_TREATMENT OF RAGS._
Preliminary Operations.--Sorting.--Cutting.--Bertrams' Rag-cutting
Machine.--Nuttall's Rag-cutter.--Willowing.--Bertrams' Willow and
Duster.--Dusting.--Bryan Donkin's Duster or Willow.--Donkin's
"Devil."
=Preliminary Operations.=--Before the rags are submitted to the
various processes which constitute the art of paper-making, they
are subjected to certain preliminary operations to free them
from dirty matters, dust, and even sand, which is sometimes
fraudulently introduced into rags to increase their weight. This
preliminary treatment may be classified under the following heads,
namely:--Sorting; Cutting; Willowing; Dusting.
=Sorting.=--The rags being removed from the bags or bales in which
they are packed, require first to be sorted according to the nature
and quality of the fabrics of which they are composed; thus linen,
cotton, hemp, wool, &c., must be carefully separated from each
other; the thickness of the substance, its condition as to the
wear it has undergone, and the colour of the material, all these
considerations are taken into account by the women and girls who
are employed in the operation of sorting. The finer qualities are
set aside for writing-paper, inferior sorts being used separately,
or mixed, according to the requirements of the manufacturer.
Blue rags are generally separated from the rest and kept for the
manufacture of blue paper, but most of the other coloured rags
require bleaching. In sorting rags, a good deal of judgment and
skill are required to avoid mixing the better qualities with
those of an inferior class, which would occasion loss in the
manufacture. It is also important that those of inferior colour
should not be mixed with the finer qualities, which would be liable
to affect the colour and deteriorate the quality of the paper.
Paper manufacturers generally classify the rags obtained from home
sources, that is, from different parts of the United Kingdom, under
the following heads:--
HOME RAGS.
New cuttings.
Linen pieces.
Cotton pieces.
Fines (whites).
Superfines (whites).
Outshots (whites).
Seconds (whites).
Thirds (whites).
Colours or prints.
Blues.
Gunny, clean.
Gunny, dirty.
Rope (white).
Rope (hard).
Rope, bagging, etc.
Foreign rags are distinguished as below:--
BELGIAN RAGS.
White linens.
Mixed fines (linens and cottons).
Grey linens.
Strong linens.
Extra fine linens.
Blue linens.
Superfine white cottons.
Outshot cottons.
Seconds.
Half jute and linen.
Light prints.
Mixed prints.
Blue cottons.
Fustians.
Black calicoes.
White hemp, strings, and rope.
Tarred hemp, strings, and rope.
Jute spinners' waste.
Jute waste.
_New._
White linens.
Grey linens.
Blue linens.
Unbleached cottons.
White linens and cottons.
Print cuttings (free from black).
Blacks.
Fustians.
FRENCH RAGS.
French linens.
White cotton.
Knitted cotton.
Blue cotton.
Coloured cotton.
Black cotton.
Marseilles whites.
Light prints.
Mixed prints.
New white cuttings.
GERMAN RAGS.
S. P. F. F. F.
S. P. F.
F. F.
F. G.
L. X. F.
L. F. R. blue.
C. S. P. F. F. F.
C. F. B. blue.
C. F. X. coloured.
TRIESTE.
P. P. white linen (first).
P. white linen (second).
S. fine greys.
X. coloured cottons.
LEGHORN.
P. L. linens.
P. C. cottons.
S. C.
T. C.
TURKEY AND BEYROUT.
Bright reds.
ALEXANDRIA.
Whites.
Blues.
Colours.
BALTIC AND RUSSIAN.
S. P. F. F.
S. P. F.
L. F. B.
F. G.
F. F.
B. G.
L. F. X.
Woollen rags are only used to a very moderate extent in blotting
and filtering papers and also in coarse papers and wrappers. Many
attempts have been made to bleach woollen rags, but the severity
of the treatment required invariably ended in a destruction of the
fibrous substances mingled with them. It is customary to dispose
of such material for re-making into common cloths, and for shoddy.
