Paper History

According to tradiction, the first to manufacture paper, in the year 105 was Cai Lun (or Tsai-Lun), an eunuch of the Han Eastern court of Chinese Emperor (or Ho Ti). Paper was probably manufactured with a mould of bamboo stripes.

The oldest paper conserved was manufactured with ropes around the year 150.

For approximately 500 years, the art of manufacturing paper was limited to China, in 610 was introduced in japan and around 750 in Central Asia.

Paper appeared in Egypt around 800 AD, but it was not manufactued there until 900 AD.

The use of paper was introduced in Europe by the Arabians, and the first factory was settled in Spain in 1150. Throughout the following centuries, the technique was expanded to the majority of the European countries.

The only satisfactory raw material that paper makers knew about were pieces of rope. The increase in the use of paper during XVII & XVIII centuries led to scarcity of rope. There were numerous attempts to introduce substitutes, but none of them was commercially satisfactory. The problem of manufacturing paper from a cheap raw material was solved by introducing the process of crushing wood to produce the mass- in 1840- and the first chemical process to produce mass took part some 10 years after.

At the same time, there was an attempt to reduce the cost of paper through the development of a machine that replaces the hand made moulding process in manufacturing. The first effective machine was built in 1798 by the French inventor Nicholas Louis Robert. Robert's machine was improved by two British paper workers, brothers ermanos Henry & Sealy Fourdrinier, who in 1803 made the first one of the machines taking their name.

Even though its benefits are countless, paper manufacturing consumes very precious natural resources, as trees, water and energy. In order to manufacture a ton of paper, you may need approximately 14 trees which last more than 7 years in recovering through new plantations; 40 thousand litres of water and around 7600 Kwh. power are used. Recovery of wasted paper to be used as raw material for the manufacture of a new paper reduces trees cutting down, consumes 55% less power and only the 10% of water required by the use of wood. There are many types and quality of paper, but some preserve more than others the natural resources of our planet.