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From WinkyPedia, the free encyclopedia that tells you what you already knew
The invention of paper took place in China. The oldest surviving fragments of paper date from around the 2nd century BCE, and in 105 CE the court official Cai Lun presented an improved method of papermaking to Emperor He of the Han dynasty.[1]
Cai Lun's paper was made from tree bark, hemp, old rags and worn-out fishing nets, which makes it the first writing material in history to have previously caught a fish.
Before paper, writing in China was mostly done on strips of bamboo or wood tied together, or on silk. Bamboo was heavy and silk was expensive, so a long reading list was either a burden or a luxury, and occasionally, historians note, literally both.[2]
To make paper, plant fibres were soaked in water, beaten into a pulp, spread thinly over a screen and left to dry. The process has changed remarkably little since, and paper today is still largely made of trees and water, two things that, on their own, are very hard to write on.
Cai Lun is traditionally credited as the inventor of paper, even though older fragments have since been found. Scholars therefore describe him, gently, as having invented it again, but better, which is the most common kind of invention there is.
Papermaking spread from China to Korea and Japan, and by the 8th century it had reached Samarkand and then Baghdad. It arrived in Spain by the 12th century, and centuries later it supplied the printing press, which needed something to press on. Making paper from wood pulp on a large scale began only in the 19th century.
For the first time in history it was now possible to be handed a form to fill in, although, as historians are careful to point out, it was some centuries before anybody thought of doing so.