"The establishment of a paper factory in New South Wales must be a subject of general interest to the colony, whilst in the newspaper Press it promises to be one of very great importance, seeing the large outlay to which the proprietors of such newspapers as have a considerable circulation, are driven in order to keep up a supply of the of the imported broadsheets, without which their news cannot be given to the public. The matter also comes nearer to the people of the colony than would at first sight be imagined, sine the main expenditure of a newspaper is the paper on which the news is printed, and by reducing the cost of this to the journalist, the morning luxury can be supplied to its constituents at a proportionately cheaper rate.

The Collingwood paper mills are the first factory of the kind that has been established in the Australias, for though paper mills are in the course of construction in Melbourne, they will not be in working order for the next three or four months, whilst those of Collingwood, have been erected for some time past, and have been actually at work during the last three weeks.

The mills are situated at Liverpool, of the eastern side of the railway line, and about two hundred yards beyond the Liverpool station. A line of rails connect with the main Southern railway line, runs up to the buildings, greatly facilitating the conveyance of the raw material to the mills, and of the manufactured article from them to Sydney. Branch lines in every direction where transit of heavy material is required, run into this offshoot from the Government line.

The buildings are all close together and may be said to be under the one roof. They were planned and erected under the direction of the company specially for paper works, and for the reception of the splendid plant of machinery that had been ordered from England. They offer a very neat appearance on approaching the premises, being constructed of light grey bricks, which have not yet become discoloured by age and exposure to the weather. The engine stack or chimney, from its elegant proportions, is considered to be one of the handsomest pieces of building of the kind in the colony. The whole are situated about midway between the river bed and the Great Southern line, and about a hundred yards from each.

The boiler-house and the engine-house are situated at the eastern end of the buildings, two shafts passing from the latter into the main building, and performing all the heavier part of the work. On the ground floor of the main building are the rag store, the machine room, the finishing-room, and the bleaching-room; on the upper floor are the rag-cutting room, and the pulping engine-room. These, with an office at the north-west corner of the main building, are its chief division, and will be described more particularly as we progress with the process of paper-making. There is a second engine-house between the river and the above buildings, enclosing the pumping engine and gear; and there is also a large building in course of construction near the rag store, intended for a rag-cutting room.

Following the process by which the dirty pieces of rag, which the scarcely more clean urchin gathers in the streets, is converted into white and delicate paper, we must of necessity commence with the unclean article - and this takes us to the rag store. This is 130 feet long and 30 feet wide, and contains about 200 tons of the raw material from which paper is made. The material is of very many various kinds. Rags are not by any means the main article of consumption in the paper mills. Old ropes of all kinds - English, Manila, Coir, and of every variety, from half-inch rattlin to heavy cables and shrouds - are made serviceable, being first picked up by a machine into suitable sizes. Old canvas is much prized, and amongst the paper company's collection of the materials were remnants of old sails, and tents and no small amount of condemned theatrical scenery. Bagging of every kind, wool and jute, New Zealand flax, Manila sugar bags, maize husks and stalks, and long spear shaped leaves of the native lily, are all worked upon by the insatiate knives of the pulping machine. Many other fibrous materials have been experiments upon, and have been found to answer admirably, but in too many instances the difficulty of collecting them in any quantity has been a bar to their general use. This is the case with the leaves and stalks of the banana, which have been proved to furnish one of the best materials for paper making.. With regard to the articles enumerated, the company have numerous agents in this colony and in Queensland engaged in the collection of them, and from the experience they have hitherto had, there would seem to be little fear of any falling off in the supply of material, great as the consumption will be once the mills got fairly and steadily at work.

With regard to the rope, that is cut up into suitable lengths by a machine fixed in the rag store, and capable of cutting 30 cwt. of rope per diem. The rags are sent up into the rag cutting room, where they are handed over to women to cut into suitable sizes. From forty to fifty women and girls are employed at this work, which is performed by means of a stout blade, some fifteen inches, fixed into a table placed before the lath cutter. One half of this table is solid, the other half being fitted with a wire screen, through which the dirt and dust disengaged by the cutting are partially cleared off. After they are thus cut up, the rags are passed to two overlookers, who receive them on tables fitted with screens, and who carefully look them over to remove buttons, hooks or eyes, seams, or other hard substances which may be in them.

