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dreds of thousands of dollars
doing it.
Perhaps if Harry Straus had
been a Ph.D. in chemistry, too,
he would have known it
couldn’t be done. But he’s
never been to college, so he
hired chemists and mechanical
engineers and told them to gei
busy.
The Bureau of Standards in
Washington, the Government’s
Poorest Products Laboratory at
Madison, Wis., several uni
versities and at least one paper
company had come to a dead
end. They could remove the
woody core by chemicals, but
chemicals that would do that
job damaged the fibers. They
could combine mechanical and
chemical means and get un
damaged fibers, but at the cost
01 wasting a large proportion
of them.
Mill And Laboratory Clash
Straus’ engineers, too, had
bitter disappomtment. It was
one thing to succeed in the lab
oratory, another to succeed in
the mill where time and money
count. They would develop a
process that accomplished won
ders on five pound lots, and
carry this hopefully to France,
only to see it fizzle when used
on 500 pound batch. Then
they would come home and
start all over.
One highly promising com
bination tested in a mill worked
in a 100-pound batch, but fail
ed when tried on a commercial
scale. This time, however, the
Straus engineers got a clue;
they began- concentrating on
the simple fact that in watp’-
logged flax straw, the density
of wood was greater than the
density of the fiber. Why not
separate the two by flotation?
Difficulty was that the fibep
and the wood were locked in
such tight embrace that the
fibers acted as life preservers
for the wood. At long last the
engineers developed a secret
washing technique which un
locked the grip of wood and
fiber, and let gravity do the
rest. Used in step with im
proved mechanical and chem
ical processes all down the line,
this spelled success.
Just as the Straus engineers
were reporting success the
Straus agronomists were re
porting failure.
Most of the flax grown in the
United States is not the kind
used for linen, but a type grown
entirely for the linseed from
which oil is pressed for paints
and varnishes. The Straus
agronomists wanted to develop
a great supply of fiber flax.
THE ECHO
They tested soils, sought advice
from state and lederal experts,
had agents scour Europe for
promising varieties. They
planted 600 acres in South
Carolina and for three years
nursed it along. They tried
smaller plantings in North Car
olina, Virginia, Oregon, the
I* lorida Everglades and the
black belt of Alabama. On
Maryland’s eastern shore, they
planted 500 plots each with a
different fertilizer.
Hundreds of thousands of
dollars went thus, and out of
it all came nothing. Whatever
the clim.ate, whatever the soil,
whatever the fertilizer or the
farming practice, they couldn’t
get enough straw per acre to
compete with the price of im
ported rags.
With grim determination,
Straus turned fiom flax to
hemp. He was making head
way when a new Federal law
intended to suppress marijuana
gave hemp a black eye. Ignor
ing all advice, Straus then
pointed his engineers at seed-
flax straw, always considered
useless. Flax farmers were har
vesting the seed and spending
time and money to get rid of the
straw. But the Straus engin
eers took the processes they
had developed for fiber flax
and adapted them to seed flax
straw. Straus triumphantly had
some paper run off in his
French mill and showed it to
American cigarette makers.
Munich was just a few months
ahead. Big American cigarette
manufacturers saw the point,
and together they lent Straus
$2,000,000 to build an Ameri
can mill.
Water Is Important
Never was a mill site more
carefully chosen. Everyone
wanted it in North Carolina,
which manufactures more than
half of America’s cigarettes,
but some 60 locations were sur
veyed before selecting the
broad, black corn bottoms
where the Davidson River
comes tumbling out of the tree-
covered mile-high Pisgah Na
tional Forest. No one could get
between this location and the
government'protected water-
shed. The water was analyzed
and even sent to France for
mill tests; it was found soft and
free of minerals—-iron, for ex
ample, would give cigarette
paper a taste. Studies run
ning back for decades were
checked to prove that the Dav
idson River had withstood the
worst drought years.
Legal aspects were studied.
