TREATMENT OF RAGS 35
There are various ways of dealing with this. Some mills sell it back to the
rag merchants, while others use it in lower grades of paper, colours, etc., and
again, others boil it drastically and bleach it in gas chambers, and are thus able
to use it in ledgers and other coloured papers.
A certain amount of these rags was sorted out of some of the grades already
referred to during the trial, and the quantities are appended:
Cwt. Qr. Lb.
No.i..............— — —
No, 2.............. 3 o 15
No. 3.............. 5 i 10
No. 4.............. 8 o 21
No. 5.............. 13 i 13
It will at once be seen that the amount of low-quality rags rises with the
mulch and rubbish.
The market value of the above rags is not more than 70 per cent of the
value of the original parcels from which they were extracted, and is often
much less. Besides the low-quality rags, another grade is sometimes sorted
out, consisting of strong pieces, such as light cords, canvas, ticking, brown linen
linings, etc. These rags are usually kept separate, and given more drastic
treatment and used for ledgers or strong thin papers. They may be boiled
and bleached in the same way as canvas, in which case they will not usually
come up to a very good colour, or they may be gas bleached. They will always
be yellowish in colour and not suitable for bright-looking papers, if their
strength is conserved.
It will be seen from the foregoing that the question of deciding on the
actual value of a'parcel of rags is a somewhat complicated business.
First of all the bulk of the rags has to be valued, then the various grades
picked out have to be given separate or lower values, and finally the prices
obtainable for the mulch, dust, and packing material, Hessian, etc., must be
taken into account.
As a result of many trials it 'has been proved, to our own satisfaction, that
it pays in every case to .buy the best grades in the first place. This method
reduces to an amazing extent the number of hands required in the rag room,
and leads to much greater uniformity in the half stuff.
The following figures of 'dust' were obtained in four separate weeks. The
dust from each -duster was weighed separately. It may be noted that the heavy
dust, grit, etc., from the first duster has no value, while the fluffy dust from
the second duster may be sold as manure or for other purposes, for a pound
or two per ton.