IC-NRLF 
 
 105 202 
 
 INDUSTRIE 
 
THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 PRESENTED BY 
 
 PROF. CHARLES A. KOFOID AND 
 MRS. PRUDENCE W. KOFOID 
 
TWO RELATED INDUSTRIES 
 
FRANCIS CONKLING HUYCK 
 
' TWO 
 
 Eelateb 
 
 OF 
 
 PAPER-MAKING AND OF PAPER-MAKERS' FELTS 
 
 AS MANUFACTURED AT THE KENWOOD MILLS 
 
 RENSSELAER, NEW YORK, U.S.A. 
 
 AND ARNPRIOR 
 
 ONTARIO, CANADA 
 
 THE TWO PLANTS OF 
 
 J^eto !?orfe 
 
 'PREPARED $T 
 
 OF TERRT 
 
 TO MARK THE FIFTIETH YEAR SINCE THE FOUNDER 
 FRANCIS CONKLING HUYCK, ENTERED THE BUSINESS 
 AND THE TWENTY-FIFTH YEAR SINCE THE PLANT 
 AT RENSSELAER, NEW YORK, OPPOSITE ALBANY 
 
 WAS BUILT 
 
 1919 
 
COPYRIGHT, 1920 
 
 BY 
 F. C. HUYCK & SONS 
 
 Compiled, arranged and printed by direction of 
 
 Walton Advertising & Printing Company 
 
 Boston, Mass. 
 
TS 
 
 TABLE OF CONTENTS 
 
 Foreword ix 
 
 Origin and Development of Paper . . . : I 
 
 Introduction of the Art of Paper-Making into Europe 3 
 
 First Paper-Mill in America 13 
 
 Other Early American Paper-Mills 13 
 
 First Massachusetts Mill 14 
 
 First New York Mill , 16 
 
 Scarcity of Paper during the Revolution 16 
 
 Other Early Mills 17 
 
 The Era of Rags and the Invention and Development of Paper-making 
 
 Machines 18 
 
 Experiments on New Material for Paper 19 
 
 Origin of the Fourdrinier Machine . 20 
 
 Invention of the Cylinder Machine 20 
 
 Use of Cotton and Linen Rags .* 21 
 
 Changes marked by the Civil War 21 
 
 Use of Wood Pulp 22 
 
 First Pulp-Mill in Maine and a Modern News-print Mill 22 
 
 The Beaters and Sizing 23 
 
 The Fourdrinier Machine 24 
 
 Cylinder Machine 26 
 
 Uses of Paper Material for Other Products 28 
 
 Use of Felt in Paper-Making Great Strides in the Industry and Some 
 
 Interesting Statistics 29 
 
 Pioneer Companies 30 
 
 The Beginning of the Manufacture of Paper-makers' Felts 30 
 
 Some Paper Statistics 32 
 
 Founding the Kenwood Mills 35 
 
 A Typical Straw-paper Mill of the Time 36 
 
 F. C. Huyck enters Business 37 
 
 The Beginning of the Kenwood Plant 39 
 
 Number of Paper-Mills 39 
 
 Plant at Kenwood burned May 4, 1894, and Removal to Rensselaer . 40 
 
 Present Officers 42 
 
 A Story of Wool and the First Kenwood Processes 44 
 
 Where the Wool comes from 46 
 
 Flocks of Argentine 47 
 
 Various Processes 48 
 
 Carding the Wool for Spinning 49 
 
 vii 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 Spaciousness, Lightness, and Airiness of the Kenwood Carding-Rooms . 51 
 
 Ingenuity of Machine-Carding 51 
 
 Dame Goodman's Surprise 52 
 
 A Glance at the Past of Carding 52 
 
 American and English Efforts to Perfect Carding 53 
 
 How the Mule Spins the Roving 53 
 
 Ancient Method of Spinning 55 
 
 Up-to-Date Spinning 55 
 
 Human Ingenuity of the Mule 57 
 
 Hargreaves and the Spinning-Jenny 58 
 
 Weaving, Fulling, and Napping 59 
 
 Antiquity of Weaving 60 
 
 Burling and Joining 63 
 
 Washing and Fulling the Felts 63 
 
 Putting on the Nap 67 
 
 Drying 68 
 
 The Shipping-Room . . . . 69 
 
 Engineering Department 73 
 
 Accounting Department 73 
 
 The Southern States of the United States a Source of Supply 75 
 
 Authorities 
 
 vni 
 
FOREWORD 
 
 IT may safely be said that the product of every industry is dependent 
 on the product of some other industry either as a raw material or 
 as a necessary supply in the process of manufacture. The great 
 industry of paper-making has always been dependent on the 
 product which has been known as paper-makers' felts. 
 
 From the time when the artisan making paper by hand laid a square 
 piece of woolen cloth over the sheet of paper formed on his frame, and 
 was able by the peculiar properties of the wool fibre to lift the sheet of 
 paper attached to the cloth and transfer it to the pile where by 
 hydraulic pressure the water was removed, to the present where the 
 great endless felts of woolen cloth carry the rapidly moving, continu- 
 ous sheet of paper through the various press-rolls of the paper-machine 
 at tremendous speed, nothing has been found but this woolen cloth 
 always known as paper-makers' felts that would serve this essential 
 purpose. It is not a felt in the true sense of the word, because felt, 
 as it has been made for thousands of years, consisted of the wool 
 fibres pressed and felted or fulled together by the peculiar, half-myste- 
 rious tendency of the fibres to interlock, working so closely together 
 that a strong fabric was formed. 
 
 The Scythians, who from remotest antiquity roamed about the 
 wastes of Northern Asia, as did their successors, the Tartars, used 
 felt for clothing and tent-coverings; and to-day in parts of Asia the 
 same felted woolen fabric is used for the same purpose. 
 
 In paper-makers' felts, however, the fibre being spun into yarn 
 and then woven produces a very different fabric, which received its 
 name of felt from the heavy felting process which followed the weav- 
 ing, and produced a fabric which might have been more truly called 
 a blanket; but as the name of felt was originally given to it and has 
 survived for more than a hundred years, it will doubtless always con- 
 
 ix 
 
JOHN MILES HUYCK 
 
 FRANCIS CONKJJNG HUYCJUr 
 treasurer 13Q7tol9M 
 f^es. arufDrea* since 19ft 
 
 EDMUND NILES 
 pr^u/^ since 1907. j 
 
FOREWORD 
 
 tinue to be known as paper-makers' felt, forming the product of an 
 important industry, though one little known to those who are not 
 familiar with the process of paper manufacture. 
 
 The purpose, then, of this book is to present the story of paper- 
 makers' felts from the beginning of their manufacture in America 
 about a half-century ago until the present time. The processes in the 
 manufacture of Kenwood Felts will be described, and closely woven 
 with their story will be an account of the development of paper manu- 
 facture in America and of the necessary development of felt-making 
 to keep pace with the increased demand for felts to meet the rapidly 
 changing conditions of paper-manufacturers both in quantity and 
 quality of production. 
 
 America is the largest paper-manufacturing country in the world, 
 and here since 1870 paper production has been constantly increasing. 
 This increase is because during the last thirty years wood pulp has 
 been used in vast quantities. The rapidity of this growth may be 
 seen from these statistics: In 1869 the American paper-mills had an 
 output valued at $48,000,000; during the next decade the increase 
 amounted to nearly $10,000,000; in 1889 tne output was valued at 
 $79,000,000; in 1899, at $127,000,000; in 1909, at $267,000,000; while 
 according to the last census the output is something more than 
 $330,000,000 New York, Maine, Massachusetts, and Wisconsin 
 leading in the production of wood pulp and paper. It is estimated 
 that the production of paper for the year 1918 was $600,000,000. 
 
 This advance assumes significance when it is remembered that 
 during the two thousand years that paper has been manufactured, 
 America has produced it only since 1690 that is, a little more than 
 two centuries and a quarter. From tiny paper-mills dotting inland 
 streams the industry has turned to great rivers, to which the forests 
 of the Northern States have contributed millions of tons of pulp to 
 meet the demands of the modern paper-mills. The strides made in the 
 paper industry are well illustrated at the Kenwood Plant in Albany. 
 In the finishing-room, among others, are two dryers. One is a small 
 machine that the plant owned in its early days; the other is the largest 
 dryer that has ever been made. The first was built when paper- 
 machines produced in a minute a piece of paper from one to two 
 hundred feet long and from forty to one hundred and twenty inches 
 wide; the second was designed to meet the needs of machines with 
 speeds of six hundred to one thousand feet a minute, producing paper 
 from two hundred to two hundred and fifty inches wide. 
 
 xi 
 
FOREWORD 
 
 It is an especially interesting fact that Mr. Francis Conkling Huyck, 
 the founder of the Kenwood Plant at Albany, New York, began in the 
 way hereafter described to manufacture felts in 1870 the year from 
 which may be reckoned the beginning of modern paper-making in 
 America. It is also interesting to note that the first mill on the little 
 stream that flows through the village of Rensselaerville, twenty-five 
 miles from the present location, had similar surroundings to the first 
 paper-mill in America that was established by William Rittenhouse 
 nearly two centuries before the founding of the Huyck Mill. 
 
 One of the loveliest spots to-day in the State of New York is the site 
 of the mill in which Mr. Huyck started in the manufacture of felts, 
 which, far back among the rugged foothills of the Catskills, bears an 
 indescribable something typifying the strength of purpose not alone of 
 Mr. Huyck, but of all pioneers who have laid the foundations for great 
 industries. 
 
 The founders of the village of Rensselaerville believed that it would 
 become a city because of the value of its water-power. In the last of 
 the eighteenth century, a village located twenty-five miles from Albany 
 was not isolated as were places farther west in the State, and the 
 value of the small water-power quickly brought a number of small 
 industries to locate along the stream as it flowed over a series of falls 
 running through from its source several hundred feet above the 
 village itself. Directly back of the mill that became a felt-mill the 
 fall was one hundred and twenty-five feet. The other falls of lesser 
 height were utilized on the stream below, of which only the grist-mill 
 and saw-mill survive to-day, as small units of water-power are no 
 longer valuable unless most advantageously located on a railroad; but 
 the site of the old mill, while the building itself is gone and only the 
 stone foundations remain, is as beautiful to-day as it was when these 
 same stone walls were laid. Thick foliage and the leaves of wild- 
 grape vines that have clambered over the trees and shrubs almost 
 completely hide the foundations, on which rests one end of a foot- 
 bridge which now spans the stream below the foot of the falls. 
 
 Evidences of Mr. Huyck's regard for his native town are seen on 
 every hand: In the beautiful garden of his former home; in the 
 Public Library his gift to the village; in the Town Hall that was 
 improved by him; in the white church, the tower of which gleams in the 
 sunlight against the purple background of the mountains. But when 
 surveying the great plant built by him in Albany, and his work for his 
 native village, how interesting is the story of the early days of his 
 
 xii 
 
FOREWORD 
 
 venture and his struggle to perfect a new product for the American 
 market. 
 
 In the joining-room at the Kenwood Plant to-day a woman is em- 
 ployed who well remembers the first mill in Rensselaerville and the 
 teams of horses that delivered, for joining, the felts to farmers' wives 
 sometimes as far distant from the mill as twenty miles. There were 
 special days for delivery and special days when the felts were collected, 
 and the load was then returned to the mill to be prepared for shipment. 
 In the light of these early conditions the progress in felt-making during 
 the last half-century seems extraordinary. The mill of fifty years ago 
 has expanded into a plant covering several acres, having within its 
 walls the equipment for every process of converting raw wool into felts, 
 and possessing in place of its primitive means of conveyance, its own 
 railroad sidetracks on which the wool is received from far distant 
 lands and the felts are started on their journey to every quarter of 
 the paper-making world. 
 
 In presenting this book F. C. Huyck & Sons desire us to dwell not 
 alone on the bare facts of the manufacture of paper and paper-makers' 
 felts during the last half-century, but to present the story in such a way 
 that something of the romance of the industries may be seen. Much 
 has already been written on the early development of the paper in- 
 dustry through Europe and Asia, but in all of these accounts too little 
 has been said concerning the importance of the product. Let it be 
 remembered that paper is the cheapest and most familiar article in use 
 at home and abroad; without it, education would be seriously retarded; 
 without it, the news of the world would not reach the public; without 
 it, letters would not hasten across continents, and yet paper remains 
 the commonest article in daily use the plaything of the child, the 
 necessity of commerce, the requisite in every business office. In short, 
 it is the medium of progress, intellectual, industrial, social, and com- 
 mercial; and although the process of manufacture was discovered 
 nearly two thousand years ago, it is still a more important invention 
 than the telegraph, the telephone, the automobile, the aeroplane, or 
 the wireless. 
 
 Xlll 
 
FOOT-BRIDGE AT RENSSELAERVILLE, N.Y. 
 
 Thick foliage and the leaves of wild-grape vines that have clambered over the trees and shrubs 
 
 almost completely hide the foundations of the old mill on which rests one end of 
 
 the bridge which now spans the stream below the foot of the falls 
 
CHINESE PAPER-MAKINGFIRST PROCESS 
 
 ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT 
 OF PAPER 
 
 |ENTURIES ago the Chinese with the subtle magic 
 of the East produced a material suitable for writing 
 purposes that they made from the bark of the mul- 
 berry-tree; shortly afterward they utilized rags for 
 paper. And yet the world was old when this im- 
 portant discovery was made. For thousands of years 
 man, born with a desire to express his thoughts, had endeavored to 
 perpetuate great deeds and the lives of heroes. First with rough 
 implements he carved his thoughts in rude characters on rock and 
 stone; four thousand years before Christ he reared against the Egyp- 
 tian sky tapering obelisks; he adorned the temples and sepulchres with 
 hieroglyphics that told tales of those who had passed. In order to 
 transcribe his thoughts he resorted to beeswaxed board, to the skins 
 and entrails of animals, to the shoulder-bones of sheep, to the skins 
 of serpents. He made parchment a direct forerunner of paper and 
 thus bridged the centuries until he discovered the properties of the 
 graceful reed that grew on the banks of the Nile. Thus papyrus 
 
CHINESE PAPER-MAKINGSECOND PROCESS 
 
 CHINESE PAPER-MAKING THIRD PROCESS 
 
TWO RELATED INDUSTRIES 
 
 marked the first real advance toward modern paper-making, and on it 
 events were recorded until the Chinese marked a new era by the 
 discovery of paper-making. 
 
