Paper
The spread of literacy increased the needs for paper, in order to be able to print newspapers and books. A Saxon weaver master developed a method for producing fibre from timber for the making of paper in 1844. The method implied the grinding of wood in water against grindstone-like device. The result was the production of the first mechanical wood pulp. The woodpulp industry emerged. The process opened markets also for small-sized timbers. A decade later, the chemical sulphate method allowing to separate the cellulose from wood, was invented simultaneously in England and the USA. More than ten years after the invention of the sulphate method the even more effective sulphite method was developed in the USA. It also allowed separating cellulose from tree species such as spruce, that had been to date been considered less important in terms of its use. The road was now opened for developing the pulp/cellulose and paper industry. At the end of the 1800's numerous pulp and paper factories were established in Finland. They started to export their products at an increasing rate. Until that time Finland imported paper mainly from Russia, Sweden and Norway. Kirjoita tähän.