John Frambach Stoveken

John Frambach Stoveken was born as John Frambach in Herkimer, New York on November 15, 1841. Shortly after John’s mother died, his father moved the Frambach family to Racine, Wisconsin. After the death of his father, John was adopted by Bernard and Francis Stoveken. John gained work experience in a flour mill in Milwaukee and then in the early 1860s he moved to Kaukauna to build and operate a flour mill on the Fox River. In 1871 a fire destroyed much of this mill.

In partnership with his brother Henry Frambach, John built and operated a paper mill variously called the Stoveken and Frambach mill or the Eagle Paper mill. This mill incorporated the new process for grinding wood that had been invented by Keller in Germany. This very successful mill was also destroyed by fire in 1881. It was later rebuilt and sold.

In 1886, John and his brother Henry started Badger Paper Company. It was the largest of the many mills in Kaukauna at the time. Shortly thereafter John started the Northern Pulp Company in Niagara, Wisconsin to supply groundwood pulp to the Badger mill in Kaukauna. In the ensuing years the Niagara mill was enlarged a number of times and eventually grew into the Quinnesec Pulp and Paper Company, a subsidiary of Badger Paper Company. The Niagara mill was purchased by Kimberly-Clark Corporation in 1898.

Stoveken was a cornerstone in the development of the Fox River area as a center for pulp and paper production. Along with his bother Henry Frambach, he built and operated a number of pulp and paper mills in the area. The legacy he left is evident from the historical records of early Kaukauna, Wisconsin.

In addition to his pulp and paper interests, Stoveken was also involved in gold mining operations in Colorado. He held a number of patents that describe methods for extracting gold from ore. Although he lived for a few years in Colorado, he returned to Milwaukee in 1915.

In 1921, John Stoveken moved to Los Angeles, California where he died in 1926.

Georg Jayme

Georg Jayme was born in Ober-Modau, Germany, on April 10, 1899. In 1922, he received his doctorate (Dr. Ing.) with honors from the Technische Hochschule Darmstadt, now Technical University of Darmstadt (TUD).

After graduation, he worked at TUD for some time as assistant to Dr. Emil Heuser and in 1923 followed him to the Institute of Vereinigte Glanzstoff Fabriken, Berlin, Germany and in 1926 to Canada to head a research group of the Canadian International Co., Hawkesbury, Ontario. In 1930, he married Hjordis who had moved to Canada from Norway in 1928.

In 1936, Jayme was invited to join as Professor and head of the Institute of Cellulose Chemistry, TUD, Germany and remained at its helm until his retirement in 1969. During his 33-year tenure at TUD, Jayme developed many new swelling agents and solvents for cellulose. He chemically modified cellulose by methylation to produce stronger pulps and developed a new test method, Water Retention Value (WRV), to study the swelling properties of chemical pulps. He also made use of electron microscopy, especially 3-D imagery, to study the fine structure and reactivity of cellulose. 1n 1960, he developed a procedure for the manufacturing of fluorescent papers, especially for postal stamps. Jayme published over 700 papers (including 35 contributions to books) and was granted over 70 patents.

Under his leadership, the Institute of Cellulose Chemistry grew to become one of the major centers in the world. He trained 140 Masters and more than 130 Ph.D. students from many countries in the field of cellulose chemistry and pulp and paper science. Jayme was an invited lecturer and consultant to many companies and governments worldwide. In 1952, he was elected President of United Nations’ International Committee on raw materials for the production of paper. He also co-founded the magazine, Das Papier, with Prof. Walter Brecht in 1947.

Jayme received ZELLCHEMING’s Alexander-Mitscherlich medal in 1942, Valentin-Hottenroth medal in 1961, Dr. Karl-Kellner-Decoration by Ozepa, Vienna in 1964 and was made an honorary member of ZELLCHEMING in 1966. In 1968, he was made “fellow Emeritus” of the International Academy of Wood Science, Vienna.

Jayme was an active member and/or board member of many professional organizations in Germany, England, Canada and U.S.A. He had a life-long passion for painting, collecting modern art and postal stamps.

Georg Jayme died in Darmstadt Germany on January 1, 1979.

D.K. Brown

Daniel Kevill (D. K.) Brown was born in Preston, Lancashire England on January 21, 1886. At the age of 14, he began a six year apprenticeship as a carpenter and joiner in his father’s business. In 1906, he came to Neenah, Wisconsin, U.S.A., worked as a carpenter and also took night courses in business.

Brown started his career in the paper industry with Kimberly-Clark. When Neenah Paper Company separated from Kimberly-Clark in 1912, Brown joined Neenah Paper as a management trainee and worked his way up the corporate ladder to become president in 1941 and retired as CEO in 1955. In June 1954, Brown was awarded Honorary Ph.D. Degree from Lawrence College (now University) Appleton, Wisconsin.

