History Of Paper Rough Draft

2. History of technology and development of paper.

China is recognized as the first country to establish a unique papermaking process. In approximately 105 AD during the Han Dynasty the papermaking process by the creation of pulp using textile waste. Chinese papermakers then went on to create sized paper and paper that had unique qualities such as paper that was resistant to insect damage. These advances made the utility of using paper much more diverse and lengthened the life span of the material.

After nearly 500 years of papermaking in China being a closely guarded secret the process eventually spread to Korea and Japan in approximately 610 AD. The techniques used in these two countries still used the Chinese methods of the hand made process. This process usually followed a method of cooking inner wood fibers of primarily mulberry trees because the fibers were durable and malleable when at last a process of beating the fibers into pulp took place. The beating process resulted in a layered fiber mat. Very soon after this process was adopted by Japan and Korea the knowledge rapidly spread to Central Asia, Tibet, India, Middle East, and Spain. In the countries that lacked the recourses for fresh tree fibers the substitute generally used were old rags.

Traditional means of creating paper by hand continued predominantly up until the 14th century. During this time European papermakers used innovation to improve the papermaking process. Two Italian papermakers by the names of Fabriano, and Amalfi made a series of improvements. The improvements included using water to power machinery. They also adopted and reconfigured machines that were used in other textile manufacturers such as implementing a stamping mill that would produce and process the pulp used for paper more efficiently. The paper press that the two designed had slides for feeding material quickly into the press which rapidly improved drying time.

Directly after improvements in paper...