Introduction
From the time of the invention of paper about the year 105 by Ts\u27ai Lun, the process of beating the pulp as a preliminary to forming a sheet of paper has been recognized as of prime importance.
Early papermakers did not concern themselves greatly with theories; it was enough to know the process necessary to produce the various combinations of long and short, slow and free stocks according to the paper being made. When chemists began to enter the mills, however, their attention was naturally drawn to this important aspect of beating, and to the relationship between cellulose and water in the beating cycle. This relationship is of such fundamental importance in the practice of papermaking that it has been subject to a myriad of published unanimity amongst the so-called experts concerning this complex cellulose-water relationship in beating.
In order to explain the various known effects of beating, there seem to be two distinctly different schools of thought to consider; those supporting the chemical aspects of beating, and those advocating the physical colloidal aspects of the beating action