 INTRODUCTION OF THE ART OF PAPER-MAKING 
 INTO EUROPE 
 
 How the Arabs after their capture of Samarcand in A.D. 704 stole 
 from the Chinese the secret of paper-making and carried it to their 
 own towns and cities, and how the Crusaders in their turn when they 
 visited Palestine and Syria learned the art which they brought back 
 to Western Europe, has been often told. Europe, however, was slow 
 in developing the industry. It was not until 1189 A.D. that France 
 made paper from pulp. For some centuries the French and Dutch 
 were the leading paper-makers in Europe. 
 
INTERIOR VIEWS OF A SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY PAPER-MILL 
 
 Upper picture shows sorting and cutting of the rags prior to the rotting 
 Lower picture shows serving the rotting-trough 
 
 (Sff page 5 for description) 
 
TWO RELATED INDUSTRIES 
 
 SELECTION OR SORTING OF DIFFERENT QUALITIES OF RAGS, 
 CUTTING-BOX, AND ROTTING-TROUGH 
 
 FIGURE I 
 
 AAA are three large boxes, each divided into three compartments to separate three 
 different qualities of rags. 
 
 I, 2, 3 Compartments for the fine, the medium, and the foul. 
 
 BBB Sorting- and fermenting -women who attend in pairs to the three compartments. 
 I, 2 Knives used by the sorting-women to rake the rags. 
 
 C One of these knives viewed separately. 
 
 D Coarse paper rags or trace-paper, a mixture of scrapings that the sorting-women 
 throw at their feet. 
 
 E Opening through which the rags are thrown into the rotting-trough. 
 
 LM, MN, MO. Width of the boxes that receive the rags. 
 
 FIGURE II 
 
 A Conduit or gutter which supplies water to the rotting-trough. 
 B Wooden vat receiving the water and serving the rotting-trough. 
 C Stone vat sometimes serving the rotting-trough. 
 D Stone box encased in wood in which the rags are cut. 
 E Back chamfer or blade fixed into this cutting-box. 
 F Rag-cutter. 
 
 G Rag-tub, a small wooden vat in which the rags are carried to the mill. 
 H Heaps of rags which are in a state of fermentation in the corners of the rotting- 
 trough. 
 
 I, 2, 3 Rags falling from the sorting-room into the rotting-room. 
 
 PAPER-MILL SITUATED IN GRANDRIF IN AUVERGNE 
 
 FIGURE I 
 
 A Channel of the stream that supplies water to the mill and to the interior works. 
 
 B Willow basket by which the water passes to drain C. 
 
 C Drain which supplies the water to the large washing-trough. 
 
 D Loop-hole that checks the force of the water and its impurities. 
 
 E Large washing-trough where the water is purified. 
 
 F Basket across which the water passes into the drain G. 
 
 G Drain which supplies water to the small washing-trough. 
 
 H Another loop-hole for purifying the water. 
 
 / Small washing-trough where the water completes the process of depositing its 
 gravel. 
 
 K Grating by which the water passes into the long vat. 
 
 L Drain which leads the water to the long vat. 
 
 M Loop-hole viewed separately, taken down and out of the reservoir. 
 
 N Rack across which the water of the stream arrives on the wheel. 
 
 First gripe, groove, or trough which leads the water to the wheel. 
 
 P Conduit, second groove, or trough. 
 
 Q Hooks or pins that are unhooked to turn off the water above the wheel. 
 
 RR Millwheel. 
 
 SS Shaft which raises the hammers. Instead of the iron hoops which should have 
 been represented in the figure, mouldings have been made. 
 I, 2 Cogs or bolts that raise the hammers. 
 
 T Part of the long vat that supplies the w&ter in the stamp-mill. 
 
 ^FBack and front guides that hold the mallets. 
 
 X Mallets which hack or cut to pieces the rags in the stamp-mill. 
 
 Y Frame in which the felt is washed. 
 
 5 
 
TWO RELATED INDUSTRIES 
 
 S 
 
 INTERIOR VIEW OF A SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY PAPER-MILL 
 
 Interior of the stamp-mill where the rags are pounded 
 
 (Description below) 
 
 I 
 K 
 L 
 M 
 
 pile. 
 
 INTERIOR OF THE STAMP-MILL 
 FIGURE I 
 
 Perspective of the Mill 
 A The millwheel. 
 BE The shaft of the bolts. 
 C Bolts that raise the hammers. 
 D Mallets, stampers, hammers which pound the rags. 
 E Front guides which carry the tails of the hammers. 
 
 e Back guides which carry the heads of the hammers. 
 FF Shaft of the vats or stamp-mill in which the vats are hollowed. 
 G Hollows or stamp-holes. 
 HH Long vat or conduit which leads the water into the stamp-mill. 
 
 1, i, I Hooks which support the long vat against the wall. 
 
 2, 2, 2 Channels or conduits which give the water to the tubs. 
 Small post. 
 
 Large post. 
 
 The frame of the mill which carries the entire apparatus. 
 
 Rag-tub or -bucket in which is put the refined stuff after leaving the workman' 
 
 NN Receptacles or boxes for receiving the rags on leaving the stamp-mill. 
 
 PROCESS OF FORMING OR MOULDING, LAYING, AND PRESSING THE 
 
 SHEETS 
 FIGURE I 
 
 A Laborer, plunger, or opener, standing to his waist on a trestle before the stuff-vat, 
 drawing from the vat his mould filled with a layer of pulp to slide it to the coucher. 
 B Workman's tub containing the diluted and hot pulp. 
 
 b Opening of the kettle which heats the interior of the tub. 
 C Deckle of the mould. 
 DD Forms or moulds seen on both sides. 
 
 F Coucher who receives the mould filled with a sheet and reverses it on the cloth or 
 felt. 
 
 / Lid of the board which is put on the post before pressing. 
 
TWO RELATED INDUSTRIES 
 
 G Post or collection of sheets, separated from one another by a felt. 
 
 Hooked tool or stick to draw the post under the press. 
 //// Press to squeeze the water out of the post. 
 
 I, 2, 3 Pieces of wood which serve to load the post when it is put under the press. 
 
 5 Small board upon which the mould is slipped. 
 
 6 Dropping-board or drainer on which the plunger places his mould. 
 7, 8 Staves of the dropping-board against which the mould is set. 
 
 / Apprentice, felt-lifter, who uncovers each sheet and returns the felt to the coucher. 
 
 A' Paper-lifter, who detaches the sheets above the felt and places them on the inclined 
 stool upon which he forms the white post. 
 
 L Small press where the paper is pressed in white post. 
 
 M Copper basin for putting the pulp into the tub. 
 
 R Wooden bar or stick used to moderate the force of the press when the lever is 
 turned. 
 
 SIZING THE PAPER 
 FIGURE I 
 
 A Workman who raises the basket which contains the waste of the size. 
 
 B Workman who passes it through the strainer to separate the dirt. 
 
 C Workman who sizes the sheets of paper, wetting them in the sizing-trough. 
 
 D Press where the workman deposits the sized paper to get rid of the excess of size. 
 dd Small spruce boards used by the sizer. 
 
 E Lower board of the press in which there is a drain. 
 
 F Tub to receive the excess size that flows down the press. 
 
 G Vat where the size is boiled. 
 
 H Vat where the size is strained. 
 
 / Sizing-trough in which the sizing is done and in which a gentle heat is maintained. 
 
 K Basket filled with the animal refuse from which the size is made. 
 
 L Pulley for withdrawing the basket from the vat. 
 
 PAPER HANGING-SHEDS 
 
 FIGURE I 
 
 A Perspective of a section of hanging-shed. 
 
 B Woman who puts the paper in a pile before taking it to the polisher. 
 C Woman who hangs the paper with her peel. 
 D Woman who takes off the paper when it is dry. 
 E Bench for the drying-women. 
 
 F Seat which carries the piles of paper when they are spread. 
 GG Pillars or legs which support the truss of the hanging-shed. 
 
 PROCESS OF POLISHING BY HAND AND BY HAMMER; SORTING- AND 
 COUNTING-WOMEN 
 
 FIGURE I 
 A A Polishing-women who rub the paper with a pebble. 
 
 aaa Pebbles called polishers, 
 o fife thefa n i g " W men who examine the P a Per by transparent and oblique light to rec- 
 
 C Sorting-woman who dusts the paper with a knife. 
 
 1, I Polishers viewed separately. 
 
 2, 2 Knives of the sorting-women. 
 D Piles of paper. 
 
 FIGURE II 
 
 A Laborer who holds the paper under the hammer to polish the large kind. 
 K Hammer the handle of which traverses the main wall 
 
 o Paper under the hammer. 
 C Shaft of the hammer moved by water. 
 ~ he anvil u P n wm 'ch the paper is placed. 
 LL The same anvil taken down and shown separately 
 t rtock or block in which the foot of the anvil is encased. 
 
 Piles of paper that have been polished. 
 
 IO 
 
INTERIOR VIEWS OF A SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY PAPER-MILL 
 
 Upper picture shows polishing by hand and by hammer 
 Lower picture shows polishing large sheets 
 
 (S^ Page 10 for description) 
 
TWO RELATED INDUSTRIES 
 
 FIRST PAPER-MILL IX AMERICA 
 
 It is generally believed that the first paper-mill in England was es- 
 tablished in 1498 though the first patents for mills were not granted 
 there until 1690, the same year that William Rittenhouse, a native of 
 Holland, and one of the early settlers of Germantown, Pennsylvania, 
 started at Roxborough, near Philadelphia, the first paper-mill in 
 America. William Bradford, a printer of Philadelphia, who after- 
 ward established the first printing-office in New York City, was 
 interested in this first paper-mill, which was built on what was 
 then known as Paper-Mill Run and is now included in Fairmount 
 Park in Philadelphia. 
 
 The paper at the Rittenhouse Mill was made by hand as indeed 
 was all paper produced in America during the next century and a 
 quarter out of linen rags that were manufactured from flax raised 
 in the colony, where the women wove their own wearing apparel. 
 Every sheet of paper was made separately, and several days were 
 necessary in order to finish the product. Bradford, whose vigor and 
 shrewdness were so necessary to the little mill, and who, it is said, had 
 come from England to Pennsylvania for the purpose of establishing 
 a printing-press, had some trouble with the leaders of the colony 
 that led to his departure, in 1693, for New York. With others who 
 had interests in the mill he eventually disposed of his share to William 
 Rittenhouse, who in turn deeded the property to his son, Claus. 
 Before this, however, in 1701, the first mill was destroyed by a 
 freshet and a new building had been erected a short distance from the 
 original site. The third Rittenhouse paper-mill was built by a grand- 
 son of the founder farther down Paper-Mill Run, and was standing 
 until nearly the beginning of the last century and operated for its 
 entire existence by members of the Rittenhouse family. It is interest- 
 ing to note that William Bradford, in 1723, introduced Benjamin 
 Franklin in Philadelphia and was influential in securing employment 
 for him in that city. 
 
 OTHER EARLY AMERICAN PAPER-MILLS 
 
 The second paper-mill in the colonies was built by William De 
 Wees, a brother-in-law of Nicholas Rittenhouse, son of the first paper- 
 maker, and was established near Germantown, Pennsylvania, in 1710. 
 Forty years after the founding of the first paper-mill in America, a 
 
 13 
 
TWO RELATED INDUSTRI ES 
 
 third mill was established by Thomas Willcox, an Englishman, who 
 with Thomas Brown in August, 1729, began to make paper in Chester 
 Creek, about twenty miles from Philadelphia. Mr. Willcox was suc- 
 ceeded by his son, Mark, on whose death in 1827 a local writer, accord- 
 ing to Henry Graham Ashmead's History of Delaware County, Penn- 
 sylvania, says: 
 
 "Two men of two generations, father and son, had conducted the 
 mill ninety-eight years. The ponderous machinery, however, of 
 modern mills silenced it long ago, but it still stands (1884) a silent 
 relic of its early time. Its wheel has long since decayed; its stone gable 
 is thickly covered with the venerable ivy-vine whose root came over 
 the ocean in 1718, from near the old Ivy Bridge in Devonshire." 
 
 It was from the Willcox mill that Benjamin Franklin, a friend of 
 Thomas Willcox, procured most of his paper stock and here during 
 the Revolution the Government had its currency made. Again in 
 1812 the Willcox Ivy Mill supplied paper money. 
 
 FIRST MASSACHUSETTS MILL 
 
 On September 13, 1728, Massachusetts, which not until this time 
 caught the spirit of Pennsylvania in establishing paper-mills, encour- 
 aged the industry by granting a patent to a number of estimable 
 citizens, among them Daniel Henchman, Gillam Phillips, Benjamin 
 Faneuil, Thomas Hancock, and Henry "Dering." These men were 
 given the sole right to manufacture paper for a term of ten years. At 
 present, when the daily production of paper is measured by the 
 hundred tons, it is amusing to learn that one of the conditions granted 
 this little mill for the sole right to manufacture paper was that it 
 should make in the first fifteen months forty reams of brown paper 
 and sixty reams of printing-paper; the second year it must make fifty 
 reams of writing-paper in addition to the first-mentioned quantity; 
 and afterward yearly it must make in addition to the quantity required 
 the first and second year twenty-five reams of a superior quality of 
 writing-paper and produce in all not less than five hundred reams a 
 year. The superintendent of the mill was Henry Woodman, an 
 Englishman. As some one has said, the owners of the mill would be 
 considered a "respectable firm." Daniel Henchman was the leading 
 Boston bookseller of the time; Thomas Hancock was the builder and 
 owner of the historic mansion on Beacon Street, Boston, and the 
 uncle of John Hancock, to whom he bequeathed his estate and fortune; 
 
TWO RELATED INDUSTRIES 
 
 Benjamin Faneuil was the father of Peter Faneuil, who gave the 
 famous hall to Boston; Gillam Phillips married Peter FaneuiPs sister, 
 and was a brother of that young Phillips who fought a duel with 
 Woodbridge on Boston Common in 1726. These men decided that 
 they would build their mill in what was then Dorchester but is now 
 Milton, and their venture prospered at first and then apparently died. 
 Though records give but meagre information, it is known that one 
 Jeremiah Smith bought the mill and allowed it to remain idle. In 
 1760 James Boies of Boston sent a paper-maker from a British regi- 
 ment to the mill in order that he might start the work, but the young 
 man's regiment was ordered to Quebec and there he fell while fighting 
 Wolfe. Richard Clark, an Englishman also, was the next foreman. 
 Eventually the mill passed into the possession of Tileston and Hollings- 
 worth, who have manufactured paper in that vicinity since early in the 
 nineteenth century. 
 