Rags collected in large cities, in consequence of the frequent
bleachings they have been subjected to, are considerably weakened
in fibre, tearing easily, and are therefore subject to loss in
process of manufacture into pulp. Country rags, being coarser and
greyer because less bleached, are stronger in fibre and give a
better body to the paper. In sampling rags it is necessary to take
precautions against the fraudulent "tricks of the trade," which
are often resorted to to cheat the manufacturer. Samples should
be taken from the interior of the bags or bales, to ascertain
if the material in the interior is equal in quality with that at
the outside--that is to say, that the quality is fairly averaged
throughout. It may also be found that the rags have been purposely
wetted to increase their weight. If such is found to be the case, a
few handfuls should be weighed, and then dried in a warm room, and
afterwards re-weighed, when if the loss exceeds 5 to 7 per cent. it
may be assumed that the rags have been fraudulently wetted. It is
generally found, however, that the merchants in the principal towns
transact their business honourably and are therefore reliable.
The sorting is generally performed by women, who not only separate
the various qualities of the rags, which they place in separate
receptacles, but also remove all buttons, hooks and eyes,
india-rubber, pins and needles, &c., and loosen all seams, hems
and knots. The rags are next carefully looked over by women called
_over-haulers_, or over-lookers, whose duty it is to see that the
previous operations have been fully carried out in all respects.
Usually there is one over-hauler to every eight or ten _cutters_.
=Cutting.=--In some mills it is preferred to have the rags cut
into pieces from 2 to 4 inches square, but the actual size is not
considered of much importance. The chief object is to have them in
such a condition that they may be thoroughly cleansed in subsequent
operations, and able to float throughout the water in the
rag-engine, without twisting round the roller. If the rag pieces
are smaller than is required to effect this it tends to create a
loss of fibre in the operations of willowing and dusting.
[Illustration: Fig. 3.]
The process of cutting is performed by hand or by machinery. When
the rags are cut by hand, the operation, which is accomplished by
women, is conducted as follows:--The cutter takes her place in
front of an oblong box, as in Fig. 3, covered with coarse wire
netting, containing three threads per inch, through which dust,
&c., passes to a receptacle beneath; in the centre is fixed, in
a slanting position, a large-bladed knife of peculiar form, with
its back towards the operator, who is surrounded by a number of
boxes, corresponding with the number of the different qualities of
rags; these are lined at the bottom with coarse wire gauze. In the
operation of cutting, if any foreign substances, such as buttons,
hooks, &c., which may have escaped the sorters are found, these are
at once removed. The rags as they are cut are put into baskets to
be conveyed to the rag-engine room. In some mills rags are cut by
machinery, but hand cutting is usually adopted for the better kinds
of paper, as it is obvious that the machine would not be able to
reject, as is the case in hand cutting, unpicked seams and other
irregularities which may have escaped observation by the sorters
and overhaulers. Machine cutting is, therefore, generally adopted
for the materials which are to be used for the coarser papers.
There are several rag-cutting machines in use, of which one or two
examples are given below.
[Illustration: Fig. 4.]
=Bertrams' Rag-Cutting Machine.=--The engraving, Fig. 4, represents
a machine manufactured by Messrs. Bertrams, Limited, of St.
Katherine's Works, Edinburgh, to whose courtesy we are indebted
for this and other illustrations of their machinery, which have
been reproduced in outline from their illustrated catalogue. The
machine, which is suitable either for rags or ropes, has three
revolving knives, and one dead knife, which is rendered reversible
to four edges, and has self-acting feed gear, side frames, drum,
and other connections of substantial construction; it is wood
covered, and furnished with sheet-iron delivery spout. The
material passes into the machine along the table at _a_, where it
passes between the dead knife _c_ and the knives _b_ fixed to the
revolving drum _d_. The cut rags fall into a receptacle beneath the
drum.
=Nuttall's Rag Cutter.=--Another type of rag cutter, and which is
also suitable for cutting bagging, sailcloth, tarpaulin, Manilla
and other fibres, is Nuttall's Rag Cutter, a drawing of which is
shown in Fig. 5. This machine is manufactured by Messrs. Bentley
and Jackson, of Bury, near Manchester, and is generally known as
the "Guillotine Rag Cutter," from the principle of its action,
which is that of chopping the material. The machine is adopted at
many mills, and a large-sized machine has recently been put down at
the _Daily Telegraph_ mills, Dartford. A medium-sized machine will
cut about one ton of rags in an hour.
