The history of paper

3000 BC

The Ancient Egyptians, Romans and Greeks used papyrus, a tall water reed found along the banks of the Nile to write on. The papyrus was prepared by soaking, pressing and drying the thin strips of the pith of the plant.

AD 105

Chinese court official Ts'ai Lun invented paper from rags presenting the sheet of paper to the Emperor Ho Ti as a substitute writing surface to silk.

Chinese papermakers developed sized, coated and dyed paper and developed a paper that was protected against insects. Rags were replaced with bamboo which was de-fibred by cooking in lye

AD 610

Papermaking was introduced into Japan via Korea from China. The Japanese made their paper from the fresh bast fibres of the mulberry or kozo tree. Following the cooking process, the long, uncut fibres were beaten.

Knowledge of papermaking spread to Central Asia and Tibet and onto India.

751

Method of papermaking was passed onto the Arabs when some Chinese papermakers were captured after the Battle of Talos in 751. Paper mills were soon established in Baghdad and Damascus and the Arabs used rags due to the lack of fresh fibres. The pulp was spread across screens of reeds and both sides were coated with starch paste giving the paper a fine appearance and good writing properties.

From these cities papermaking spread to Cairo in Egypt where it displaced papyrus.

It later spread westward to Morocco.

9TH CENTURY

10TH CENTURY

12TH CENTURY

The Moors introduced the art of papermaking to Spain and Sicily in the 12th Century. According to legend France learned the art when Jean Montgolfier, was taken prisoner by Saracens in the Second Crusade and returned after servicing captivity in a Damascus paper mill.

Early paper was at first disfavoured by the Christian world as a manifestation of Moslem culture, and a 1221 decree from Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II declared all official documents to be written on paper invalid. The introduction of the printing press in the mid 1400s changed European attitudes towards paper.

13TH CENTURY

The Italians improved the Arabs technique developing the use of water power, moulds made of wire mesh, stamping mill and the paper press with slides for feeding in the material and drying it on ropes.

In 1282 water marks were used in Italy for the first time and consisted of simple crosses and circles.

14TH CENTURY

The Arabs exported paper to Europe and passed on the methodology of making paper to Germany in 1389 when Ulmann Stomer, with the help of skilled workers from Italy established a paper mill with two waterwheels, 18 stamping hammers and 12 workers using one or two vats.

15TH CENTURY

Papermaking spread to Belgium in 1407, Holland in 1428, and Switzerland in 1433. Between 1450-55 book printing in Europe commenced when Johann Gutenberg's 42-line Bible was produced.

In 1470 a bookseller's advertisement issued by Peter Schoeffer was the first poster printed upon paper to be produced in Europe.

In 1480 Antony Koberger, distributed a printed circular to his customer, the first use of this form of advertising. Papermaking was introduced into Great Britain in 1490 and was made by John Tate of Hertfordshire. In 1491 paper was made in Poland.

16TH CENTURY

The advantages of using a mill spread throughout Europe and improved output and quality of paper produced. However many papermakers went out of business due to the disproportion between costs of equipment, building and fitting out a mill and the earnings generated.

1576 paper made in Moscow in Russia. 1591 paper made in Scotland.

17TH CENTURY

In 1690 William Rittenhouse started making paper in Philadelphia, USA in a paper mill modelled on the European mills of the day. The mill was located near a town to enable a reliable supply of rags, the main raw material at the time. A large quantity of fresh water was also required for washing the fibres and turning the mill machinery.

Technical progress and an upsurge in papermaking continued in the 17th Century and soon led to a shortage of raw materials and to regulations governing the trade in rags.

The Hollander beater was invented to beat the material into individual fibres, contributing to a stronger product and providing a more efficient method of making pulp.

18TH CENTURY

In 1755 wove paper was made and in 1760 watermarks were used in wove paper. In 1776 Nathan Sellers, a skilled wire drawer in Pennsylvania applied his craft to the manufacture of paper moulds.

By the 1790s American papermakers had begun experimenting with alternative raw materials testing local sources of fibres such as tree bark, bagasse (sugarcane waste), straw and cornstalks as a substitute to rag pulp.

19TH CENTURY

In 1804 the first book was printed on machine-made paper. The first efficient paper machines were introduced in 1825. In 1854 chemical pulp was patented. By the 1860's rag pulp paper was replaced with wood pulp due to the introduction of wood grinders.

Flat screen and cylinder machines were introduced in the 19th Century and were extended to include a dryer section. During this period all work sequences previously performed by hand were mechanised.

20TH CENTURY

During the 20th Century machines were designed specifically for the production of particular paper and boards. New materials and chemicals were introduced into the process and automation occured. New sheet forming principles and chemical pulp processes also evolved.