Brown was an experienced technical person, a skilled leader and an administrator. He worked diligently with the War Department to provide necessary paper products for army-navy needs. It was difficult and costly to change production from fine writing paper to the many different needs of the armed forces, but he made sure that Neenah Paper Company met the challenge. He had a marked impact on both the paper industry and the Fox River Valley.

Brown was a founding trustee of the Institute of Paper Chemistry, a graduate school. He also served two terms as president of the American Paper and Pulp Association, was a member of the executive committee of TAPPI, served as president of the National Writing Paper Manufacturing Association, vice president of the Wisconsin Pulp and Paper Manufacturers Traffic Association and president of the Wisconsin Paper Group.

Brown was also very active in the local community. He served on the boards of the Wisconsin Heart Association, First National Bank of Neenah, First Presbyterian Church of Neenah, Boys Brigade Association, and High Cliff Forest Park. He was also a founding director and president of North Shore golf club. He received an outstanding Service Award from Wisconsin Heart Association.

D. K. Brown died on July 25, 1974 in Neenah, Wisconsin.

Chester Floyd Carlson

Chester Floyd Carlson was born in Seattle, Washington on February 8, 1906. He received his bachelor’s degree in physics from the California Institute of Technology (Cal Tech) in 1930 and his law degree from New York Law School in 1939.

Upon graduation from Cal Tech in 1930, he joined Bell Telephone Laboratories as a research engineer, later becoming the assistant to the patent attorney. While working at Bell, Carlson wrote over 400 ideas for inventions in his personal notebooks. From 1933 to 1946, Carlson worked for the PR Mallory & Company as a patent officer.

Carlson was the inventor of xerography, which is the process of plain paper copying. He patented this process in 1938 and subsequently obtained over 38 other improvement patents. In 1944, he teamed with Battelle Memorial Institute to develop and commercialize the process and in 1947 formed a licensing agreement and a consulting arrangement with the Haloid Company, which later became known as the Xerox Corporation. The Xerox 914 copier was launched in 1959 and it revolutionized paper copying. Before the introduction of Xerox 914, the world made 20 million copies but just five years later, 9.5 billion and by 1984, 550 billion copies were made per year. It is estimated that 2 trillion xerographic copies were made in 2004. Obviously, plain paper copying had an enormous impact on the demand for paper.

The invention of the plain paper photocopier has been called the most significant development for the graphic arts since Gutenberg’s contributions for printing in Germany. Like Gutenberg, Carlson was the single inventor for this technological revolution. Forbes Magazine named the Xerox 914 copier the most successful product ever marketed in America.

While Carlson amassed a personal fortune (over $150 million) from his invention, he endeavored to die penniless through his philanthropic efforts. He was an inventor and a man of character with extraordinary will power.

Carlson received numerous awards during his career including the Inventor of the Year Award in 1964 and the Horatio Alger Award in 1966. He was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 1981.

Chester Carlson died on September 19, 1968 in Rochester, New York.

Jori Eino Pesonen

Jori Eino Pesonen was born on August 21, 1925 in the city of Tampere, the industrial centre of Finland where he also went to school. In 1951, he earned his master’s degree in paper technology from the Helsinki University of Technology.

From 1951-1952, Pesonen worked as manufacturing and research engineer at Hallsta Pappersbruk in Sweden and from 1953-54 at similar positions in Canada at Anglo-Newfoundland Development Company and Anglo-Canadian Pulp & Paper Mills. In 1954, Pesonen returned to Finland from Canada and spent four years working with the team that was building a green-field newsprint mill (1954-1958), now known as UPM Kaipola. Later, Valmet (now Metso) hired him for two years as technical manager to erect and start their new newsprint machine at Cartiere del Timavo S.p.A. in Italy.

By that time the Finnish Kajaani Oy had decided to build their first modern paper machine; Valmet supplied the machine and Tampella, the grinder. Thus the next 14 years Pesonen spent in the little mill town Kajaani in northern Finland as technical manager and later as mill manager. He was also involved in building Kajaani’s second and third machines.

About 1974, Valmet hired him as general manager of the Rautpohja Works, home of their paper machine manufacturing. In 1980, he was promoted to head of the Wood Processing and Paper Machinery Group and in 1987 became President and CEO of Valmet Paper Machinery Inc. He retired in 1990.

Under Pesonen’s leadership, Valmet was transformed from a Finnish mid-size supplier to a leading global supplier of pulp and paper manufacturing machinery. During his tenure, Valmet delivered 97 new paper machines and conducted 76 rebuilds.

From 1974-76, Pesonen served as Chairman of the Finnish Paper Engineers’ Association, received the Stenbäck Plaquette in 1977 and was elected Honorary Member in 2002. He received the Finnish honorary title Industrial Counselor for extraordinary services in1987 and became TAPPI Fellow in 1990. He was a member of the German ZELLCHEMING, British Paper & Board Industry Federation and Canadian Pulp and Paper Association. He was also member of the Board of Directors of many other organizations.

Pesonen is married to Ritta Pesonen. They have two sons (Walter and Jussi) and a daughter (Eeva). Both sons work in the paper industry.