 FIRST NEW YORK MILL 
 
 Among other paper-making enterprises was a mill built in Norwich, 
 Connecticut, in 1768 and operated by Christopher Leffingwell. In 
 this year also the first paper-mill in New York was built at Hempstead 
 on Long Island by Hendrick Onderdonk and Henry Remsen, the 
 enterprise being encouraged by Hugh Caine, a printer. In the South 
 various means were taken to encourage the industry, the Maryland 
 Convention of 1775 offering 400 to one James Dorsett for starting 
 a paper-mill, while in that same year South Carolina offered 500 to 
 any one who would build the first mill. In North Carolina similar 
 measures were taken to encourage the industry that as early as 1776 
 had been started by German Moravians, who did much toward estab- 
 lishing several forms of productive efforts. 
 
 SCARCITY OF PAPER DURING THE REVOLUTION 
 
 In spite of all these ventures on the part of the colonists the supply 
 of paper by no means met the demands, and long before the Revolution 
 the situation had become serious and the colonists had already not 
 only pleaded that rags be saved, but that economy be exercised in 
 saving paper during the war. 
 
 ^When General Philip Schuyler wrote in 1775 from Albany to 
 General Washington, he said: 
 
 16 
 
TWO RELATED INDUSTRIES 
 
 "Excuse these scraps of paper; necessity obliges me to use them, 
 having no other fit to write on." 
 
 The following year when John Adams wrote from Philadelphia 
 to his wife, he adds: 
 
 "I send you, now and then, a few sheets of paper; but this article is 
 scarce here as with you." 
 
 The same year Colonel David Oilman of New Hampshire complains 
 that his "officers here make a great complaint for want of paper. 
 They cannot receive the necessary orders, and make proper returns 
 of their company for want of that article." 
 
 OTHER EARLY MILLS 
 
 To meet these needs various conventions were held and the problem 
 agitated and sifted as best the colonists were able. The first mill built 
 in Central Massachusetts was said to be the best in the country. 
 This was started by Abijah Burbank in 1775, while that of Jackson 
 and Sharpless, built in Western Pennsylvania in 1796, was thought 
 of as a matchless enterprise. At the close of the Revolutionary War 
 it is thought that there were in America about eighty or ninety mills, 
 many of the finest being in Massachusetts. In Springfield, Massa- 
 chusetts, there was established a mill that during the nineteenth 
 century was developed by the Ames family; in Andover, Samuel 
 Phillips, founder of Phillips Academy, built a mill; and John Ware of 
 Sherburne built in 1790 at Newton Lower Falls, near Waltham, the 
 mill that gave Newton its first and long prestige in the paper-making 
 world. 
 
 Paper-mills sprang up in Worcester, Massachusetts; Rhode Island 
 established its first mill in 1780; Connecticut was coming to the front 
 in the manufacture of paper; Vermont, where Colonel Matthew Lyon 
 was the first manufacturer, achieved some fame in the industry; New 
 York's first mill was built on the Poestenkill, a small creek near the 
 Hudson River, a short distance from Troy; while Wilmington, Dela- 
 ware, in which was located the paper-mill of Joshua and Thomas 
 Gilpin, received special comment from De Warville, a noted states- 
 man of France, when he visited America in 1788. "I have specimens," 
 he said, "both of writing and printing, equal to the finest made in 
 France." Pennsylvania developed the industry rapidly under the 
 watchful eye of Benjamin Franklin, whom De Warville says was the 
 means of starting eighteen mills. William Goddard of Baltimore 
 
 17 
 
TWO RELATED INDUSTRIES 
 
 aided the industry in his own town, while in Kentucky the enter- 
 prise was undertaken by Craig, Parker and Company in 1793. 
 
 Immediately following the Revolutionary War, not only were paper- 
 mills rapidly built, but improvements in machinery and processes were 
 introduced, and the first patent law, passed in 1790 for the protection 
 of inventors, gave encouragement to those few who had been experi- 
 menting in paper-making. Growth, however, was slow, and for many 
 years America depended on Europe for machinery, and paper-makers' 
 felts were not made here until nearly three-quarters of a century after 
 the passing of the first United States patent law. 
 
 THE ERA OF RAGS AND THE INTENTION AND DEVELOP- 
 MENT OF PAPER-MAKING MACHINES 
 
 The beginning of the nineteenth century marked an increasing 
 activity in the manufacture of paper in America and abroad. From 
 the first little paper-mill with a capacity of one vat in Columbia 
 County, New York, came a call for rags; from the thriving mill of 
 Zenas Crane in Berkshire County, Massachusetts, a similar call was 
 given until the situation was relieved somewhat by the importation 
 of European rags. Mr. Crane, whose mill was founded in 1799 in 
 what came to be one of the great paper-manufacturing sections of 
 America, sent out in 1801 the following appeal for rags: 
 
 AMERICANS! 
 
 Encourage your own Manufactories and they will improve. 
 Ladies, save your Rags! 
 
 As the subscribers have it in contemplation to erect a paper-mill in Dalton 
 the ensuing Spring; and the business being very beneficial to the community 
 at large, they flatter themselves that they shall meet with due encouragement. 
 And that every woman who has the good of her country and the interest of 
 her own family at heart, will patronize them by saving their rags and sending 
 them to their Manufactory, or to the nearest Store-keeper for which the 
 Subscribers will give a generous price. 
 
 HENRY WISWELL, 
 ZENAS CRANE, 
 
 JOHN WILLARD. 
 WORCESTER, Feb. 8, 1801. 
 
 18 
 
TWO RELATED INDUSTRIES 
 
 EXPERIMENTS OX NEW MATERIAL FOR PAPER 
 
 While there were insistent calls for rags in different parts of America, 
 experiments were being made all over the world to procure for paper- 
 making other and new fibres as raw materials. In 1800 the Marquis 
 of Salisbury gave to the King of England a book made of paper manu- 
 factured from straw. In this same year Matthias Koops made seven 
 hundred reams of white paper from waste that had previously been 
 thrown away. In Spain at this time there were upward of two hun- 
 dred paper-mills; in Alsace, France, there were fourteen; and in Jaro- 
 slow, Russia, a single paper-mill with twenty-eight machines and 
 seventy vats was manufacturing eleven hundred reams of paper a week 
 and using eight hundred tons of rags a year; while in Germany there 
 were said to be more than five hundred mills in operation. 
 
 In 1804 Messrs. Henry and Sealey Fourdrinier began experiments 
 that resulted in the famous Fourdrinier machine, which converted fluid 
 stock into finished paper, and which was introduced into America 
 about 1820. 
 
 The Gilpins, famous paper-makers on the Brandywine, were said to 
 be the first to use these machines. Added to the cost of machinery, 
 the shortage of raw material, and the effect of the War of 1812, the 
 paper industry was seriously affected for a number of years. 
 
 The Ames family in Springfield continued to do a prosperous busi- 
 ness until the panic of 1837 which resulted in the sale of their mills. 
 The business started by Zenas Crane in the Berkshires so flourished 
 that between 1810 and 1825 upward of thirty mills were established 
 in Massachusetts alone. Nearly all the pioneer mills managed, how- 
 ever, to weather the various storms of adversities and to lay firm 
 foundations for the great paper companies that have made the Ameri- 
 can product famous. At the time the paper-machines were introduced 
 into the United States, about 1820, it was estimated that the average 
 paper production of the mills was about $3,000,000 and the cost of 
 operation was about $2,000,000. 
 
 What the succeeding century brought forth, even the greatest seer 
 of 1820 could not have foretold nor the most exalted visionary have 
 imagined. At the beginning of the century marked by that year all 
 of the paper made in America was produced by the long, laborious 
 hand-process, rags forming the fibres. The little mills where this 
 paper was made dotted inland streams. Nearly half of the century 
 passed before wood pulp was proved available, and with its consump- 
 
 19 
 
TWO RELATED INDUSTRIES 
 
 tion the little mills were one by one abandoned and the industry sought 
 the great rivers that flowed through forests, the one to give the water- 
 power necessary, and the other to yield its virgin growth of spruce for 
 the growing demands of the newspaper world. With the enormous 
 production came some of the greatest engineering feats that the world 
 has ever known. 
 
 ORIGIN OF THE FOURDRINIER MACHINE 
 
 The period ushered in by the Fourdrinier machine therefore marked 
 an important epoch in American paper production, what might be 
 termed the second era, extending up to the time when pulp was con- 
 sumed in vast quantities here a half-century later. What is known as 
 the Fourdrinier machine was originally made, though not perfected, 
 by Nicholas Louis Robert of France, who, finding himself impov- 
 erished by the French Revolution, sold the patent granted to him by 
 the French Government to Frangois Didot, formerly his employer. 
 The payments made by the purchaser came so slowly that Robert 
 recovered his patent in 1801, but not before Didot had gone to England 
 where he met his brother-in-law, John Gamble, to whom he proposed 
 furnishing capital for the patent in England. 
 
 Henry and Sealey Fourdrinier, two flourishing London stationers, 
 were interested in the machine and eventually plans were formed to 
 build the first paper-making machine in England. By 1803 the per- 
 fected machines were set up at "Two Waters" Mill, Hereford, and 
 Gamble after suffering severe losses turned over his entire interest in 
 the machine to the Fourdriniers, who, after spending their fortune 
 amounting to about 60,000 on the improved machine, went into 
 bankruptcy, ending their days without money save a small allowance 
 which the London Times had raised to aid Henry Fourdrinier. 
 
 INVENTION OF THE CYLINDER MACHINE 
 
 The manufacture of paper was further aided at the beginning of the 
 nineteenth century by a cylinder-making machine, the invention of 
 J. Dickinson, the founder of John Dickinson and Company, Limited, 
 who conceived the idea of carrying the liquid paper stock in a vat in 
 whrch was suspended a cylinder covered with a fine wire mesh. As 
 the cylinder revolved, this paper stock was carried in a thin film from 
 the vat to the top of the cylinder, from which point a felt carried it 
 
 20 
 
TWO RELATED INDUSTRIES 
 
 along to the other parts of the machine. The Fourdrinier machine, 
 on the other hand, which preserves the names of the developers, and 
 which with the cylinder and Harper-Fourdrinier are the principal 
 paper-making machines in use to-day, has an endless wire screen over 
 which the liquid paper stock is poured and shaken until the fibres are 
 spread evenly. The liquid pulp is confined by strips of rubber other- 
 wise known as deckle-straps that run along the edges of the screen. 
 The water is gradually shaken through the Fourdrinier wire, or screen, 
 as it passes over a series of suction-boxes, leaving the pulp sufficiently 
 dry to be pressed under a roll covered by a heavy woolen "jacket." It 
 is then delivered to the paper-makers' felt, which receives it in its 
 moist state. 
 
 USE OF COTTON AND LINEN RAGS 
 
 For a half-century after the introduction of the Fourdrinier machine 
 in America the paper-mills depended for fibre on cotton and linen rags, 
 which are now used only for bond and writing papers. The rags util- 
 ized to-day are imported from Europe and Asia and are received at 
 the mills in bales. After being dusted and sorted they are cut up into 
 small pieces and are cooked in boilers containing a solution of lime for 
 the removal of non-cellulose substances. Afterward the rags are 
 washed and reduced to pulp, which is bleached by the addition of 
 chloride of lime. Drainers next receive the solution, which is allowed 
 to stand for about a week, during which the bleach dries and the mass 
 remains a snow-white heap ready for conversion into the fine writing- 
 papers for which America is noted. The remainder of the process is 
 very similar to that undergone in a subsequent account of "a modern 
 paper-mill." 
 
 CHANGES MARKED BY THE CIVIL WAR 
 
 The Civil War brought a marked change in the manufacture of 
 paper. Like all industries, during the period of conflict the trade 
 wavered, then grew strong again, and by the end of hostilities new 
 machinery was placed in the mills, new mills were built, and gradually 
 the little streams were abandoned and larger water-power sought. The 
 rag supply was again precious, and experiments were made in the use 
 of straw, manila, and finally wood pulp. Frequent attempts had been 
 made in various quarters of the world to use wood for the manufacture 
 
 21 
 
TWO RELATED INDUSTRIES 
 
 of paper. As early, in fact, as 1826, Italian paper-makers had suc- 
 cessfully used the bark of the poplar and willow, the former being 
 found best adapted to the purpose. In 1833 an Englishman had been 
 granted a patent for making paper and pasteboard from wood, and 
 in 1855 another patent was granted in England for the manufacture 
 of paper from pulp. 
 
 USE OF WOOD PULP 
 
 Nearly a decade after this, paper made from rags and pulp was 
 exhibited in London, and in 1867 a machine was exhibited in Paris for 
 grinding wood pulp. A machine very like this was brought to America 
 and pulp ground first in this country at Stockbridge, Massachusetts, 
 in 1867. This pulp was produced at the rate of about half a ton a day, 
 formed into cakes by hand, and shipped at a price of eight cents a 
 pound to the paper-mills. An important discovery had been made in 
 1861 by an American named Tilghman, who found a means of dissolv- 
 ing the resinous substances of wood by what is known as the sulphite 
 process. Some years nevertheless passed before wood pulp was ac- 
 cepted as the coming paper fibre. An English journal of 1874 stated 
 that "great endeavors had been made to introduce wood pulp as a 
 fibre, but practical paper-makers deem it a failure. Two kinds are 
 in general use, mechanically prepared and chemically prepared. The 
 great fault of the first is its weakness after all, it is mere sawdust. 
 The chemically prepared seems a good fibre, but its price, at twenty 
 pounds wet, or thirty-six pounds dry, per ton, is sadly against its use." 
 In America, straw was selected as a successor of rags, rather than 
 wood pulp. 
 
