Fletchers 7

"You are now in the Machine house department. That is A machine the oldest paper machine on the site. It is a Paper Machine. Fletchers produced two main types of paper “wood” or “Rag”. Wood papers were a mix of hardwood and softwood mixed with chalk and Rag was a mixture of Hemp or Flax mixed with softwood and chalk. Rag gets its name from a time when rags were processed to produce the paper. The wood was purchased already partially processed in bale form. The bales were pulped by the pulpers part of the beating department. The pulp was delivered to the machine, mixed with chalk, chemicals to aid burning (usually mixed citrates) and then onto the machine in a liquid state. The liquid paper then went through a series of presses and dryers before being delivered to the reel end. At the reel end the paper passed through an X ray scanner which monitored its quality and over a head which measured its porosity before being wound up into a larger reel of paper at the reel end."