Republic of the Philippines

PARTIDO STATE UNIVERSITY

Camarines Sur

MODULE 1
CREATION PROCESS OF DOCUMENTS

Name of Students___________________________________ Week Number 4_______

Course Code: FOR4 Name of Faculty: Shirlene S Esplana
Course Title: Questioned Document Examination

I. OBJECTIVES

At the end of this module, you will be able to:

1. Understand the origin and development process of paper and its production;
2. Examine the watermarking of various document

II. LESSON

Lesson 1: Origin of Paper

Lesson 2: Development and Process of Paper Production
Lesson 3: Watermarking

III. DISCUSSION

Introduction

This module will introduce to you the significant development of paper and other writing
instruments. This is very important to understand the origin of the paper, inventions and
the people behind its creation, in order to establish your fundamental knowledge on paper
making and its purposes.

Origin of Paper

Paper is a sheet of interlaced fibers usually cellulose fibers from plants, but sometimes
from cloth rags or other fibrous materials that is formed by pulping the fibers and causing
them to felt, or mat, to form a solid surface.

The majority of documents are written, typed or printed on paper. It is said that paper is
written, typed or printed on paper. It was invented by the Chinese more than thousand
years ago, but knowledge of its manufacture was slow to spread unto Europe. The exact
date when paper was first made in Europe was not known: it was certainly being made in
France in the twelfth century and knowledge of the paper making process has spread to
England by A.D. 1600. Incidentally, it is no coincidence that the invention and
manufacture in quantity of the iron-tannin ink are contemporary with the spread of
papermaking in Europe. Both are complementary, for the production of writing paper in
quantity called for the invention of an improved type of pen and ink for the use with this
new material.

Earliest European papers were made from fibers from the mechanical disintegration of
linen and cotton rags in the presence of water. At first, paper was made by hand.
Improvements in the art accumulated slowly, the great step forward being taken at the

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 Republic of the Philippines
PARTIDO STATE UNIVERSITY
Camarines Sur

end of the eighteenth century when a paper making machine, which produced a
continuous web of paper was invented.

As the demand for paper soon out stripped the supply of linen and cotton rags, strenuous
efforts were made in the early part of the last century to prepare cellulous fibers suitable
for paper-making from more abundant sources.

Straw was considered a source of cellulose, which was well worth exploitation and by the
middle of the nineteenth century straw, was being used along with rag pulp for the
manufacture of cheap wrapping paper. Shortly afterwards, about 1861, esparto fiber was
introduced, but its use has been largely confined to the preparation of paper for book
production as it is light and bulky and takes printing ink very satisfactorily.

Development and Process of Paper Production

The invention of paper is generally attribute to a Chinese court official Cailun, in about
105 BCE, although the Chinese had probably made paper from silk fibers even earlier.
Cailun, however, was the first to succeed in making a paper from vegetable fibers tree
bark, rags, old fish netting. The art making paper are kept secret for 500 years; the
Japanese acquired it only in the 7th century in 770 produced the first mass publication, a
block-printed Buddhist prayer paper, of which 1,000,000 were printed.

In 751 BCE, the then-Arab city of Samarkand was attacked by marauding Chinese.
Among the Chines prisoners taken during the attack were several skilled in the art of
papermaking. They were forced but the city’s governor to build and operate a paper mill.
Samarkand had an abundant supply of water, flax, and hemp; it soon became the
papermaking center of the Arab world.

Watermarking

Watermarking is a technique used to create a pattern or mark in a sheet of paper that is

visible when the sheet is held to a light. The marking is made by wires woven into the
surface of a mold, in the production of handmade papers, or into a revolving cylinder for
machine made papers. The thickness of the wire created a corresponding displacement
of fiber in the wet sheet during its formation, so that when dried the pattern is easily visible.

The watermark has a long history as a maker’s trademark and as a guarantee of quality;
the first recorded trade watermark appeared during the 13 th century. In paper used for
currency the watermark serves as a guarantee of authenticity. Watermarking is a costly
procedure, however, and it used today only for specialty and currency papers.

The earliest way of identifying the date of manufacturer of the paper is the watermark.
This is a brand put on the paper by the manufacturers. It is impressed into the paper by
wires on the rollers that make the paper, these designs are changed from time to time.
All paper manufacturers keep careful records of the changes in their watermarks. If the
watermarks of the suspected document and of other papers genuinely prepare at the
same time are not the same. An inquiry should be made to the paper manufacturer.
Wrong watermarks are one of the most common mistakes of a forger. Another valuable
kind of evidence obtained from paper is the presence of official watermarks belonging to
government agencies.

What can be determined from watermarks?

- Determination of the time period paper was made
- Determination where paper was made
- Trace usual papers

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 Republic of the Philippines
PARTIDO STATE UNIVERSITY
Camarines Sur

IV. ASSESSMENT

Quiz will be posted in Moodle.

V. REFERENCES

1. Albert S. Osborn. Questioned Documents. Second Ed., Nelson Hall, Inc.,1989. p.

585
2. Casingham RC. The Dvorak Keyboard (1986); Mares, George C. The History of
the Typewriter (1985). Copyright (c) Grolier Electronic Publishing, Inc.
3. Duno, Joenard C. and Efondo, Violeta C. Handbook in Questioned Document
Examination with Laboratory Manual. 2021. Wiseman’s Books Trading Inc.
Quezon City
4. Manlusoc, Ariel C. Questioned Document., PCCR College of Criminology
5. Mendoza, Gregorio B. Forensic Laboratory Manual. Questioned Document
Examination. 2020. Wiseman’s Books Trading Inc. Quezon City
6. Panganiban & Varona, Questioned Document Examination, Hazard Safety &
Security Equipment. p. 2
7. Sorra, Mely E. 2011, FORGED or GENUINE? A Questioned Document Handbook,
Wiseman’s Book Trading, Inc., Quezon City
8. Sulner, Hannah F. Disputed Document
9. https://www.westernforensicdocumentexaminer.com/document-forgery/
10. Criminalistics Investigation. PNP Lecture

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