History of Paper: A Timeline
Around 4000 BC, the ancient Egyptians invented Papyrus. It was similar to paper in that it used plant fibres, however, unlike paper it was made from a woven mat of reeds pounded into a hard, thin sheet.
In about 105 AD, paper was first invented by Ts’ai Lun, a Chinese court official. He is thought to have mixed bark, hemp and rags with water, creating a pulp. He then forced out the water using pressure, leaving a thin sheet to be hung out and dried in the sun.
Around 610 AD, Buddhist monks tool the art of papermaking to Japan, where it became an essential part of Japanese culture. The Japanese used paper as a writing material and to make fans, garments and dolls, amongst many other things.
In 751 AD, after many years of peaceful trading, the Arab and Chinese armies fought against each other. The Chinese were defeated and many taken prisoner. Some of these prisoners were papermakers who tried to bargain for their freedom by revealing the secrets of papermaking to Arabs.
Around 1009 AD, after nearly 400 years, the Arabs (Moors) brought papermaking to Europe, building the first paper mill at Xativa in Spain.
In 1244, European armies drove the Moors from Spain and papermaking began to spread across Christian Europe.
Around 1250, Italy became a major paper producer, exporting large quantities and dominating the European market for many years.
In 1338, French monks started to make paper for holy manuscripts. The new technology was soon adopted throughout France, which became self sufficient in paper production.
In 1453, Johann Gutenberg invented the movable type printing press. Prior to this, few people owned books and very few could read. Books became much cheaper, knowledge and literacy improved and the demand for books increased dramatically.
In 1486, William Caxton introduced Guttenberg’s methods to England, printing his first book in Westminster.
By 1495, papermaking had arrived in England. The first reference to a paper mill in England was made in a book printed by Wynken de Worde, originally Caxton’s assistant. The mill belonged to John Tate and was near Hertford.
In 1860, the first paper mill was established in the new world by the Spanish, in Mexico.
In 1690, immigrant, William Rittenhouse opened the first paper mill in North America, near Piladelphia.
In 1719, Frenchman, Rene de Reaumur put forward the proposal that paper could be made from wood. This was as a result of a dire shortage of rags and old clothes, the raw materials that were then used for papermaking.
In 1757, James Whatman developed a woven wire fabric, leading to the fist wove paper.
In 1798, Nicholas Robert invented the first papermaking machine, it was a hand powered device where paper was made on a continuously revolving screen.
In England, the Fourdrinier brothers, improved on Robert’s invention, paying engineer Henry Donkin to build it. The first successful machine was installed at Frogmore, Hertfordshire in 1803.
In 1850, Friedrich Keller, from Germany, devised a way of making paper from wood pulp. However, the results were poor and the quality was low. By 1852, Englishman Hugh Burgess, had refined the process using chemicals to digest the wood and in 1867, an American chemist, C.B. Tilghman, found that by using sulphites, he could improve it still further. In 1879, C.F. Dahl discovered that adding sodium sulphate to the process created a much stronger pulp.
The width of the web on a papermaking machine had increased from 850mm or 33 inches to 7700mm or 25 feet by 1930.
From the 1950s to the present, the technological advances in paper manufacture increased dramatically, with the introduction of new pulping processes. These included: thermomechanical, de-inked waste paper, new fillers, process chemicals and dyes.
Automation has now become a key factor in the manufacture of paper along with important environmental considerations.
The relatively small papermaking industries of Europe in the Middle Ages have evolved to become producers of one of the world’s most important commodities.
Speed of production also increased, from 5 metres of 16 feet per minute in 1830, to 500 metres, or 1600 feet per minute by the 1930s.