In the beginning was papyrus
What we call paper, without which modern office life is simply unthinkable, was not always an A4 sheet. So, the question of where paper was invented cannot be answered unambiguously. Four millennia ago, the ancient Egyptians used papyrus to write. The top layer of the skin was carefully removed from the stems. The removed thin sheets were superimposed on each other and held under heavy pressure. Glued and dried papyrus sheets and served as writing paper.
In ancient Russia, the inner layer of birch bark was used for writing. The birch bark writings discovered by archaeologists date back to the 11th-15th centuries. Although the message of the Arab writer Ibn-an-Nedim says that "on the land of the Russians there are inscriptions carved on pieces of white wood." The message is dated 987. Some folklore sources point to the use of birch bark letters by North American Indians.
The birthplace of paper
The country where paper was invented, which we use to this day, gave the world porcelain, a compass, gunpowder, fireworks. Speech,of course, about China. And if the names of the inventors of the "harbingers" of the paper sheet - papyrus scrolls and tablets - remain unknown, then the name of the one who invented paper is quite well known. He is Cai Lun, who served as a eunuch at court. This event took place in 105 AD, during the reign of the Han Dynasty.
The country where paper was invented is not planted with birch groves. Mulberry, bamboo and rice grow here. Cai Lun crushed the fibrous bark of the mulberry tree. I mixed the resulting mixture with water, hemp and wood ash, and then placed it on a bamboo frame with a grate. I smoothed the resulting layer with a stone and dried it in the sun. This is how the first sheet of paper turned out. Over time, manufacturing technology has improved. Starch, silk fibers, dyes were added to the mixture invented by Cai Lun, which significantly improved the quality of paper sheets.
Everything hidden becomes clear
The people of the eastern country, where paper was invented, carefully kept the secrets of its production. However, many centuries ago, Chinese merchants traveled all over the world with their goods. Caravaners, arriving in a new city, communicating, shared news. Returning to their native lands, they brought news from across the seas. It was something like a global communication. And somehow, in the city of Samarkand, Arab merchants found out the secrets of making paper, and having learned, they brought it to Spain. Paper production began here in 1150. Soon the technology of paper production became known in all European countries.
In Russia, paperproduction appeared only in the second half of the 16th century. Written sources report that in Moscow in the 16th century there were 10 paper mills, 50 enterprises where paper and cardboard were made by hand.
Now every schoolchild knows where tea comes from, chopsticks, where paper was invented, in general, those things that have firmly entered our everyday life.
However, less known is the fact of where the first machines appeared to produce paper in the form in which we use it now. And this event took place in France in 1798. And already in 1807, England patented the championship in the invention of a machine for making paper in rolls. Soon the widespread production of paper packaging begins. But that's another story.
