100 Years Department of Papermaking

The motives of the V.D.P. to establish a chair in Darmstadt were the person of the Privy Building Councillor Prof. Adolf PFARR, who was already head of the chair for hydroelectric machines at the TH Darmstadt at that time. Pfarr studied mechanical engineering at the Royal Polytechnic in Stuttgart between 1870 and 1873. His professional career began with a manufacturer of woodworking machines, the company Gebr. Schmaltz in Offenbach a. M., from where he changed to the German Waterworks Society in Frankfurt a. M. after only one year. In 1875 he finally joined the services of J.M. Voith. At that time Voith was a small company whose owner and boss, Friedrich Voith, had also studied at the Polytechnikum Stuttgarter and employed about 100 people in 1875. Pfarr first rushed into the further development of the Francis turbine and became a congenial employee of Friedrich Voith, who described him as an “ingenious engineer” on the occasion of an anniversary in 1892. During his time at Voith, Pfarr developed a lively travel activity to discuss new projects, rebuilds and start-ups as well as customer complaints. He also worked as a designer, made numerous suggestions for improvements and planned entire factories [10].

In 1897 he was appointed full professor and chairman of the chair for hydroelectric machines at the TH Darmstadt. In the years 1900 – 1902 he was dean of the department of mechanical engineering and in the academic year 1902/03 rector of the Technical University Darmstadt. His affinity to papermaking and his wealth of experience from his work at Voith prompted him to offer lectures on papermaking machines as early as 1900. The academic training in the field of paper engineering began in 1905, after the V.D.P. had decided, in agreement with the Darmstadt Technical University, to set up “university courses for the training of factory managers and paper technicians”. In 1905 he was appointed the first head of the institute of the Chair of Paper Engineering. In 1905, the specialization as a paper engineer began with only three students, but by 1912 53 students were already enrolled, which clearly demonstrated the need for young people trained in engineering science. Prof. Pfarr was granted the privilege of commissioning the experimental paper machine at the Institute for Paper Manufacturing in 1912, before he died unexpectedly and far too early on his birthday, 11 December 1912, at the age of 61.

Fig. 1: IfP test paper machine before 1930
Fig. 1: IfP test paper machine before 1930

“Besides the unavoidable ”theory“, technology today primarily demands ”facts“, and probably no means is better suited than a well-equipped experimental institute”[11] to bring such facts to light. In keeping with the spirit of the times, attempts have been made since the founding of the department to install pilot plant machines with which industrial processes could be simulated. The aim was to be able to follow and illustrate the paper manufacturing process in all its stages. For this reason, the company was very proud of the donation of a test paper machine from the Banning & Seybold machine factory in Düren in the Rhineland, which was installed at the TH Darmstadt in 1912 (Fig. 1). It consisted of a fourdrinier section with a pile headbox and a wire width of 750 mm, a couch press and an ascending felt press as well as six drying cylinders with a diameter of 500 mm, a 5-roll dry calender and a reel. The paper machine was driven by a 25 HP motor with longitudinal transmission and friction wheel drive for the presses and a variable 12 HP drive with regulating starter and regulating unit. At that time, the paper machine had to be accommodated in confined space as Engineering Laboratory VII, adjacent to the Hydraulic Engineering Laboratory. “The testing possibilities at the actual paper machine allow for an extraordinarily large number of variants. First and foremost, I attach great importance to carrying out such experiments, which provide insights into the mode of operation of the individual parts of the paper machine, as well as providing information about power consumption and steam consumption, and this in the case of the most varied types of paper with regard to raw material and with regard to the character of the grinding process, from very ”crisp“ to very ”greasy“ materials, with and without coating, glued and unglued, etc.” [11] Paper sample books from the post-war years which are still available provide information about the various possibilities of producing different types of paper between 25 and 300 g/m² basis weight on this machine. In addition to this fourdrinier test paper machine, the pilot plant also had a defibering system based on the Wurster patent, a Dutchman based on the Baeßler patent, a Voith-Holländer and a conical stock mill. Usually, the internship was offered during the winter semester on three consecutive days during which the “small paper mill” was put into operation for practical tests [11] It goes without saying that this internship had to be offered several times, if one realizes that in the winter semester 1913 a total of 63 students completed the paper machine internship.

Part of the education of the students of paper engineering – then as now – are also excursions of the respective chair holder with employees and students in companies of the pulp and paper industry. For decades, the department has regularly visited production facilities in Germany and abroad. As early as 1907, Prof. Pfarr [12] reported on a 13-day excursion to southern Germany organised by the Chair of Mechanical Engineering, in which 35 people took part. They visited seven paper mills, four hydropower plants and one sawmill each, a machine factory, a carbide factory and the Maffei locomotive factory. From the ratio of the number of paper mills to hydroelectric power stations one can already guess that Prof. Pfarr was more devoted to paper production than to hydroelectric machines at that time, although he still headed this chair. But perhaps the paper mills are only in the majority because they were already very generous to Darmstadt student groups at that time, which the students still appreciate today. What is interesting about the travel description quoted is the fact that in 1907 seven hours were given for the return journey by train from Munich to Darmstadt, a journey time which today is only about a third (4.5 h) shorter even with the ICE. In the last 100 years, the productivity of paper production has obviously increased much more than the efficiency of the railway transport system.

At the same time as the foundation of the paper engineering department, the V.D.P. also set up the Hessian Testing Laboratory for Paper in 1905, which was staffed by Prof. Dipl.-Ing. Ludwig von ROESSLER. Prof. von Roeßler had been teaching mechanical technology and machine drawing in Darmstadt since 1904 and had to familiarize himself with the foreign field of paper testing. Until 1931, Prof. von Roeßler taught the students of paper engineering about paper testing technology in lectures and exercises [13]. At that time it consisted of microscopic examinations of pulp and paper, analysis of fillers and testing of paper for basis weight, thickness, tensile strength, ductility, number of folds, degree of sizing, suction height, greaseproofness, impermeability to gases and water vapour, transparency and much more.

[10] Schweikert, H.: Georg Adolf Pfarr – Wegbereiter der Wasserkraftnutzung und Papierfabrikation. Zulassungsarbeit Sommersemester 1998, Historisches Institut – Abteilung für Geschichte der Naturwissenschaften und Technik (Prof. Hermann), Universität Stuttgart, 1998

[11] Müller, F.: Das Institut für Papierfabrikation an der Großherzoglich Technischen Hochschule in Darmstadt. WfP, 45(1914), Nr. 25, S. 2267-2276

[12] Pfarr, A.: Die Pfingstexkursion der Maschinenbau-Abteilung an der Grossherzogl. Techn. Hochschule zu Darmstadt. WfP, 38(1907), Nr. 25, S. 1988-1993

[13] Brecht, W.: 50 Jahre Papieringenieurwesen an der Technischen Hochschule Darmstadt. Jubiläumsschrift des Instituts für Papierfabrikation, Darmstadt, 1955, S. 5-22