Read the article.Pen and paper
The
Invention of Paper
1. Written communication has been the center of
civilization for centuries. Most of our important records are on paper.
Although writing has been around for a long time, paper hasn't.
2. In fact, putting thoughts down in written form
wasn't always easy or practical. Early people discovered that they could make
simple drawings on the walls of caves, which was a great place for recording thoughts,
but wasn't portable.
3. Imagine spending hours scratching a message
into a heavy clay tablet and then having to transport it. That's exactly what
the Sumerians did around 4000 BCE. Although this form of written communication was
now portable, it still wasn't practical because of its weight.
4. For centuries, people tried to discover better surfaces on which to record
their thoughts. Almost everything imaginable was tried. Wood, stone, ceramics,
cloth, bark, metal, silk, bamboo, and tree leaves were all used as a writing
surface at one time or another.
5. The word paper is derived
from the word papyrus, which
was a plant found in Egypt along the lower Nile River. About 5,000 years ago,
Egyptians created "sheets" of papyrus by harvesting, peeling, and slicing
the plant into strips. The strips were then layered, pounded together, and
smoothed to make a flat, uniform sheet.
6. No major changes in writing materials were to
come for about 3,000 years. The person credited with inventing paper is a
Chinese man named Ts'ai Lun. He took the inner bark of a mulberry tree and bamboo
fibers, mixed them with water, and pounded them with a wooden tool. He then
poured this mixture onto a flat piece of coarsely woven cloth and let the water
drain through, leaving only the fibers on the cloth. Once dry, Ts'ai Lun
discovered that he had created a quality writing surface that was relatively easy
to make and was lightweight. This knowledge of papermaking was used in China
before word was passed along to Korea, Samarkand, Baghdad, and Damascus.
7. By the tenth century, Arabians were substituting linen fibers for wood
and bamboo, creating a finer sheet of paper. Although paper was of fairly high
quality now, the only way to reproduce written work was by hand, a painstaking
process.
8. By the twelfth century, papermaking reached Europe. In 1448, Johannes
Gutenberg, a German, was credited with inventing the printing press. (It is
believed that moveable type was actually invented hundreds of years earlier in
Asia.) Books and other important documents could now be reproduced quickly.
This method of printing in large quantities led to a rapid increase in the
demand for paper.SOURCE: Wisconsin Paper Council
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agrees with the information
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contradicts the information
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