 FIRST PULP-MILL IN MAINE AND A MODERN NEWS- 
 PRINT MILL 
 
 The first pulp-mill in Maine was the beginning of a large paper and 
 newspaper industry an industry consuming thousands of cords of 
 pulp wood a year and producing a corresponding number of tons of 
 paper. There is as great a difference between the modern mill and 
 the neighboring original mill at Topsham as there is between the 
 water-power that furnishes thousands of horse-power at the big plant 
 and that of the little stream that pursues its way through Brunswick 
 and Topsham. Down the river, near the modern plant, float the logs 
 that have been cut during the preceding winter in the Maine forests. 
 
 22 
 
TWO RELATED INDUSTRIES 
 
 Men armed with poles guide the logs on an endless carrier that takes 
 them into the mill, where they are sawed into lengths by means of 
 machinery which is so arranged that the logs come in contact with 
 each other and are peeled and passed through various hands for in- 
 spection before they travel down another carrier where they are 
 washed and again returned to the river preparatory to floating 
 down to a second mill. Every precaution is taken to remove knots 
 and dirt and the resinous bark on the spruce that forms the larger 
 proportion of the pulp wood. Two processes follow, the sulphite and 
 the ground wood processes. The sulphite process is one in which the 
 wood, after being cut into chips, is boiled in a solution of sulphurous 
 acid and lime for several hours. The ground wood process consists 
 of subjecting two-foot lengths of wood to a grinding action whereby 
 the wood is pressed against grindstones under heavy pressure and a 
 stream of water played on the stone to carry the fibres away from the 
 stone and to prevent the wood from being scorched. This ground 
 wood pulp is then run through the wet machine, on which it comes 
 in contact with the first felt employed in paper-making. This felt 
 is more or less coarsely woven in order to filter the water that is 
 squeezed from the pulp while passing between heavy rolls. It acts 
 not only as a filter, but as a carrier from one portion of the machine 
 to another. The sheets of pulp that come from this machine are then 
 folded and laid in tiers, where they await mixture with the pulp that 
 has been prepared by the sulphite process. The wood pulp forms 
 eventually the body of the paper, while the sulphite gives the strength. 
 
 THE BEATERS AND SIZING 
 
 These wood fibres are then passed through beaters, in order to 
 convert them into the finest condition for forming into a sheet of 
 finished paper. A beater is a tub either made of iron or wood provided 
 with a midfeather and backfall. The beater-roll itself is located in one 
 of the channels, and beats and mixes the stock by circulation under the 
 beater-roll, over the backfall, and around through the channel to the 
 beater-roll again. During the beating process, size and filler are 
 added, in the case of news paper only a small amount of size being 
 used, as the paper should not be too ink-resistant, thus causing trouble 
 in running it off on the machines. The small amount of filler added 
 improves the printing qualities and also tends to improve the color 
 of the finished material. The fibres suspended in a quantity of water 
 
 23 
 
TWO RELATED INDUSTRIES 
 
 when wrung dry show a substance in which the possibilities of finished 
 paper can be readily seen. The evolution that follows is so rapid that 
 the human eye can scarcely follow the process. 
 
 THE FOURDRINIER MACHINE 
 
 In an incredibly short time the liquid mass, consisting of about four 
 per cent, fibre and ninety-six per cent, water, is conveyed to the 
 Fourdrinier machine, where it is then mixed with more water and the 
 consistency reduced to approximately i/io to 2/10 of fibre to 99 9/10 
 to 99 8/10 per cent, water. From a feeder head box at one end it is 
 led in a thin milky sheet over an endless wire screen, and kept from 
 running over the edges by the rubber deckle-straps. So fast does the 
 operation take place in the production of five hundred and fifty feet 
 of paper a minute that all that can be seen of the mass is something 
 that resembles a thin sheet of glass that moves rapidly forward while 
 the fibre is shaken sideways and is separated from most of the water 
 by the Fourdrinier wire. 
 
 Before the wire passes underneath the couch-roll it passes over a 
 series of suction-boxes where the fibres are sucked down and more 
 firmly interlocked and more of the water removed. At this point it 
 might be well to say that the stock before passing under the couch-roll 
 consists of approximately thirty per cent, fibre and seventy per cent. 
 water. After passing through the couch-roll the sheet is removed 
 from the wire and placed upon a felt which passes between two rolls 
 known as press-rolls, the number of presses through which these wet 
 sheets pass depending somewhat on the grade of stock being manu- 
 factured. From the last press the sheet is conveyed to the dryers, 
 where it is kept in close touch with the dryer surface by means of a 
 cotton duck dryer felt. The felt not only acts as a carrier for the 
 paper, but also prevents the wet sheet from cockling when it is brought 
 in sudden contact with the heater surface of the dryers. The paper 
 after passing through the dryers is conveyed to a stack of calenders, 
 consisting of seven or more rolls, where the paper is passed from the 
 top of the stack down through the rolls onto the reels. From the 
 calenders to the reels the sheets are trimmed along both edges and 
 approximately one inch of the deckle-edge is removed. The rolls of 
 paper are then removed and cut into the desired size rolls for large 
 newspapers or sometimes sheeted when they are to be used for pam- 
 phlet and small newspaper purposes. 
 
 24 
 
TWO RELATED INDUSTRIES 
 
 The process of making book paper is much the same as that just 
 described. Different fillers are used, among the most common being 
 clay. The texture of the felts varies as it does for all grades of paper 
 and machines. After the removal of the reels for book paper, they 
 are taken to the calender-rolls where various finishes are given, the 
 finish depending on the number of chilled-iron rolls used. The coated 
 papers are made by putting the rolls onto a coating-machine that 
 brushes the paper as it is unwound with a combination of casein, 
 blanc fixe, and coloring; and as the paper is unwound it is carried to 
 dryers and hung in festoons until wound on the roll again. The roll 
 is again run through calenders to obtain an extra glazed finish. 
 
 CYLINDER MACHINE 
 
 Parallel with the wonderful development of the Fourdrinier machine 
 has been that of the cylinder machine from its earlier form, and the 
 paper made by the cylinder process serves almost a greater variety of 
 purposes than that which comes from the Fourdrinier machine. From 
 the making of the coarser kinds of wrapping-paper on cylinder 
 machines, the next development was toward a larger and stronger 
 variety of wrapping-papers. Then, by the addition of more cylinder 
 moulds to the same machine, the product of each mould being taken up 
 by one or more felts and through pressure of the presses being formed 
 into a single composite sheet, this making of a single sheet of several 
 layers made possible the heavy building-papers and roofing-papers and 
 the heavy boxboards which to-day form so important a part of the 
 product of the paper industry. Every day a larger variety of uses 
 is developing for paper-board boxes, and as the old form of straw-paper 
 wrapping gave way to that of the stronger and more serviceable manila, 
 so the wrapping of many articles of merchandise in paper wrappings 
 has given way to the use of boxes. Now, even quite heavy freight 
 shipments are sent in container boxes strongly reinforced by pasting 
 layers of boxboard together or by the process of corrugating. All these 
 new forms of cylinder papers, however, require the use of felts, and in 
 fact no greater test of the felt manufacturers' capacity for improve- 
 ment has been made than in devising felts that would stand the tre- 
 mendous strain required from these cylinder machines making heavy 
 papers. Often the strength, almost equal to a leather belt, must be 
 combined with an openness that will filter water freely and with a sur- 
 face so soft that the pressure of threads will not be left on the smooth 
 
 26 
 
TWO RELATED INDUSTRIES 
 
 PART OF MODERN SINGLE-CYLINDER MACHINE 
 Showing cylinder mould, felt, and press-rolls 
 
 surface of the board. Cylinders have been multiplying until the old 
 one-cylinder machine has now become in many instances a great 
 machine of seven huge cylinders, sometimes producing as much as one 
 hundred tons of board in twenty-four hours. Even the single-cylinder 
 machine which is still being used for making a very great variety of 
 light papers has been developed marvellously in width, in speed, and 
 in every way that would increase its capacity and efficiency. 
 
 USES OF PAPER MATERIAL FOR OTHER PRODUCTS 
 
 The new uses of paper and the great variety produced, especially on 
 cylinder machines, have made it possible to utilize a large amount of 
 fibre that had previously been wasted. Low-grade wool and cotton 
 rags, old paper stock of all kinds from the finest book and magazine 
 to the coarsest kinds of paper, are each made into useful and service- 
 able products at the rate of hundreds of thousands of tons annually. 
 
 28 
 
TWO RELATED INDUSTRIES 
 
 The collection of these fibres alone has become an enormous in- 
 dustry. 
 
 This is not a treatise on paper-making, the only desire being to give 
 sufficient account of the various methods of paper manufacture to indi- 
 cate the general development of the industry and the corresponding 
 necessity for a similar development in the manufacture of paper- 
 makers' felts. 
 
 The advance, then, in American paper-making for the past half- 
 century is measured first by an output that has increased many fold, 
 an advance that may be seen in the great paper-mills of the Northern 
 States, in the enormous consumption of wood pulp, in the utilization 
 of the great water-powers of the North, surpassing anything that the 
 original mills with their slowly turning water-wheels or the later mills 
 run by steam ever dreamed of. To enlarge the great industry master 
 minds have perfected machinery and equipped great plants, Nature 
 has yielded her forests and power-producing waters, and the world has 
 been the beneficiary of all these productive improvements. 
 
 USE OF FELT IN PAPER-MAKING 
 
 GREAT STRIDES IN THE INDUSTRY AND SOME 
 
 INTERESTING STATISTICS 
 
 From the earliest days of paper manufacture felts of pure wool have 
 been necessary in order to press out the water adhering to the fibres. 
 These felts in the early days were pieces of woolen cloth cut to the 
 size of the "moulds." In the hand-made process the paper-maker used 
 a wire screen or mould that was rectangular in shape and supported by 
 a framework of wood. A shallow frame known as the deckle was 
 placed on top of the mould. The sheets of paper were formed by 
 dipping the mould into the pulp, the workman filling it even with the 
 top of the deckle, where, after draining, it was taken off in sheets and 
 laid between pieces of felt which were pressed until the sheets of paper 
 were ready to be dried still further on lines or poles. 
 
 With the introduction of machinery a century ago, the Fourdrinier 
 and cylinder machines were equipped with sheets of felts that were 
 made into belts by sewing the ends together. More than half a 
 century elapsed before felts were joined and a still greater time before 
 endless felts were woven. The paper-makers' felt has three distinct 
 functions: first, to couch the paper, or, in other words, to pick it up 
 
 29 
 
TWO RELATED INDUSTRIES 
 
 from the cylinder or from the Fourdrinier wire; second, to act as a 
 carrier to succeeding parts of the machine; third, to act as a filter, 
 allowing water pressed from the paper to pass through its meshes and 
 run away, thus aiding the drying process. The durability of paper- 
 makers' felts are reckoned either on the days run or the number of 
 pounds of paper made. 
 
 PIONEER COMPANIES 
 
 For nearly half a century after the introduction of Fourdrinier and 
 cylinder machines in the United States the paper-makers' felts used on 
 these machines were imported from Europe. As early as 1854 Asa 
 Shuler of Hamilton, Ohio, made piece felts for paper-makers, and on 
 learning from an Englishman the process of making belts of felt, Mr. 
 Shuler began their manufacture about twelve years later, and with Mr. 
 John W. Benninghofen formed the firm of Shuler and Benninghofen. 
 
 THE BEGINNING OF THE MANUFACTURE OF PAPER- 
 MAKERS' FELTS 
 
 In 1864, however, a group of enterprising Americans, among whom 
 were Albert Johnson, Samuel T. Thomas, Andrew Fuller, and Charles 
 C. Newcomb, established a new business on this continent and under 
 the name of Johnson, Fuller and Company began to manufacture felts. 
 They leased and equipped with machinery, which they gradually per- 
 fected, a small mill at Camden, Maine; and so successful was their 
 venture that within a short time the concern became a stock company 
 and the name was changed to the Knox Woolen Company, under 
 which title it still continues to do business. Another of the four 
 original firms of paper-makers' felts was F. Gray and Company of 
 Piqua, Ohio. The fourth original firm was that of H. Waterbury and 
 Company of Rensselaerville, New York. The last-named firm was 
 established at a unique period in the history of American paper-making 
 the beginning of the era of modern paper manufacture. Twenty 
 years, however, were to pass before the great impetus took place that 
 established America at the head of the paper-producing countries of 
 the world. 
 
 At this time startling discoveries were made that vanished almost 
 as soon as they were talked of. In this eventful year 1870 a sensa- 
 tion was caused by as simple an invention as a paper petticoat that 
 
 30 
 
#.;-_. .:-.;- :*^ ! 
 
 ^^SiMl 
 
 3 I 
 
 
 
 I 
 
 w 
 
TWO RELATED INDUSTRIES 
 
 was put on the market at fifteen cents the garment; a French inventor 
 claimed at this time that he could cleanse paper so that, all ink 
 removed, it could be again used as fresh stock; one Jefferson Evart 
 patented a process he had discovered for reducing pulp for the manu- 
 facture of coffins; in New York alone rags were imported to the 
 amount of 104,661 bales valued at $2,149,202; of the one hundred and 
 fifty-six paper-mills in Holland in the year 1870, only about ten made 
 paper by machinery; the manufacture of paper collars in Boston during 
 this year amounted to seventy-five million; there were six hundred 
 and sixty-nine paper-mills in the United States at this time; owing 
 to the alarm concerning the scarcity of paper fibre a short time before 
 this eventful 1870, fish were used to produce pulp; all importation 
 from France had been stopped owing to the war, and for a time panic 
 existed in America because many of the great paper-mills closed owing 
 to the scarcity of water; it was in 1870 that the Mobile Register was 
 printed on paper manufactured from the okra plant; while the con- 
 sumption of esparto had risen on the continent to one hundred thou- 
 sand tons a year. 
 
