Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - VII. Manufacturing Industries. Introd. by [G. Sundbärg] K. Åmark - 5. Timber-Ware Industry - Wood-Pulp Industry. By J. Vestergren
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wood-pulp industry.
395
bleached mass. This method of manufacture — the sulphate method — is, at
present, the alkaline boiling method most employed in Sweden. Another factor
of great importance for the cellulose industry was the quality of soda-cellulose
produced by A. Miintzing at Munksjö, in 1885, which forms the material for
the celebrated Swedish strong brown paper ("kraftpapper"). The number of
sulphate cellulose factories at the present time is 21, the value of the output
being about 16 million kronor.
The sulphite-method had been suggested as early as 1866, by Tilghman, an
American, but it did not become of any practical importance until 1874, when
a Swede, C. D. Ekman, succeeded in producing on a large scale a satisfactory
cellulose, by means of boiling spruce with magnesium bi-sulphite. Independently
of the researches of Ekman, who had kept his invention a secret, MUscherlich,
a German, some time afterwards obtained good practical results with calcium
bisulphite, which has since retained its position as the solvent most employed.
The Swede who, next to Ekman, has done most for the technical improvement
of the sulphite cellulose manufacture in the country is C. IV. Flodqvist.
The second sulphite factory to be established in Sweden was Billerud, founded
in 1883. Five years later, sulphite cellulose began to be made at Storvik too.
At present, the number of sulphite factories is about 65, with an output-value
of about 85 million kronor.
The greater part of the wood-pulp produced by mechanical processes is made
from spruce, though aspen is also employed, this last-mentioned wood giving a
specially white and resin-free product. For brown-grinding, some fir can also
be employed. In the sulphate method, both spruce and fir can be used as raw
material, although, in some respects, the first-named wood is considered to
possess the greater advantages. Sulphite cellulose is made almost exclusively of
spruce.
Sulphite cellulose is, of itself, fairly white, and can be employed for making
the cheaper kinds of writing- and printing paper without any bleaching.
Sulphate cellulose, on the other hand, is more or less dark brown in colour, and
is employed chiefly in the manufacture of different sorts of paper in natural
colours. It possesses, however, certain qualities that make it specially valuable
as a material for the production of finer kinds of paper, a bleaching process
being necessary, however. Three of the sulphate cellulose factories in Sweden
have large bleaching establishments for the sulphate pulp, one of them being
electric.
The chief part of the wood-pulp exported goes to Great Britain and France.
Some is sent to the U. S. A., Japan, Belgium, Holland, Germany, Denmark,
and Spain. Nearly all the läns of Sweden are engaged in the wood-pulp
industry, the chief, however, being Värmland, Västernorrland, and Gävleborg Läns,
the total value of whose production is somewhat more than one-half of that
for the whole country.
The import of wood-pulp is very small indeed, amounting in 1912 only to
about 5 tons.
While the cellulose trade in Sweden has grown in a comparatively short time
to a great industry, and one on which a great part of the economy of the
country is based, the necessity has not been ignored of obtaining the greatest
possible returns from the supply of raw material possessed by Sweden — a
supply which, it is true, is rich but, still, limited — by an increased
production of cellulose of a high quality, and by the utilization of the various
byproducts obtained.
Among the many Swedes who have contributed materially towards the
investigation of the chemical processes occurring in the manufacture and utiliz-
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