Paper

Paper Helping people make their MARK

When it first appeared around 2,000 years ago, paper made writing and reading easier than ever before.

Before paper was invented, people struggled with heavy books made of bamboo or spent fortunes on expensive silk. Legend has it that Chinese politician Ts’ai Lun revealed his papermaking technique to the emperor in 105 ce, but even older paper, from around 100 bce, has been discovered. It took hundreds of years for the secrets of papermaking to spread to other parts of Asia and North Africa, and more than 1,000 years for it to reach Europe.

The write stuff

The very first Written Words were scratched onto clay slabs in ancient Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq) more than 5,000 years ago. Later, people wrote on silk, bone, and bamboo in China, animal skin in Europe, and papyrus in Egypt. The Aztecs and Mayans in South and Central America wrote on a type of paper made from the bark of the amate tree.

It paved the way for...

Invented around 1450 in

Germany, the printing press eventually made books available to everyone. Plant fibers are cooked with lye (a cleaning agent) before being rinsed and beaten into a pulp. The pulp is spread over a wooden screen, resembling a flat, square sieve.

The first paper money was used in China in the 800s, but didn’t reach Europe until the 1600s.

By the way... My special papermaking recipe included tree bark, fibers from the bamboo plant, some silk rags I had lying around, and even old fishing nets.

Ts’ai Lun was a court official during the Han Dynasty.

The pulp is pressed to squeeze the water out, leaving a sheet of paper. The paper is fully dried by hanging it up on a wall.

Tea bags first went on sale in 1903. At first, they were made from silk, but now they’re made from paper.

How it changed the world

Paper made information, stories, and ideas storable on a light, strong, cheap, and space-saving surface. Without it, the printing press would never have made books and reading so popular.

Making paper

The papermaking process hasn’t changed much since Ts’ai Lun’s time. Plant or textile fibers are still mashed up into a pulp, which is then sieved to create a wet sheet, and then pressed to dry it. The main difference is that machines do it for us these days—the first papermaking machine was invented in 1798. Also, in the 19th century, paper began to be made from wood pulp, which made it cheap enough to get almost everyone scribbling.

Did you know? Ts’ai Lun’s discovery made him very famous and wealthy in China, and helped spread Chinese culture far and wide.

PaPer Tissues were made available in the 1920s and gradually replaced

cloTh handkerchiefs.