The origins of real paper started in what is now the People's Republic of China. Similar to the people of Egypt, the Chinese had, nearly 5,000 years in the past, invented a form of pictographic writing. The Egyptians also had been making use of several types of objects to scribe upon, most commonly lengths of bamboo and silk woven into a fine fabric and possibly the barkcloth they were making for other purposes derived out of the Paper. Mulberry was used as well.
History tells us that in 105AD a government worker named Tsai Lung, brought out paper, although it seems from archaeological discoveries that it was actually in existence in South East Asia for at least two centuries prior to Tsai Lung.
Back during olden times writing was usually on some derivative of bamboo or sometimes on pieces of silk, which were then called ji. Nevertheless the soaring cost of silk and bamboo being very weighty, these two materials were not of great use. Around then Tsai Lun thought of utilizing tree bark, hemp, fish nets, and rags. In 105 years after the birth of Christ he submitted a report to the emperor with regard to the production of paper and was endowed with high praise for his thoughts. From those distant days paper has been availed of in almost every place on earth and is called the "paper of Marquis Tsai".
If indeed this accolade is Marquis Tsai's entitlement, will very likely never be known! But the most important consideration is that they found that if they pounded certain substances taken from plant matter in to a mash, take away impure materials, put the mash in liquid, filter it out onto fabric sheets and give it time to dry out. When fully dried, it conglomerated into a firm, firm sheet that turned out to be exceedingly light, and providing it did not get damp, proved decidedly robust.
This most simple of papermaking technologies is even now still being used in exactly the same way within Nepal and Tibet, the very first areas to take the techniques from China. A basic frame utilizes a cloth made from cotton pulled and held over a single side, very watery mache is put into the other side and moved around until it is level. Then it is suspended that will allow the water to leave it and the mush to dry into a sheet of paper which can be taken off.
At some stage an extremely talented developer figured that manufacturing a frame with an arrangement of ribbing and putting in place a fine replaceable bamboo mat over this, would enable the paper-making procedure to be quickened enormously. Instead of utilizing a single mold for each paper sheet, therefore severely restricting the amount of sheets that can be produced at the same time, a stack of sieved grume was able to be built up a layer at a time, with merely a length of cotton thread between them which would facilitate later separation. The stack would then be squeezed gently, and every layer of pulp shifted to a dry place.