Carl Daniel Ekman
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Carl Daniel Ekman (March 17, 1845 – November 3, 1904) was a Swedish
chemical engineer In the field of engineering, a chemical engineer is a professional, equipped with the knowledge of chemical engineering, who works principally in the chemical industry to convert basic raw materials into a variety of products and deals with the ...
who invented the form of the
sulfite process The sulfite process produces wood pulp that is almost pure cellulose fibers by treating wood chips with solutions of sulfite and bisulfite ions. These chemicals cleave the bonds between the cellulose and lignin components of the lignocellulose. A ...
of wood pulp manufacturing which was first established on a firm commercial basis, helping to replace rags as the main raw material of paper with wood pulp. The process was developed at
Bergvik Bergvik is a locality situated in Söderhamn Municipality, Gävleborg County, Sweden with 834 inhabitants in 2010. Sports The following sports clubs are located in Bergvik: * IFK Bergvik IFK Bergvik is a Swedish football club located in Berg ...
,
Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...
from 1871–1874, In 1879, he emigrated to England, and opened the Ekman Pulp and Paper Company mill in
Northfleet Northfleet is a town in the borough of Gravesham in Kent, England. It is located immediately west of Gravesend, and on the border with the Borough of Dartford. Northfleet has its own railway station on the North Kent Line, just east of Ebbsfl ...
, Kent near the mouth of the Thames River in 1886. He was also a consulting engineer and helped establish mills in Lachendorf,
Celle Celle () is a town and capital of the district of Celle, in Lower Saxony, Germany. The town is situated on the banks of the river Aller, a tributary of the Weser, and has a population of about 71,000. Celle is the southern gateway to the Lü ...
, Germany, Dieppe, France,
Rumford, Rhode Island Rumford is the northern section of the city of East Providence, Rhode Island, USA. The Rumford section of East Providence borders Seekonk, Massachusetts, Pawtucket, Rhode Island and the Ten Mile River (Seekonk River). Rumford has been part of thre ...
, St. Petersburg, Russia,
Corfu Corfu (, ) or Kerkyra ( el, Κέρκυρα, Kérkyra, , ; ; la, Corcyra.) is a Greek island in the Ionian Sea, of the Ionian Islands, and, including its small satellite islands, forms the margin of the northwestern frontier of Greece. The isl ...
and Italy. After contracting malaria in French Guiana and losing a lawsuit on pollution of a Northfleet limestone quarry, he died bankrupt in
Gravesend, Kent Gravesend is a town in northwest Kent, England, situated 21 miles (35 km) east-southeast of Charing Cross (central London) on the south bank of the River Thames and opposite Tilbury in Essex. Located in the diocese of Rochester, it is t ...
.


Early life

Ekman was the sixteenth and final child born in a 28-year period to Otto Christian Ekman at his home at 36 Södra Långgatan in Kalmar, Sweden. Carl Daniel was the third child born to Otto Christian's second wife, Maria Louise Indebetou, formerly of Forshaga. Otto Christian was a medical doctor who served at Kalmar Castle. Otto's father had been a pewterer in Malmö. In 1861 Carl Daniel finished school and began working in the Ugglan pharmacy in
Stockholm Stockholm () is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, largest city of Sweden as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people liv ...
. It is believed that he passed his pharmacist examination before starting his education as an engineer in 1865 at the
Technological Institute The Technological Institute, more commonly known as "Tech", is a landmark building at Northwestern University built from 1940 to 1942. It is the main building for students and faculty in the Robert R. McCormick School of Engineering and Applie ...
in Stockholm. He graduated in June, 1868 with first class honors, then worked for two years for the wine processor Liljeholmens Vinfabriks Aktiebolag, on Svartmangatan, Stockholm.


