USA > Pennsylvania > Erie County > Erie > Erie; a guide to the city and county > Part 8
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Most of the spruce comes from Canada, where Hammermill owns a timber tract of 128,000 acres on the St. Lawrence River. By cutting only selected trees this tract would supply the mill for twenty years; how- ever, by using modern reforestration methods the supply can be continued almost indefinitely.
At the docks in Erie harbor the logs are transferred to railway cars. Each log is carefully inspected, and the culls are thrown aside. The piles, about 14 feet high, are so arranged that a maximum of air circulation reaches each log, thus preventing decay. Logs are seasoned for a year in the yards before being used. The yards hold about 100,000 cords. The logs are then conveyed to the barker, the first operation in paper making.
The barker consists of a long trough with a steel bottom. Steel cams, revolving through slots in the bottom alternately raise and lower the logs in the trough. The rising and falling motion causes the logs to revolve against one another, thus rubbing off the water softened bark. The bark, washed away, is removed through the bottom of the barker. The barked
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logs are inspected, and those imperfectly barked are reprocessed. The barked logs are washed and all knots and other imperfections are care- fully removed in the wood room.
The prepared logs are fed against a steel disc four feet in diameter to which are affixed four steel knives. The disc, rotating at 300 revolutions a minute, reduces the largest logs to chips within a few seconds. The chips are conveyed to a series of screens and sorted according to size. Those too large are crushed to proper size, and sawdust and small chips are burned as refuse. The correct size in inches is about one-eighth thick, five-eighths long, and three-fourths wide. It is important they be uniform so that they will all cook into pulp at the same time; that is, that some will not be over cooked and some under cooked.
The acid-making plant is a factory in itself. Sulphur is burned and the resulting gas, sulphur dioxide, after being cooled, is blown into the bottom of a concrete tower, 68 feet high, filled with limestone which absorbs the rising gas and forms sulphurous acid, which dissolves the limestone, forming calcium bi-sulphite, or "cooking liquor." More than 250,000 gallons of acid are made daily at Hammermill, requiring about 20 tons of sulphur and from 27 to 28 tons of limestone.
Acid-resisting brick-lined steel tanks, 50 feet high, called "digesters," are filled with the chips. These great kettles hold more than 30 cords of wood, in chips. The cooking liquor is injected, and live steam allowed to circulate in the digester. Chips are "cooked" under varying tempera- tures and pressures for 14 hours.
At the expiration of the cooking, the ligneous and resinous parts of the wood have been dissolved, leaving pure cellulose fibres. The contents of the digester are then forced by steam into "blow tanks," which have slanting tile floors with holes drilled at such an angle that fibres cannot pass through them. For several hours the pulp is washed with pure water until free from excess acid and dissolved impurities.
From the time pulp leaves the digesters until it reaches the bleachers, it passes through a number of cleaning processes. The first is a series of rotary screens or "knot strainers" into which the pulp is pumped. The screen meshes allow the fibres of pulp to pass through readily, but are too small for particles of uncooked wood and knots which are removed at the opposite end.
The pulp is then allowed to flow over the rifflers. The flow of pulp and water causes a circular current under the baffles. The dirt and other impurities fall to the bottom, and are washed under the baffles where they settle.
The screens, 75 feet long, are made of heavy bronze plates perforated with slots two or three inches long and seven one-thousandths of an inch
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wide. A rubber diaphragm, moving up and down, causes a partial vacuum or suction under a screen, and draws the cellulose fibres through the fine slots. Heavy dirt and other impurities cannot pass, but work their way to the opposite end of the screens and are removed.
So much water is added during these purification steps that the pulp is next run through a series of pulp thickeners to be partially dried. These thickeners are finely meshed rotary screens, slightly conical in shape.
The pulp is mixed with bleaching liquor (a solution of hypochlorite) in large glazed tile-lined tanks holding about 15,000 pounds of pulp each. It is thoroughly mixed, and kept in circulation for six hours, at a tempera- ture of 100°F. The fibres have then been bleached from a natural light brown wood color to pure white. The bleach liquor is then washed away, and the pulp is ready to be beaten, the first operation in the paper mill.
Old paper makers say, "Good paper is made in the beaters." Paper made from pulp as it comes from the pulp mill would be coarse and flimsy. It is in the beater room that pulp is given special characteristics fitting it for different grades of paper. The beater is a tub partly divided by a partition called a "mid-feather." The beater roll, four feet in diameter, revolves beside the mid-feather and the side of the beater. Regularly spaced around the roll are bronze bars. A "bed plate" of similar bars is placed under the roll on the floor of the beater. As the roll revolves the pulp circulates around the beater, and the fibres repeatedly pass between the roll and the bed plate. This reduces the fibres in size, and frays their ends, causing them to lock together more strongly in a sheet of paper.
