STRANGE USES OF PAPER

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Aug 19, 1889

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 15, No. 32.

STRANGE USES OF PAPER.

PAPER is now made to serve for steel and iron. When strong fiber is used it can be made into a substance so hard that it can scarcely be scratched. Railroad car wheels are made of it, more durable than iron. A store in Atlanta, Georgia, has been built entirely of paper. The rafters, weather boards, roof, and flooring are all made of thick compressed paper boards, impervious to water. On account of the surface of the paper being smooth and hard it cannot catch on fire as easily as a wooden building. It is found warm in cold and cool in hot weather. The Breslau fire-proof chimney has demonstrated that cooking and heating stoves, bath-tubs and pots, when annealed by a process that renders it fire-proof, becomes more lasting than iron, and will not burn out. Cracks in floors around the skirting board, or other parts of a room, may be neatly filled by thoroughly soaking newspaper in paste, made as thick as putty, and forced into the cracks with a paste-knife. It will soon harden and can be painted.

Black walnut picture frames are made of paper and so colored that no one can tell them from the original wood. A paper piano has lately been exhibited in Paris. The entire case is made of compressed paper, to which is given a hard surface, a cream-white brilliant polish. The legs and sides are ornamented with arabesques and floral designs. The exterior, and as much of the interior as can be seen when the instrument is open, are covered with wreaths and medallion painted in miniature. An Italian monk has succeeded in constructing an organ where the pipes are made of paper pulp. It has 1,400 pipes of various sizes. The American Cotton-seed Oil Trust is now running a mill for making paper from the hulls remaining after all the oil has been squeezed out of the cotton seed. They are contemplating the erection of a 100-ton mill for the same purpose. These hulls have heretofore been considered worthless. It has so far proved so successful that the trust proposes erecting mills at different points in the cotton-raising country. Of course, this will somewhat revolutionize the paper trade.

A new mill for the manufacture of paper from moss has been recently established in Sweden. Paper of different thickness and pasteboard made of it have already been shown, the latter even in sheets three-quarters of an inch thick. It is as hard as wood and can be easily painted and polished. It has all the good qualities but none of the defects of wood. The pasteboard can be used for door and window frames, architectural ornaments and all kinds of furniture. The ceiling of the assembly chamber at Albany, New York, is made of papier-mache. It is a model of its kind, and appears so like marble as to deceive the most expert eye. The latest idea is to use paper instead of wood for lead pencils by using a patent preparation by which it can be cut as easily as the softest wood.—St. Louis Stationer.