The rags are now ready for the willow, which is a machine fitted with fine wire screens, something after the principle of a silk flour dressing machine. In this they are knocked and beaten about further to remove dirt and other impurities, which pass through the screens, the object being to cleanse, and not to tear. When taken from the willow, the rags have a much more cleanly appearance than they have hitherto borne. The harshness is gone from them, and though discoloured they feel soft to the hand. They have now to undergo a further ordeal. From the willow they are transferred to the rag boilers. These consist of four boilers each ten feet in diameter, and capable of holding 25 cwt. of cut rags. Here, by means of steam-pipes passing into the boilers, the rags are boiled in a solution of caustic soda, and are subjected to a pressure of about 7 lb. of steam, by which they are freed from grease and impurities as well as from all woollen matter. These boilers are of a peculiar construction, opening with a door at the side, as well as with a lid or cover as in ordinary. Both the door and the cover fit down upon yarn gaskets, causing an hermetic enclosure when wedged tight up, and keeping in the steam by which the dressing process is performed. The steam jet being shut off, the moisture is allowed to drain away. After this they are rinsed well in cold clear water, still in the boilers, and on this being drained away the rags are taken out by the door, in hard and almost solid cakes, and are thrown into trucks to be conveyed to the pulping engine-room on the same floor.

Up to this time they still retain the form of rags, and though somewhat caked together, they are still divisible into their original morsels. They have now to undergo a different process, that is to convert them into another and totally distinct form. They are thrown into the breaking engines. These are a kind of vat, partially filled with water, and being fitted on one side with a roller weighing something over 25 cwts., and 2 feet 4 inches in diameter. This roller is armed with knives set about an inch set about and inch and a half apart along its outer face, and worked at a speed of 150 revolutions per minute, against a bed or bottom also armed with knives set in the same way, and at the same distance. Bands connected with the engine shaft set these rollers in motion, and the rotation giving a circular current to the water, brings the rags under the knives, when they are drawn in between the roller and the bed, and after a certain amount of this tearing treatment are converted from rags into a battery kind of mass technically called "half-stuff." It should be mentioned that in addition to the roller, each vat is supplied with a drum of very fine wire gauze, rotating on the opposite side of the roller. A fan working inside this drum draws up the dirty water from the vat, through the wire, discharging it at one end, where it falls into a funnel and is carried away. At the same time the supply of water to the vat is kept up by a supply pipe, worked with a screw valve, by means of which the quantity can be regulated as required.

The rag has now become "half-stuff," bearing no resemblance whatever to its former appearance, and, being sufficiently reduced, a valve at the bottom of the breaking engine is opened, and the stuff is run out, through galvanized iron pipes, into the poaching engines or vats. These are four in number, and in them the bleaching mixtures of chloride of lime and sulphuric acid is added to the stuff. It is not allowed to lie long in these, for in twenty minutes or half-an-hour, according to the quality the rags have been, after receiving the bleaching mixture, a valve in the poaching vat is opened, and the stuff is transferred to the settling chests. These are twelve stone cisterns, eight feet square and five feet deep, constructed of large square slabs of stone, sawn in, and imported from England, specially for the purpose. Here the stuff is subjected to certain treatment, and is allowed to lie from twelve to twenty-four hours, according to quality. At the end of this time the bleaching liquid is allowed to run off, and the "stuff" is put into an hydraulic press: all the moisture is pressed out of it, and it is returned to the pulping room, in the almost solid cakes into which it has been squeezed. It is sent up in trucks, by means of an hydraulic lift, the machinery of which is set in motion by the large engine of the establishment.

