded into almost any form, and after
drying forms a very tough substance and one that will stand rough
usage. It has been employed for making dishes, water baskets and
utensils of many other kinds, for making the matrices for and from
electrotype plates, for car wheels, and many other purposes.
[Illustration: WHERE THE INGREDIENTS FOR MAKING PAPER ARE MIXED