The History of Paper - The Paper Road

The first thing we learned is that China discovered paper first. The earliest evidence of paper was in 149 BC. A standardized process of making paper was invented in 105 ad. They traded paper across the silk road and some say the silk road should be called the paper road. 

Before paper, different materials were used for writing information. The Chinese used bamboo strips and bones and shells. Other materials included birch bark in Russia, stone tablets, pottery shards in Greece. The Egyptians made papyrus out of the papyrus reed plant stem. They took the skin off, hammered it to get the water out and flatten it. And then cut it into strips. Then they soaked it for seven days to make it flexible and remove some of the sugar. Then they wove the pieces by overlapping them in a criss cross pattern. And then they put a rock on it to smoosh  it and then it dries into papyrus. Parchment, or animal skins, replaced papyrus in the 3rd century BC. Parchment was surprisingly cheaper than Papyrus.

We watched the paper making process of mulberry paper at the Meros Paper mill in Samarkand, Uzbekistan. You make it from the inner bark of the mulberry tree. They take the sticks and boil them to loosen the bark. They then pull the bark off. Then they scrap the dark out er bark off. Then they soak the inner bark. Then they put it into a giant water powered hammer mill and smoosh it for a long time. Then they mixed the pulp with water. Then they used a screen in the water and sifted it to get a thin layer of pulp on the screen. Then they pulled the layer off and put it between cotton and pressed it. Then they dried that layer on a wooden board and brush it with a brush. The final step was polishing it for ten minutes on each side. The polished it on a marble slab with horns and shells. . 

Important dates in the history of paper making were:

Chinese used paper for toilet paper and tea bags in 6th century. And paper money was first used in the 10th century. Paper arrived in central Asia in the 8th century. Paper allowed expansion of libraries in Islamic world

The water powered paper mill in Spain in 1200 AD. This led to the broader use of paper in Europe. 

In the 14th century Guttenberg invented the printing press.

In 1844 Keller and Fenerty invented the use of wood fiber. Prior to that torn rags were used for fiber. 

In the 18th century the  industrial process of making paper on a continuous roll was invented.