I4 MODERN PAPER-MAKING
They are usually very free from foreign matter; they require gentle treat-
ment in the boiler, being almost pure cotton; and apart from the hard strip
of twisted strings at one end, they are easily broken in, but they must first be
cut up small by hand.
New Oxfords and New Light Prints are the cuttings from shirt and dress
factories, and at one time they were an important raw material for the better
classes of rag papers where strength was required. Nowadays, however,
some paper-makers are inclined to view them with suspicion, on account of
the so-called 'fadeless5 dyes used in forming the stripes and designs on the
material Although these dyes can generally be removed by the usual methods
of treatment in the boiler and breaker, yet there is no doubt that some of them
are very tenacious and require fairly drastic treatment, both in the boiler
and more especially during bleaching, if all the dye is to be removed. Some
mauves, yellows and blues are particularly hard to bleach out, and even when
the blues are removed from the material in which they were originally fixed,
they seem to pervade the whole mass of half stuff and give it a bluish tinge.
Of course, if the oxidizing treatment is sufficiently drastic, the whole of the
colour can be destroyed, especially if chlorine gas is used, but it then becomes
questionable whether this has not led to such tendering of the half stuff as to
render the material too expensive compared with the results obtained.
There are many other new rags which might be described in detail, but the
foregoing is a fairly comprehensive list.
Among others may be mentioned flannelettes, which are cotton cuttings;
* tab-ends', or the ends of new pieces of cotton goods; linen threads, cotton
canvas cuttings, new blue jeans, etc.
We now come to the second class of rag material—namely, used or old
rags. These rags differ essentially from new rags in that they are very mixed
in quality, no matter from what source they are obtained, and they are
always dirty—the only difference between one lot and another being in
degree. They are, on the whole, much softer and incapable of yielding
a half stuff of such strength as that obtained from new rags. They contain
contraries. and impurities of all kinds, all of which have to be removed by the
paper-maker.
Taking the used rags in. order of 'quality', clean white linens and cottons
come first,
No. i Linens consist of such articles of domestic use as tablecloths, pillow-
cases, sheets, handkerchiefs and clothing of all kinds. They are only fragments
of the original article and are fairly clean and free from impurities*
They require to be overlooked and cut up, prior to boiling, for the removal
of buttons, elastic, etc. They also require gentle treatment in the boiler and