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NOW AND THEN: P&PC at 100

MILESTONES

1903 With enthusiasm for the industry, the first issue of the Pulp & Paper Magazine of Canada hit the presses. The new magazine was conceived as a “monthly magazine devoted to the interest of the Canadian pulp and paper manufacturer and trade”.

“Looking ahead to pulp and paper manufacturing as a permanent specialty of Canada, it would seem to be safer to let the world look to Canada for its needs than for Canada to be begging for trade in a chronic condition of over-production…Nature has endowed Canada, as a whole, with overwhelming advantages in two points — that is, unlimited permanent water powers, and almost unlimited raw material in spruce and other forests, while our labouring population is not behind any in the world in industry and intelligence.”

With a subscription rate of $1 per year, many of the same elements are still seen today, with articles about technological innovations, mill features and information about the industry. The first issue included:

British Paper Industry and Canadian Trade

Fibres for Paper Making

Canada and her Forest Assets

Anglo-Canadian Pulp Trade

Is the Paper Industry Overdeveloped?

Scandinavian Pulp Trade

Pulp Mills at the Sault (with folded blueprint)

Quebec Pulpwood Association

That year it was noted that “to make one ton of pulp, the raw material required is 2.2 cords of wood ($5), 500 lbs. of sulphur dioxide gas ($15 per ton), and 450 lbs. of limestone ($1.75 per ton) — that is the raw material used in making one ton of pulp costs about $15.”

George Johnson, Dominion Statistician, reporting on the wood pulp industry of Canada in 1902, stated that the industry was carried on at 35 mills, which had an output of 240,989 tons of wood pulp. Of this quantity, 15,210 tons were mechanical pulp, 76,735 sulphite, and 9,044 soda.

One of the notable milestones written about during that first year read:

“The Canada Paper Co. recently installed a machine at their Windsor Mills factory, whose capacity is thus described by a Montreal paper: The paper is 30 per cent wider than any heretofore made in this country, being 141 inches or eleven feet nine inches in width when first off the machine. The first roll made was afterwards cut into two sheets of about 70 inches each, being the first of this width ever made side by side in Canada. The machine is 200 feet long, and stands in a building 260 feet long by 50 broad. An idea of the wonderful growth of the paper-making industry in this country can be imagined by comparing the changes that have taken place since the recent general manager of the company, F.J. Campbell, entered its service twenty-two years ago. The widest sheet made at that time was little more than half the width of that turned out by this very remarkable machine.

1913 By 1913, the Pulp and Paper Magazine of Canada was describing itself as “A Semi-Monthly Magazine Devoted to the Science and Practice of the Pulp and Paper Manufacturing Industry with an Up-to-date Review of Conditions in the Allied Trades.”

The price had doubled with subscriptions in Canada to be $2.00, elsewhere $2.50. Single copies 20.

At this time, the size was expanded from approximately 6 in. by 9 in. sheets to the present-day format.

Shades of the present-day softwood lumber dispute could be seen in previous days: “The countervailing duty on wood pulp proposed by the new tariff bill was stricken out by the Senate Finance Committee today and all retaliatory duties against Canadian wood pulp were removed.”

Quebec and Ontario Paper Company opened one of the country’s first integrated pulp and paper mills at Thorold, ON. Amongst other advanced ideas it used recycled exhaust steam to heat dryers and had electrical drives for the grinders instead of water.

1914 The first Annual Meeting of the Canadian Pulp and Paper Association was held in Montreal on February 26 at the Windsor Hotel.

1915 The Technical Section of the CPPA was born and its first meeting was held in the Chemistry Building of McGill University in Montreal. The new section’s mission was “to stimulate interest in the science of pulp & papermaking in Canada to provide means for entertaining of ideas amongst its members and to encourage original investigations.”

The new Technical Section adopted its constitution in March and formalized the arrangement making Pulp and Paper Magazine of Canada its official journal of record.

1925 Miss Louise E. McGrath of Booth Chemical Company was the first woman ever to deliver a paper before members of the Technical Section. Her illustrated paper was on White Water Coagulation.

1927 Construction of the new Canadian Pulp and Paper Research Centre was completed. The cornerstone was laid for the new building at 3420 University in Montreal on October 13. The institute was dedicated by Dr. H.M. Tory , president of the Honourary Advisor Council for Scientific and Industrial Research in Canada.

1943 The face of the pulp and paper industry changed radically during the war. Women joined the ranks of workers in the steam plants and paper warehouses, replacing the men who were fighting battles at the front. The industry also pitched in by offering the mills as prisoner-of-war camps and machine shops. Eight paper companies received Certificates of Merit from the War Time Machine Shop Board for work done in the mill machine shops.

1957 The Pulp and Paper Research Institute of Canada (Paprican) moved to the Pointe Claire, QC, site.

1959 The first exposition of industrial equipment was held at the Annual Meeting of the CPPA, enticing 30 companies to show off their wares and services. Although the names have changed through mergers and acquisitions, some of the same companies are still exhibiting today.

1965 The Royal Commission on Sunday Work gave permission to the Price Brothers’ for the mill at Jonquire, QC, to run seven days a week. It was the fourth mill to be given such permission, the others being three newsprint mills at Trois-Rivires, QC.

1967 Expo ’67 in Montreal, QC, was an international exhibition of national and industrial pavilions. The Pulp and Paper Pavilion proved to be very popular, attracting 5,000 visitors a day.

1971 Pulp and Paper Magazine of Canada called on the industry to put greater effort into informing the public of its progress both in combating pollution and managing the country’s forest resources.

1974 Pulp and Paper Magazine of Canada was redesigned and renamed Pulp & Paper Canada.

1976 Bowater’s Corner Brook NF mill was the first to install cross-direction caliper profile control for newsprint. The worlds’ first total profile control was installed on PM 7 at Shawinigan, QC of Consolidated-Bathurst Inc.

1984 Consolidated-Bathurst introduced the first dynamic process simulator for training.

1998 The CPPA was reorganized and the Pulp and Paper Technical Association of Canada was born from its Technical Section. PAPTAC’s mandate has not changed.

Now Latest statistics available from the government of Canada (1999) show 61,817 employed in the industry. In 1997, the trade balance for the pulp and paper industry was 15.5 billion dollars and has been consistently positive, despite showing cyclical tendencies.

Dear Readers,

Pulp & Paper Canada is 100 years old.

As ‘the new kid on the block’, my personal introduction to the industry two years ago was, and continues to be, a never-ending series of learning opportunities about one of the core contributors to the economic foundation of Canada.

It’s easy to be awed by the legacy of a century of development and expansion of the paper industry in Canada. The solid support of PAPTAC (and its predecessor, the Technical Section of the CPPA) has created a network of the best and brightest engineers and scientists in the field working together. Collaborative research done at forward-looking organizations such as Paprican (Pulp and Paper Research Institute of Canada) has continuously taken the scope of the work forward.

From the first issue of P&PC (then known as the Pulp & Paper Magazine of Canada) until now, the challenge for this magazine has been to partici
pate, uphold and report on the improvements in the industry as much as possible.

Adding to the knowledge and experience brought forth in this magazine has been a distinguished line of editors and the teamwork that has supported them.

It is the dedication and ingenuity of all those who work in the pulp and paper industry that is interwoven with the fabric of our nation.

To all of them and to all who follow in the future, thank you and congratulations.

Anya Orzechowska,

Editor