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WTF is a Fourdrinier?

Paper Basics Infographic

To be honest I’m still not sure how it works, but it’s a machine used in the process of making paper.

This infographic is encouraging people to save paper, and trying to impress you with how much they care about sustainability. This is probably why they’re drawing attention to the percentage of water in the mixture at each stage of papermaking. The entire process of making paper seems to be a series of rollers squooshing water out of cellulose pulp. I knew that it takes a lot of water to make paper, but this infographic seems to suggest that 5% of the finished paper product is water. That’s got to be crazy, right? 5% is not that small, wouldn’t the paper still be kind of gooey? Is all that water somehow trapped in the fibers?

Paper is increasingly being replaced by digital media, but one place it has been surprisingly persistent is businness cards. I’m surprised there isn’t a really good universal digital version of those yet. I think I’ve mildly offended a few people by snapping a picture of their card and then handing it right back to them. What, and I going to keep it as a teasured momento of our one brief meeting? No, I’m going to chuck it in the bin if I don’t lose it before I have the chance. How did we start using business cards, anyway?