Carl Daniel Ekman
Encyclopedia
Carl Daniel Ekman was a Swedish chemical engineer
who invented the form of the sulfite process
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
, Sweden
from 1871–1874, In 1879, he emigrated to England
, and opened the Ekman Pulp and Paper Company mill in Northfleet
, Kent
near the mouth of the Thames River in 1886. He was also a consulting engineer and helped establish mills in Lachendorf
, Celle
, Germany, Dieppe, France, Rumford, Rhode Island
, St. Petersburg, Russia, Korfu 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
.
, 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 pewter
er in Malmö
.
In 1861 Carl Daniel finished school and began working in the Ugglan pharmacy in Stockholm
. It is believed that he passed his pharmacist examination before starting his education as an engineer in 1865 at the Technological Institute
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.
of magnesia
. 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 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 Rumsford 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
. He experimented with sugar cane, straw
, aspen
, birch
, sycamore
, esparto grass, linen
, and hemp
to provide paper pulp.
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.
Chemical engineer
In the field of engineering, a chemical engineer is the profession in which one works principally in the chemical industry to convert basic raw materials into a variety of products, and deals with the design and operation of plants and equipment to perform such work...
who invented the form of the sulfite process
Sulfite process
The sulfite process produces wood pulp which is almost pure cellulose fibers by using various salts of sulfurous acid to extract the lignin from wood chips in large pressure vessels called digesters. The salts used in the pulping process are either sulfites , or bisulfites , depending on the pH...
of wood pulp manufacturing which was first established on a firm commercial basis, helping to replace rags as the main raw material of paper
Paper
Paper is a thin material mainly used for writing upon, printing upon, drawing or for packaging. It is produced by pressing together moist fibers, typically cellulose pulp derived from wood, rags or grasses, and drying them into flexible sheets....
with wood pulp. The process was developed at Bergvik
Bergvik
Bergvik is a locality situated in Söderhamn Municipality, Gävleborg County, Sweden with 847 inhabitants in 2005....
, Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
from 1871–1874, In 1879, he emigrated to England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, and opened the Ekman Pulp and Paper Company mill in Northfleet
Northfleet
Northfleet is a town in the Borough of Gravesham in Kent, England. Its name is derived from North creek , and the settlement on the shore of the River Thames adjacent to Gravesend was known as Norfluet in the Domesday Book, and Northflet in 1201...
, Kent
Kent
Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...
near the mouth of the Thames River in 1886. He was also a consulting engineer and helped establish mills in Lachendorf
Lachendorf
Lachendorf is a municipality in the district of Celle, in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is situated approx. 10 km east of Celle.Lachendorf is also the seat of the Samtgemeinde Lachendorf.-History:...
, Celle
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...
, Germany, Dieppe, France, Rumford, Rhode Island
Rumford, Rhode Island
Rumford, Rhode Island, is the northern section of the city of East Providence. It borders Seekonk, Massachusetts, Pawtucket, Rhode Island and Narragansett Bay....
, St. Petersburg, Russia, Korfu and Italy. After contracting malaria
Malaria
Malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease of humans and other animals caused by eukaryotic protists of the genus Plasmodium. The disease results from the multiplication of Plasmodium parasites within red blood cells, causing symptoms that typically include fever and headache, in severe cases...
in French Guiana
French Guiana
French Guiana is an overseas region of France, consisting of a single overseas department located on the northern Atlantic coast of South America. It has borders with two nations, Brazil to the east and south, and Suriname to the west...
and losing a lawsuit on pollution of a Northfleet limestone
Limestone
Limestone is a sedimentary rock composed largely of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of calcium carbonate . Many limestones are composed from skeletal fragments of marine organisms such as coral or foraminifera....
quarry
Quarry
A quarry is a type of open-pit mine from which rock or minerals are extracted. Quarries are generally used for extracting building materials, such as dimension stone, construction aggregate, riprap, sand, and gravel. They are often collocated with concrete and asphalt plants due to the requirement...
, he died bankrupt in Gravesend, Kent
Gravesend, Kent
Gravesend is a town in northwest Kent, England, on the south bank of the Thames, opposite Tilbury in Essex. It is the administrative town of the Borough of Gravesham and, because of its geographical position, has always had an important role to play in the history and communications of this part of...
.
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 KalmarKalmar
Kalmar is a city in Småland in the south-east of Sweden, situated by the Baltic Sea. It had 62,767 inhabitants in 2010 and is the seat of Kalmar Municipality. It is also the capital of Kalmar County, which comprises 12 municipalities with a total of 233,776 inhabitants .From the thirteenth to the...
, Sweden. Carl Daniel was the third child born to Otto Christian's second wife, Maria Louise Indebetou, formerly of Forshaga
Forshaga
Forshaga is a locality and the seat of Forshaga Municipality, Värmland County, Sweden with 6,355 inhabitants in 2005.-Notable natives:* Stefan Holm, high jump Olympic champion in 2004.* Oskar Olofsson, guitarist in Swedish indie rock group Molotov Jive....
. Otto Christian was a medical doctor who served at Kalmar Castle
Kalmar Castle
Kalmar Castle is a castle in Kalmar, the province of Småland in Sweden. - History :During the twelfth century a round defensive tower was built on Kalmarsund and a harbour constructed. At the end of the thirteenth century King Magnus Ladulås had a new fortress built with a curtain wall, round...