It is now back again in the room from which it has so recently descended, and it is at once transferred to the beating engines. There are six of these, each capable of holding two cwt. of the prepared pulp. These are upon precisely the same principle as the breaking engines, the only difference being that the knives on the roller and bed-plate are set closer together in the beating than in the breaking engine, being only half an inch apart. They are also filled in the same manner, with drums and supply pipes. It may also be remarked here that although the term knife is used, the implements fitted upon the roller and bed are not intended to cut, but to crush up or macerate the material passing between them.

Here, after being subjected to the constant action of the rollers of the beating engines for from two to three hours, the pulp becomes what is technically known as "stuff." In the course of this last beating the stuff, when at a proper stage receive the regulated amount of size - a composition of soda and resin - which gives to paper its gloss and crispness. Being now ready for use a valve in the bottom of the machine is opened, and the pulp flows through a galvanized iron pipe into the stuff chests of the paper machine room. There are two of these stuff chests, each capable of containing 6 cwt. of pulp, or as much as three beating engines, so that these two chests empty the whole of the beating engines, and when the works are in full swing these two chests are emptied in about five hours.

The pulp is passed from these cases down a shoot into a machine termed a "knotter." In this, strings, knots, or hard pieces that may have been left in the pulp are taken out by means of a series of brass plates, fluted over their whole surface with very fine grooves, so fine that sixty-four of them go to the inch wide. Out of this the pulp flows by an opening graduated to supply a quantity proportionate to the kind of paper to be made. Meeting a regulated stream of water, with which it mixes, it runs down a gently inclined plane, over which it is evenly distributed on to the paper machine, being received at the end of the plane, upon an endless wire cloth 84 inches wide and with very fine meshes, being sixty to the inch. As it passes along, it is shaken ceaselessly from side to side by the oscillating motion given to this portion of the machine, and is thus very evenly distributed over the web, the water draining off gradually through the meshes of the wire into a trough below, whence it is conveyed into a well, from which it is pumped up into the cistern, to again flow over the web with a fresh supply of pulp.

Having, from the draining off of the water, received some degree of consistency, the pulp is passed under the dandy roll, where it receives an impression, stamp, or water mark; and then, still carried on upon the wire cloth, it is taken under the couching rolls, where the water is partially squeezed out of it. These rollers are covered with a thick coating of felt; the gentle and even pressure gives still greater tenacity and consistency to the partially transformed pulp; and it is now able to bear its own weight over a distance of about four inches; where it is received on to an endless felt. This felt carries it through the first press rolls, which squeeze out a further portion of the water still mixed with the pulp, and give a face to one side of the paper. It then goes down on this felt ; and is taken by a second felt through the second press roll, where it gets another squeeze, and where a face is put upon the obverse side of the paper.

On leaving these last rolls that paper has received such consistency that it goes, self- supporting, a distance of six feet on to the drying cylinders. The first portion of these consist of seven cylinders 3 feet 6 inches in diameter, 84 inches in length, and heated by a jet of steam passing into their interior. By passing through this series of seven cylinders the paper gets partially dry, and is next carried through the glazing rollers, where the gloss or glaze is given to it. It is now carried through a series of five more drying cylinders, from which it comes out thoroughly dried and perfect paper. Yet even now it has to pass through the calendar rolls, which consist of five small iron rollers 6 inches in diameter, and one larger one 16 inches in diameter. Passing round every one of these it gets thoroughly smoothed and finished, and is reeled off upon iron reels, in long sheets of from 100 lbs. to 120 lbs. weight each sheet. As these reels are filled they are taken off and put into the cutting machine, where, by means of circular knives fitted on to a revolving bar, the sheet on the reel is cut longitudinally, a second knife running across the width of the paper takes it off into the sized sheets, royal, imperial, &c., known to the trade.

This machinery is worked by a separate engine, erected in the machine-room. It is of 12-horse power, on the horizontal principle, and supplied with steam from the main boilers. The pulp, from the time it is taken on to the wire web, travels along the machine at the rate of 60 feet a minute; so that the pulp is converted into dried, calendered, and finished paper, in about two minutes after leaving the knotter. The room in which the machinery is worked is lofty and spacious, being 130 feet long and 40 feet wide.

