The book printer Carl Wilhelm Holmström is the first to plan to manufacture paper from wood in Finland. He receives permission from the Senate to establish a pulp and paper mill in Vyborg but abandons his plans.
Sweden’s first pulp mill is established in Trollhättan in 1857. That same year, the pulp grinding industry takes a foothold in Denmark, and one year later, in Russia.
The pharmacist Achates Thuneberg obtains Holmström’s rights and constructs Finland’s first pulp mill in the village of Kinteri, in the rural municipality of Vyborg.
Fredrick Idestam, a mining engineer, establishes the Tampere Pulp Mill along the banks of the Tammerkoski rapids. The following year he receives a bronze medal for his pulp at the Paris World’s Fair.
Working together with Herman Kaufmann, the director of the Tampere machine shop, Fredrick Idestam develops a new type of grinding machine and they seek a patent. The following year, Idestam successfully experiments with the use of spruce as a pulpwood in place of aspen.
The pharmacist Gustaf Adolf Serlachius begins operations at the pulp mill he constructed at Keuruu.
Idestam begins operations at his second mill, along the banks of the Nokiakoski rapids.
L.J. Hammarén, G.O. Sumelius and August Nyberg, merchants from Tampere, purchase a former textile mill in Hämeenkyrö and convert it into a pulp mill.
The pharmacist E.J. Granberg and merchant C.J. Villgrén construct a pulp and paper mill in Sääksmäki beside the Valkeakoski rapids.
Th. Leonard Hellström, a sales agent, and Lieutenant General Carl August Standertskjöld establish a pulp, paper and board mill on the shores of the Anjalankoski rapids.
The company Tammerfors Träsliperi Aktiebolag constructs a pulp mill upstream of the Tammerkoski rapids.
The engineer Hugo Neumann establishes Finland’s ninth pulp mill on the shores of the Verlakoski rapids. The mill burns down in 1874. The Austrian-born paper master Gottlieb Kreidl, consul Wilhelm Dippell from Vyborg and the German-born paper master Louis Hänel construct a new pulp and board mill on the site, which begins operations in 1882.
The pulp, paper and board mills established by Count Carl Robert Mannerheim in Myllysaari in Kuusankoski begin operations.
The pulp, paper and board mills constructed by industrialist Axel Wilhelm Wahren on the eastern shore of the Kuusankoski rapids begin production.
The pulp and paper mill established along the Rakkolanjoki River in the rural municipality of Vyborg by statesman August Krogius ends the first phase of pulp mill construction in Finland.
At the beginning of the 19th century, more schooling was available and the educational level of the population throughout Europe was increasing. The demand for printed materials increased rapidly. As printers and paper mills attempted to increase their output, however, they were hindered by a lack of raw materials. A limited quantity of rags was available, which prompted a decades-long attempt to develop an alternative source of fibre for pulp.
The German textile master Friedrich Gottlob Keller develops a method to grind wood into a pulp using a grindstone turning in water. When mixed with rags, the pulp is suitable for papermaking. However, when he attempts to make use of his invention in the industrial production of pulp, he runs into financial difficulties.
Discouraged by the obstacles before him, Keller sells his invention to his fellow countryman Heidrich Voelter, who patents it in his own name. Voelter continues to develop the pulp grinder with the assistance of mechanic J.M. Voith, among others.
Heidrich Voelter presents the results of his two decades of development work to the world: a pulp grinder suitable for industrial use along with a pulp cleaner, a secondary grinder and a forming machine. His life’s work is awarded a gold medal at the fair.