. Otto's father had been a pewter
Pewter
Pewter is a malleable metal alloy, traditionally 85–99% tin, with the remainder consisting of copper, antimony, bismuth and lead. Copper and antimony act as hardeners while lead is common in the lower grades of pewter, which have a bluish tint. It has a low melting point, around 170–230 °C ,...
er in Malmö
Malmö
Malmö , in the southernmost province of Scania, is the third most populous city in Sweden, after Stockholm and Gothenburg.Malmö is the seat of Malmö Municipality and the capital of Skåne County...
.
In 1861 Carl Daniel finished school and began working in the Ugglan pharmacy in Stockholm
Stockholm
Stockholm is the capital and the largest city of Sweden and constitutes the most populated urban area in Scandinavia. Stockholm is the most populous city in Sweden, with a population of 851,155 in the municipality , 1.37 million in the urban area , and around 2.1 million in the metropolitan area...
. It is believed that he passed his pharmacist examination before starting his education as an engineer in 1865 at the Technological Institute
Royal Institute of Technology
The Royal Institute of Technology is a university in Stockholm, Sweden. KTH was founded in 1827 as Sweden's first polytechnic and is one of Scandinavia's largest institutions of higher education in technology. KTH accounts for one-third of Sweden’s technical research and engineering education...
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 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 bisulfiteBisulfite
Bisulfite ion is the ion HSO3−. Salts containing the HSO3− ion are termed bisulfites also known as sulfite lyes...
of magnesia
Magnesium
Magnesium is a chemical element with the symbol Mg, atomic number 12, and common oxidation number +2. It is an alkaline earth metal and the eighth most abundant element in the Earth's crust and ninth in the known universe as a whole...
. A new plant was built in 1874 in Bergvik that used this process.
A similar sulfite process had been invented by Benjamin Chew Tilghman
Benjamin Chew Tilghman
Benjamin Chew Tilghman was an American soldier and inventor. He is best known as the inventor of the process of sandblasting.-Early life:...
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
Ilford
Ilford is a large cosmopolitan town in East London, England and the administrative headquarters of the London Borough of Redbridge. It is located northeast of Charing Cross and is one of the major metropolitan centres identified in the London Plan. It forms a significant commercial and retail...
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 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
Pawtucket, Rhode Island
Pawtucket is a city in Providence County, Rhode Island, United States. The population was 71,148 at the 2010 census. It is the fourth largest city in the state.-History:...
while working on Charles W. Wheelwright's Richmond Paper Co. mill at Rumsford 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
French Guiana
French Guiana is an overseas region of France, consisting of a single overseas department located on the northern Atlantic coast of South America. It has borders with two nations, Brazil to the east and south, and Suriname to the west...
where he contracted malaria, and in 1885 visited British Guiana
British Guiana
British Guiana was the name of the British colony on the northern coast of South America, now the independent nation of Guyana.The area was originally settled by the Dutch at the start of the 17th century as the colonies of Essequibo, Demerara, and Berbice...
. He experimented with sugar cane, straw
Straw
Straw is an agricultural by-product, the dry stalks of cereal plants, after the grain and chaff have been removed. Straw makes up about half of the yield of cereal crops such as barley, oats, rice, rye and wheat. It has many uses, including fuel, livestock bedding and fodder, thatching and...
, aspen
Aspen
Populus section Populus, of the Populus genus, includes the aspen trees and the white poplar Populus alba. The five typical aspens are all native to cold regions with cool summers, in the north of the Northern Hemisphere, extending south at high altitudes in the mountains. The White Poplar, by...
, birch
Birch
Birch is a tree or shrub of the genus Betula , in the family Betulaceae, closely related to the beech/oak family, Fagaceae. The Betula genus contains 30–60 known taxa...
, sycamore
Sycamore
Sycamore is a name which is applied at various times and places to three very different types of trees, but with somewhat similar leaf forms....
, esparto grass, linen
Linen
Linen is a textile made from the fibers of the flax plant, Linum usitatissimum. Linen is labor-intensive to manufacture, but when it is made into garments, it is valued for its exceptional coolness and freshness in hot weather....
, and hemp
Hemp
Hemp is mostly used as a name for low tetrahydrocannabinol strains of the plant Cannabis sativa, of fiber and/or oilseed varieties. In modern times, hemp has been used for industrial purposes including paper, textiles, biodegradable plastics, construction, health food and fuel with modest...
to provide paper pulp.
Later life
In 1888 Ekman married 18-year-old Rosina Noble, who was 26 years his junior. Rosina was born in Dieppe to an English-Italian family. They had three sons, Mario, Oscar Umberto, and Otto Francis. The family lived in Gravesend, near the Northfleet mill.Ekman continued to suffer from malaria and also contracted typhoid fever
Typhoid fever
Typhoid fever, also known as Typhoid, is a common worldwide bacterial disease, transmitted by the ingestion of food or water contaminated with the feces of an infected person, which contain the bacterium Salmonella enterica, serovar Typhi...
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
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
upon reaching majority, and Mario and Oscar served in Canadian forces during World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
.
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.