 SOME PAPER STATISTICS 
 
 Four years after H. Waterbury and F. C. Huyck began to manu- 
 facture felts at Rensselaerville, the following data were compiled of 
 the number of mills in the various countries where hand-made paper 
 was produced: Africa, i; Austria, 130; Belgium, 19; Brazil, n; 
 Canada, 2; Denmark, 5; France, 404; Germany, 423; Great Britain, 
 273; Holland, no; Italy, 97; Norway and Sweden, 20; Portugal, 16; 
 Russia, 66; Switzerland, 30; Spain, 17; United States, 467. 
 
 Various experiments were still carried on. Papyrus, that was 
 believed to be extinct, was cultivated as a rare plant in the Kew 
 Gardens and at the Royal Society's Gardens in London. An extraor- 
 dinary attempt was made by E. Waters and Son of Troy, New 
 York, to construct a canoe of paper weighing fifty-eight pounds, that 
 was destined for a voyage from Albany to the Gulf of Mexico. While 
 the paper situation of 1876 was being agitated, one Carl Engel made 
 the following paper estimate: 
 
 "Of the 1,300,000,000 human beings inhabitating the globe, 
 360,000,000 have no paper or writing material of any kind; 500,000,000 
 of, the Mongolian race use a paper made from the stalks and 
 leaves of plants; 10,000,000 use for graphic purposes tablets of wood; 
 
 32 
 
TWO RELATED INDUSTRIES 
 
 130,000,000 the Persians, Hindoos, Armenians, and Syrians have 
 paper made from cotton; while the remaining 300,000,000 use the 
 ordinary staple. The annual consumption of this latter number is esti- 
 mated at 1,800,000,000 pounds, an average of six pounds to the person, 
 which has increased from two and two and a half pounds during the 
 last fifty years. To produce this amount of paper 200,000,000 pounds 
 of woollen rags, besides great quantities of linen rags, straw, wood, and 
 other materials are yearly consumed. The paper is manufactured 
 in 2,960 mills, employing 90,000 male and 180,000 female laborers." 
 
 SMALL AMERICAN PAPER-MACHINE 
 
 Installed at the Japanese Imperial Government Paper-Mill in 1878 and still running, 
 machines have since been installed 
 
 Modern 
 
 33 
 
THE MILL AT RENSSELAERVILLE 
 
 Where Francis Conkling Huyck started the manufacture of paper-makers' felts in 1870 
 
FOUNDING THE KENWOOD MILLS 
 
 A attempt has been made in the last few pages to present the 
 :hanging conditions that existed at the time of the founding of 
 Messrs. Waterbury and Huyck's mill in 1870 on the little 
 stream that tumbles down from the hills and pursues its way 
 through the village of Rensselaerville, New York. That mill and 
 stream are illustrative of the size of the woolen- and paper-mills of that 
 day. Fifty years ago there were no big pulp- and paper-mills bor- 
 dering the forests, and modern engineering feats were undreamed of. 
 Mr. Henry Waterbury had come to Rensselaerville from Schoharie to 
 take up the manufacture of woolen cloth in the woolen-mill that had 
 been built at the upper end of the little village in the early part of the 
 century. This mill had replaced one erected in 1794 on the same site, 
 the purpose of which had been to receive wool from neighboring farm- 
 ers, carding it into shape called rolls, which were then returned to the 
 farmers to be spun into yarn and woven into cloth. This cloth was 
 again sent to the mill to be felted or fulled and finished, after which it 
 was returned to the owners and made into the families' clothing. Even 
 after Mr. Waterbury was operating the mill, rolls were still made for 
 the farmers, though the yarn spun from them was then usually used 
 for knitting stockings. Mr. Waterbury discovered the use of paper- 
 makers' felts and the method of making them, and especially the secret 
 of joining them, which was most important of all. He believed there 
 was a future in this new industry and proposed to Mr. Huyck that he 
 should join him in the effort to manufacture paper-makers' felts. Mr. 
 Huyck's friends tried to persuade him not to venture on a field so new 
 and precarious, but he too had faith in the new enterprise and decided 
 to take the risk. At the time when it was proposed that he enter the 
 manufacturing world he was in business with his father, in a general 
 country store at Rensselaerville. His assets, when he definitely decided 
 to enter business with Mr. Waterbury, were a small amount of capital, 
 
 35 
 
TWO RELATED INDUSTRIES 
 
 the ability of a good salesman, and a gift of business vision which in 
 later years proved very valuable when he came to establish the modern 
 plant at Albany. It must not be imagined that Mr. Huyck took the 
 step rashly. He prepared himself well for it by going about among 
 many of the paper-mills and making inquiries concerning the use of 
 felts, where the felts were bought, how much was paid for them. Of 
 weaving he knew little, but his knowledge of selling and of business 
 possibilities was comprehensive and accurate. There are few mills 
 such as Mr. Huyck visited remaining in New York, or probably in 
 the United States. A typical mill indeed a mill that was undoubtedly 
 visited by Mr. Huyck is the Centennial Mill at Valatie, New York, 
 where for more than half a century straw wrapping-paper has been 
 made. A description is not uninteresting. 
 
 A TYPICAL STRAW-PAPER MILL OF THE TIME 
 
 The Centennial Mill is unique and picturesque, its red brick walls 
 sloping down to the little stream that supplies its power. Pyramids 
 of straw await conveyance to the deep old vats which are fitted with 
 steam-pipes to keep the straw at a given temperature during the eight 
 or ten hours that are consumed in the cooking. The beaters on a lower 
 floor prepare the straw for entrance to the cylinder machine that 
 
 CENTENNIAL MILL, VALATIE, NEW YORK 
 
TWO RELATED INDUSTRIES 
 
 travels at about one hundred feet a minute and turns off the crisp 
 brown sheets of wrapping-paper that at one time formed the only 
 wrapping-paper in use. Mr. Huyck's interest in this mill may have 
 arisen not only from the information he desired to glean concerning 
 felts, but from the fact that at his father's store many and many a 
 time had he done up groceries in that sort of wrapping-paper, no 
 paper bags being then in use. 
 
 F. C. HUYCK ENTERS BUSINESS 
 
 As a partner in the firm of H. Waterbury and Company, Mr. Huyck 
 entered the business. For eight years, from 1870 to 1878, the struggle 
 followed to put their paper-makers' felts on the market. The com- 
 pany was handicapped in innumerable ways. They were short of 
 help, a long distance from a railroad, and they were selling a new 
 product. Much labor was expended in conveying the felts, after they 
 were woven, to women along the countryside, that they might join the 
 felts and return them to the mill for washing and fulling and finishing. 
 After eight years of constant effort Mr. Waterbury decided to remove 
 to another part of the State, and was more or less astonished when, 
 on stating his expectancy of Mr. Huyck's accompanying him, the 
 latter said that he intended going to Albany to start a plant of his 
 own for the manufacture of paper-makers' felts. He rented a mill at 
 Kenwood, a suburb two miles from the centre of Albany, and began 
 manufacturing in 1879. 
 
 Mr. Waterbury, in pursuance of his plan, established at Oriskany, 
 New York, the firm of H. Waterbury and Sons. From time to time 
 many enlargements of the original plant have taken place, and the 
 firm of H. Waterbury and Sons Company is to-day one of the eleven 
 important plants manufacturing paper-makers' felts. A few years ago 
 two of Mr. Waterbury's sons and their associates established a new 
 plant at Skaneateles Falls, New York, the Waterbury Felt Company. 
 
 The F. Gray Company through reorganization became the Orr Felt 
 and Blanket Company, which is still located at Piqua, Ohio. In 1895, 
 the Albany Felt Company, Albany, New York, was formed by Mr. 
 Parker Corning and Mr. James W. Cox, with Mr. D. M. Fuller as 
 superintendent. The Appleton Woolen Mills of Appleton, Wisconsin, 
 centre of a great paper-manufacturing district, decided to take up the 
 manufacture of paper-makers' felts and joined the number already 
 in the industry. Draper Brothers of Canton, Massachusetts, an old 
 
 37 
 
* THE TEN MILE CREEK, RENSSELAERVILLE 
 
 Which supplied the power to the woolen-mill 
 
TWO RELATED INDUSTRIES 
 
 established firm of woolen manufacturers, likewise entered into the 
 business somewhat later. The Lockport Felt Company of Newfane, 
 New York, was formed to manufacture paper-makers' felts, as was the 
 Philadelphia Felt Manufacturing Company, both these concerns con- 
 tinuing at the present time in the industry. Several other plants 
 were launched in the manufacture of paper-makers' felts, but for one 
 cause or another have discontinued, and those above mentioned with 
 the original firms of Knox Woolen Company, Shuler and Benning- 
 hofen, and the firm of F. C. Huyck and Sons, who are the successors 
 to the business founded by Mr. Francis Conkling Huyck, are the eleven 
 successful and important concerns now engaged in the manufacture 
 of paper-makers' felts. 
 
 THE BEGINNING OF THE KENWOOD PLANT 
 
 Mr. Huyck while engaged in business in Kenwood took into part- 
 nership Mr. Chauncey Argersinger, and the firm of Huyck and Arger- 
 singer was formed. They were fortunate in securing as superintend- 
 ents Mr. Andrew Fuller, one of the founders of the Knox Woolen 
 Company, and his son, Mr. Duncan M. Fuller. 
 
 The period at Kenwood was one of successful development, lasting 
 from 1879 to 1894. The mill rented by Mr. Huyck had been a knit- 
 ting-mill. There were some cards and a few spinning-machines of the 
 type that marked the period between the hand-type of spinning- 
 machines and the self-operating type. These were used for a number 
 of years. The period at Kenwood covered the change from the slow- 
 running methods of making paper to the fast machines. It also 
 marked the transference of newspaper plants to the edges of the 
 forests; it also marked the shifting of the centre of the industry to 
 the Middle States, to Maine, and to Canada. Changes also occurred 
 in the manufacture of felts. As the machines became wider the neces- 
 sity for wide looms and wider finishing-machines grew. The extreme 
 growth in the width of machines took place later. The speed of paper- 
 machines during this period increased from one hundred and twenty 
 to two hundred and fifty feet a minute. 
 
 NUMBER OF PAPER-MILLS 
 
 At the time of the establishment of the plant at Kenwood the 
 number of paper-mills, according to Lockwood's Directory of the 
 Paper Trade, in the United States was reckoned at nine hundred and 
 
 39 
 
TWO RELATED INDUSTRIES 
 
 thirty-four, the number of firms at seven hundred and ninety-five. Of 
 these two hundred and fifty-four firms and three hundred and twenty- 
 seven mills were located in the Eastern States, three hundred and 
 twenty-eight firms and three hundred and sixty mills in the Middle 
 States, one hundred and fifty-five firms and one hundred and seventy- 
 nine mills in the Western States, and fifty-eight firms and sixty-eight 
 mills in the Southern States. At this time many associations were 
 being formed by those active in the paper trade, and the first of these 
 was brought together in 1878 and named the American Paper Manu- 
 facturers' Association. This organization grew out of a convention in 
 that year, the name being eventually changed to the American Paper 
 and Pulp Association, which included on its membership list all of the 
 men actively interested in the paper trade who thus joined together to 
 establish prices and keep in touch with the market. The first Ameri- 
 can paper trade journal had been established in 1872. It was called 
 The Paper Trade Journal and was founded by Mr. Howard Lockwood. 
 
 PLANT AT KENWOOD BURNED MAY 4, 1894, AND 
 REMOVAL TO RENSSELAER 
 
 The second epoch ended, and the third in the history of the Ken- 
 wood plant began on May 4, 1894, when the entire mill was destroyed 
 by fire. Scarcely had the ruins crumbled to ashes when a new site 
 the present one was selected at Rensselaer across the Hudson River 
 from Albany. The new plant was completed, equipped with machin- 
 ery, and started on October i6th of the same year. It was at this 
 time that Mr. Argersinger, the partner of Mr. Huyck, retired from 
 the business. Mr. Huyck then formed a partnership with his sons, 
 Edmund N. Huyck, John N. Huyck, and two years later Francis C. 
 Huyck, a third son, under the firm name of F. C. Huyck and Sons. 
 The name of Kenwood Mills that designated the felts, and had been 
 taken from the former location of the plant, was retained and has 
 been used ever since to distinguish the products made by the firm. 
 
 Under the guidance of Mr. F. C. Huyck, during the next ten years, 
 the plant grew rapidly. The prophetic vision of his youth remained 
 undimmed, and he was constantly on the alert for new methods and 
 new machinery. His undaunted belief in the future of the felt-making 
 industry served as an inspiration in everything that he undertook. 
 An- English writer has said of Mr. Huyck: "If a new and improved 
 machine was invented, he bought it at once. If new conditions arose 
 
 40 
 
TWO RELATED INDUSTRIES 
 
 in paper manufacture, he was eager to meet them. He always felt 
 that his business deserved the best machinery and best methods, and 
 demanded of his sons and of all those associated with him that these 
 be secured and adopted. For example, once when travelling in Eng- 
 land he learned that raising or napping machines with revolving 
 teasels had recently been invented. On his return he at once induced 
 a manufacturer of textile machinery to make these improved machines 
 and replaced all of the old style. At another time he learned while in 
 Europe that a loom had been designed and perfected for weaving felts 
 seamless. Before his return he had ordered several of these looms for 
 trial. They were so successful that Mr. Huyck sent one of his sons 
 to purchase more looms and secure their exclusive use in the United 
 States. This was accomplished, and I found the mill equipped with a 
 large number of these looms all weaving seamless felts. I was in- 
 formed that the growing demand for their seamless felts is remarkable. 
 On high-speed machines, felts must often be strained very tight to 
 keep them open and, as is well known, a hand seam is the first point 
 in a felt to give way. In seamless felts this weakness is entirely elim- 
 inated." 
 
 PRESENT OFFICERS 
 
 Francis Conkling Huyck's death occurred on July 4, 1907, after he 
 had established a business that was known on both continents. The 
 company was shortly afterward incorporated, the eldest son, Edmund 
 Niles Huyck, being made president; John Niles Huyck, the second son, 
 vice-president and secretary; while the youngest son, Francis Conkling 
 Huyck, was made treasurer. John Niles Huyck died October 31, 1914. 
 The sons endeavored to the best of their ability to continue the policies 
 of their father and to maintain the standards that he set for progressive 
 development. 
 
