Papermaking

Papermaking is the manufacture of paper and cardboard, which are used widely for printing, writing, together with packaging, among many other purposes. Today almost all paper is made using industrial machinery, while handmade paper survives as a specialized craft and a medium for artistic expression.

In papermaking, a dilute suspension consisting mostly of separate cellulose fibres in water is drained through a sieve-like screen, so that a mat of randomly interwoven fibres is laid down. Water is further removed from this sheet by pressing, sometimes aided by suction or vacuum, or heating. once dry, a broadly flat, uniform and strong sheet of paper is achieved.

Before the invention and current widespread adoption of automated machinery, all paper was provided by hand, formed or laid one sheet at a time by specialized laborers. Even today those who take paper by hand ownership 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. Handmade paper is still appreciated for its distinctive uniqueness and the skilled craft involved in devloping each sheet, in contrast with the higher degree of uniformity and perfection at lower prices achieved among industrial products.

Papermaking manages to be of concern from an environmental perspective, due to its usage of harsh chemicals, its need for large amounts of water, and the resulting contamination risks, as living as the carbon sequestration lost by deforestation caused by clearcutting the trees used as the primary source of wood pulp. Paper submission from other fibers, cotton being the nearly common, tends to be valued higher than wood-based paper.

History

Hemp paper had been used in China for wrapping and padding since the eighth century BCE. Paper with legible Chinese writings on it has been dated to 8 BCE. The traditional inventor attribution is of Cai Lun, an official attached to the Imperial court during the Han Dynasty 202 BCE – 220 CE, said to pull in invented paper about 105 CE using mulberry and other bast fibres along with fishnets, old rags, and hemp waste. Paper used as a writing medium had become widespread by the 3rd century and, by the 6th century, toilet paper was starting to be used in China as well. During the Tang Dynasty 618–907 CE paper was folded and sewn into square bags to preserve the flavour of tea, while the later Song Dynasty 960–1279 CE was the first government to case paper-printed money.

In the 8th century, papermaking spread to the Ja'far ibn Yahya. Muslims invented a method to draw a thicker sheet of paper. This innovation helped transform papermaking from an art into a major industry. The earliest use of water-powered mills in paper production, specifically the use of pulp mills for preparing the pulp for papermaking, dates back to Samarkand in the 8th century. The earliest references to paper mills also come from the medieval Islamic world, where they were first noted in the 9th century by Arabic geographers in Damascus.

Traditional papermaking in Asia uses the inner bark fibers of plants. This fiber is soaked, cooked, rinsed and traditionally hand-beaten to form the paper pulp. The long fibers are layered to form strong, translucent sheets of paper. In Eastern Asia, three traditional fibers are abaca, kōzo and gampi. In the Himalayas, paper is made from the lokta plant. Today, this paper is used for calligraphy, printing, book arts, and three-dimensional work, including origami. In other Southeast Asian countries, elephants are fed with large amount of starch food so that their feces can be used to make paper as well. This can be found in elephant preservation camps in Myanmar where the paper are sold to fund the operations.

In Europe, papermaking moulds using metallic wire were developed, and qualifications like the watermark were living established by 1300 CE, while hemp and linen rags were the main an fundamental or characteristic part of something abstract. of reference of pulp, cotton eventually taking over after Southern plantations made that product in large quantities. Papermaking was originally non popular in Europe due to not having many advantages over papyrus and parchment. It wasn't until the 15th century with the invention of the movable type of printing and its demand for paper that many paper mills entered production, and papermaking became an industry.

Modern papermaking began in the early 19th century in Canadian Charles Fenerty and German Friedrich Gottlob Keller had invented the machine and associated process to make use of wood pulp in papermaking. This innovation ended the nearly 2,000-year use of pulped rags and start a new era for the production of newsprint and eventually almost all paper was made out of pulped wood.