Can You Tell Me Something About The History Of Paper Making?

Loads of trees are used each year to make paper but there are other sources of the fibres that can be used. The first writing materials were made from plant fibres by the ancient Egyptians and our word for paper comes from theirs – papyrus.

The Greek and Roman civilisations also used plant fibres but ancient Greeks also used animal skins to make early parchment. Parchment was used until recently – about 150 years ago – for writing legal documents such as wills and house deeds.

More modern paper was first made in 105 AD in China when a Chinese court official named Ts'ai Lun mixed mulberry bark and hemp with water and scraps of cotton and linen cloth rags. Material rags were used as the raw material in paper making for the next 1700 years and it was not until 1843 that paper mills began to use wood pulp. Today, the use of trees for paper making poses a big environmental dilemma as paper production has increased to unbelievable proportions.