[Illustration: Fig. 5.]
=Willowing.=--In some mills the cut rags are conveyed to a machine
called the "willow," which in one form of machine consists of
two cast-iron cylinders, 2½ feet in diameter and 3½ feet wide,
provided with numerous iron teeth, which project about 4 inches.
These cylinders are placed one behind the other, and beneath them
is a semi-circular screw, and above them a cover of the same
form. This cover is also furnished with teeth, and is so adjusted
that the teeth in the cylinders pass those in the cover at a
distance of ½ to ¾ of an inch. In front are a pair of rollers and
revolving apron, which carry the rags into the cylinders, which
rotate rapidly; and the rags, which are thrown by the first into
the second cylinder, are allowed to remain in them for about 20
seconds, when a sliding door, which rises three times per minute,
allows the rags to be discharged into a duster. Each time the
sliding door opens the revolving apron moves forward and recharges
the willow with a fresh supply. The rags, after being beaten and
teazed in the willow, are considerably loosened in texture, and
a good deal of dust and gritty matters fall through the screen
beneath.
[Illustration: Fig. 6.]
Fig. 6 represents a combined willow and duster, specially
useful for waste rags and jute, but may be used for all fibres,
manufactured by Bertrams, Limited, the main features of which are
thus described:--"There are two drums, which have malleable-iron
cross-bars and teeth, and malleable-iron harp motion below for
escape of dust. The framework of the willow is of cast iron, and
the sides are filled in with cast-iron panel doors, the top being
covered in with sheet iron. The gear is arranged so that the willow
will deliver to the duster or otherwise by self-acting motion
continuously or intermittently. The feed to the willow can also be
made continuous or intermittent. The drums, framework, panels, and
casing being made of iron, the chance of fire from the friction of
its working is reduced to a minimum. The duster, as a rule, is 12
feet long, about 5 feet in diameter, and has eight longitudinal
bars of cast iron fitted between the front and end revolving
rings. These bars are fitted with malleable-iron spikes, pitched
and so arranged that the rags or fibres are delivered at the exit
end automatically. The outside of the duster can be lined with
wire-cloth, perforated zinc, iron, etc. It is driven by outside
shafts and friction gear, so that there is no internal shaft to
interfere with the delivery of the fibres."
[Illustration: Fig. 7.]
=Dusting.=--In Fig. 7 is shown a rag-dusting machine, manufactured
by Messrs. Bryan Donkin and Co., of Bermondsey, London. The
cylinder of this machine, which is conical in form, to enable the
rags to travel from one end to the other, whence they are ejected,
revolves, as also does a second cylinder of a skeleton form, but
in the opposite direction. Each cylinder is fitted with knives, or
spikes--those of the outer cylinder projecting towards the centre;
the knives of the centre cylinder being attached to its exterior
surface: when the machine is in motion the two sets of blades pass
each other so that when the rags come between them the action is
that of scissors. When the rags are ejected at the end of the
cylinder, they pass into another cylinder of wire, through which
the dust falls and leaves them in a fairly clean condition, when
they are lowered through a trap-door to the boiling room below.
[Illustration: Fig. 8.]
=Donkin's "Devil."=--For removing the dust and dirt from coarse
and very dirty rags, oakum, rope, etc., the presence of which
would seriously injure the quality of the paper, a still more
powerful machine has been introduced, called the "devil," which is
constructed on the same principle as the willow, but revolves at a
lower speed. The revolving axle of this machine is conical, and is
provided with teeth, arranged in a spiral form. The case in which
it rotates is fed continuously, instead of intermittently; and
although it facilitates the subsequent treatment of the fibre, it
is said to be wasteful, while also consuming a considerable amount
of power. A machine, or "devil," for cleaning rags or half stuff is
manufactured by Messrs. Donkin and Co., a representation of which
is shown in Fig. 8.