 This is not a story of individuals or individual achievements. Aside 
 from the facts which it has seemed fitting to write of the founder, 
 it is the story of the growth and development of a business. Its 
 success and the importance it has attained in the industry are the 
 result of the efforts of hundreds of men and women working through all 
 these years in harmony and with a spirit of co-operation. Steadily the 
 number of workers has been increased, foremen have been engaged 
 or promoted; skilled accountants, men trained technically in this 
 textile industry, salesmen of high character and ability, and executives 
 
 42 
 
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 K 
 
 P 
 
TWO RELATED INDUSTRIES 
 
 of wide experience have joined the organization and are to-day inspired 
 by the same ideals of progress and service. 
 
 The gradual exhaustion of the wood supply in the United States 
 has made it necessary to build more and more paper-mills, that the 
 increased demand for newsprint paper may be met, and these mills 
 are growing rapidly in Canada on the various waterways that exist 
 from Newfoundland to British Columbia on the edges of the great 
 spruce forests. Canada is therefore constantly becoming a much 
 more important paper-manufacturing country and is destined to supply 
 a large part of the world's supply of paper made from wood. In 
 1918 F. C. Huyck and Sons decided to establish a plant in Canada. A 
 mill was procured at Arnprior, Ontario, thirty-eight miles west of 
 Ottawa, on the line of the Grand Trunk and Canadian Pacific. The 
 mill had been built for making felts. The owners were willing to sell 
 this plant and it was purchased in July, 1918. An addition was im- 
 mediately started and machinery purchased, and now at this plant is 
 made the same quality of felts as in Albany. The addition was com- 
 pleted late last year and another addition is now being constructed 
 for extra space that is already needed. The Canadian plant is incor- 
 porated under the name of Kenwood Mills, Limited. 
 
 A STORY OF WOOL AND THE FIRST KENWOOD PROCESSES 
 
 Wool comes to the Kenwood plant at Rensselaer from all over the 
 world. The storehouses in which this wool is stored in bales are near 
 the main line of the New York Central Railroad, from which a side- 
 track has been built that leads direct to the plant. Order and capacity 
 are the most impressive features of these storehouses which the world 
 supplies, and which, in turn, give out the wealth of their stores to 
 supply the wool-room. 
 
 The wool-room is the most cosmopolitan part of the plant. Not 
 cosmopolitan in the sense of race for nearly all of the assorters are 
 men who originally worked in English mills and who came to America 
 years ago. Many of them are men who breathed the fresh air of 
 English hillsides until the mills of England claimed them. Their 
 school has been the school of experience and their principal qualifica- 
 tions as assorters are experience and good eyesight. 
 
 "They must be capable," says their foreman, "of sorting both fleeces 
 arid badly graded pulled wool; they must be able to make as many 
 sorts as are required sometimes five or six from a single fleece; they 
 
 44 
 
TWO RELATED INDUSTRIES 
 
 PILE OF WOOL 
 
 must judge the differences, not only by length of fibre but by size of 
 fibre." 
 
 But in the many countries of the earth from which the wool is im- 
 ported, the cosmopolitan qualities of the wool-room are unmistakably 
 shown. Since a flock of domestic sheep cannot be depended on for 
 the manufacture of felts, it is necessary to draw from many places 
 in order that there may be secured texture and length of fibre. If a 
 botanist were to go into this wool-room he would in most cases be 
 able to tell exactly from what country various fleeces had been 
 brought, for these fleeces come to the mill with the burrs of their native 
 lands clinging to the wool fibres. 
 
 WHERE THE WOOL COMES FROM 
 
 One man picks up a fleece and after examining it says: 
 "Oh, yes, Australian wool. We call her the 'Land of the Golden 
 Fleece.' She pastures a hundred million sheep and produces annually 
 more wool than any other country in the world. Here are burrs and 
 
TWO RELATED INDUSTRIES 
 
 vegetation of the wide, dry pastures of Australia clinging to this fleece. 
 In this vegetation there is a quality the character of which you can see 
 somewhat from these dry shreds that still cling to the wool that acts 
 as the Trent does on Bass' Ale. That is why the country has the repu- 
 tation of producing the finest wool in the world. You know, I sup- 
 pose, the story of how sheep were first raised in Australia? No? 
 Well, the pastoral industry was founded by Captain John M'Arthur, 
 who was connected in some official capacity with the convict station at 
 Fort Jackson. While there, he conceived the idea of raising sheep in 
 New South Wales which he considered well adapted to the purpose. 
 He couldn't get merinos from Spain, for their exportation was forbid- 
 den, so he procured half-bred merinos, and from the Cape he man- 
 aged to get three Spanish rams and five ewes. By the early part of 
 the nineteenth century his flock had increased to nearly seven thousand 
 sheep. It was during the Peninsular War that the King of Spain 
 presented George III with a small flock of selected Spanish sheep, and 
 in some way M'Arthur procured a ram and ewe from this royal flock 
 at Windsor, and carried them back to Australia. These, then, with 
 those shipped from the Cape are the ancestors of the great flock in 
 Australia to-day that supply us with millions of pounds of wool." 
 
 FLOCKS OF ARGENTINE 
 
 In the wool-room at the plant, besides Australian fleeces there are 
 fleeces from Canada, England, Scotland, South Africa, South America, 
 and the United States. 
 
 "This burr," we are told, "that resembles a groundhog with long 
 horns, came from one of the Argentine fleeces where one hundred 
 million sheep graze and where if this number were divided equally 
 every one in that republic would own one hundred sheep. There was 
 grass also clinging to the wool. Other fleeces were from the Falkland 
 Islands, where on nearly two million and a half acres of pasturage 
 graze seven hundred and fifty thousand of the finest sheep in the 
 world." 
 
 Vegetation, we learn, in the Falklands is very luxuriant, but there 
 are no trees. The winds there do not permit them to grow. It is 
 said that the king of the Falklands has one aim in life and that is to 
 raise a tree. The pasturage, however, is excellent for sheep-raising. 
 
 Literally, then, the world contributes to the wool-room at the Ken- 
 wood Mills. After being sorted on tables by workmen equipped with 
 
 47 
 
TWO RELATED INDUSTRIES 
 
 WOOL-ASSORTING DEPARTMENT 
 
 large shears, the wool is graded sometimes five and six grades to a 
 single fleece and then blended in order to produce a given texture. 
 It may here be said that every process through which the wool passes 
 up to the production of the finished paper-makers' felts and jackets is 
 a process that combines with its own essentials that of removing dirt 
 and dust. In the wool-room the assorters while going over the fleeces 
 and wool fibres remove dirt, vegetation, and strings. Much of the 
 dust while handling the wool sifts through the screens placed across the 
 work-benches. 
 
 VARIOUS PROCESSES 
 
 A duster that resembles the funnel of a steamship next receives the 
 wool and by passing it over rolls with spiked teeth prepares it for 
 the very important process known as scouring. Careful judgment 
 and skilful attention are required in this process. And since the water 
 of the Hudson River is too "hard" for wool-washing, it is given the 
 necessary softness that it lacks, by the Permutit System which has 
 been installed in the plant. The object of scouring the wool is to 
 
 48 
 
TWO RELATED INDUSTRIES 
 
 remove impurities that are in the wool and also to open it up so that it 
 is prepared for the subsequent process of carding. 
 
 The swing-rake machine that performs this process resembles a 
 huge tank into which are suspended rakes with teeth of varying lengths 
 that slowly separate the wool and free it from dirt and dust. This 
 swing-rake machine was suggested by the original method of handling 
 this process. At first a man stood at the vat and tossed about with a 
 pitchfork the wool in the vat so that it was thoroughly treated. To 
 the inventor, from watching this, came the idea of attaching the 
 prongs of a swinging rake. From the first tank the wool is passed to 
 a second tank containing a semi-wash, and then is gradually moved 
 forward to a third tank, where the wool is rinsed before the water is 
 squeezed out by rollers. Thence it is conveyed to the wool-drying 
 machine that resembles an iron house, where a series of fans blow hot 
 air through the wool as it passes through the dryer on an endless wire 
 apron. It is then blown by another fan to the various bins in the wool- 
 room on the third floor. From these bins various kinds of wool are 
 selected and blended preparatory to the carding process. 
 
 CARDING THE WOOL FOR SPINNING 
 
 As we have followed the wool from the great bales piled in the 
 storehouse to the wool-assorting room, through the scouring and dry- 
 ing processes to the wool-storage bins where it awaits transportation 
 to the carding department, let us proceed through the mill. Rousseau 
 once said that "y u require much philosophy to observe accurately 
 things that are under your noses," and it is safe to say that this remark 
 is nowhere more applicable than when for the first time a novice 
 watches the operation of a carding-machine. Even so, intricate as 
 it is, the action is the same as that of the hand-cards that in 
 many places were in use within the present century, and have now 
 practically disappeared save perhaps among the Navajo Indians, 
 who in making their rugs still use the hand-cards and practise hand- 
 spinning. 
 
 The old-fashioned carding was done by two pieces of wood covered 
 with card-cloth of a thin leather to which were attached fine wire 
 points. The cards were provided with handles, and the process of 
 straightening the wool fibres and equalizing their length was accom- 
 plished by drawing these cards over each other until the wool was 
 torn open and blended by the wire teeth. After the wool was thor- 
 
 49 
 
TWO RELATED INDUSTRIES 
 
 oughly combed the cards were rolled over each other in order to make 
 the wool into a roll or what is now known as roving. 
 
 This is exactly what a great modern machine does, the whole process 
 as with the hand-cards being one of carding and stripping or hooking 
 and unhooking the wool fibres. 
 
 SPACIOUSNESS, LIGHTNESS, AND AIRINESS OF THE 
 KENWOOD CARDING-ROOMS 
 
 The carding-rooms at the Kenwood plant are among the finest to 
 be found in the entire mill. The rooms are very light, nearly all of 
 the wall-space being given over to windows. The ceilings and walls 
 are white, and in convenient spaces where the workmen can readily 
 reach them are large steel lockers, each man having one of his own 
 for clothing or anything that he may wish to keep there. The ma- 
 chinery is the latest designed for carding, and most of it was built 
 under special directions for the work that the plant wishes performed. 
 There was a long period of invention and development and perfecting 
 between the original hand-card the early attempts of a Kay or Paul, 
 a Crompton or an Earl, who either invented or perfected and these 
 huge Kenwood machines which give one the impression of a bustling 
 woman who, intent upon her task, systematically goes about the con- 
 version of fluffy, newly washed wool into the roving that is wound on 
 spools and made ready for the spinning-rooms. In the beauty of the 
 machines themselves one might almost fancy that a woman's touch 
 was apparent, in the immaculate condition in which they are kept, 
 their brightness, the exactitude of their movements, and the unerring 
 stroke as they handle the wool fibres. The wool is combed with far 
 greater nicety than it could ever be combed by hand. 
 
 INGENUITY OF MACHINE-CARDING 
 
 At the back of each machine is an automatic feeder in which the wool 
 is placed by the feed-tender. As the wool is received by the feed- 
 rollers that act very much as a spool does when strands of hair are 
 wound around it, they in turn pass the wool with a rolling motion 
 along to what is known as the first breaker, where the carding actually 
 commences. The action here, as has already been said, is that of a 
 hand-card on a colossal scale. Where the hand-card had card-cloth on 
 which were fastened wire teeth, the modern carding-machine has huge 
 rolls on which are thousands of wire teeth that at one time or another 
 
 51 
 
TWO RELATED INDUSTRIES 
 
 perform the task of seizing the fibres presented them and tearing the 
 wool apart or straightening it, as the case may be. Here the worker, 
 or top roll, performs the work of the upper hand-card, while the lower 
 roll, or cylinder, takes the place of the bottom card. This process em- 
 ploys not only one set of rolls and cylinders, but several the main 
 cylinder in every case being the heaviest worker, acting not only as a 
 bottom card for every roll, but performing besides the duties of carrier 
 as the wool is conveyed from one roll to another. 
 
 The process through which the carded wool is passed before its final 
 preparation for spinning takes the place of the rolling motion that the 
 hand-carders used when they wished to make the wool into a roving. 
 The roving that is gathered automatically from the cards resembles 
 a fluffy white festoon. This is separated into smaller strands and 
 wound on spools preparatory to its transmission to the spinning de- 
 partment. 
 
 DAME GOODMAN'S SURPRISE 
 
 If the good housewives of the American colonies might step out of 
 the past and visit these vast carding-rooms at the plant, well might 
 they exclaim over the ease and precision of machines and the men 
 operating them, and over the intermediary process of converting mill- 
 ions of pounds of wool from its natural condition on the sheep's 
 fleece to the finished paper-makers' felts. Probably they would linger 
 longest in the carding-room, for here the advance in machinery has 
 been greatest, and the imitation of human dexterity the most perfectly 
 reproduced. 
 
 A GLANCE AT THE PAST OF CARDING 
 
 In dwelling on the mechanical part of wool-carding, it is well to 
 remember the story of wool-cards. The father of carding wool by 
 machinery appears to have been Lewis Paul, an Englishman, who in 
 1748, it is said, was the "patentee of the invention of revolving cylin- 
 ders for carding cotton." "This machine," continues A Memoir of 
 Samuel Crompton, "is the original of the machine for carding now 
 used." Crompton himself more than a quarter of a century later in- 
 vented a carding-machine that did not prove practical. It remained 
 for Pliny Earl, an employee of Samuel Slater, who introduced the 
 Arkwright machines in America, to perfect cards that were supplied 
 with power by a water-wheel attended by one Samuel Brunius Jenks, 
 a< negro belonging to the Slater establishment in Rhode Island. The 
 story is told of Slater's trouble with his water-wheel that in winter 
 
 52 
 
TWO RELATED INDUSTRIES 
 
 froze every night, and Slater, who could find no one willing to endure 
 the temperature of the water to break the ice, was obliged to rise 
 from two to three hours before breakfast in order to prepare for the 
 day's work. 
 
