Stationery & Desk

Even today those who make paper by hand use tools and technologies quite similar to those existing hundreds of years ago, as originally developed in China and other regions of Asia, or those further modified in Europe. Water is further removed from this sheet by pressing, sometimes aided by suction or vacuum, or heating. Today almost all paper is made using industrial machinery, while handmade paper survives as a specialized craft and a medium for artistic expression.

• Scholars have identified paper mills, likely human or animal powered, in Abbasid-era Baghdad during 794–795.
• In the United States, printing paper is generally 20 lb, 24 lb, 28 lb, or 32 lb at most.
• Finally, the paper is dried by making it gush through narrow spaces between rotating wires and belts.
• By cutting off or tightly regulating the supply of paper for writing and printing, an authoritarian regime could control what was published and silence its dissidents.
• The knowledge about the techniques of papermaking found their way into civilizations far removed from the rich landscapes of China and Chinese papermakers.
• The wood is then diced into single-inch chips and cooked in a solution of acid to separate the desirable plant fibers from the undesirable lignin, rendering the solution pulpy and fibrous.

thoughts on “35 Different Types of Paper – Their Uses and Properties”

Because paper was introduced to the West through the city of Baghdad, it was first called bagdatikos. The oldest known archaeological fragments of the immediate precursor to modern paper date to the 2nd century BCE in China. Papyrus is a lamination of natural plant fibre, while paper is manufactured from fibres whose properties have been changed by maceration.

Who Invented Paper?

Although almost all steps in papermaking have become highly mechanized, the basic process has remained essentially unchanged. It reached Central Asia by 751 and Baghdad by 793, and by the 14th century there were paper mills in several parts of Europe. Paper is produced in large factories called paper mills. The material used in this ancient paper included cotton rags, hemp, various plant fibres and old fish nets. Printing is often done on paper before the paper is cut into sheets. Modern paper is normally made from wood pulp.

Likewise, paper plays a crucial role in museums, archives, and other places that preserve historical records. When trying to uncover and piece together past events, historians and others rely heavily on paper records and documents. A heroic deed or achievement of a major goal is often commended on a paper document. Life's momentous events—such as births, weddings, graduations, and deaths—are recorded, commemorated, and celebrated with the use of paper. The date or publication in a scientific journal or elsewhere—usually on paper—is generally used for establishing priority of discovery.

Fabriano papermakers considered the process of making paper by hand an art form and were able to refine the process to successfully compete with parchment which was the primary medium for writing at the time. Production began in Baghdad, where a method was invented to make a thicker sheet of paper, which helped transform papermaking from an art into a major industry. A Persian geography book written by an unknown author in the 10th century, Hodud al-Alam, is the oldest known manuscripts mentioning papermaking industry in Samarkand. During the 8th century, paper started to replace parchment as the primary writing material for administrative uses in Baghdad, the paper capital of Abbasids. Bloom argues that based on differences in Chinese and Central Asian papermaking techniques and materials, the story of Chinese papermakers directly introducing paper to Central Asia is probably metaphorical.