| Stereograph of two men cutting logs ready for stripping and making into pulp at a paper mill. Caption reads, "7981-(b)-Cutting logs ready for stripping and making into pulp, paper mill. Marinette, Wis. Copyright by Underwood & Underwood. U-85124." Printed on the reverse, "7981. This is one of the first stages in the preparation of a sheet of stout "manila" wrapping paper.
We are inside one of four great mills belonging to a single company at Marinette, Wisconsin. Only a few rods away, outside this building, the Menomonie River is hurrying by to pour into Green Bay (Lake Michigan). The machinery here is run by power from turbine wheels, turned by water diverted from the river.
Those twin circular saws are revolving at a tremendous rate of speed, so that their disks looked blurred. The lever held by the man at the left controls the carriage on which the large logs rest. A moment more and he will move the carriages this way so that the first log will be pushed against the saws — with one cutting from above and the other from below it will be a matter of only a few seconds to sever a section.
The next process will be stripping off the bark. then the bared wood, chiefly spruce, is to be reduced to fine chips and sent to great vats where it will be subjected to a long cooking in baths of powerful chemicals, reducing it to thick creamy liquid stuff (see Stereograph 7982 for pulp in liquid form).
From the mixing tanks the thick liquid will be strained and run off in a broad stream over a bed of woven wire through which the moisture drains, leaving big, damp, uneven sheets of the fibre-stuff. After that, the blanket sheets will go through great cylinder-presses, which force the small particles into closer union, reducing all to even thickness and smooth finish (Stereograph 7984), ready for folding and packing (Stereograph 7985)." |
