Samuel W. Westing was an industrialist who disappeared after a near-fatal auto accident. He was an only child who was very hard working. He built Westing Paper Products Corporation. He also founded the city of Westingtown. He was a master at chess. He was famous for Fourth of July celebrations where he would have pageants and put on firework displays.

Paper Products

Even though paper is very important in our lives, it has not always been there for us to use. During the days of the caveman, they had to chisel their thoughts onto a cave wall. Anyone who wanted to read it had to come to the cave because the cave couldn't come to where they were. During the time of the Sumerians in about 4000 B.C., the Sumerians also carved their thoughts, but they carved them onto rock tablets. These made them portable but still very difficult and not very practical.

For many centuries to follow, man tried to find other ways and places to write down important thoughts and messages. Wood, stone, bamboo, silk, metal, and tree leaves were all used as a writing plane during one time throughout the years.

The word paper comes from the word "papyrus" which is a plant found along the Nile River in Egypt. Egyptians would take sheets of the plant and make them into long strips that were then pounded together to make a larger writing surface. Even though the Egyptians found a type of "paper" to use out of a plant, they were not the true creators of paper. The honor of inventor goes to a Chinese gentleman named Ts'ai Lun. Ts'ai used the inside bark of a mulberry tree along with bamboo strands to invent a type of paper.

Paper is one of the most important products made. It is needed everyday of our lives. Without paper, newspapers, magazines and books could never be made. Paper is very important in government and education. Think about it? How could we get our schoolwork done without paper?

There are many different types of paper that are produced. There are ground wood paper, book paper, tissue paper, absorbent paper, paperboard, money and newspaper just to name a few. There are many different items that paper product companies make and sell. Some of these products are paper cups, paper plates, paper napkins and many more.

There are many careers in the paper field. Most careers in paper making require at least some college or technical training. Some of those careers include: barker equipment operators, advertising workers, chippers, paper machine operators and sales people.

For example, a barker operator is in charge of operating a machine that strips the bark and the dirt off the wood. An advertising worker is in charge of creating an idea and transferring it to print either on newspaper or magazine to sell things to the public. A chipper is someone who runs a machine that takes wood and chops in into tiny pieces called mulch. The mulch is then used for landscaping. A paper machine operator is a person who works the machine that turns pulp into paper. The paper machine operator also needs to know a lot about computers because computers run these machines. Sales people are very important because they go out and sell the products to other companies. They need to make sure that all the clients they sell to are happy with the products they receive.