Papermaking is the craft of making paper by dispersing plant fibers in water, filtering them onto a screen to form an even thin layer, and then pressing and drying that layer into a sheet. It originated in China during the Han Dynasty and is counted among the Four Great Inventions of ancient China. The earliest paper-like writing material was Egyptian papyrus, but the earliest true papermaking process appeared in China during the Eastern Han, and tradition credits it to the court official Cai Lun. Unlike papyrus and parchment, true paper is made by first breaking fibers down completely and then letting them re-interlace into a sheet. This basic principle has remained unchanged from ancient hand papermaking to the modern paper machine.
Origins
Before paper, the main writing surfaces in China were bamboo and wooden slips and silk. Slips were heavy and silk was expensive. Archaeological finds show that paper existed before Cai Lun. The oldest surviving paper fragment was excavated at Fangmatan in Gansu. It may be part of a map and dates to about 179–141 BC. Paper fragments from Dunhuang have been dated to 65 BC, and fragments from Yumen Pass to 8 BC. Most early paper was made from hemp fiber. It was used mainly for wrapping and padding and only rarely for writing.
According to the Book of the Later Han, in AD 105 Cai Lun greatly improved the papermaking process using tree bark, hemp waste, rags, and old fishing nets, and presented the method to Emperor He of Han. This paper later became known as "Marquis Cai's paper." Scholars usually distinguish between "invention" and "improvement." Cai Lun's contribution was standardization: he established a reliable method with defined materials and steps that could be taught and spread. Cheap materials such as bark, rags, and fishing nets widened the supply of raw material and lowered costs. Over time, paper replaced bamboo and wooden slips as the main writing material.
Traditional process
Traditional hand papermaking generally involves the following steps:
- Preparing and cooking the material: Raw materials such as hemp, paper mulberry bark, mulberry bark, bamboo, or rice straw are chopped and soaked. They are then cooked with lime or plant ash to remove impurities such as lignin and pectin and free the cellulose fibers.
- Pounding and beating: The fibers are beaten repeatedly with a trip hammer or stone mortar until they are fine and frayed into fibrils. They are then mixed with water to form a suspended pulp.
- Sheet forming: A bamboo screen is dipped into a vat to scoop up pulp. Water drains through the gaps in the screen, and the fibers interlace on its surface to form a wet sheet. A plant mucilage, known as "paper medicine," is sometimes added to the pulp to help the fibers disperse evenly.
- Pressing and drying: The wet sheets are stacked and pressed to remove water. They are then brushed one by one onto a heated wall or an ordinary wall and dried by heat or sun.
In the "Killing the Green" chapter of the Tiangong Kaiwu, the Ming dynasty scholar Song Yingxing gave an illustrated, systematic account of how bamboo paper and bark paper were made. The chapter is an important source for the study of traditional papermaking. Different regions developed distinctive papers suited to their local materials and techniques. Among them, Xuan paper, made from the bark of the blue sandalwood tree (Pteroceltis tatarinowii) and sandy-field rice straw, is soft yet strong and absorbs ink well. It is an essential material for Chinese calligraphy and Chinese painting.
Spread to East Asia and the Islamic world
Papermaking first spread within East Asia. Some sources state that it reached Vietnam in the 3rd century, the Korean Peninsula in the 4th, and Japan in the 5th. Japan later developed its own washi tradition, using kozo, gampi, and mitsumata as raw materials.
Papermaking traveled west mainly along the Silk Road. The traditional account links its westward spread to the Battle of Talas in 751. In that battle, forces of the Abbasid Caliphate captured papermakers serving in the army of the Tang Dynasty, and the technique reached the Islamic world through them. Other scholars argue that the transfer resulted from gradual exchange along the Silk Road, and that Talas is simply a frequently cited milestone. Samarkand became a papermaking center, and paper mills were later set up in Baghdad and other cities. The use of water-powered mills in paper production, particularly for beating pulp, can be traced to 8th-century Samarkand. In the Islamic world, paper gradually replaced papyrus and provided a cheap medium for copying Arabic texts and for scholarly translation.
Development in Europe
Papermaking reached Europe through the Iberian Peninsula under Islamic rule. Europe's earliest paper mills were built at Xàtiva in Spain (1151) and Fabriano in Italy (1276). They were powered by streams, and the purity of the water partly determined the quality of the paper. Sources disagree on the date of the Xàtiva mill, though most place it in the 11th or 12th century. The papermakers of Fabriano sized their paper with animal glue, improved water-powered stamping mills, and used watermarks. In 1390 the first paper mill north of the Alps was built outside Nuremberg in Germany. European paper was made mainly from linen and cotton rags. The rise of metal movable-type printing in the mid-15th century sharply increased demand for paper. Together, cheap paper and printing drove the spread of knowledge during the Renaissance.
Industrialization and modern papermaking
The Industrial Revolution changed the scale of papermaking. The Fourdrinier machine was invented in 1799 by the Frenchman Nicolas-Louis Robert and later refined by the brothers Henry and Sealy Fourdrinier. It produced paper continuously on rolls instead of one sheet at a time by hand. As output grew, the supply of rags could not keep up with demand. In 1843 Friedrich Gottlob Keller of Saxony first used ground wood as a raw material for pulp. Wood pulp then gradually became the main raw material. Chemical pulping methods followed in the second half of the 19th century. The sulfite process and the kraft (sulfate) process use chemicals to dissolve lignin and produce stronger fibers, and the kraft process later became the dominant chemical pulping method.
Modern papermaking has two main stages:
- Pulping: Wood, bamboo, bagasse, and other materials are broken down into fibers by mechanical, chemical, or chemi-mechanical methods and bleached if needed.
- Papermaking: The pulp is refined, mixed with additives such as fillers and sizing agents, and fed to the paper machine. The wire section drains the water and forms the sheet, the press section squeezes out more water, and the dryer section dries the web over heated cylinders. The paper is then calendered and wound into reels.
Large modern paper machines run continuously and produce newsprint, printing and writing papers, packaging board, and tissue. Wastepaper can be repulped and de-inked to make new pulp, which makes papermaking one of the industries with the highest rates of recycling. At the same time, the industry uses large amounts of water and energy, its pulping effluent contains organic pollutants, and its harvesting of raw materials affects forest resources. Cleaner production and sustainable forestry have therefore long been central concerns for the industry.
Historical impact
Light and cheap, paper lowered the cost of recording and spreading written information. It profoundly shaped administration, education, and the spread of religious scriptures and scholarly works. In China, paper was also used for painting, covering windows, and making fans and lanterns. The jiaozi, which appeared in the Northern Song dynasty, was printed on paper and was an early form of paper money. The spread of paper went hand in hand with woodblock printing and movable-type printing, and together they formed the material basis of information exchange in the premodern world.
References
- History of paper - Wikiwandwikiwand.com
- The origins of paperogabinetedemadamethao.com
- Cai Lunen.wikipedia.org
- Chinese Papermaking — Ancient Sciencessatyori.com
- Ancient China's Four Great Inventions Were Kept Secret for Centurieshistorycollection.com
- The Invention of Paper: From Ancient China to the Modern World - Origin Traceorigin-trace.com
- History of papermaking - ASTEPPasteppbycristini.it
- Papermillsexhibitions.library.vanderbilt.edu
- History of papermaking in New Yorken.wikipedia.org
- A never-ending success story - the history of paperblog.stp.de