 AMERICAN AND ENGLISH EFFORTS TO PERFECT 
 
 CARDING 
 
 At Philadelphia, which has long been a textile machinery centre, 
 Oliver Evans in 1777 made teeth for cards, and the inventions that he 
 perfected were rapidly taken up by various concerns. In less than 
 twenty years carding-machines were made in considerable numbers, 
 and perfected and enlarged here and abroad. The first practical addi- 
 tion to Daniel Bourn's carding-machine, to which for the first time 
 was applied the rotary motion the same year that Paul patented his 
 invention, was made by John Lees, a Manchester (England) Quaker 
 in 1772. To this the following year James Hargreaves put the finish- 
 ing touch in a "doffing knife" that was patented by Arkwright, Har- 
 greaves receiving neither credit nor cash for his valuable addition to 
 carding. As late as 1819 hand-carding was still in vogue. Rees, un- 
 like most writers, gives the following description of the origin of the 
 carding process: 
 
 "The preparing of wool for spinning was probably first effected by 
 the fingers and afterwards by the fuller's teazle or thistle, which, with 
 its rough and hooked points, was well adapted to the purpose, and has 
 continued in use to the present day. The card afterwards used was 
 probably a substitute for the teazle." A writer of the present century 
 adds that this original hand-card must have been an exact counterpart 
 of the hand-board covered with teasels which is still (1908) to be seen 
 in wool-raising establishments in the west of England. 
 
 The overseer of carding and his assistants must be men of long 
 training and extreme skill. Not only is carding one of the most im- 
 portant of all the wool-manufacturing processes, but mistakes made 
 here can never be corrected and only perfect carding can make per- 
 fect felts. 
 
 HOW THE MULE SPINS THE ROVING 
 
 As one of the properties of paper-makers' felts is to filter water, the 
 hardness and firmness of the twist variations made in spinning become 
 most important. Before reaching the spinning-rooms, wool has been 
 blended to a certain formula and carded to a certain thickness. In 
 
 53 
 
TWO RELATED INDUSTRIES 
 
 the spinning-rooms, yarn is spun to a certain standard by a process 
 of drawing, twisting, and winding the yarn on the bobbin by spinning. 
 Just as wool occupies the first place in the story of textiles, both in 
 age and importance, so the art of spinning and weaving ranks first 
 among the arts as practised by the ancients. Just as sheep have 
 been known in all countries from remotest times, so the art of spinning 
 and weaving has been found among almost all of the old nations of the 
 world. In Egypt in Joseph's time Pharaoh was arrayed in vestures 
 of fine linen; when Moses built the tabernacle in the wilderness "the 
 women that were wise-hearted did spin with their hands, and brought 
 that which they had spun, both of blue, and of purple, and of scarlet, 
 and of fine linen"; and in Proverbs the virtuous woman is described: 
 "She layeth her hands to the spindle, and her hands hold the distaff." 
 
 ANCIENT METHOD OF SPINNING 
 
 The Greek mythologists portrayed Minerva and Parcae holding 
 distaff and spindle, while Solomon held that spinning was the industry 
 of the virtuous woman. The ancient distaff was about three feet long 
 and made of a reed that had an arrangement at the top to hold the 
 ball. The women held the distaff under the left arm while the right 
 hand drew the fibres from the ball and twisted them between the 
 thumb and forefinger of the right hand. The thread thus made was 
 wound upon the spindle made of a reed from eight to twelve inches 
 high. One of the first lessons that a novice should learn in an effort 
 to understand the processes of the mule is that of hand-spinning, for 
 there he will learn that the mule is very simple in its construction, 
 having exactly two parts: rollers and spindles. The spindles have 
 three motions : they move away from the rollers and extend the roving 
 to a greater number of inches than its original length; in the second 
 place they put a twist into the roving; and in the third, they wind the 
 yarn onto bobbins. 
 
 UP-TO-DATE SPINNING 
 
 The progress in the spinning-rooms at the Kenwood plant is notable, 
 as all of the machinery formerly used has been discarded and the 
 most modern machinery installed. The new machinery is much 
 heavier than that used when the mills were first built. The various 
 spinning-rooms at the plant are on the same floor as the carding-rooms, 
 
 55 
 
TWO RELATED INDUSTRIES 
 
 thus facilitating the transference of the roving-spools to the spinning 
 department. 
 
 HUMAN INGENUITY OF THE MULE 
 
 There is an overseer of the spinning-room, whose duties are to 
 direct the work of the machine. A guide says that he must under- 
 stand the mechanism, operation, and results obtained. He must have 
 had experience as a spinnei and some knowledge as to the repairing of 
 mules. Working with him is a mule-fixer, whose duties are to watch 
 the mechanism of the mule spinning-machines and see that they are 
 kept in working order. The guide adds: "The spinner's duties are to 
 operate the woolen mule, which receives the wool on roving spools 
 from the card-room, and deliver it on the bobbins to the weave- 
 room. The routine duties are, setting in the roving at the back; 
 placing in the roving ends; piecing in ends that break down; regulat- 
 ing the winding conditions so that bobbins will be properly filled; 
 doffing bobbins and replacing new bobbins. The mule-spinning as- 
 sistant is practically an apprentice; he brings the roving from the 
 card-room; assists in the spinning operation; removes the remainder 
 of waste from the roving spools: returns spools to card-room, and 
 assists in doffing and replacing bobbins." 
 
 Take a single machine for example. The spinner places the roving- 
 spool at the back of the mule and extends the roving to the bobbins or 
 spindles a single thread to each. The process that occurs when the 
 mule is set to work at first appears cumbersome and then marvellous. 
 The carriage containing the spindles moves away from the rollers just 
 far enough to stretch the roving to a desired length. When the rollers 
 stop and the carriage has extended as far as it is intended to go, and 
 the proper twist has been given to the roving, the carriage returns to 
 the rollers and the process is again repeated. It is said that if a spin- 
 ner know something about a spinning-wheel it is of no small value in 
 estimating just what twists to use on the mule, much depending of 
 course on the quality and length of wool fibre. It is claimed by an 
 eminent authority on the subject that there are few pieces of mech- 
 anism so complicated as the various wheels, clutches, and pulleys 
 that control the spinning-mule. As an exception to the insight that 
 some are given in its operation, the story is told of the Japanese fore- 
 man who, having never operated a mule, walked a two days' journey 
 in order that he might see one running. Arriving at the mill, he 
 
 57 
 
TWORELATED INDUSTRIES 
 
 watched the mule, remaining two days, and then went home. Two 
 mules from England were awaiting him in cases, and these he un- 
 packed and set up without assistance. In two short days he had been 
 able to comprehend every motion of the mule, had by careful obser- 
 vation been able to place rollers, wheels, and spindles, and had ab- 
 solutely grasped the relation of the various levers and pulleys that 
 controlled the headstock. 
 
 HARGREAVES AND THE SPIXXIXG-JEXXY 
 
 Great as has been the advance since spindle and distaff gave way to 
 the spinning-wheel, almost as great was the accomplishment when a 
 poor weaver, James Hargreaves, invented the spinning-jenny. The 
 idea occurred to him when, upon seeing one of his children upset a 
 spinning-wheel, he noticed that the wheel continued to revolve, and 
 he wondered if several spindles were placed together if it would not be 
 possible to spin several threads at once. He worked out his idea and 
 patented his invention in 1770, naming it in all probability for the 
 child who had overturned the wheel. From eight spindles the number 
 was increased to twenty, thirty, and one hundred and twenty. It 
 remained for Samuel Crompton to combine the Hargreaves spinning- 
 jenny with an Arkwright invention that had been used for cotton. 
 But Crompton was poor and no money was forthcoming for the 
 development of his ideas, and it was some time before he gained 
 the attention of the public. Numberless improvements followed, but 
 it has taken more than a century to usher in the modern spinning- 
 machine. And long ago seem the days that the poet praised the 
 spinning-jenny when he sang, 
 
 "But patient art ; 
 
 That on experience works from hour to hour, 
 Sagacious, has a spiral engine form'd, 
 Which on an hundred spoles, an hundred threads, 
 With one huge wheel, by lapse of water, twines, 
 Few hands requiring; easy tended work, 
 That copiously supplies the greedy loom." 
 
 After the yarn is spun at the Kenwood Mills, it is conveyed by 
 carriers from the spinning- to the weaving-rooms. The bobbins are 
 delivered to spoolers a number of girls who rapidly transfer the 
 yarn from the bobbins to warp spools. Cop-winders also transfer 
 
TWO RELATED INDUSTRIES 
 
 yarn from bobbins to cops preparatory for the loom. This change 
 is made by machinery that works very much like a bobbin attach- 
 ment on a sewing-machine, the empty spools being replaced and the 
 filled ones taken out by the girls operating the machines. 
 
 WEAVING, FULLIXG, AND XAPPIXG 
 
 Unlike paper, paper-makers' felts go through innumerable processes 
 before the finished product is obtained. For instance, those familiar 
 with the Fourdrinier machine watch pulp mixed with water fed into 
 one of the machines, and in less than a minute that same moist pulp 
 has been converted into a part of a web of paper that is rapidly 
 wound on a roll often a mile or more long. In making paper-makers' 
 felts, the number and variety of machines that do their part toward 
 producing the finished product is constantly a source of interest to 
 those unfamiliar with the processes of the manufacture. Whereas the 
 Fourdrinier machine used in manufacturing paper is the result of one 
 man's thought plus the improvement devised by many inventors, the 
 
 NO. i WEAVING DEPARTMENT 
 
TWO RELATED INDUSTRIES 
 
 LOOM FOR WEAVING ENDLESS FELTS 
 Weaving space 416 inches in which seamless felts are woven 66 feet long 
 
 carding-machines, spinning-mules, looms, fulling-machines, dryers, 
 are the result of individual efforts on the part of innumerable inventors 
 to perfect the art of woolen manufacture. 
 
 ANTIQUITY OF WEAVING 
 
 Like spinning, evidences of weaving have been found in the earliest 
 times, and it is believed by authorities on the subject that the art 
 dates back not only to the Stone Age, but to the days when prehistoric 
 man inhabited the earth. When history began, the East was making 
 fabric of flax, cotton, silk, and wool. The Bible frequently refers to 
 the art; the Chinese are said to have woven silk as early as 2640 B.C., 
 while the Egyptians by way of signifying that Isis was the goddess of 
 weaving and its inventor placed in her hands a shuttle. From the 
 East the art of weaving spread West, where it was gradually improved, 
 and where in 1785-86 Edmund Cartwright invented the power loom. 
 The improvements on his invention both in England and America 
 followed each other in rapid succession. 
 
 60 
 
TWO RELATED INDUSTRIES 
 
 At the Kenwood plant the most intricate modern machinery has 
 been installed in the weave-rooms. Here are looms that weave the end- 
 less felts, the exclusive use of which F. C. Huyck and Sons secured for 
 the United States. Some years ago when he was in England he wrote 
 one of his sons, "I have heard of a loom that weaves endless felts." 
 The next letter contained this line, "I am starting to-morrow to see 
 the looms I mentioned." And the third letter announced, "I have 
 ordered three of these looms." 
 
 Other looms in the weave-rooms produce felts that are afterward 
 joined or made endless by hand. "Time flies like a weaver's shuttle" 
 is a much quoted axiom, and the flight of the weaver's shuttle as 
 exhibited on these looms is a rapid, human motion. Let it be under- 
 stood first of all that weaving means arranging yarn so as to form a 
 firm piece of cloth. This is done by placing the warp yarn in such 
 a way as to form a close network of threads. The loom itself is a 
 massive frame on which is placed a beam from which the warp yarn 
 passes through the harness and reed to the front of the loom, while the 
 shuttle darts across, weaving in the filling yarn, thus forming the 
 fabric. 
 
 Of all the processes through which the Kenwood paper-makers' 
 felts pass, weaving is the most interesting. In some of the weave- 
 rooms are seamless felts woven on immense looms that have a reed 
 space or width of over four hundred inches; in others, felts are being 
 woven to a length of nearly two hundred feet; in fact, there are being 
 woven felts of a width and length to meet the needs of any paper-mill. 
 The one impression that is left on the mind is that great lengths of 
 paper-makers' felts are being swiftly turned out by the looms and that 
 the busy, swiftly flying shuttles apparently do most of the work. An 
 overseer of weaving watches not only the quality of the paper-makers' 
 felts and jackets as they are turned off, but he carefully examines the 
 yarn that has been previously delivered from the spinning-room. The 
 warpers, drawers-in, and weavers are assisted by loom-fixers, who 
 place warps in the looms and prepare them for weaving. The loom- 
 fixers also mend breaks that occur in the looms and remove the empty 
 beams when the last felt is woven. The cloth-measurers measure the 
 felts as they come from the looms, cut them off into required lengths, 
 and transfer them to the burling-room, where any mistake or flaw 
 in weaving is very carefully corrected. 
 
 61 
 
TWO RELATED INDUSTRIES 
 
 BURLING AND JOINING 
 
 The burling-rooms are very light, and the felts are at first examined 
 by a staff of girls working over tables. Here, if knots occur in the 
 felts, they are untied and imperfections of weaving are corrected. 
 That the inspection may be thorough, the final care is given by girls, 
 working in pairs, who stand between the felts which have been placed 
 over a frame or perch. Facing the light, with the felt between the 
 workers and the light, any defects that are finally discovered are 
 remedied. After this second inspection the felts that have not been 
 woven seamless are passed to the joining-room, where a staff of women 
 perform the dexterous process of joining. The felts are placed end 
 to end across long tables and then drawn together, each opposite thread 
 exactly matching. At the end of each felt is a fringe of warp. The 
 threads of this fringe are tied in a knot and then the joiner pulls the 
 thread farther into the warp on either side until a seamless felt is 
 entirely woven by hand. This is the process that was performed a 
 half-century ago by the women living round about Rensselaerville. 
 
 WASHING AND FULLING THE FELTS 
 
 In order to remove the oil and dirt that have accumulated during the 
 processes of carding, spinning, and weaving, the felts are taken from the 
 joining-room and washed in tubs, over which they are suspended on 
 rollers that hold them while they are passed through the tubs of water. 
 
