CHAPTER XVI
THE MANUFACTURE OF NEWSPRINT
PRODUCTION FIGURES-FIBROUS RAWMATERIALS-NON-FIBROUS RAWMATERIALS
—HANDLING OF RAW MATERIALS—WATER—PREPARATION OF AlUM,
LOADING, AND DYES FOR ADDITION TO STOCK—PREPARATION AND PRO-
PERTIES OF STOCK—STRAINERS AND SLICE—THE WIRE PART—THE PRESS
PART-THE DRYER PART-FINISHING-FUTURE TRENDS OF NEWSPRINT
MANUFACTURE
IN the descriptions of paper-making practice given in other chapters
(notably in Chapters XI, XII and XHI), there is a good deal of information
which is applicable to the manufacture of newsprint. Nevertheless, since
newsprint-making has tended to become increasingly specialised— if only
because of the ever-growing necessity for reducing conversion costs by the
development of larger output machines running at high speeds—it will be
useful in this chapter, not only to give a brief general discussion of the technique
of this branch of paper-making, but also to draw attention to various aspects
of it which are peculiar to newsprint. The subject is treated primarily from
the viewpoint of the manufacturer in this country who does not prepare his
own pulp, but purchases it ready-made. Some details of the processes for
pulping wood for making newsprint are, however, given in Chapter V (see
pp. 55, 61, 68 and 69).
Production Figures.—World production of newsprint in 1938, the last com-
plete year uninterrupted by war, was 6,710,000 long tons. The greatest
quantity yet manufactured in a single year was 8,020,000 tons, which was
die world output for 1937. The world production of paper of all kinds for
1937 was 20,500,000 tons; thus newsprint accounts for about 40 per cent of
this total.
These figures give some idea of the importance and size of the world's
Bewsprint industry.
* Even taore striking, perhaps, is the rate at which the annual production
of aewspriat has increased. In Canada, for instance, to take an outstanding
exaiti|)le, &e production in 1913, the year immediately preceding the last
war, was 310,090 tons. In the peak year of 1937 the production rose to
toes—a teafold increase. Enormous expansions of this kind have