In the very early days of cellulose based paper, the wooden fibers were mechanically extracted by abrasion, a process that yields what is known as mechanical pulp. Typically powered by water turbines, giant abrasion cylinders slowly turned tree trunks into a dough-like mass. With some additional chemical processing, paper was made. Compared with higher quality textile papers, this must have been considered rubbish, but like with so many disruptive technologies, the cellulose based paper claimed its victory in the years to come where the chemical "cooked" pulp was introduced in the late 1800s.

Mechanical pulp, today commonly known as TMP and CTMP is still a large commodity and the process is somewhat the same as it was 150 years ago. Not surprisingly, this industry has been heavily rationalized over the years. Although CTMP gives a higher pulp yield compared with traditional chemical pulp, the profit is lower. The process is also very energy intensive and the latest years increasing energy prices have put a high burden on the CTMP mills.

This particular mill went into chemical pulp as early as 1870 and after some years of experimenting, something like what today is known as sulphate pulp with reasonable yield and quality was developed. Although several investments were made over the years, the mill still had less than 50k ton of output in the 1970s, including some TMP as well. Not surprisingly, the mill died in the massive wave of closures of small units that occurred between 1975 and 1985.

Even though a large portion of the mill has been demolished, there are still remains enough to get a feeling of how it must have been like back then. Just walking around in these empty premises and watching partly decomposed binders from 1979 together with elegantly organized stuff that no one has touched for thirty-five years is somewhat thoughtful.
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