 Because the felts when they come from the loom must be shrunk to 
 a required exact size and have not been really felted, they must be put 
 through the felting process before they are suited for the use they are 
 to fill in paper-mills. This process is termed "fulling," and the 
 purpose of it is to shrink and thicken the fabric and to prepare it for 
 the nap that must be put on before it can be used to absorb water. 
 As one goes into the large fulling-rooms at the Kenwood plant, in con- 
 trast there arises a picture of the old way in which woolen fabrics 
 were prepared for use. Before the advent of the fulling-mill or fulling- 
 machinery the cloth was beaten with sticks, or subjected to an entirely 
 different process if the young men and women of the neighborhood 
 wanted a party. Some one in these early days gave the following 
 account of one of these affairs: "When the cloth of the season was 
 woven, the young people were invited to the house, the kitchen floor 
 was cleared for action, and in the middle were placed stout split 
 bottom chairs in a circle connected by a cord to prevent coil. On these 
 
 63 
 
TWO RELATED INDUSTRIES 
 
 the young men sat with shoes and stockings off and trousers rolled 
 to the knee. In the centre were placed the cloths wetted with warm 
 soap and suds and then kicking commenced by measure steps, driving 
 the bundles of goods round and round the circle, until they were 
 shrunk to the desired size. Then the girls, arms bare to the elbows, 
 rinsed and wrung out the flannels and hung them on the fence to dry." 
 Fulling is a very old operation, and even to-day there is more or less 
 mystery about why and how wool fibres cling together, making a 
 close, compact fabric. As early as 1655 John Pierpont built a fulling- 
 mill in Roxbury, Massachusetts, and others that followed in the same 
 State were one at Watertown in 1662, another at Andover in 1673, one 
 at Ipswich in 1675, and one at Barnstable in 1687. 
 
 Fulling or felting, the process from which paper-makers' felts receive 
 their name, is the method of utilizing that peculiar property of the 
 woolen fibre, before mentioned, through which one fibre interlocks 
 with another and in doing so shrinks in length until the full width of 
 the piece of cloth becomes very much less than its woven width. The 
 three agencies through which this process most readily takes place are 
 heat, friction, and moisture; and it is in providing more efficient means 
 of applying these agencies that the development of fulling-machinery 
 has been made from olden times, when the fulling process occurred 
 by the stamping of the piece of cloth with the feet, through the time 
 when fulling-mills consisted of large hammers suspended from a tub 
 and alternately dropped on the fabric, to the time when the modern 
 fulling-mill receives the woolen goods in a long string and by con- 
 tinuous motion passes it while in a moist condition through heavy 
 rollers. The results desired have always been the same; namely, a 
 thickening and strengthening of the fabric, the increasing of its wear- 
 ing quality, and of its resistance to cold. In paper-makers' felts, the 
 desired object is to gain in strength as much as possible without mak- 
 ing the fabric so close that water will not pass readily through it. 
 The overseer of fulling and his assistants must have a knowledge that 
 can only be gained through long experience in the particular fabrics 
 that they are working on. 
 
 In the manufacture of paper-makers' felts, when it is necessary to 
 bring a single felt down to the exact size of inches in width and of 
 feet in length, when this size may be, as it has been stated, as long as 
 one hundred and eighty feet or as wide as two hundred and fifty inches, 
 it is easy to realize the skill that must be exercised to bring the proper 
 results. There must be no shrinking after the felt is finished, for on 
 
 66 
 
TWO RELATED INDUSTRIES 
 
 NAPPING- OR RAISING-MACHINE 
 
 the paper-machine it must maintain its width and length throughout 
 its use, nor can there be any stretching, which would be just as detri- 
 mental to its service on the paper-machine; at least, both shrinking 
 and stretching must be confined within small and known limits. For 
 these reasons, the importance not only of skill and experience on the 
 part of the workmen but of proper designing of machinery is evident. 
 Most of the fulling-mills in the Kenwood Mills are either manufac- 
 tured in the plant's own engineering department or made after its own 
 designs. Here you will find a mill small enough to full the smallest- 
 size felt properly and others large enough to receive a single piece 
 weighing from one to two thousand pounds. 
 
 PUTTING ON THE NAP 
 
 From the fulling-room the felts are taken to the gigging- or napping- 
 room, where on machines having great rollers the felts receive a nap 
 from small spindles covered with teasels. Teasels are the seed-pods 
 
 6? 
 
TWO RELATED INDUSTRIES 
 
 SMALL DRYER 
 
 2 feet diameter, 145 inches wide. Weight 1,800 pounds. Drying felt 28 feet 
 long by 5 1 inches wide 
 
 of a plant and have sharp springy points which have never been imi- 
 tated successfully. These teasels when set revolve on little spindles 
 about the roller against which the felt is passed and in this way the 
 nap is put on, a man having wide experience in napping being in 
 charge of the department. "He must know," says the guide, "the 
 mechanism of the machine; he must know the proper sharpness at 
 which to keep the teasels, and must have an exact knowledge of the 
 finish that is required. He must be able to produce a maximum nap 
 without injury to the fabric." 
 
 DRYING 
 
 After receiving the nap, the felts are ready for drying. This process 
 is performed by men, working in pairs, who adjust the felts to the 
 dryers large steam-heated rolls and who, after stretching the felts on 
 frames and measuring them for a required width and length, remove 
 
 68 
 
TWO RELATED INDUSTRIES 
 
 LARGE DRYER 
 
 5 feet diameter, 264 inches wide. Weight 18,000 pounds. Drying felt 
 56 feet long by 212 inches wide 
 
 them when completely dry. In this room is a dryer with a cylinder 
 twenty-two feet long, five feet in diameter, weighing nine tons the 
 largest dryer ever made. After the felts are dry, inspectors, working 
 in pairs, place them on frames facing the light and there take out any 
 foreign matter, either vegetable or wool, that they find. This is the 
 last of the many inspections, and it is attended with the care that all 
 previous inspections have had. The next step is the removal of the 
 felts to the shipping-room. 
 
 THE SHIPPING-ROOM 
 
 The shipping-room at the Kenwood plant is as cosmopolitan as the 
 wool-room, for in this room are bales and boxes marked with names 
 that represent the entire paper-making world. A notable feature of 
 this room is the neatness and order of arrangement and packing. It 
 is supplied from the packing-room, where, on well-arranged shelves, 
 
 69 
 
PILE OF WOOLEN DRYER FELTS, EACH WEIGHING OVER 1,000 POUNDS 
 
 MACHINE ROOM 
 
 Fabrica de Papel de Maracay of Venezuela 
 
TWO RELATED INDUSTRIES 
 
 are thousands of felts ready for consumers that require a certain size. 
 The width ranges from the little forty-inch-wide felts still in use for 
 some purposes to the Fourdrinier felts that already measure two hun- 
 dred and twenty-four inches and will soon be two hundred and fifty 
 inches wide when machines now being built are completed. Reliability 
 of product, excellent shipping facilities, and efficient foreign agents have 
 placed the felts among the foremost products of their kind. The situa- 
 tion of the plant is advantageous; having its own sidetracks, and the 
 fact of its nearness to the Hudson River where steamers run daily to 
 New York, has aided foreign shipments. The felts may be shipped on 
 these steamers at night and the following morning transferred to an 
 ocean liner, or they can be sent forward to any Pacific port and thence 
 shipped to Japan, China, or Australia. Japan erected the first paper- 
 machine in 1874, an d since then the industry has grown enormously, 
 and shipments of Kenwood felts to that country have increased cor- 
 respondingly. In every paper-making State of the United States 
 from New England, through the Central States, to the Pacific Coast, 
 where the paper-making industry has made marked progress the 
 Kenwood felts are used. In the South, where recently the paper- 
 making industry has progressed rapidly owing to the use of long-leaved 
 pine for pulp, shipments are constantly increasing. Among the largest 
 consumers of the felts are Australia, Argentine, England, Finland, 
 Holland, Japan, Norway, and Sweden. 
 
 ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT 
 
 One usually thinks of an engineering department of a plant as solely 
 concerned with supplying power, heat, and light and making repairs 
 to machinery. This is not the case in the engineering department 
 of the Kenwood Mills. Many special machines are designed and 
 built here, many inventions perfected, and much that plays a vital part 
 in the efficient development of the plant has its origin in this depart- 
 ment, where skilled mechanics and draftsmen work under the instruc- 
 tion of an able supervising engineer. 
 
 ACCOUNTING DEPARTMENT 
 
 The same thing may be said of the accounting department. It is not 
 simply a place where routine work is done. Efficient purchasing 
 methods, a cost-accounting system which is accurate and thorough, 
 
 73 
 
TWO RELATED INDUSTRIES 
 
 and the latest methods of general accounting, carefully conducted cor- 
 respondence, and complete and accurate records help materially in 
 giving efficient service to the users of Kenwood felts. 
 
 The Kenwood Plant having drawn its raw materials from the whole 
 world, returns to the world its finished product. New conditions are 
 constantly arising and being met. 
 
 Probably it will be some years before the wood pulp of the United 
 States and Canada is exhausted. Experiments, however, are already 
 being made all over the world in order to provide substitutes for wood 
 pulp. Most particularly in the United States and her possessions atten- 
 tion is being turned to the South, Hawaii, and Porto Rico, which are 
 expected to be the producers of the world's supply of pulp in future 
 years. The waste materials of sugar-cane called in Cuba and Porto 
 Rico, megasse, and in Hawaii, begasse are being experimented on, 
 also bamboo, as a raw material for paper pulp. A mill in Hawaii 
 erected a year ago has made considerable progress in utilizing begasse 
 and in manufacturing a row mulching which is somewhat similar to a 
 roofing and is used to increase the growth of sugar-cane and prevent 
 growth of weeds. This waste, heretofore being exceedingly cheap, has 
 been used by the sugar-cane mills for fuel. Sugar-cane requires a 
 great deal of fertilizer, and the fact that the row mulching can be man- 
 ufactured from waste, cut into thirty-six-inch rolls and carried on 
 donkeys to the fields, where it is easily unrolled and spread on the 
 sugar-cane sprouts which penetrate the paper, is of especial advantage 
 to the producer, especially as the row mulching destroys the weeds, 
 which cannot penetrate it. This paper also prevents the fertilizer in the 
 ground from being washed away during the heavy rainfall. By the 
 use of this, all cultivation is done away. Measurements have shown 
 that the height of the sugar-cane in a given time greatly exceeds the 
 height of the stalks grown where the paper has not been used, and 
 the yield of the sugar-cane has been increased. 
 
 THE SOUTHERN STATES OF THE UNITED STATES 
 A SOURCE OF SUPPLY 
 
 Another source of the supply for wood pulp will probably be the 
 South where long-leaf pine grows in such quantities. It has been 
 shown that for every million feet of lumber cut, there are two million 
 feet of waste. From this waste, after turpentine and resin have been 
 
 75 
 
* --- -->- -^ // \ ' 
 
 .^<^\\ ; 
 
 ,-, 
 
 \ \" : ^ V \ X 
 
 ^ \\ ,\ . . ^, - "- 1 
 
 
TWO RELATED INDUSTRIES 
 
 extracted, wood pulp can be made. At present excellent kraft- and 
 wrapping-papers have been produced, and experiments show that from 
 this waste also high-grade book-papers and stationery can be made. 
 In spite of the sanguine expectations of Hawaii, Porto Rico, Cuba, and 
 the Southern States in meeting the pulp supply of the future, there are 
 those who look to Sweden and Australia to yield vast quantities of 
 wood pulp for the paper trade of the next threescore years. 
 
 What the coming century holds, it is safe to say, has been but 
 partially foreseen. Measured by the expansion of the past fifty years 
 the future will be one of remarkable development both in the utilization 
 of raw material and in the perfection of machinery to meet new condi- 
 tions. The manufacture of paper-makers' felts for the last fifty years 
 has been advanced as modern paper needs were created. The Ken- 
 wood plant during this half-century has imported wool from every 
 sheep-raising country in the world, and has converted this commodity 
 into paper-makers' felts that have been sent to every country 
 where paper is made. Just as in the past, the same high standard 
 of product will be maintained for the remainder of the century the 
 half-milestone which this brochure commemorates. 
 
 A BURR FOUND IN 
 SOUTH AMERICAN 
 WOOL 
 
TWO RELATED INDUSTRIES 
 
 AUTHORITIES 
 
 The writer desires to acknowledge indebtedness to Mr. W. W. 
 Nearing of the Pejepscot Paper Company, Brunswick, Maine; to the 
 S. D. Warren Company, Cumberland Mills, Maine; and to Mr. 
 Douglas E. Scott, superintendent of Semi-Commercial pulp mill of 
 the United Fruit Company, Boston, Mass.; also for photographs, to 
 Ontario Paper Co., Thorold, Ont., Canada; A. P. W. Paper Co., 
 Albany, N.Y.; The Thames River Specialties Co., Uncasville, Conn.; 
 Robert P. Richmond, Valatie, N.Y.; Imperial Govt. Paper Mill, 
 Japan; Oji Paper Co., Japan. 
 
 The following authorities also have been consulted: 
 A History of Paper-Manufacturing in the United States , 16901916, 
 by Lyman Horace Weeks; The Story of Paper-Making, an Account 
 of Paper-Making from its Earliest Known Record Down to the 
 Present Time, published by the J. W. Butler Paper Company of 
 Chicago; Paper, its History, Sources and Manufacture, by H. A. 
 Maddox, London; Chronology of the Origin and Progress of Paper and 
 Paper-Making, by Joel Munsell; Industry and Trade, Historical and 
 Descriptive Account of their Development in the United States, by 
 Avard Langley Bishop and Albert Galloway Keller; Bishop's History 
 of Manufacturers; W. E. Weeden's Industrial Development of New 
 England; History of Papermaking in Maine, and the Future of the 
 Industry, contributed to the Twentieth Annual Report of the Bureau 
 of Industrial and Labor Statistics for the State of Maine by Hugh J. 
 Chisholm, president of the International Paper Company (1906); 
 Paper; and The Paper Trade Journal; besides many monographs and 
 special articles. 
 
Al VJ 
 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY 
 BERKELEY 
 
 Return to desk from which borrowed. 
 This book is DUE on the last date stamped below. 
 
 DEC 2 
 
 VT 
 
 OV3 1954 LU 
 
 RECO 
 
 9 
 
 LD 21-100m-ll,'49(B7146sl6)476