Charles Fenerty

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Charles Fenerty
Portrait of Charles Fenerty
Born	January 1821 Sackville, Nova Scotia
Died	June 10, 1892 Sackville, Nova Scotia, Canada

Charles Fenerty (January, 1821 – 10 June 1892) was the Canadian inventor of newsprint made from wood pulp. Charles Fenerty was born c1821. He died on June 10, 1892 in his home in Upper Sackville, Nova Scotia. Before wood pulp, paper was made from rags. Papermaking began in Egypt (see Papyrus) c3000 BC. And in 105 AD, Ts'ai Lun a Chinese inventor, invented modern papermaking using rags, cotton, and other plant fibres by pulping it. Then in the 18th century a French scientist by the name of René Antoine Ferchault de Réaumur suggested that paper could be made from trees. Though he never experimented himself, his theory caught the interest of others, namely Matthias Koops. In 1800 Koops published a book on papermaking made from straw. Its outer covers were made from trees. His method wasn't like Fenerty’s (pulping wood), instead he simply ground the wood and adhered it together. His book does not mention anything to do with wood pulping.

Around 1838 a German weaver by the name of Friedrich Gottlob Keller read Réaumur’s report and got curious. He experimented for a few years and in 1845 he filed for a patent for the ground wood pulp process for making modern paper. This was the beginning of a very large industry that exists to this day. In that same year Henry Voelter bought the patent for about five hundred dollars and started making paper. Keller didn’t have the funds to do it. And actually, at one point he didn’t have any money to renew his patent. Keller died a poor made, but well remembered in Germany as being the first to discover the process.

At exactly the same time Charles Fenerty was working on the same idea. He began experimenting around 1838, and it was in 1844 when he made his discovery public. He worked for his father in saw mills, supplying the Halifax dockyards with their large demand for lumber (mainly for shipbuilding). There were some paper mills in the area too. Fenerty’s inspiration came as a result of his environment. He was a lover of nature, and knowledgeable in the natural sciences. The demand for paper was on the rise, and at the same time the supply of rags to produce the paper was declining. It came to the point where Europe starting cutting down their shipments of cotton to North America drastically (since they were their main supplier). Fenerty was well aware of this. The mill owners and farms knew each other very well in the Sackville, Bedford area. It’s believed that Fenerty often stopped at these paper mills. Seeing how paper is made and comparing it to the saw mills, it’s not difficult to imagine how Fenerty got the idea; the process is very much the same; fibres from the cotton is extracted and used to make paper. Trees too have fibres, and he was well aware of this too.

In a letter written by a family member from around 1915, the person mentions that Fenerty had shown a crud sample of his paper to a friend named Charles Hamilton in 1840 (a relative of his future wife). But on October 26th, 1844 Fenerty publishes a letter in the Acadian Recorder newspaper in Halifax, saying:


Messrs. English & Blackadar,

Enclosed is a small piece of PAPER, the result of an experiment
I have made, in order to ascertain if that useful article might
not be manufactured from WOOD. The result has proved that opinion
to be correct, for- by the sample which I have sent you, Gentlemen-
you will perceive the feasibility of it. The enclosed, which is
as firm in its texture as white, and to all appearance as durable
as the common wrapping paper made from hemp, cotton, or the
ordinary materials of manufacture is ACTUALLY COMPOSED OF SPRUCE
WOOD, reduced to a pulp, and subjected to the same treatment as
paper is in course of being made, only with this exception, VIZ:
my insufficient means of giving it the required pressure. I
entertain an opinion that our common forest trees, either hard
or soft wood, but more especially the fir, spruce, or poplar,
on account of the fibrous quality of their wood, might easily
be reduced by a chafing machine, and manufactured into paper of
the finest kind. This opinion, Sirs, I think the experiment will
justify, and leaving it to be prosecuted further by the scientific,
or the curious.


I remain, Gentlemen, your obdt. servant,

CHARLES FENERTY.


The Acadian Recorder
Halifax, N.S.
Saturday, October 26, 1844



Little attention was given, and even Fenerty himself never pursued it. But it did mark the beginning to a new industry. Dr. Oschatz was another Nova Scotia who took it further, but today most people attribute F.G. Keller as the original inventor mainly because Fenerty never took out a patent on his process.

On Canada Day in 1987, Canada Post put out a set of four stamps commemorating Canadian inventors in Communications. Both F.G. Keller and Charles Fenerty did for us what Johannes Gutenberg did for the world in the 16th century; they gave humanity a means to awareness. Gutenberg invented the Printing Press thus giving the potential of unlimited information, and giving people the chance to become more literate and educated (for example, his printing press led Martin Luther to rise and tell everyone to read the Bible for themselves, thus not relying on the Church to interpret it for them. This led to the Reformation and changed everything (the Renaissance, the Scientific Revolution, Age of Enlightenment, Age of Discovery, Age of Invention, Age of Exploration, Age of Communication). And it’s the Age of Communication which has led us to our present state. With Fenerty’s invention (paper now being both cheap and abundant) people become more educated, more aware; information through communication was passed more readily. Science now rockets off into the 20th century with inventions like the Telegraph, the Telephone, Photography, Radio, Television, Motion Picture, Computers, Satellites, and finally the Internet. This is now the time of Mass Communication and Information. Our world is undergoing massive change at a much more rapid pace due to science and technology, communication and information.

Charles Fenerty was also a well known poet of his time. He published over 35 (known) poems. Some popular poems of his are: Betula Nigra (about a Black Birch tree), Essay on Progress (published in 1866), and the Prince’s Lodge (about Prince Edward Augustus, Duke of Kent and Strathearn, written c1838 and published in 1888). In October of 1854, Fenerty won first prize for his poem Betula Nigra at the Nova Scotia Industrial Exhibition. Fenerty travelled to Australia then returned again to Halifax in 1865. He held several positions: Wood Measurer, Census Taker, Health Warden, Tax Collector for his community, and Overseer of the Poor. He was also very involved with the Church.

[edit] External links

• Biography at the Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online
• Biography at Fultz House Museum
• The Official Charles Fenerty Website
• Canadiana Online : Essay on Progress by Chalres Fenerty
• The Canadian Encyclopedia
• Canada Post : Chalres Fenerty Stamp

[edit] References

• Fergusson, Charles Bruce., Charles Fenerty, William Macnab & Son, Halifax, N.S., 1955
• Punch, Terrence Michael., Some Sons of Erin in Nova Scotia, Petheric Press Ltd, 1980
• Hunter, Dard., Papermaking Through Eighteen Centuries, William Edwin Rudge, New York, 1930
• Acadian Recorder, Halifax Nova Scotia, 1817 - 1892
• Halifax Herald, The, Halifax, Nova Scotia, 1840 - 1892
• NovaScotian, The, Halifax, Nova Scotia, 1830 - 1880
• Nova Scotia Archives and Records Management (NSARM)
• Family Archives
• Personal Files (passed down from relatives)