WOOD OIL. the name given in commerce to a resinous juice which exudes from various trees of eastern Asia. It has a fine aromatic odor. and is used for a great variety of pur poses; in medicine as a substitute for copaiha balsam; by sailors for paying the seams of a ship instead of tar; by painters as a varnish; also in the making of lithographic ink, etc: It is an excellent preservative of timber against the attacks of white-ants. It is strictly an oleo resin, and is also known as gurjun balsam.
wood that is reduced to a mass of pulp and mixed with water — the fundamental process in making paper from wood. There are three kinds of wood pulp ground wood, soda-process wood and sulphite process wood; the latter two are not wood in either physical or chemical properties, but cellu lose, similar to cotton fibre in appearance and nature. (See PAPE.11 ; PAPER INDUSTRY IN AMER icA). The name of wood-pulp is generally understood as designating mechanically ground pulp as distinguished from chemical pulp. or cellulose. In the manufacture of mechanical wood-pulp a block of wood is held against the surface of a rapidly revolving grindstone by hydraulic or other pressure, a stream of water pouring down upon the stone carrying away the disintegrated fibres into a stuff-chest, where they are mixed with a percentage of sulphite or other cellulose, and are then ready to go on the paper machine to be converted into paper Spruce principally, but also poplar and other soft woods are used in the manufacture of this pulp.
Ground wood was developed in Germany in 1847 by Keller and perfected and patented by Henry Voelter, who constructed a machine which is in general use to-day. Mr. Albrecht Pagenstecher, of New York, bought and con trolled the Voelter patent and introduced this industry into the United States in 1867-68, im porting two machines, which were set up in Curtisville, Mass.
The introduction of this new process marked a new era in the manufacture of paper. It fur nished a cheap and abundant raw material, sim plified the former complicated methods of pre paring stock for paper machines, and improved the quality of the paper made, besides cheapen ing the cost of production. Without wood-pulp
it would be impossible to supply the demand for paper at the present day.
Wood-pulp was first sold at eight cents per pound, but finally dropped to less than one cent per pound, and brought the price of ne-uT paper from 14 cents in 1868 down to less than two cents per pound in 1890 to 1900, making the one-cent newspaper possible.
The introduction of ground wood-pulp print ing paper into rolls completely revolutionized modern methods of journalism. The absorbent quality of this wood-pulp paper made the modern rapid printing press practicable, elimi nating the allowance for drying and limiting the printing speed only by the mechanical pos sibilities of the press, which were in no way dependent, as in the case of rag paper. upon the drying of each sheet. Such an Improvement caused immediate changes in the making and printing of the newspaper, and as soon as the results of this new process became commercially practicable, the entire system of news gather ing changed as well.
The output of wood-pulp, which in lASS was less than one ton per day from the only mil: then in existence, increased by 1900 to over 5,000 tons per day in l& mills. requiring in os manufacture nearly 2.000,000 cords of wood an nually. About this date the wood-pulp industry of Canada became important, and in 1916 there were used by Canadian mills 1,764,912 cords of the value of $13,104,458. For other statistics, set' P APE& The introduction of this new process was made under many difficulties, the greatest of %bleb was to overcome the prejudice of paper makers, who believed that rags were the only tit substance to make paper of, and considered wood-pulp as an adulteration or shoddy. At present every newspaper is composed largely of ground wood-pulp, with a small percentage of chemical fibre. Many book, wrapping and other papers also contain a large percentage of ground wood-pulp.