A device for raising and lowering the beater roll enables the beater en- gineer to regulate the intensity of the beating. This device enables him to give stock characteristics essential to any particular grade of paper desired. The floor of the beater is raised just behind the roll and is called the "back-fall." The slope thus given the floor of the beater aids in the circulation of pulp and its return to the beater roll.
Besides beating the stock, which process lasts several hours, the beater is a mixing tub where other necessary ingredients are added to pulp. It is here the paper is colored the shade desired. The fibres are also sized so that the finished paper will not absorb ink like blotting paper. Each fibre is a tiny tube, and will absorb moisture by capillary attraction. "Size milk" (an emulsion of rosin soap) is added to the pulp, and, when thoroughly mixed, a solution of alum is added, curdling the milk and causing fine particles of free rosin to deposit themselves on the fibres, sealing them.
After the beating process the pulp passes through a continuously acting machine called a Jordan refining engine. The action of the Jordan is similar to that of the beater, its continuous action insuring uniform pulp. The pulp is then stored in a "stock chest," ready for the paper machine.
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A modern Fourdrinier paper machine is more than 200 feet long and it converts stock to paper at a rate of 450 feet a minute. Hammermill has five of these machines.
The stock is first mixed with a large quantity of water, and is then run over a series of rifflers and screens to remove foreign particles that may have mingled with it in the beaters. The pulp and water are retained in the "head-box" for a moment, to break any current and to insure a thorough, even mixture. From the head-box the stock flows through a long, narrow, open gate, called a nozzle, onto the Fourdrinier wire.
The Fourdrinier wire is an endless bronze screen, 65 feet long (32 feet double), of fine mesh (70 wires to an inch), the speed of which is so adjusted that the diluted stock gently flows over it as the wire travels under the nozzle. The water flows through the meshes of wire, depositing fibres on top. At the same time the fibres are thoroughly woven together by a shaking motion of the wire.
More water is removed by suction, and the fibres are gently pressed together by a fine wire roll called a "dandy roll." The paper is then about 20 percent dry (contains 80 percent water). It is next pressed between heavy granite rolls, called "press rolls," pressing out more water.
Deckle straps are heavy rubber strips traveling along with the edge of the wire and preventing the stock from overflowing. The weight of paper on the machine can be varied in one of two ways. It can be made heavier or lighter by making the machine run slower or faster, thus allowing more or less stock to flow onto the Fourdrinier wire. Again, the weight can be controlled by the amount of stock mixed with water as it flows from the nozzle. A greater amount of stock to a certain volume of water will make heavier paper, and vice versa.
The Hammermill watermark, invented by E. R. Behrend, president of Hammermill Paper Company, does not noticeably indent the surface of the paper thus keeping its printing quality unimpaired. It is applied by lettered rolls which press into the soft, wet fibres. After passing under the press rolls the paper is run over a series of steam-heated dryer rolls. Cotton dryer felts or blankets carry the paper and hold it against the rolls which dry the sheet and iron it. After dryer rolls, the paper goes to the calendars, chilled cast iron rolls which give the paper a smooth writing surface. For a very smooth or high finish the paper is run between all the rolls, and is sometimes calendared again on separate machines. Duller finish "bond" paper runs through fewer of the rolls. The rolls of paper are rewound onto smaller cores for handling, and the rough "deckle" edges are trimmed. A roll of paper weighs about 2,500 pounds and is completed in 40 minutes.
46. The LAKESIDE CEMETERY (open weekdays 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.),
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1718 E. Lake Rd. (State 5), borders on Lake Erie. The cemetery covers a 45-acre tract planted with trees, shrubbery, and hedges. Burial plots receive perpetual care. Capt. Charles Vernon Gridley, commander of Admiral Dewey's flagship, Olympia, is buried in a plot called Gridley Circle, near the northern edge of the cemetery. It is marked by four antique bronze cannon, taken at Cavite when the Spanish surrendered. His son, John P. V. Gridley, who was killed by an explosion on the U.S.S. Missouri, is also buried there.
