Notes

Charles Fenerty (1821–1892) was a Canadian inventor and poet. Born in Upper Sackville, Nova Scotia, his father was a lumberman and farmer who would clear-cut the local forests for lumber which he would ship to Halifax. The Fenerty’s operated a few lumber mills and, from an early age, Charles held various positions in the lumber mill. When he was in his late teens he met Titus Smith, a well-known naturalist and learned that trees also had fibres. There were similarities between lumber and paper mills. In those days, paper was made from pulped rags, cotton and other plant fibres. Demand for paper was outstripping the supply of rags, and Europe started cutting down their shipments of cotton to North America.

From 1839 to 1841, Fenerty experimented with wood fibers at the Acadia Paper mill, a local paper mill. In 1844 he took a hand-written sample of his paper to Halifax’s top newspaper, The Acadian Recorder which at that time was being run by John English and Hugh W. Blackadar.

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 appearances 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 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, 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 obedient servant…’

I remain, Gentlemen, your obdt. servant,

CHARLES FENERTY.

The Acadian Recorder
Halifax, N.S.

Saturday, October 26, 1844

Sadly, he never developed his process or took out a patent on it. Credit is usually given to Friedrich Keller, a German weaver, who did take out a patent in 1845. Certainly, German newspapers were the first to adopt the new paper. By the end of the 19th century almost all newspapers in the western world were using pulp wood newsprint.

On Canada Day in 1987, Canada Post issued a stamp honouring his tremendous contribution to the printing industry.