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THE HISTORY OF PAPER IN BRAZIL

No doubt, the very first presence of paper in Brazil is the letter written by Pero Vaz de Caminha, soon after the discovery of our country.

But, the first reference to a national manufacture is found in a document written in 1809 by Frei José Mariano da Conceição Velozo to Conde de Linhares, the Minister of the Regency Prince D. João, : "... I am sending to you a sample of paper, although unbleached, manufactured with our embira tree (Daphnopsis brasiliensis) during a first experience. The second experience is already going on and, in conclusion, Your Excellency may count on this manufacturing mill...". This original document is archived at the Imperial Museum and the extract above was taken from the book: O Papel - Problemas de Conservação e Restauração (Paper - Preservation and Restoration Problems) by Edson Motta and Maria L.G. Salgado.

Brasil In the sample, sent with the document, one can read: "The first paper manufactured in Rio de Janeiro, on November 16, 1809.".

Also in 1809, the first plant was built in Rio de Janeiro and its production has probably started between 1810 and 1811. Still in the state of Rio de Janeiro, we learned of three other plants opened in 1837, 1841 and, in 1852, close to the city of Petropolis, a baron (Barão de Capanema) built another mill (Fábrica de Orianda) which manufactured high quality paper for that time until it went bankrupt in 1874.

In 1850 as well, the development of the coffee plantation culture brings thriving progress to the province of São Paulo. With the arrival of the European immigrants, São Paulo starts to experience a fast industrial development, which triggers several new ventures.

One of these undertakings, carried out by another baron, Barão de Piracicaba, in the region of the city of Itu (state of São Paulo), intended to create the proper conditions for the installation of industries, using the power produced by a waterfall from the Tiete River. This is the place where, in 1889 , the company Melchert & Cia started to built a paper mill, Fábrica de Papel de Salto, that is still working nowadays. The mill has been modernized and it manufacturers special paper and it is one of the few paper mills in the world to manufacture paper for coining currency.

 

THE HISTORY OF PAPER IN THE WORLD

Before the creation of paper, parchment was the most used material for writing and it was made with animal skin. The ancient Egyptians were accustomed to using parchment thallus. This was an arduous and primitive task: the thallus core was cut in strips, which were placed one on top of the other, transversely, forming layers. Then, these layers had to be beaten with a heavy wooden hammer to result into an uniform width and producing a juice that impregnated into these strips gluing them together.

THE PAPER

Officially, the first papermaking activity occurred in the year 105, in China by Ts'Ai Lun, who fragmented in a water tub, barks of mulberry tress, pieces of bamboo, ramie, fishing nets, rags, and lime to help in the de-fiber process.
In this resulting pulp, he soaked a wooden mold, coated with a fine silken material - the manual form - as it became known. This mold covered with pulp was, then, removed from the water tub to drain, leaving on the surface a thin sheet that was carefully stretched out on a table to dry.
This procedure was repeated and the new sheets were placed on top of the others, separated with some material; the sheets were, then, pressed to drain more water and, later on, placed, one by one, along heated walls in order to dry. Ts'Ai Lun's idea - "The disintegration of vegetable fibers by means of fragmentation, the formation of a sheet removing the pulp from the tub in a manually way, the drainage and the final heating for drying" - remains valid up to the current days.

 

THE 7th TO THE 12th CENTURY - ARRIVAL IN EUROPE
THE PAPER ROUTE

n the 8th century (751 AD), the Arabs conquered the Chinese. Among the Chinese prisoners, the Arabs had papermaking people, who were sent to Samarkanda, the oldest city in Asia, to teach their skills. Papermaking techniques developed in a short period of time with the use of wheat flour starch for gluing the fibers onto paper and the use of linen and hemp remains - as well as other easy to find fibers - for preparing the pulp.
The "caravans", transporting silk, pushed the paper into Europe.

France establishes its first paper mill in 1338, in La Pielle. And, since Spain and Portugal, papermaking spread all over Europe.

Before Gutemberg invented the press, in 1440, books were handwritten and they became affordable to the public, demanding huge amount of paper.

In the beginning of the 17th century, the Dutch, among all the European people, were those who had achieved the most important progress in the papermaking technology. Since the Netherlands do not have the hydraulic power, the paper mills started to use wind power. Since 1670, instead of hammer mills, the Hollander Cylinder Refining Machines started to be used. Slowly, the Hollander forced its presence, complementing the hammer mills, in the preparation of the semi-pulp for obtaining the refined pulp and, later on, the Hollander that was used in Germany in the 1710's.