47. The GENERAL ELECTRIC CO. PLANT, E. Lake Rd., between Franklin Ave. and Lawrence Parkway, is a large group of red brick in- dustrial buildings occupying more than 800 acres. General Electric is the largest employer of labor in the Erie district with 6,300 on the payroll in 1938. The plant manufactures electric locomotives, motors, airbrake equipment, and refrigerators (see INDUSTRY AND COMMERCE). Retrace E. 6th St .; L. from E. 6th St. on East Ave .; R. from East Ave. on E. 10th St.
48. The PENNSYLVANIA TELEPHONE BUILDING, 20 E. 10th St., is a modern, modified Greek Classic structure of simple bold propor- tions. It houses an operating unit of the General Telephone Corporation of New York, which owns and operates the telephone systems in Corry, Union City, North East, Girard, and Edinboro. The Mutual Telephone Company, chartered in 1897, took over the Erie Telephone Co., and the New York-Pennsylvania Telephone and Telegraph Co., absorbed the local subscribers of the Bell Telephone Co. in 1926. The Mutual Telephone Co. became the Pennsylvania Telephone Corporation in 1930. The Bell Tele- phone Co. in Erie, however furnishes service for all long distance calls. L. from E. 10th St. on French St .; from French St. on E. 12th St.
49. The TWELFTH STREET MARKET, SW cor. E. 12th and French Sts., housed in a 2-story gray brick building extending to 13th St., is one of Erie's most popular market places. From 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. a steady stream of customers pass through the aisles to select vegetables, groceries, and meats. On Saturdays the regular clientele is enlarged by throngs of shoppers from outlying communities. Stalls are rented in most instances by farmers who market home-grown produce directly to the consumer. A State liquor store occupies the N.W. corner of the building.
50. The ERIE COUNTY ELECTRIC CO. OFFICE, NW cor. E. 12th and French Sts., is a 2-story red brick building. The company was chartered in 1898 as a subsidiary of the United Gas Improvement Com- pany, of Philadelphia. It later absorbed the Edison Electric Light and Power Company, which Charles H. Strong, an early associate of Thomas A. Edison, had established in 1886. Strong was president of both com- panies until his death in 1936. The company supplies light and power to
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the townships of Greenfield, Greene, Venango, West Millcreek, and the borough of Wattsburg.
51. The ERIE DISPATCH-HERALD BUILDING, 20 E. 12th St., occupying an "L" of the Erie County Electric Bldg., is the home of one of Erie's two daily newspapers, and the only Sunday newspaper published in the city. It has a daily circulation of 40,000, and a Sunday circulation of 30,000. Its history involves a series of mergers dating from the found- ing of the Gazette by Joseph M. Sterrett, on January 15, 1820. The Dispatch, founded in Waterford by James S. Young in 1851, had an im- portant part in the Railroad War, or "Peanut War," of 1854. In 1856 the paper was moved to Erie, where it was operated as a weekly until 1861, when it became a daily. Not long afterward it was discontinued; then, after three years, it reappeared. From 1864 to 1878 it was virtually the only English daily in Erie. In 1890 the Dispatch purchased the Sunday Morning Gazette, a publication that was started on March 20, 1875, as the Saturday Evening Gazette, an outgrowth of the older Erie Gazette. The Sunday edition was discontinued in 1894, but the paper was continued as the Dispatch Gazette. It was purchased in 1902 by Charles H. Strong, Erie capitalist.
The Erie Herald appeared as an evening paper on July 20, 1876, with James R. Burns and H. C. Missimer, Erie high school teachers, as publishers. A few months later the paper was purchased by William L. Scott, who added a weekly edition. The Lake City Daily, a small paper started in 1878, was merged with the Herald in 1879. At Scott's death in 1891, his daughter, the late Mrs. Anna Wainwright Scott Strong, became owner. In 1922 Mrs. Strong's husband, owner of the Dispatch, bought her interest in the Herald and merged it with his paper, forming the present Erie Dispatch-Herald. The paper is a member of the Associated Press, and is conservative in editorial policy.
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lagoon, Presque Isle Peninsula
Mallard ducks in Fox Pond, Presque Isle Peninsula
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Presque Isle Lighthouse
The Old Land Lighthouse
OTHER POINTS OF INTEREST
52. The CENTRAL MARKET HOUSE, State St. between 15th and 16th Sts. is a long, rambling, one-story building of concrete and corrugated sheet iron. Stalls are rented to farmers who bring their produce here and sell it directly to the public. Sidewalk space is at a premium during the summer months, when green groceries are displayed and sold there.