The paper having been cut into regular sized sheets, is taken into the finishing-room, where it is overlooked by women having charge of this branch, who sort the sheets and remove all that may be damaged. This room immediately adjoins and communicates with the machine-room, and is 130 feet long by 35 feet wide, being fitted at one end with three tables 60 feet long and 4 feet wide, on which the sheets are sorted. After being sorted the sheets are taken away by men, who pack them into reams, and by hydraulic pressure press them into the usual marketable compass.

Having followed the rag through all its stages until we have seen it in the form of paper pressed and packed ready for market, let us now turn to the engine-house whence the motive power is supplied for all the heavy work of the establishment. Here there are two main engines, the principal work of which is to drive the pulping machinery. They are of 50-horse power each, with cylinders 24 inches in diameter, and with 4 feet 6 inches in stroke of piston. The main shaft is worked by the alternate stroke of piston of each engine; and this shaft, with the fly wheel and driving wheel, weigh together upwards of 11 tons. The two main driving shafts, which work the pulping machinery, lift, pump, &c., are each 60 feet in length and 6 inches in diameter, passing along nearly the whole width of the building.

There are three large boilers for supplying the large amount of steam power required for these extensive and heavy works, though two only are kept at work, as they furnish as much steam as is necessary. They are each 28 feet long and 7 feet in diameter, having been imported in pieces and put together in the colony. They are double furnaced, and on the Lancashire principle; that is, the flue from each furnace after passing through the boiler returns under it to the front, and then turning again goes along the side into the chimney shaft. This shaft is 100 feet high, is 76 feet diameter at the base, with a 6 feet opening, tapering off to 4 feet 6 inches at the top, and as we have already said, is considered by competent judges to be one of the finest and best- proportioned stacks in the colony. It was designed by Mr. Sadlier, their clerk of works to the company. As the machinery is kept going night and day, from midnight on Sunday to midnight on Saturday, the boilers are constantly at work, the pressure of steam being kept up regularly at 50 lbs. to the square inch. They consume 70 tons of coal per week.

The establishment and machinery of every description is supplied with water from the river, from which it is raised by a pumping engine of 25 horse power, contained in an engine house detached from the main buildings and nearer to the river. It is an horizontal engine, the piston rod of the engine working that of the pump also by direct action. The pump is 16 inches in diameter, with a stroke of 3 feet 6 inches on the double-acting principle, and capable of lifting 50,000 gallons an hour. The water is raised from the river and lifted into a tank 55 feet above the center of the pump. This pump is on the top of the engine-room of the main building, is 36 feet long, 25 feet wide, and 5 feet deep, and contains 28,000 gallons, supplying the large consumption of the building by gravitation.

It has already been stated that from forty to fifty women and girls are employed in rag- cutting; but this number will be more than doubled when the new rag-cutting room is completed. More would be employed at the present time only that there is not room to set them at work. They earn from 10s. to 18s. per week, according to their deftness at the work, being paid at the rate from 2s. to 3s. per cwt., according to the quality of the material to be cut up.

There are also sixty men and twelve boys employed in various ways about the works, these being divided into day and night shifts, the work being carried on continuously day and night, and ceasing only on Sunday. The men earn from 30s. to 60s. per week, according to the nature of their work and their proficiency at it. The boys are paid 10s. per week. Some difficulty was experienced at starting, by reason of the men being altogether unacquainted with the work they had to perform; but they are now getting more into the way of it, and before very long they promise to be quite efficient at it. , Of course, there are some of the men engaged about the more delicate portions of the work, and in overseeing the various processes, who are well up to the duties they have to perform.

The company's manager at the establishment is Mr. Parkinson, formerly in the employ of Messrs. P. N. Russell and Co., of Sydney. Under his superintendence and direction the whole of the extensive and complicated machinery of this valuable plant has been erected and put in working order. The way in which it is now working reflects no small amount of credit on his care and engineering skill. To the courtesy and attention of Mr. Parkinson, as well as to the large amount of valuable information given by him, nearly the whole of the subject matter of this article is attributable."

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