Career in paper manufacturing

In August 1871 he was hired as a chemist for the Bergvik mill, where his half-brother Hugo was manager. The mill used the method of
George Fry George may refer to: People * George (given name) * George (surname) * George (singer), American-Canadian singer George Nozuka, known by the mononym George * George Washington, First President of the United States * George W. Bush, 43rd Presiden ...
for processing wood pulp for paper. In 1872 Ekman developed a modified method: rather than simply bleaching a mechanically produced pulp, he cooked the pulp under pressure in a solution of
bisulfite The bisulfite ion (IUPAC-recommended nomenclature: hydrogensulfite) is the ion . Salts containing the ion are also known as "sulfite lyes". Sodium bisulfite is used interchangeably with sodium metabisulfite (Na2S2O5). Sodium metabisulfite disso ...
of magnesia.For a technical overview of the process, see A new plant was built in 1874 in Bergvik that used this process. A similar sulfite process had been invented by Benjamin Chew Tilghman in 1867 in Philadelphia, but he was unable to put it into commercial production. In Germany, Mitscherlich independently discovered a similar process about 1880. Working with Fry, the new pulp was introduced quickly into paper production, perhaps first in Fry's Ilford plant, and then into a newly built mill at Northfleet in 1879. A second mill at Northfleet was completed in 1886 and owned by the Ekman Pulp and Paper Company, which was partially owned by Fry. This mill continued to operate until the 1970s. The Ekman process was also used in
Godalming Godalming is a market town and civil parish in southwest Surrey, England, around southwest of central London. It is in the Borough of Waverley, at the confluence of the Rivers Wey and Ock. The civil parish covers and includes the settleme ...
in the early 1880s. The process was kept as a commercial secret rather than patented, until a British patent was issued in 1881, and an American patent was issued in 1882. The American patent rights were represented by W.F. and F.C. Sayles. Ekman lived with the Sayles family in Pawtucket, Rhode Island while working on Charles W. Wheelwright's Richmond Paper Co. mill at Rumford starting in 1884. Ekman traveled extensively helping to construct mills in France, Italy, Russia, and Germany, as well as searching for new raw material that might be used in paper making. He visited French Guiana where he contracted malaria, and in 1885 visited
British Guiana British Guiana was a British colony, part of the mainland British West Indies, which resides on the northern coast of South America. Since 1966 it has been known as the independent nation of Guyana. The first European to encounter Guiana was S ...
. He experimented with sugar cane,
straw Straw is an agricultural byproduct consisting of the dry stalks of cereal plants after the grain and chaff have been removed. It makes up about half of the yield of cereal crops such as barley, oats, rice, rye and wheat. It has a number ...
, aspen, birch, sycamore, esparto grass,
linen Linen () is a textile made from the fibers of the flax plant. Linen is very strong, absorbent, and dries faster than cotton. Because of these properties, linen is comfortable to wear in hot weather and is valued for use in garments. It also ...
, and
hemp Hemp, or industrial hemp, is a botanical class of ''Cannabis sativa'' cultivars grown specifically for industrial or medicinal use. It can be used to make a wide range of products. Along with bamboo, hemp is among the fastest growing plants o ...
to provide paper pulp. In 1896 the Ekman Pulp and Paper Company, Limited issued ''4½ First Mortgage Debentures of £100 Each'' and stated in the prospectus that By 1900 the
sulfite process The sulfite process produces wood pulp that is almost pure cellulose fibers by treating wood chips with solutions of sulfite and bisulfite ions. These chemicals cleave the bonds between the cellulose and lignin components of the lignocellulose. A ...
had become the dominant method to manufacture paper, with this dominance lasting until about 1940 when the
kraft process The kraft process (also known as kraft pulping or sulfate process) is a process for conversion of wood into wood pulp, which consists of almost pure cellulose fibres, the main component of paper. The kraft process involves treatment of wood chip ...
(sulfate process) became dominant.


Later life

In 1889 Ekman married 17-year-old Rosina Noble, who was 26 years his junior. Rosina was born Lincoln, Lincolnshire, England 1871. They had three sons, Carl Mario, Oscar Umberto, and Francis Otto (Frank Bayne Sr.). The family lived in France, Italy and other part of Europe before settling in Northfleet and Gravesend where CD Ekman had his Northfleet Paper Mill.UK Census 1901 Ekman continued to suffer from malaria and also contracted typhoid fever about 1900. He was also sued for polluting a limestone quarry near the Northfleet mill. He died soon after losing the suit, and was buried in an unmarked grave in Northfleet. His children were educated from a special fund, collected by the British Wood Pulp Association. They all moved to Canada upon reaching majority, and Mario and Oscar served in Canadian forces during World War I. In 1934 a black granite monument was erected on Ekman's grave by the Swedish Cellulose Association. The Carl Ekman House, a 14-story residential building on Tooley Street, Northfleet, was erected in 1969 and named in his honor.


Notes


Sources

* Chapter VIII. The chapter is a translation of Torsten Althin's article "Carl Daniel Ekmans liv och person", ''Dædalus'' (Stockholm) 1935, with notes by Carruthers. *


External links


Biography in Swedish
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ekman, Carl Daniel Swedish chemical engineers 19th-century Swedish engineers 19th-century Swedish inventors KTH Royal Institute of Technology alumni 1845 births 1904 deaths Papermakers