Russel John P.

Coria

BSIE 1-4

The History of Paper

Paper making is one of the inventions by Chinese. 105 A.D. is often cited as the year in which
papermaking was invented. In that year, historical records show that the invention of paper was reported
to the Eastern Han Emperor Ho-di by Ts'ai Lun, an official of the Imperial Court. Recent archaeological
investigations, however, place the actual invention of papermaking some 200 years earlier. Ts'ai Lun
broke the bark of a mulberry tree into fibres and pounded them into a sheet. Later it was discovered that
the quality of paper could be much improved with the addition of rags hemp and old fish nets to the pulp.
The paper was soon widely used in China and spread to the rest of world through the Silk Road. An
official history written some centuries later explained: In ancient times writing was generally on
bamboo or on pieces of silk, which were then called ji. But silk being expensive and bamboo
heavy, these twoich materials were not conveninet. Then Tsai Lun thought of using tree bark,n
hemp, rags, and fish nets. In 105 he made a report to the emperor on the process of paper
making, and received high praise for his ability. From this time paper has been in use
everywhere and is called the "paper of Marquis Tsai."

In few years, the Chinese began to use paper for writing. Around 600 A.D. woodblock printing was
invented and by 740 A.D., The first printed newspaper was seen in China.

To the east, papermaking moved to Korea, where production of paper began as early as the 6th century
AD. Pulp was prepared from the fibers of hemp, rattan, mulberry, bamboo, rice straw, and seaweed.
According to tradition, a Korean monk named Don-cho brought papermaking to Japan by sharing his
knowledge at the Imperial Palace in approximately AD 610, sixty years after Buddhism was introduced in
Japan.

Along the Silk Road, we learned that paper was introduced to Xinjiang area very early according to the
archaeological records. The paper found at Kaochang, Loulan, Kusha, Kotan, and Dunhuang sites dated
as early as the 2nd. century. The technique eventaully reached Tibet around 650 A.D. and then to India
after 645 A.D. By the time Hsuan Tsang from China arrived to India in 671 A.D., paper was already widely
used there.

For a long time the Chinese closely guarded the secret of paper manufacture and tried to eliminate other
Oriental centers of production to ensure a monopoly. However in 751 A.D. the T'ang army was defeated
by the Ottoman Turks at a mighty battle at the Talas River. Some Chinese soldiers and paper makers
were captured and brought to Samarkand. The Arabs learned the paper making from the Chinese
prisoners and built the first paper industry in Baghdad in 793 A.D. They, too, kept it a secret, and
Europeans did not learn how to make paper until several centuries later. The Egyptians learned the paper
making from the Arabs during the early 10th century. Around 1100 A.D. paper arrived in Northern Africa
and by 1150 A.D. it arrived to Spain as a result of the crusades and established the first paper industry in
Europe. In 1453 A.D. Johann Gutenberg invents the printing press. The first paper industry in the North
America was built in Philadelphia in 1690.
 PROCESS OF PAPER MAKING

HAND MADE

Papermaking, regardless of the scale on which it is done, involves making a dilute

suspension of fibres in water, called "furnish", and forcing this suspension to drain
through a screen, to produce a mat of interwoven fibres. Water is removed from this mat
of fibres using a press.[15]
The method of manual papermaking changed very little over time, despite advances in
technologies. The process of manufacturing handmade paper can be generalized into
five steps:

1. Separating the useful fibre from the rest of raw materials. (e.g. cellulose from wood, cotton, etc.)
2. Beating down the fibre into pulp
3. Adjusting the colour, mechanical, chemical, biological, and other properties of the paper by adding
special chemical premixes
4. Screening the resulting solution
5. Pressing and drying to get the actual paper

Screening the fibre involves using a mesh made from non-corroding and inert material,
such as brass, stainless steel or a synthetic fibre, which is stretched in a wooden frame
similar to that of a window, this tool being knows as a paper mould. The size of the paper
is governed by the open area of the frame. The mould is then completely submerged in
the furnish, then pulled, shaken and drained, forming a uniform coating on the screen.
Excess water is then removed, the wet mat of fibre laid on top of a damp cloth or felt in
a process called "couching". The process is repeated for the required number of sheets.
This stack of wet mats is then pressed in a hydraulic press. The fairly damp fibre is then
dried using a variety of methods, such as vacuum drying or simply air drying.
Sometimes, the individual sheet is rolled to flatten, harden, and refine the surface.
Finally, the paper is then cut to the desired shape or the standard shape (A4, letter,
legal, etc.) and packed.[16]
The wooden frame is called a "deckle". The deckle leaves the edges of the paper slightly
irregular and wavy, called "deckle edges", one of the indications that the paper was
made by hand. Deckle-edged paper is occasionally mechanically imitated today to
create the impression of old-fashioned luxury. The impressions in paper caused by the
wires in the screen that run sideways are called "laid lines" and the impressions made,
usually from top to bottom, by the wires holding the sideways wires together are called
"chain lines". Watermarks are created by weaving a design into the wires in the mould.
Handmade paper generally folds and tears more evenly along the laid lines.
Handmade paper is also prepared in laboratories to study papermaking and in paper
mills to check the quality of the production process. The "handsheets" made according
to TAPPI Standard T 205 [17] are circular sheets 15.9 cm (6.25 in) in diameter and are
tested for paper characteristics such as brightness, strength and degree of sizing. [18]
MACHINE MADE
 Paper machines usually have at least five distinct operational sections:

 Forming section, commonly called the wet end, is a continuous rotating wire mesh which removes water
from the paper by sucking it out of suspension.
 Press section where the wet fibre web passes between large rolls loaded under high pressure to squeeze
out as much water as possible.
 Drying section, where the pressed sheet passes partly around, in a serpentine manner, a series of steam
heated drying cylinders. Drying removes the water content down to a level of about 6%, where it will
remain at typical indoor atmospheric conditions. Infra-red driers are also used to supplement cylinder
drying where required.
 Calender section where the dried paper is smoothened under high loading and pressure. Only
one nip (where the sheet is pressed between two rolls) is necessary in order to hold the sheet, which
shrinks through the drying section and is held in tension between the press section (or breaker stack if
used) and the calender. Extra nips give more smoothing but at some expense to paper strength.
 Reel section where paper coming out of the machine is wound onto individual spools for further
processing.

There can also be a coating section to modify the surface characteristics with coatings
such as china clay.

Sources:

http://www.silkroadfoundation.org/artl/papermaking.shtml

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Papermaking

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paper_machine