53. MERCYHURST COLLEGE, 501 E. 38th St., conducted by the Sisters of Mercy, is an outgrowth of St. Joseph's Academy, founded in Titusville in 1871. The college, built of variegated salmon-colored brick and trimmed in limestone, occupies the highest elevation in Glenwood Hills, and commands a splendid view of Erie City, Presque Isle Bay, the Peninsula, and Lake Erie; on clear days the Canadian shore, 30 miles dis- tant, is clearly visible. The buildings occupy the center of a 75-acre tract of meadow and woodland. The principal building is a large brown tapes- try brick structure with cut cast-stone trim. It is of Collegiate Gothic design. The high blue slate roof is pierced with tall dormer windows and lofty chimneys.
The curriculum covers three four-year courses of study leading to degrees in arts, home economics, and commerce. In the 1937-38 term, 212 women students were enrolled.
54. ACADEMY HIGH SCHOOL AND STADIUM extends from E. 26th St. to E. 29th St., and from French St. to State St. The building, of bold Tudor design, is of red brick, trimmed with sandstone, and was erected in 1920. It is a public senior high school with educational facili- ties for 2200 students, and a faculty of 81. The school was a pioneer in the school band and orchestra movement of Erie; and it is also the home of an a cappella choir. The stadium adjoining the school to the north is Erie's largest outdoor arena. It is used for athletic activities of the city's schools and is equipped with electric flood lights for night sports. It has a seating capacity of 15,000. The grounds belong to the Board of Education, but the stadium was built with funds raised by subscription.
55. ERIE BREWING COMPANY, 2131 State St., a 4-story red brick building, is partially housed in a plant built by the Eagle Brewing Com-
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pany in 1846. Ghosts of an older era of beer-making linger about the old cellars-long and narrow with ceilings low and arched, the brick walls glistening with moisture. The office, repair shop, and bottling works are on the east side of State St. Great wooden vats, a huge copper kettle with a 420-barrel capacity; a cooperage room, where barrels are repaired; a boiler room; and a power house are on the west side of State St. The two buildings are connected by a brick-lined tunnel which runs under the street. The great kettle was first used on February 22, 1896. After each batch of mash is brewed, the kettle is washed and sterilized. As empty bottles are returned to the brewery, they are placed on a conveyor which carries them to a machine that steams and sterilizes them. They are then placed in cleaned boxes and sent on another conveyor to a machine that fills and caps the bottles. Again on a conveyor they pass the critical eye of an inspector who searches for any defects in contents, bottle, or cap. The last step before they are packed in crates to await shipment is pas- teurization, during which the bottled beer is put through a heat test. The method for handling barreled beer is slightly different; returned empty barrels are cleaned and tested for leaks and are then placed under the machine that fills them. A nozzle is then fitted over the bunghole, and the beer is pumped into them. When the nozzle is removed the bung- hole is plugged with a wooden seal.
The WAYNE BREWING CO., E. 17th and Parade Sts., is the other large Erie brewery, the two comprising one of the leading industries of the city.
56. The UNITED STATES POST OFFICE, Griswold Plaza be- tween W. 13th and W. 14th Sts., is a light brick structure of Italian Ren- aissance inspiration, with an arched colonnade of 12 light marble columns on the main facade. It was built in 1932. A subway for the transfer of mail runs under 14th St. to the Union Station.
57. The UNION STATION, Peach St. between W. 14th and W. 15th Sts., was built in 1927 of rough brown firebrick and sandstone. It is modern in design, harmonizing in scale with the Post Office across the Plaza. Waiting, baggage rooms, and ticket offices are on the first floor, railroad offices and business firms occupy the second floor. The station is used by trains of the New York Central and Pennsylvania R. R.
58. HARRY KELLAR'S BIRTHPLACE, SE cor. Sassafras and W. 16th Sts., a 2-story unpainted frame house, was moved to its present lo- cation in 1890. At the time of Kellar's birth in 1849, the house was on W. 12th St. Kellar, an internationally famous magician, died in 1922.
59. ST. VINCENT'S HOSPITAL, 2420 Sassafras St., a closeknit group of 6-story red brick and limestone buildings, was founded in 1874 by the order of the Sisters of St. Joseph. The older part of the building was erected
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OTHER POINTS OF INTEREST
at that time. The hospital was incorporated on December 10, 1894, as the St. Vincent's Hospital Association, which now consists of 60 members. These members elect annually a board of 7 trustees. Additions to the original structure have increased its capacity to 226 beds.
