In the fall of 1895

Monday, March 11, 2002, after 104 years, 9 months, 15 days of service,
the Geithus Mill retires their Pusey & Jones Paper Machine. The machine was P&J # 176.

10.03 AM - Resident Manager Mr. Harry Enersen reads the decision of the Board of Directors of Nordic Paper to shut down the No. 3 paper machine.
The "long" walk down the machine room.
10.06 AM - Machine tender Mr. Runar Bottegård provokes a break at the wire.
10.08 AM - The main drive stops for the last time. No.3 PM is history.
Old No. 176's nameplate will go to it's final resting place.

In the fall of 1895, the board of directors at Drammenselvens Papirfabrikker - a paper mill at the Geithus village in Southeastern Norway - were making plans for installation of a new paper machine. The mill was operating two machines and the need for a third one had been evident for quite some time. The board of directors had been in contact with such well-known European machine builders as Gustav Toelle, Niederschlema, Germany; Maschinenbauanstalt H. Füllner, Warmbrunn, Schlesien (today PMPoland) and Bertrams Limited of Edinburgh, Scotland when they in early January 1896 were contacted by A/S Lorentzen & Wettre of Drammen.

The Lorentzen & Wettre company was the Norwegian representative for The Pusey & Jones Company of Wilmington, Delaware. Apart from building ships, Pusey & Jones Company, were the largest suppliers of paper machines in the world. Now the project really picked up speed. Arrangements were made to send the mill manager - Mr. Carl Herman Jonsson to America to study the paper industry and to visit The Pusey & Jones Company. When Mr. Jonsson got back home on March 24, 1896, there was no doubt in his mind that, despite the high cost, nearly twice the cost of an European machines, an American high speed machine was the future for Drammenselvens Papirfabrikker. A couple of months later an order was placed with The Pusey & Jones Company for a paper-machine which was to be shipped from Wilmington in December 1896 at the cost of $25,200 dollars.

Wire width 112" (4.8 m), Wire length 55' (16.8 m), Two Presses, (16) 48" (1219 mm) Dryers, Calender - 6 roll, Reel -(2) drum upright, Speed 400 ft/min (122 m/min)

The machine was started on Monday, May 24, 1897. The board of directors met the next day and a translation of the meeting record follows.

May 25, 1897. Meeting by the Board of Directors at Geithus:
The erection of the new Paper Machine had been completed and the Machine was started yesterday. From what can be seen at the Time of this Record, one can assume that the Machine will come to work in a satisfactory Manner.
The Machine shall be referred to as the No. 3.

Production on the new machine was mostly brown wrap, but occasionally smaller quantities of news print were produced. After the installation of a fourth paper machine in late 1912, the production on the No. 3 was solely news print. In March 1915 the owners of Drammenselvens Papirfabrikker sold the company to it's toughest competitor - A/S Union (Union Co.). The Union Company operated a much larger news print mill located in Skien - some 82 miles (130 kilometers) south of the Geithus mill.

On December 17, 1927 disaster struck. About 4 o'clock in the morning a fire came loose in the drive-side of the No.4 PM, severely damaging both no. 3 and 4 machines. Also, the machine house was heavily damaged. The paper machines were rebuilt by Thune's Machine Works of Oslo and on March 6, 1929 the no. 3 was started. A new headbox from J. M. Voith of Germany had been fitted. At the opposite end of the wire-section a Millspaugh suction couch had replaced the old press couch. Drammenselvens Papirfabrikker's No. 3 may have been the first paper-machine in Norway with a suction couch. The first machine with a suction couch as original equipment was nearby Embretsfoss Fabrikker's No. 2 which was installed by Pusey & Jones Company in 1930 (P & J order no.1553). The No. 3 now had 3 presses - two were originals, one was made by Thune after the Pusey & Jones pattern. Fourteen dryers were added in the dryer-section which was totally rebuilt, but using the sixteen original dryers for a total of thirty dryers. Calender stack was the original one, but the two-drum upright reel was replaced by a Vickery type cylinder reel. Speed was now 600 ft/min (182.8 m/min) on newsprint of 32 -33#/3000 sq. ft. (52/54 gsm). Through the 1930's and into World War 2, the no. 3 continued running solely on newsprint until February 21, 1942 when the entire mill was shut down due to the war situation.

After the war, it dragged on until late 1946 before the No. 3 got back in business. Production was the same as before the war, news-print of 32 to 33#/3000 sq. ft. (52/54 gsm) at quantities around 9,920 tons (9,000 metric tons) per year, with an all time high of 12,418 tons (11,266 metric tons) in 1953. This was the situation until spring of 1963 when it became evident, or really had been for some time, that the No. 3 no longer could be run at a profit on news print. July 13, 1963 both the ground wood mill and the No. 3 was shut down for good - or at least so it seemed. Shortly after the shut down it was realized that the market for greaseproof papers was well paying, and further research revealed that there was a place in such a market for the No. 3.

The following winter the machine went through a major overhaul. All bearings were replaced. The wire section was rebuilt and made longer, and a new (used) suction couch was put in. One dryer was pulled out to make way for a size press from Thune's Machine Works. All old gearboxes in the main drive were replaced, but the long over head main shaft remained. Start up was on May 5, 1964 and the No. 3 has since produced high density Greaseproof papers.

This is pretty much been the situation up until today, even though products as well as the machine itself have been improved over the years. In 1984 an entirely new wire section was built. The old wire section was so rusty it had become more like a potato field than a part of a paper machine. The most visible part of the newer improvements, however, is the modern dryer hood covering the entire dryer section. The new hood replaced an old half covering "shed" in 1989. About the same time the old Voith headbox from 1929 was thrown out and replaced by a new (used) one built by Fadum Tekniske of Drammen, Norway.

Saturday May 24, 1997 marked the No. 3 centennial - the machine had produced paper for 100 years. Total production through these one hundred years was in the neighborhood of 562,000 tons (510,000 metric tons). Not much by today's standards, but more than enough to have kept the machine alive. To mark the No. 3 centennial, a number of former managers of the Geithus mill together with a number of former tenders of the No. 3 machine were invited for lunch and a tour through the mill. Also invited were a few personalities of the Norwegian paper industry.

Over the years the No. 3 has been totally rebuilt once, gone through a couple of overhauls as well as numerous improvements. Despite these facts, one other fact remains - with it's large number of original parts, the No.3 has always been recognized as a machine built by The Pusey & Jones Company. It was Pusey & Jones machine number 176.

It was shut down at 10.08 AM on Monday March 11th 2002 after 38.252 days of service (104 years, 9 months, 15 days).

On it's final run, PM3 was running quilon coated panliner, 39 gsm at 557 ft/min (170 m/min) for the American market.

Total production: 589,736 tons (535.000 metric tons).
Total area of paper produced: 5,212,379 square miles (13,599,540 square kilometers).
Total length of paper produced: 37,500,000 miles (60.000.000 km) or 1500 times around the equator.

Øyvind Haugen.
Nordic Paper Geithus Mill
March 11, 2002.

Click here to read previous story of PM 3 machine by Øyvind Haugen