 

PAPERMAKING - THE OLD METHOD

The pulp made of rags was the first material to be used in papermaking. The pieces of cloth were classified, chosen, cleaned and then cut into pieces by hand; only later on the simple cutting machines came were invented. The rags, except those made of linen, were submitted to a maceration or fermentation process.

The process would take from five to thirty days, using stone recipients and softening the rags with water. For finer cloths, like linen, the system was to soak them in potash lye for several hours: for each one hundred kilograms of rags, some four kilograms of pure potash. In order to obtain good paper, one had to ferment the rags.

 

THE HAMMER MILLS

The fermented rags were treated before being de-fibered.

As this was an arduous and distressing process, the Hollander started to be used during the 17th century to decompose the rags fibers. This "refining machine" would yield, in four to five hours of work, the same amount of pulp that would consume twenty four hours of work in the old five stone hammer mill.

In the year 1774, a Swiss chemist, Scheele, discovered the bleaching effect of the chlorine, and, with this in use, it was possible not only to increase the whiteness of the papers but to use, as raw material, colored and coarser rags.

 

17th and 19th CENTURIES

n 1798, another invention - developed by the French Louis Robert, who eventually sold the patent to the brothers Fourdrinier, because he had faced financial and technical difficulties to develop it further - became a success. Together with the Hall Machinery, from Dartford (England) and with the help of an engineer, Bryan Donkin, the French brothers were able to create the Fourdrinier Paper Machine (the Flat Screen), which was the first continuous sheet ever invented.

After the Fourdrinier Machine, other types of machines were invented:

 

LANDMARK DEVELOPMENTS

In 1806 Moritz Illig starts to use resin and alum instead of animal glue.

When papermaking gained momentum, the use of raw material became a problem: the old cloths became a solution but, with the small amount of used clothes and with the steady growth of paper consumption, the sovereigns banned all exportation.
Because of that, papermakers had to change their focus towards the studies made by Jakob C. Schaeffer, whose intention was to manufacture paper from several different materials, such as: moss, urtica (nettle), pine, battens, and so forth. In six volumes, Schaeffer published "Trials and Demonstration on how to manufacture paper without rags or with little use of them".
Unfortunately, papermakers of the time repelled the essays instead of promoting them.

In 1800, searching a substitute for the rags, Mathias Koops publishes a book, which is printed on straw paper.

In 1884, Friedrich G. Keller manages to manufacture a pulp by using de-fibered wood but he still adds rags to the mixture.

Later on, it was noticed that this pulp was formed by cellulose fibers embedded with other wood substances (lignin).

Several other processes were discovered by trying to separate the cellulose and the lignin fibers:

The introduction of the new semimechanical pulp meant an important evolution in the emergence of new technological processes for papermaking. Machines running at 1,200m per minute, the use of short fibers(hardwood/eucalyptus) for obtaining the pulp, the new Vertform machine that replaced with advantages the flat screen are some of the important landmarks.

 

PAPERMAKING - THE CURRENT METHOD

Papermaking, such as it was initially made by Ts'Ai Lun, basically comprises three main stages, once the raw material is chosen from pulp, mechanical pulp or recovery of paper waste. The stages are:

Depending on the target use for the paper, there is an array of special treatments that may be applied previously, during or after its manufacturing.

So, if the paper is meant for writing, it has to bear some absorbency so that one may write on it using ink or a little rough for the use of pencil but it can not be too absorbent as blotting paper. To achieve this texture, it receives a superficial starch bath during the drying process and some pitch is added during the pulp preparation.

If the paper needs to be resistant to certain stresses, the pulp must undergo a grinding treatment that is called "Refining".

The first stage of papermaking consists of:

When preparing the pulp, there are other procedures in effect:

The second stage in papermaking is the sheet formation, which happens by means of placing the pulp fibers into a water suspension on a metallic mesh. The water drains through the mesh and the fibers form a kind of tissue, tiny fibers as a mat on top of the mesh.

The sheet formation may happen in different ways:

The third and last stage of papermaking is the drying: initially, it is necessary to press the sheet, in order to remove as much water as possible, and, then, the sheet goes through heated iron cylinders, which causes the evaporation of the water.

Once all these procedures are over, the paper will be ready for use and it can be cut in the desired shape that fits the customer.

 

REFERENCES

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