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How Paper is Made
It starts with trees.
Maybe a land owner calls the Woodlands department and says he or she want to sell the trees on a plot of property they own. To clear it, for whatever reason. A Woodlands person goes out there and walks the property and estimates how much wood fiber is on that property.
Or it can be a planted (planned) growth. Like a crop of corn. Plant pine trees, let them grow, cut them, plant some more. A renewable resource.
Lots of people cut and haul the trees to the mill.
At the mill the bark is knocked off of the logs in a giant grater-thing. The bark goes to the Powerhouse to be burned as fuel in a power boiler to make steam for the process.
Run the debarked trees though a chipper, about 30,000 horsepower. Big stuff. The chipper can eat a tree up to 36 inches in diameter and the sound of that thing never changes tune, an awesome sight and sound. It makes chips the right size to cook in a digester ( a giant perssure cooker) or to be sent to TMP (Thermo Mechanical Pulping) where the chips are torn into fibers by pressure plates so strong they produce steam in the process .
That’s just barely the start of the process. That’s just the beginning of it to get to the paper you take for granted. Be it toilet paper or the paper in a book or the paper in in the bill you hate to get in the mail.
Barely the beginning. So many people, so many steps involved. Does anybody want to know the rest?
I can go on for hours. It’s a fascinating processs, making paper. And it’s dying, paper is. It sure is. A buggy whip industry.
It starts with trees.
Maybe a land owner calls the Woodlands department and says he or she want to sell the trees on a plot of property they own. To clear it, for whatever reason. A Woodlands person goes out there and walks the property and estimates how much wood fiber is on that property.
Or it can be a planted (planned) growth. Like a crop of corn. Plant pine trees, let them grow, cut them, plant some more. A renewable resource.
Lots of people cut and haul the trees to the mill.
At the mill the bark is knocked off of the logs in a giant grater-thing. The bark goes to the Powerhouse to be burned as fuel in a power boiler to make steam for the process.
Run the debarked trees though a chipper, about 30,000 horsepower. Big stuff. The chipper can eat a tree up to 36 inches in diameter and the sound of that thing never changes tune, an awesome sight and sound. It makes chips the right size to cook in a digester ( a giant perssure cooker) or to be sent to TMP (Thermo Mechanical Pulping) where the chips are torn into fibers by pressure plates so strong they produce steam in the process .
That’s just barely the start of the process. That’s just the beginning of it to get to the paper you take for granted. Be it toilet paper or the paper in a book or the paper in in the bill you hate to get in the mail.
Barely the beginning. So many people, so many steps involved. Does anybody want to know the rest?
I can go on for hours. It’s a fascinating processs, making paper. And it’s dying, paper is. It sure is. A buggy whip industry.
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