A Pirie & Sons Register 1881

Alexander Pirie & Sons In 1800 Alexander Pirie took over the Stoneywood Mill, on the river Don near Aberdeen, from his uncle Alexander Smith. Pirie converted the mill to make white paper and brought in James Reid to be the mill manager. 1802 saw the first watermarked Pirie paper. In 1820 the first Fourdrinier machine is installed at Stoneywood, and Alexander Gill was the head papermaker. In 1828 a huge water wheel is installed to provide power. In 1844 there are three fourdrinier machines working at Stoneywood mill. Alexander Pirie papers are sold throughout the world and receive numerous awards at world expos in the nineteenth century. In the 1871 paper mills directory the Stoneywood mill is listed as having four machines, with a width of between 60 and 78 inches producing writing papers. In 1882 Alex Pirie & Sons was formed into a Limited Company. In 1890 there were six machines in operation at Stoneywood, employed between 1500 and 1600 people and by 1900 was producing 150 tons of paper per week. In 1921 the Waterton mill is built adjacent to Stoneywood. In 1922 Alex Pirie & Sons is amalgamated with Wiggins Teape to form Wiggins, Teape & Alex. Pirie Limited. This company would eventually merge with Appleton Papers in 1991 and then with Arjomani Piroux in 1999 to create ArjoWiggins Appleton. Stoneywood and Waterton mills produce over 200 tonnes of paper per day in 2013. Ruled pages from a Bound Ledger