From Paper-mill to Pressroom — John Stuart Mill — John Shaqi
From Paper-mill to Pressroom
John Stuart Mill · en
The addition of size glazes over each fiber and makes it less
susceptible to moisture. The addition of clay permeates the structure,
filling up the interstices. Up to a certain point the clay does not
materially weaken the structure, as a certain percentage of empty
air space would exist without it. Beyond that point the clay will
fill places that conceivably would be filled by fibers, and having no
adhesive strength, the structure of a sheet overloaded with clay is
weakened in proportion to its overload.
While the fibers are more or less moist, they are susceptible to
alteration in structure, and may in this state be flattened by
calendering to a smooth surface, and the presence of clay helps to
fill in the microscopic valleys between the fibers so that the surface
becomes level to human vision.
THE FOURDRINIER
Now to return to a sketch of the wet ends of paper-machines. The
Fourdrinier part consists of a head box, which resembles the case of
an upright piano. Where the keyboard might be, is a broad portal for
the passage of a stream of pulp, the width of the machine, onto a
horizontal, endless wire belt. This wire belt is suspended in a frame
some thirty feet long and held taut by being stretched over a number of
rolls. The large roll near the head box is known as the breast roll.
The still larger roll at the other extreme of the frame is called the
lower couch roll, on top of which is a felt-jacketed couch roll. The
wire is kept level by a transverse series of “table rolls” closely
set, and the under part of the wire is held down by stretch rolls.
Directly under the top part, and continuing from the breast roll for
about two-thirds the length of the frame, is a shallow tray called a
“save-all,” as it catches all the drippings which contain filler, and
some fine fibers which are returned to the screens by stuff-pumps,
maintaining a continuous circulation so that nothing goes to waste.
Into this save-all water may be admitted to regulate the consistency of
the stuff.
Near the couch roll the wire passes over two or three suction boxes,
and on top of the wire, between the suction boxes, turns a wire-covered
roll called a “dandy.”
On either side of the machine is a frame which may be contracted or
expanded. It carries a series of pulleys over which run rubber deckle
straps, the under parts of which rest on the wire and keep the wet
pulp within bounds. By this means the width of the web of paper is
regulated. As a little pulp leaks under these straps machine-made paper
has deckle edges on both sides of the web. Artificial deckle edges may
also be produced by squirting a fine stream of water upon the web near
the couch roll, but it is not possible to produce this effect across
the web. Except on special papers the deckle edges are trimmed off by
slitters at the end of the machine.