The history of the paper mill Herisem and former cardboard factory (1858-1940)

The economical crisis in 1858 in Belgium and Brussels made that the handmade paper produced in this paper mill is not economical profitable any more towards mechanical produced paper. And so the paper mill is recovering slowly from this crisis.  When the manager decides to change the production from handmade paper to handmade cardboard, a new market was touched with success. The industrial revolution, which was happening in that period of time, made it possible that the production system was mechanized and expanded. This happened in the mill around 1872.

Together with the mechanization of the production system, an enormous expansion came by. The number of workers amounted, production halls were built at high speed and several production lines for different kind of cardboard were developed. The cardboard was exported over the whole world, even Brazil, China and many other countries.  The location of Herisem became by the end of the 19th-century several times too small and other factories nearby, in the peripheries of Brussels, where bought.