History, Winnebago County, Wisconsin: Its cities, towns, resources, people

              432 HISTOEY OF WINNEBAGO COUNTY.
pumped into "stuff chests," then over an "agitated screen'^ to the "former," a square oblong tub, in which revolved the "cylinder, "seven feet long by thirty inches diameter, half submerged in the pulp. It was covered with a wire screen over which the pulp gathers on the surface. Another roll rested on this with a wool felt between them, to which the thin layer of pidp adhered and was passed along between other rolls to squeeze out the water, then over the five steam-heated copper drier rolls, which had superseded the- charcoal heated drier. These were thirty inches diameter and fifty-four inches long, the width of the paper. There were two polishing rolls at the end of the machine. The paper was cut into squares, as all paper was in those days, and packed in bundles ready for ship¬ ment. This paper machine is known as the cylinder machine and stood on w^ooden posts. The mill made print paper from rags, which was sold at eleven and one-half (11%) cents per pound. When it was operated by Smith & Van Ostrand they advertised that they made "print, book, tea and wrapping paper," but the first real book paper was made by Mr. George A. Whiting in the Winnebago mill next door in 1878.
The old red Neenah mill made 2,500 to 3,000 pounds of paper each day, running twenty-four hours. They claimed the mill could make 3,500 pounds a day. This production seems small in the light of productions of ninety tons made in some Wis¬ consin mills today, and yet it was the wealth made in paper pro¬ duction under those conditions that gave an impetus to the business and started it in this state. The Globe mill was erected in 1872 to make one and a half tons of paper daily. As late as March 29, 1883, the following appeared in the "Menasha Press:" "Mr. Eobinson, a machine tender in a Neenah paper mill, made a wager that he could make 4,800 pounds of paper in twenty-four hours on a cylinder machine. At the expiration of the time he required but one pound more to win the wager, having run off 4,799 pounds." Another press notice shows: "The Neenah Paper Company received an order for ten tons of paper for the 'Tribune,' made the order and shipped it inside of sixty hours."    (In 1870.)
The old red Neenah mill used 1,000 tons of stock annually, employed forty persons, used 1,700 cords of wood for heating and used ninety tons of chemicals and required fifty horsepower to operate its machinery.    The machine tender was paid $2.50