IVANHOE
PAPER
MANUFACTURING CO.
Excerpts
from the Paterson
Visitor Center's
Historic Notes:
The Ivanhoe
Wheelhouse
One
of the most
extensive, as well
as the most
interesting,
industries of
Paterson was
carried on by the
Ivanhoe
Manufacturing
Company. The mill
of the company,
built of cut and
dressed sandstone
with turreted
towers, presented
a very imposing
appearance.
The
establishment was
among the most
complete in the
world devoted to
paper production.
All the Ivanhoe
mill buildings
were fireproof and
were thoroughly
equipped with
costly machinery
of marvelous
ingenuity.
The
waterworks
building for the
Mill was built in
1850. It consists
of two attached
buildings built at
different times.
The wheelhouse was
built in 1865 to
house a Boyden
water turbine
capable of
producing 265
horsepower. Water
was taken into a
seven-foot
diameter pipe from
the upper raceway
and dropped
through the wheel.
The rotary motion
of the turbine was
the power source
for driving the
shafts, belts,
pulleys, and gears
of the rag paper
mill. In 1910, the
generator room was
added to the
wheelhouse.
Generators were
installed there to
convert the water
powered rotary
motion to
electricity.
Henry
V.Butler, founder
of this vast
establishment, was
born in Suffield,
Connecticut in
October 1811. He
was a son of Asa
Butler, owner of
the Eagle Mill at
Suffield, where
paper was made by
hand. In 1832,
father and son
purchased a steam
mill on Cherry
Street, New York.
Their mill
produced the paper
on which the first
number of the New
York Sun was
printed and also
the first paper
for the
Philadelphia
Ledger. At this
mill, for the
first time
anywhere, paper
shavings were
utilized to be
worked over into
paper.
In
1837, the industry
moved to Paterson
into a firm,
substantial stone
mill built
especially for
their purpose, by
Roswell L. Colt
Called the Passaic
Mill, it stood on
the Upper Raceway
on this site and
furnished paper
for the most
foremost
publishers in the
country, including
the American Bible
Society, the
Methodist Book
concern, the
Appletons, Carter
Brothers and
others.
The
peculiar toughness
and strength of
the paper was said
to be due to the
use of old hemp
rope, knots, and
cutting from the
cotton presses of
the South and
cotton waste from
New England mills.
This rough and
apparently
unpromising
material was first
used at the
Passaic Mill and a
peculiar picker or
"devil"
was used to tear
in pieces and
reduce to shreds
the toughest knots
with the same ease
as other machinery
shredded the plain
rope.
The
process of boiling
stock under
pressure in rotary
boilers, a method
which has since
been universally
adopted throughout
this country and
in Europe, was
also introduced by
Mr. Butler. Even
the coarse sacking
in which the
cotton-waste and
rags are baled,
together with
pieces of old rope
and the like, are
picked, cleansed,
boiled and
manipulated until
they leave the
mill at last in
the form of the
finest whitest
writing paper.
Here the first
super-calendered
book paper ever
manufactured was
made.
The
business at the
Passaic Mill
proved a very
profitable one,
and from it was
drawn a large part
of the money
required for the
erection of the
Ivanhoe Mill,
which was
completed and put
in operation on
the finer
qualities of paper
in 1850. In 1857,
the lease of the
Passaic Mill
having expired,
the capacity of
the Ivanhoe Mill
was increased and
the Passaic
abandoned. In
1859, a writer
stated in
Scientific
Anerican that the
Ivanhoe Mill, then
nearly a decade
old, had never
stopped three days
at a time, running
night and day. The
product at this
date was given as
35,000 lbs. of the
finest quality of
paper every week:
number of hands
employed 135.
About this date,
the firm began
making tub-sized
writing paper, and
soon the
"Ivanhoe"
brand became so
widely known and
so popular that
the demand far
exceeded the
supply. In 1866
the firm was
merged into the
Ivanhoe
Manufacturing
Company, formed
under a special
charter.
The
Invanhoe produced
tissue and writing
paper. Butler
obtained several
government
contracts and it
is possible that
the mill produced
paper for money;
paper money has an
unusual texture
because it
contains silk
fibers.
In
1981, the
Ivanhoe's
wheelhouse was
restored minus the
waterwheel and
turbine. The round
brickwork on the
side of the
wheelhouse facing
the spillway shows
where the flume
ran that brought
water from the
upper raceway into
the water wheel.
All
of the buildings
are gone now,
except for the
wheelhouse, which
was recently
restored. It sits
next to the
spillway between
the upper and
middle raceway.
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