AbstractsBusiness Management & Administration

"The cost of producing cellulose acetate, and the difficulties attending its dissolving, plasticizing, and application to specific uses are problems which must be investigated before the ultimate commercial development of the material can be realized. The price of the cellulose used as raw material for acetylation is one of the primary factors influencing the cost of the finished product. At present, cotton linters constitutes the chief practical souce [sic] of acetate, being almost pure alpha-cellulose, and cheaper than staple cotton, our other source of high alpha-cellulose, Wood pulp is the only other material offering promise as a substitute for cotton, though esparto, hemp and even pine wood have been suggested at various times, and wood pulp offers little competition to cotton as yet. Many problems must be solved before wood pulp of uniform quality and sufficiently low production cost can be marketed at a lower price than cotton. While wood itself is cheap and readily delignified by the methods common to the paper industry, subsequent purification to give acetylable cellulose has proven to be difficult and is a research project of primary importance to the wood pulp industries" – Introduction, p. 6-7.