RAGS make paper
PAPER makes money
MONEY makes banks
BANKS make loans
LOANS make beggars
BEGGARS make RAGS
old saying
3000 BC
Papyrus is used in Egypt
2700 BC
The oldest pergamon or parchment( skin) found.
200 BC
Rosetta Stone engraved in Egypt
150 BC
Chinese make oldest known paper from macerated hemp
fibers and plant bark.
105 AD
Ts'ai Lun, in China, writes the first record of papermaking.
In AD 105, the Chinese court official, Ts'ai Lun, (if we are to
believe the chronicle recording the claim) invented papermaking
from textile waste using rags. This can be considered as the birth
of paper as we know it today.
500 AD
Mayans already using bark paper by this time, it was called amate
or amatl.
The Maya made paper from the inner bark of fig trees (Ficus), called
kopó in Maya, or Mulberry tree and Anacauite (Cordia boissieri
- also called Texas olive), today commonly known as amate paper.
See
some pictures.
Anacahuite tree
Their important codices were recorded on that paper. Mayan
Codices
Papermaking introduced into Japan via Korea from China.
In these two countries, paper is still made by hand on a large
scale in the old tradition, preferably from the fresh bast fibres
of the mulberry tree (Kozo, Kajinoki and Gampi are plant fibers
from Japan).Washi (Japanese hand-made
paper).the "Najio-Torinoko no Usuyo" (extremely thin Torinoko
paper made at Najio-machi) on which Buddhist scriptures were printed.
The oldest printed matter existing in the world are the "One
Million Dharani Charms" of Japan. In the year 764, the Empress
Shotoku, praying for peace throughout the nation, sanctioned the
printing of a million paper prayers, each prayer to be enshrined
in its own individual three-storied wooden pagoda with a height
of 13.5 centimeters and a diameter of 10.5 centimeters at the base.
Printed Buddhist prayers called Dharani were placed in a hole in
the center and 100,000 each of these pagodas were allotted to ten
great temples, including the Horyuji Temple of Nara, Yamato Province.
How did paper get from China to Europe? Soon after its
invention, Chinese merchants and missionaries transmitted paper, and
knowledge of papermaking, to neighboring lands such as Japan, Korea,
and Central Asia. It was there that Muslims first encountered it in
the eighth century. Islamic civilization spread knowledge of paper
and papermaking to Iraq, Syria, Egypt, North Africa and, finally,
Spain. This pivotal role is evident in the way we still count paper
in units--today they are units of 500 sheets--called reams. That word
came into English via the Old French rayme from Spanish resma, which
in turn comes from the Arabic rizmah, meaning a bale or bundle.
748 AD
First printed newspaper appears in Peking.
751 AD
Papermaking introduced in the Islamic world.
According to the Arab historian al- Tha'alibi, Chinese prisoners
captured by the Arab commander Ziyad ibn Salih introduced papermaking
to Samarkand after the battle of Talas in 751
Then paper was manufactured on a wide scale and passed into general
use, until it became an important export commodity for the people
of Samarkand," al-Tha'alibi wrote. "Its value was universally
recognized and people everywhere used it."
786-809AD
By the reign of the Abbasid caliph Harun al-Rashid (786-809), enough
paper was available in Baghdad for bureaucrats to use it for record
keeping instead of papyrus and parchment.
According to the great 14th-century North African historian and
philosopher Ibn Khaldun, the vizier al-Fadl ibn Yahya introduced
the manufacture of paper to Baghdad when parchment was in short
supply and he needed more writing materials
800 AD
Paper used in Egypt.
985-986 AD
By 985-986, according to the Palestinian geographer
al-Muqaddasi, paper had become one of Egypt's major products
9th Century
The new availability of paper in the ninth century spurred an extraordinary
burst of literary creativity in virtually all subjects, from theology
to the natural sciences and belles-lettres. Religious scholars collected
and codified the traditions (hadith) of the Prophet, which had been
preserved orally following his death in 632, and committed them
to ink and paper.
Scholars and copyists translated Greek texts, written on parchment
and papyrus, into Arabic, transcribing them onto sheets of paper
which were then bound into books.
A Greek manuscript now in the Vatican library is believed to be
the oldest surviving manuscript written on Arab paper. Consisting
of a miscellaneous assemblage of the teachings of Christian church
fathers, the manuscript was probably copied at Damascus in about
800
The oldest surviving dated book written in Arabic on paper is this
partial copy of the grammatical work Kitab Gharib al-Hadith (The
Book of Linguistic Difficulties in the Traditions of the Prophet),
completed in late 866
Parchment is made from the wetted, stretched and scraped
skins of sheep and goats; it is strong and durable, but expensive
to make, for, in addition to the labor of preparing it, the animal
must be killed to get its skin
The oldest surviving dated Qur'an manuscript on paper was copied
by the calligrapher 'All ibn Sadan al-Razi in 971-972. The remains
of this four-volume, vertical-format manuscript are divided among
Ardabil in Iran, the Istanbul University Library, and the Chester
Beatty Library in Dublin. Another paper manuscript of the Qur'an,
copied at Isfahan in 993, retains the large horizontal format of
parchment manuscripts
This is the first copy of the Qu'ran known to have been produced
in the Islamic world--possibly Iraq--using European-made paper.
The ziz-zag continuation of the text in the margins of the page
may have been an effort to economize on imported paper.
