Whatever may have been the true origin of the art of paper-making, it is now lost in obscurity. It is almost certain that the earliest form of paper was the papyrus of the Egyptians and that they were the first to use it as a writing material. They manufactured it from the stem of the papyrus plant, from which the name _paper_ comes.
It is also known that the Chinese were versed in this art before the Christian Era, and that they made paper from the bark of various trees, the soft part of bamboo stems, and cotton. In India and China the practice of writing on dried palm and other leaves still obtains. It is probable that the employment of these fibrous substances, together with observation of the methods of paper-making wasps and other insects, led to manufacturing by pulping the materials and spreading them out.
As the Chinese seem to have been the pioneers in so many great inventions, so also they appear to have been the inventors of this art. From the Chinese the Arabians learned, in the seventh century, the craft of making paper from cotton, and they established a manufactory at Samarcand in 706 A. D. Here the Moors learned the art, and through them it was introduced into Spain. It is thought that the Moors used flax and hemp in addition to cotton in their manufacture of paper. The products of their mills are known to have been of a most superior quality, but, with the decline of the Moors, paper-making passed into less skilled hands, and the quality of the paper became inferior.
From Spain the art spread through the other countries of Europe, and as factories were established further north, where cotton was not a product nor easy to import, the necessity of substituting some other material probably led to the introduction of linen rags; but when they began to be used is uncertain. England was far behind the other countries of Northern Europe in introducing the industry of paper-making.
[Illustration: SCREEN--SIX-BY-NINE-INCH CONSTRUCTION PAPER]
In the United States to-day paper in all varieties is manufactured to an enormous extent, and almost exclusively from vegetable matter. The book and newspaper trades demand an untold quantity.
There are three great types--writing, printing, and wrapping paper. Writing paper is made from rags and wood pulp. The staple for wrapping paper is old rope, and in some cases jute. The best writing and printing papers, however, are made from rags. From these as staples, all other varieties are developed, and we have paper for every use to which man can apply it.