The Federal Government con
trols navigable rivers and any
stream flowing into them, hence
controls the Tennessee and
French Broad rivers—but not
a stream twice-removed, like
the Davidson which empties in
to French Broad. There was
even research to pick a name.
Scholars here and abroad dug
up the Cherokee word “Ecus-
ta,” meaning “rippling water.”
Construction of Ecusta’s 17
buildings began in June, li)38.
Eleven months later, French
ciaftsmen arrived to teach
green mountaineers how to
make cigarette paper. Most of
Ecusta’s wor^cmen had never
been employed in a mill of any
type. Technique and machin
ery new even to the French ex
perts were being employed.
Here on a plateau half a mile
high was the weirdest indus
trial school ever opened. One
by one the machines were put
in operation by the Frenchmen.
Near by stood the pupils, and
between the two groups were
two French-Canadians and two
French-speaking Americans.
The Frenchmen worked, the
mountaineers watched, and the
interpreters explained. Swiftly
they a 11 learned together,
blending the i^rench art, hand
ed down from family to family,
with American factory meth
ods. By August, paper was
coming off the machines in test
batches. By September war
was on and American cigarette
paper was headed for Ameri
can cigarette factories. All the
“Big Five” among cigarette
makers are using Ecusta paper,
currently meeting one-third of
the nation’s needs. Production
will be doubled by next Spring.
Three other domestic mills are
now producing cigarette paper
from seed-flax straw.
Today the Frenchmen arc
gone and nine-tenths of Ecus
ta’s 900 employees are from
Carolina’s mountain counties.
In the refinery room you will
find full-fledged journeymen
who in 1939 wore green as Pis
gah. On the first anniversary
01 war, and of mill operat’on,
ground was broken for a big
addition. When expansion is
completed next Summer 500
more men will be needed. Some
of the tenders on the new paper
machines will be men who have
learned the art in two years in
stead of the traditional ten.
Straus’ paper mill has given
the whole region a lift. The
nearby town of Brevard has
had a small boom; a new thea
ter, an increase in auto sales,
and even freshening up of
church buildings. The county’s
bonds, once at 24c on the dol-
have now gone above 50c.
Deceml)''
—
But Ecusta’s rep*'
are more far-flung
Each day three to lou *
cars of fiber arrive f^^
tication plants in ^
and Minnesota. In Sa!
and Imperial valleys
fornia and over mosti-
sota, farmers have a/o|
crop. This year 14^'
of straw have been bfp
cigarette paper. Thi
increased in 1941.
Once A Loss, New
£1
:.io:
sn
acre ahead. They used si
$1.50 an acre to
straw; now they get^id
But that is not all. Str* o
nomists are helping
crease their straw J''®
acre. With the univ^^S
Minnesota and Califo'^
are developing new
is a matter of five to
but already yields hav^®
creased by improved
Farmers have been
sow their flax more
the stalks support
and thus grow taller,
more straw. By
straw clean of weeds
experts got farmers
fields; an extra yielo^®
was an unexpected '
“keeping the fields bl3‘> '
extra yield, together
acreage, spells greater^®
production of flaxseeo^®^
No one knows wh3f''
will lead. Other
like those used for
and may be made
straws rather than
Further, success in j;ei
paper has given addc);^
to the use of flax
Much research, Fed^-
and industrial, is beiii' j.
into this problem. ; tl
Georgia Tech engii^'s
nounced a new proc&‘e
fiber for spinning.
Straus himself is ^
velop a third great
ing region so as not
lean altogether on
and California.
North Carolina are
ble regions, but seve^^^”
states are also movii|it
the same goal. And_
searchers are workii^|h^
another significant ^ i
Trying to find induS^’ie
for the wood removedfa;
fibers. Four-fifths of
is wood. Plastics,
linoleum, fertilizer
can all be made
“shives,” but not
as yet. Straus has
into a double-duty
anyone solves _ the
lem, farmers can thai'i'^
triple play.