Provenance : Société d’histoire de la Rivière-du-Nord, Rolland Company Fonds

Call number : P001, S05, SS03, SSS01

Illustrator : C.W. Simpson

Date : Circa 1927

In the early days, sheets coming off the machines were brought to the drying rooms, on the top floor of the plant, to be hung from wooden rods. They were left to dry for three days before being cut. Today, though it still bears some resemblance to the old-fashioned technique, this step is entirely mechanized: the sheets snake through a series of steam-heated dryers that are part of the machine.

The fire risk with these artisanal drying methods was high, and so insurance companies weren’t especially keen on them. They were partly the reason why production processes began to be modernized; another reason was that such efficiency improvements helped companies compete better.