PAPERmaking! g FROM THE PUBLISHERS OF PAPER TECHNOLOGY Volume 6, Number 2, 2020
At various times in the eighteenth century, scientists in several countries experimented with different plant materials, including reeds, straw and nettles, but none were particularly successful until a method for pulping Esparto (Spanish Reed) was developed around the 1840s, before being perfected by Routledge in the 1850s at Eynsham Mill in Oxfordshire. In the meantime, groundwood pulp was developed in Germany during the 1840s by Keller, but i t wasn’t until the 1860s that the first chemical wood pulp was made, via the soda process (developed at Boxmoor Mill in Hertfordshire by Burgess and Watt in 1851, but commercialised properly the following decade in America). In subsequent decades the sulphite then sulphate (Kraft) processes were developed, ultimately leading to the pulp industry based upon wood that we know today. Combinations and Associations 3 So far the text has concentrated upon the major technical developments in the industry, many of them stemming from the UK. However, an equally important factor in this story is that of social conditions, caused by the Industrial Revolution that took place in the United Kingdom from about 1760 onwards. Prior to this, manufacture was performed by artisans, often in their own homes; volumes were small and articles expensive. With the development of steam power (which, incidentally, was first applied to papermaking at Wilmington Mill in Yorkshire, around 1786) it became possible to mechanise production in larger premises, and the factory was born. This in turn caused major social upheavals as families moved from rural to urban locations, and thus towns and cities swelled and working conditions deteriorated. In order to protect themselves, workers banded together in Combinations (early forms of Unions), and demanded political reform. Although these gatherings were illegal, and were often put down violently (one of the most famous instances being the Peterloo Massacre of 1819 in Manchester), nevertheless the brave workers did eventually gain the right to form unions. In the UK the earliest example was the Original Society of Papermakers (1800), followed later on by the United Brotherhood of Paper Makers (1854) and the Modern Society of Paper Makers (1869) – two unions open to machine paper operators. The Manufacturers were wary of the strength that Combinations gave their workers, so themselves banded together to present a common front. However, just as in the case for workers, it was also illegal for Manufacturers to operate in this fashion, yet they did so, albeit their efforts were not always that efficient or long-lasting. (Yet they did have the advantage of not having their meetings disrupted by violence.) Trade Bodies 4 The earliest of these Trade Bodies was the Paper Makers of Great Britain (1764). This was followed by the Master Paper Makers of England, and a possible break-away unit, the Master Paper Makers of Kent, at the turn of the nineteenth century. The Manufacturers of Paper and Pasteboard in England and Wales was formed by John Dickinson in 1831; the Paper Makers’ Association in the 1850s; and the Lancashire and Yorkshire Paper Makers’ Association in 1863. A feature of all these Associations was their short durat ion; they were generally formed for a purpose (such as to fight for reforms to Excise duty) yet they never gained much traction, membership was disparate with only a limited number of manufacturers in any one region showing support – and without exception, all failed. Until, that is, in 1872, when the Paper Makers’ Association of Great Britain & Ireland (hereafter PMA), was formed. This was the first truly national body, although note the absence of Scotland – makers there formed their own Association, which remained separate until incorporated in 1912. In turn this became the British Paper & Board Makers Association (BPBMA) in 1949, the British Paper & Board Industry Federation (BPBIF) in 1974, the Paper Federation (1994) and, most recently, the Confederation of Paper Industries (CPI) in 1999. Over the years the various Trade Associations have collated statistics, lobbied Government and provided a voice for the industry as a whole. However, it was during the aftermath of World War I that the PMA conceived the need for a Technical arm to their work. Almost certainly this is because they had seen how the industry has fared during the war – prior to WWI the UK as a whole had imported huge amounts of chemicals and special papers, primarily from Germany, and following the outbreak of hostilities this trade ceased and indigenous companies had to develop the technical expertise needed to plug gaps, especially for such specialities as photographic and tracing paper grades. Technology was seen as vital to the future prosperity and development of the Industry, and so we come to the start of the Paper Industry Technical Association (PITA) story with the inauguration of the PMA Technical Section as an adjunct of the national Trade Association – the development of which will be described in subsequent articles.
Article 16 – PITA History Parts 1-3
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