The history of papermaking

Traditionally, Chinese official, Ts’ai Lun, circa AD50-121, is said to have invented paper, but the oldest surviving paper fragments, found by archaeologists at Fangmatan in Gansu Province, China, date from 179-141BC, making its history even longer. Early Chinese paper was made using rags and plant fibre, as well as the bark from mulberry trees, and was used for writing, packing, money and even for making square bags to preserve tea. This new invention soon spread along the trading routes of the Silk Road, reaching India in the 7th century and the Middle East by the 9th century. The first known paper document in the West, a Mozarabic prayer book called The Missal of Silos, dates from the 11th century, and soon paper mills began to appear in Northern Europe, although the first paper mill in England was only founded in 1490. The growth of the paper industry in Europe was encouraged by the invention of the printing press, as printers need paper rather than the parchment used for manuscripts, and was then given further momentum by the growth of the newspaper industry. Pre-industrial papers were rag papers, made mainly from hemp, linen and, later on, cotton. Wood pulp was not introduced until the 19th century, when a Canadian inventor named Charles Fenerty designed a machine which could extract and pulp fibres from wood. By the end of the 19th century, almost all paper was made from wood pulp, as it was cheaper than using rags. Today, some specialist mills, such as Two Rivers Paper, make rag paper, as it is longer-lasting, stronger and absorbs ink better than that made from wood pulp.