The origins of genuine paper happened in what is now the People's Republic of China. Similar to the Egyptians, the Chinese had, almost 5000 years in the past, developed a pictographic form of writing. They also had been making use of various things to scribe upon, most commonly lengths of bamboo and processed silk and it is possible that the barkcloth they made for other uses derived from the Paper. Mulberry was made use of too.
History points to the fact that in 105 years after the birth of Christ a member of the government by the name of Tsai Lung, created paper, although it appears from finds by archaeologists that it was actually around in South East Asia for probably two centuries before Tsai Lung.
In times gone by setting down words or pictograms was usually on bamboo or occasionally on strips of silk, which were then called ji. Nevertheless the great price of silk and bamboo being weighty, these materials were not of great use. Around then Tsai Lun thought of using the bark from trees, hemp, rags, and fish nets. In 105AD he delivered a report to the emperor with regard to the process of paper making and got high accolade for his creativity. Since then paper has been in use all over the world and is known as the "paper of Marquis Tsai".
Whether the above title is accurate, will likely never be known! Nonetheless the main consideration has to be that they found that if they pounded certain substances derived from plant material into a paste, oust impure substances, float the paste in water, filter it out onto cloth sheets giving it time to dry. When fully dried, it congealed into a hard, firm sheet that was astonishingly light, and as long as it did not get damp or wet, turned out to be extremely resilient.
This the easiest of papermaking techniques is still practised in precisely a similar way in and around Tibet and Nepal, the initial regions to pick up the techniques from China. A basic frame makes use of a cloth made from cotton pulled and held over a single side, thin mache is situated in to the opposite side and spread around until it has reached an even state. Then it is left in order for it to allow the liquid to leave it and the mush to dry in to a parchment sheet which can be removed by peeling.
At some stage an extremely talented developer came to realize that manufacturing a frame with an arrangement of ribbing and placing a fine removable bamboo mat across this, would enable the paper-making procedure to be speeded up incredibly. Rather than utilizing one mold for every sheet of paper, therefore severely restricting the amount of sheets that are able to be made at one time, a stack of sieved grume could be built up layer upon layer, with merely a strip of cotton thread between them in order to enable separation at a later time. The stack would then be squeezed lightly, and each sheet of mash moved to a place to dry.