61. GLENWOOD PARK, Glenwood Park Rd., is a city-owned Park with a ZOO, picnic grounds, and recreational facilities. The zoo houses an East Indian elephant, monkeys, birds, and many animals of tropical origin. Enclosures on the hill back of the building contain bear, deer, bison, owls, and small game native to the county. Along Mill Creek, which traverses the park, are picnic and camping grounds (free), and a small open air auditorium. A baseball field and a 9-hole golf course (25c a round: 50c all day ) are among the park's recreational facilities.
62. ERIE CEMETERY (open daily from 7:30 a. m. to sundown), main entrance at 2116 Chestnut St. The cemetery association was formed on January 29, 1850 and the grounds were opened the following May. The grounds, sloping gently towards the south, are cut into square sec- tions by cement roads and walks. Some of the large elm and maple trees are a remnant of the original forest that covered the tract. In the NE section, near Chestnut St., is a sunken flower garden containing thousands of tulips.
64. ERIE LIGHTING COMPANY OFFICE, 21 W. 10th St., is a 3-story gray brick building trimmed with granite. The company was chartered in 1893 as the Merchants' and Manufacturers' Light, Heat and Power Company. The present name was acquired in 1911. It is a sub- sidiary of the Pennsylvania Electric Company and serves the boroughs of North East, Mill Village, and Wesleyville, and the townships of Lawrence Park, Harborcreek, and Millcreek.
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CONTEMPORARY ERIE COUNTY
Topographically, Erie County consists of a series of ridges following a course parallel with the shores of Lake Erie. Beginning at the New York State line on the east, the hills rise 1,000 feet above the lake level and 1,500 feet above sea level. As the ranges extend westward they gradually decrease in altitude and the valleys become wider and smoother until, in the western half of the county, they flatten into gently rolling tablelands.
With the exception of Lake Erie there are but three lakes in the county, and they are small. Lake LeBoeuf, a mile east of Waterford, is the largest, and is widely known because of its historical associations as part of the route of early transportation down LeBoeuf Creek to the Allegheny River. The lake is about a mile in length and a half mile in width.
Conneautee Lake in Washington Township at Edinboro is about the same size as Lake LeBoeuf, but owes its area to a dam constructed at the point where Conneautee Creek pours from the south side of the lake to meander southward to join French Creek in Crawford County. Lake Pleasant, the smallest of the three, is in the extreme southwest corner of Venango Township.
The ranges of hills running through the county act as a divide for Erie County streams, those south of the divide emptying into French Creek. The most important of these streams are the Cussewago, Conneautee, and LeBoeuf Creeks. Creeks emptying into Lake Erie are: Crooked Creek, Elk Creek, Walnut Creek, Trout Run, Mill Creek, Four Mile, Six Mile, Twelve Mile, and Sixteen Mile Creeks. Conneaut Creek runs across the southwest corner of Erie County to enter Ohio State and flow into Lake Erie at Conneaut, Ohio.
The soil of Erie County is varied. Along Lake Erie, stretching back from the bluff overlooking the shoreline, is a fertile plain composed of an alluvial sandy loam. This plain sinks to a swampy terrain, the whole floored by a stratum of rocky shale or a clay hardpan. There are gravel beds at places
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in the foothills ascending from the lake plain. On the hills the soil is a heavy clay, hard to till, but made productive by constant working and the use of fertilizer. The wider valleys of the southern part are of deep, rich soil and are Erie County's most highly prized agricultural lands.
Most common trees of the area are beech, maple, birch, ironwood, hem- lock, elm, ash, and oak, growing usually in woodlots without being segre- gated as to species. The ash, elm, and birch are found along streams and swamp lands. The others are found on plains and hillsides alike.
Other trees once plentiful but now few and scattered are: basswood, cucumber, whitewood, cherry, tupelo, hickory, walnut, butternut, hazel, and two species of poplar. Locust trees are grown by farmers because of their adaptability for fence posts. The chestnut, once plentiful but stricken by blight, is again increasing in number.
Among the shrubbery common to the region is dogwood, pawpaw, alder, wild plum, water beech, service berry, sumac, and several other varieties of swamp vegetation. Blackberries, wild raspberries, wild straw- berries, dewberries, and a variety of blueberry, grow profusely in every fence corner, along every railroad track, and along highways and byways. Hundreds of varieties of wild flowers are scattered over the entire region, the most common being violets, anemones, trilliums, may apples, adder tongues, bluebells, hepatica, solomon's seal, and jack-in-the-pulpit.
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