BEATING

89

OUTSIDE DRfVE THROUGH
BELT OR TEX ROPES
FROM' MAIN UMIT OR
COUPLED DIRECT
THROUGH REDUCTION
GEARS TO MOTOR

When passing over the suction boxes a high vacuum is required to
withdraw sufficient water to allow the web to be couched without being
crushed. This is what a machineman will understand by 'wet5 stuff, and
for practical purposes the word will express the idea to most paper-mill
men. However, for more scientific men the word did not correctly define
the condition, and they renamed it
'hydrated' stuff, a word which really
means 'combined with water' in a
chemical sense.

The question then arose as to
whether this so-called combination of
stuff and water is caused by the
mechanical action of the beating
engine or by some obscure chemical
process.

The theory of 'fibrage' pro-
nounced by Dr. Sigurd Smith was
hailed as a great discovery by the
paper-making world. Without in any
way wishing to detract from the value
of this investigator's patient labours,
we are of the opinion that he leaves
us, for any real explanation of the
subject, just where we were before.
He has not shown us how to beat stuff
'wet', or hydrated, by using less power.

He does indeed indicate how power
and time may be saved by using two
plates, and causing one circulation of
the stuff in the engine to give results
hitherto obtained by two droiktions,
but the fact remains that the actual
power that is necessary to 'beat' remains the same. He gives us no explana-
tion of beating which will enable us to get Vet' or 'hydrated' stuff by any
other means than, the beating engine.

As for the "chemical* or 'physical' question, we should frbinlc that, after
the published results of the researches by James Strachan, no one will seriously
claim that chemical combination of stuff and water can take place, except in
an extremely limited degree.

This being so, we venture to assert that the term 'hydrated' stuff is

FIG. 28,-HPlAN OF

INSIDE DRIVE THROUQH
BELT OR TEX ROPES FROM
OVERHEAD MOTOR.
BEATER