by Norman A. Rubin

Created on: April 02, 2010

The Robert C. Williams Paper Museum on the campus of Georgia Tech is a unique and internationally renowned resource on the history of paper and paper technology. Their collection of 2000 books has the complete information of this industry. The museum's remarkable collection is over 10,000 watermarks, papers, tools, machines, and manuscripts – all connected to the production of paper and related products.

http://www.ipst.gatech.edu/amp/ 

Now let us take trip through the museum to learn about the history of papermaking through the years. The first paper was made by a wasp who chewed on tiny pieces of wood until it formed a pulp mixture; then the wasp mixes it with the saliva in its mouth till it forms a thin sheet of paper that is used to build its hives. 

Then around 4000 BC the first use of papyrus paper was introduced to the scribes of the Pharaoh's court. Along the banks of the Nile there is a reedy plant that grows abundantly in the wet of the waters of the river called 'papyrus' (Cyperus papyrus,). The Ancient Egyptians crisscrossed strips of papyrus to make small woven mats. Then it was soaked the river to soften the reeds; then it was removed from the river, placed on flat stone slabs and pounded that broke up the fibers in the wet reeds and mashed together so that the pulpy matter could be formed into flat sheets – then sun dried out the pulp and if by magic a paper sheet was removed for the scribes to record. 

Early Chinese paper appears to have been made by from a suspension of hemp (rice stalks) waste in water, washed, soaked, and beaten to a pulp with a wooden mallet and pressed into molds.. The ancient China in about 105 AD was the first known site of paper making. They simply copied the wasp by mashing tree bark into a wet pulp, squeezing out the water, and pressing the pulp into flat sheets, which was dried into paper. 

From Samarkand it took a journey of nearly 500 years for papermaking to reach Europe although the export of paper from the Middle East to Byzantium and other parts of Europe began in the 10th and 11th centuries, the craft was apparently not established in Spain and Italy until the 12th century. 

As we tour the Papermaking Museum we will learn that our papermaking journey came to America; that the first paper mill in America was established in 1690 by William Rittenhouse near Germantown, Pennsylvania. The raw material for paper manufacturing in America was first made of rags turned into pulp.

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