Paper

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For other uses, see Paper (disambiguation).

Paper

Paper products: book, toilet paper, ruled paper, carton, egg box

Type Thin material

Physical properties

Density (ρ) From 10 gsm to 3000 gsm

Paper

"Paper" in Traditional (top) and Simplified (bottom) Chinese characters

Traditional Chinese 紙

Simplified Chinese 纸

showTranscriptions
 Paper is a thin sheet material produced by mechanically or chemically
processing cellulose fibres derived from wood, rags, grasses or other vegetable sources
in water, draining the water through fine mesh leaving the fibre evenly distributed on the
surface, followed by pressing and drying. Although paper was originally made in single
sheets by hand, almost all is now made on large machines—some making reels 10
metres wide, running at 2,000 metres per minute and up to 600,000 tonnes a year. It is
a versatile material with many uses, including printing, packaging,
decorating, writing, cleaning, filter paper, wallpaper, book endpaper, conservation
paper, laminated worktops, toilet tissue, currency and security paper and a number of
industrial and construction processes.
The papermaking process developed in east Asia, probably China, at least as early as
105 CE,  by the Han court eunuch Cai Lun, although the earliest archaeological
[1]

fragments of paper derive from the 2nd century BCE in China.  The modern pulp and
[2]

paper industry is global, with China leading its production and the United States
following.

Contents

 1History
 2Early sources of fibre
 3Etymology
 4Papermaking
o 4.1Chemical pulping
o 4.2Mechanical pulping
o 4.3De-inked pulp
o 4.4Additives
o 4.5Producing paper
o 4.6Finishing
 4.6.1Paper grain
 5Applications
 6Types, thickness and weight
 7Paper stability
 8Environmental impact
 9Future
 10See also
 11Citations
 12General references
 13Further reading
 14External links

History
Main article: History of paper
Hemp wrapping paper, China, c. 100 BC

The oldest known archaeological fragments of the immediate precursor to modern

paper date to the 2nd century BCE in China. The pulp papermaking process is ascribed
to Cai Lun, a 2nd-century CE Han court eunuch. [2]

It has been said that knowledge of papermaking was passed to the Islamic world after
the Battle of Talas in 751 CE when two Chinese papermakers were captured as
prisoners. Although the veracity of this story is uncertain, paper started to be made
in Samarkand soon after.  In the 13th century, the knowledge and uses of paper spread
[3]

from the Middle East to medieval Europe, where the first water-powered paper

mills were built.  Because paper was introduced to the West through the city of
[4]

Baghdad, it was first called bagdatikos.  In the 19th century, industrialization greatly
[5]

reduced the cost of manufacturing paper. In 1844, the Canadian inventor Charles

Fenerty and the Friedrich Gottlob Keller independently developed processes for pulping
wood fibres. [6]

Early sources of fibre

See also: wood pulp and deinking
Before the industrialisation of paper production the most common fibre source was
recycled fibres from used textiles, called rags. The rags were
from hemp, linen and cotton.  A process for removing printing inks from recycled
[7]

paper was invented by German jurist Justus Claproth in 1774.  Today this method is

[7]

called deinking. It was not until the introduction of wood pulp in 1843 that paper
production was not dependent on recycled materials from ragpickers. [7]