Perhaps the most famous early paper manuscript of the Qur'an is
that copied in 1000-1001 by 'All ibn Hilal, known as lbn al-Bawwab,
who was then the leading calligrapher of Baghdad.
10th century
By the late 10th century, paper had entirely supplanted
papyrus, which had been used uninterruptedly in Egypt for four millennia
"Torinoko" was high quality Washi (Japanese
hand-made paper) that had been produced from the Tenth Century.
1074 AD
In Valencia,Spain paper was made from rags.
Paper was made from "flacques"
11th century
The Arab historian 'Abd al-Malik al-Tha'alibi, enumerating
the specialties of different lands in his Book of Curious and Entertaining
Information, says that "paper is among the specialties of Samarkand,
and it looks better and is more supple, more easily handled, and more
convenient for writing than papyrus and parchment," the two major
writing materials known in antiquity.
Fez was already an important papermaking center in the
11th century, with 400 paper mills reported by the end of the 12th
century, and the first Spanish paper mill is documented at Jfitiva
in 1056.
Paper began to be used in Italy at the very end of the
11th century, first in Sicily, where the Normans followed Arab custom,
and then in the northern trading cities
13th century
In the first half of the 13th century some paper was
briefly made near Genoa, probably following Spanish techniques, but
the major center of Italian paper manufacture developed after 1276
at Fabriano, in central Italy
From the 13th century, the availability of large sheets
of locally manufactured fine white paper in Iran had spurred a second
revolution in the Islamic book, the effects of which would continue
to be felt for another two centuries there and in Egypt, India and
the Ottoman Empire.
From the 13th century, however, the size and quality
of paper available in Iran for books and other uses increased dramatically,
but the causes of these changes are not immediately apparent. One
possibility is increased contact with China--where papermaking techniques
had continued to develop--during the period when Mongol dynasties
ruled China, Central Asia, Southern Russia, Iran, and much of the
Middle East
14th century
The Europeans' ability to harness water power to run
paper mills made their product cheaper, if not initially better, than
that available in North Africa and Egypt, and imported Italian paper
soon began to supplant local production in North Africa and Spain.
By the mid14th century, North African chanceries had begun to use
Western papers
14th century
Indeed, the word paper, attested in English since the
14th century, does derive, via Old French and Spanish, from the Latin
word papyrus.
16 th
Japan - Mitsumata, known as an excellent material for
Washi, was developed after the 16th Century.
Although some paper continued to be made in Egypt until
the 17th century, French and Italian papers were dominant in Egypt
from the 16th century
19th Century
In 1900, a Chinese Buddhist monk accidentally discovered
more than 30,000 paper scrolls in a cave at Dunhuang, in China's Gansu
province. As the cave was first used in 366 and was sealed
in the 10th century, the papers--comprising Buddhist, Taoist
and Confucian texts, government documents, business contracts, calendars,
and miscellaneous exercises written in Chinese, Sanskrit, Soghdian,
Iranian, Uighur and Tibetan-- must date from this six-century period
20th Century
The United States and Canada are the world’s largest producers
of paper and paper products . The next largest are Finland, Japan,
and Sweden, who produce significant amounts of wood pulp and newsprint.
The U.S. consumption of paper and paperboard in 1999 was approximately
354 kilograms (about 800 pounds) per person.
In 1997 the total world paper and paperboard production was 299,044
metric tons. It would take about 200,000 Volkswagen Beetle cars
to equal this weight.
In the last 20 years, the combined usage of today’s top ten
paper users has increased from 92 million tons to 208 million, which
is a growth of 126%. So the use of computers is not slowing the
amount paper we use.
Today, more than 95 percent of paper is made from wood cellulose.
Some words used for paper by different
nations.
Qirtas
Another early Arabic word for
paper, was borrowed from the Greek chartes and initially referred
to papyrus, papyrus rolls and parchment.
In both China and Europe, the
start of paper manufacture was quickly followed by the development
of printing, first with wooden blocks and then with moveable type
Indeed, the word paper, attested in English since the
14th century, does derive, via Old French and Spanish, from the Latin
word papyrus.
amate or amatl
paper or fig tree
Paper also made from Bambou called "ratan"
washi
wa= Japan Shi=paper
Nagashizuki
Japanese method of making paper is called nagashizuki
i.e. immersing or dipping into the pulp several times. In japan a
sort of glue is added, called neri, which slowers the outflow of water.
Tamezuki
Tamezuki ist the western method of dipping into pulp
once. More on washi and japanese paper
making
hari
(one "hari" = 20 sheets) of highest quality
paper (japanese)
Reams
we still count paper in units--today they
are units of 500 sheets--called reams. That word came into English
via the Old French rayme from Spanish resma, which in turn comes from
the Arabic rizmah, meaning a bale or bundle.
Toilet paper
In 875 CE Chinese invent toilet paper.
Sales for toilet paper worldwide reached more than 3.5 billion
dollars in 1995.
How about recycling paper.
Recycling one ton of paper saves about 17 trees
The city of Phoenix recycles about 75,000 tons of paper and for every
ton a tree is saved.
There are some technical limitations to recycling. Recovered paper
cannot be recycled forever as the fibres wear out so they can only
be recycled five or six times.
As a result new trees are required.
Toilet paper
In 875 CE Chinese invent toilet paper.
Sales for toilet paper worldwide reached more than 3.5 billion
dollars in 1995.
