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From Peat to Paper in Two Hours

By James Cooke Mills

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HREE miles west of the little village of Capac, is the eastern edge of the great dismal bog of Lapeer county, Michigan. The bog extends for several miles to the south and west, broken at intervals by long arms of higher fertile ground, some of which is cultivated, while patches here and there, acres in extent, are grown over with second-growth timber. On the north, the bog is traversed by the main doubletracked line of the Grand Trunk Railway.

Standing on the right-of-way, and looking out over the green and brown expanse of moss and ferns under the bright noonday sun, one experiences no unpleasant sensations of sight; nevertheless there

is a certain sense of dread at the thought of being there after nightfall, when the cold, miasmatic vapors have settled down over the moor.

On the edge of the peat-bog and near the railway, there has recently been erected and put in operation the mill of the Pilgrim Paper Company, the only plant of its kind in the world. The process of converting peat into paper-finished, weighed, and tied in packages, ready for shipment-all in two hours, is a most remarkable achievement and likely to revolutionize the industry in some branches.

In the manufacture of paper, fiber is the chief factor, and in the peat-to-paper process, the fiber is the decomposed roots, moss, and ferns, the accumulation of ages. The peat in this bog, covering

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peat, with water added, break up the tender roots and moss, mixing all thoroughly so that the peat comes out soft and mushy.

The mass is then dumped into a "breaker" machine, which is simply an elliptical iron tank provided with a sort of paddle-wheel turning horizontally. Much water is here added, and the peat becomes a thin, black pulp. Being now a liquid, it is allowed to flow into two "stuff chests." These are circular, concrete tanks embedded below the floor, and are 14 feet in diameter by 12 feet deep.

Two "Jordan engines" draw off the black liquid, and further refine the mass in a mixing process, beforeit passes onto à screen which removes small stones, dirt, and stringy matter, leaving it a clean, black pulp.

revolve slowly through the pulp, a thin layer adheres to the cloth and is carried along on it, the water in the pulp running through the fine mesh into the inside of the cylinder. Along the upper edge of the cylinders and pressed down

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THE HUGE "DRIER" MACHINE.

Twenty minutes after the endless sheet enters the machine at one end wet, it comes out at the other end dry and firm.

It is now ready for the paper or "wet" machine, which converts the pulp into paper. In this interesting process, the pulp partly fills the long tank forming the base of the machine, so that five 10foot cylinders, two feet in diameter, hung close to the top, are about two-thirds submerged. These hollow cylinders are covered with fine wire cloth; and, as they

A PORTION OF THE PAPER MACHINE. Here the pulp is converted into paper.

on them by rollers, runs an endless belt of felt, which catches the fibrous pulp and carries it along up and over a series of pressure rolls that compress it into a thin, endless sheet of cardboard which comes out firm and strong enough to sustain its weight:

The next process dries this endless sheet of paper through a "drier" machine, by far the largest machine in the plant. This machine is 66 feet long, 12 feet wide, and 11 feet high, and may be described as a combination of huge rolls or cylinders, placed horizontally, there being forty-one of them in all.

The endless sheet of wet paper, passing from the rolls of the paper machine, enters the driving machine, passes up and over, down and around the hot rolls, and in twenty minutes comes out at the other end, dry, firm paper.

A calender that now takes the strip forces it between heavy pressure rolls, giving it the required finish, when it is carried to the cutting machine. Here it is cut to any desired size or shape,

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Calender which finishes the paper is shown at right, in foreground; beyond it is the cutter which automatically cuts the sheets to any size.

of manufacture, brings to the surface of the paper the natural oil of the peat, and makes the surface of the finished product waterproof and antiseptic. Besides this, peat paper is lacking in the odor which straw or wood-pulp paper possesses. The peat cardboard is also extremely tough.

All these things make the manufacture of the product much less expensive than strawboard. Whereas the latter costs over $20 per ton to produce, the peat cardboard is being turned out at the Capac plant for about $8.

which it can be put, on account of its great strength and toughness, are many.

The rapid disappearance of the forests necessitates the finding of some substitute for wood in the making of barrels and kegs, and experiments have shown that the peat paper is entirely suitable for these purposes also. Before many years, too, print paper-now being made from wood pulp-may be manufactured from peat. Practically all that is needed is the addition of a bleaching process to reduce the brown-colored boxboard to the required whiteness.

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A Spool of Wire Speaks

By E. F. Stearns

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"And I say again that I did not!" Just here Mr. Brown brought his fist down with a slam that made things rattle on Mr. Jones's desk. He faced himwith a glare of defiance and perhaps a little cunning.

"Then I must repeat that you did!" Mr. Jones pursued smoothly. "Last Thursday morning, when we discussed the affair over the telephone, you agreed to do precisely that and nothing else. My plans have been made accordingly, and the fact that you have changed your mind doesn't alter matters a particle."

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There was something odd about Mr. Jones's voice. Mr. Brown started a little and stared more.

From the queer machine on the desk across the room, the cover was removed, to reveal an instrument of most unusual appearance. Mr. Jones stepped to his own desk and extracted from a drawer a big spool of fine, shiny wire. He hurried back and slipped it into the machine; he pressed the button and the spool began to spin rapidly; he picked up a pair of telephone receivers and listened for a minute. After which, he smiled slightly and said:

"If you'll just come over here and listen for a minute-?"

With an enigmatic grunt, Mr. Brown

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