The history of real paper happened in China. Similar to the Egyptians, the Chinese had, nearly five thousand years ago, created a kind of writing that used images. They also had been using several types of objects to write on, most usually lengths of bamboo and woven silk and it is possible that the barkcloth they were making for other unconnected purposes derived out of the Paper. Mulberry was ased too.
Legend points to the fact that in 105AD a government worker by the name of Tsai Lung, invented usable paper, though it appears from archaeological discoveries that in fact it was being used in what is now the People's Republic of China for probably two hundred years before Tsai Lung.
In ancient times setting down words was usually done on some form of bamboo or on strips of silk, which were then called ji. Nonetheless silk was expensive and bamboo being very weighty, these two materials were not convenient. Due to this Tsai Lun thought of utilizing the bark from trees, hemp, fish nets, and rags. In 105 years after the birth of Christ he delivered a report to the emperor with regard to the process of making paper and received much praise for his abilities. Consequently, since then paper has been used in almost every place on earth and is known as the "paper of Marquis Tsai".
If the above historical tag is deserved, will very likely never be known! Nevertheless the major consideration must be that they discovered that if they ground particular plant-derived substances into a paste, abolish impure substances, place the paste in water, screen it onto fabric sheets and allow it to dry. When it dried, it caked into a hard, tough sheet that was extraordinarily light, and providing it was not allowed to get damp, proved astonishingly tenacious.
It's a fact that this extremely simple of papermaking techniques is even now practised in precisely the same way in Tibet and Nepal, the first regions to take the craft from South East Asia. A basic frame makes use of a cloth made from cotton made to stretch over a side, very watery pulp is poured in to the opposite end and spread about until it is level. It is then suspended so that it will enable the liquid to drain and the mash to dry in to a paper sheet which may be peeled off.
At some stage a clever developer worked out that manufacturing a frame with ribs and putting in place a delicate bamboo mat that is replaceable over it, would allow the process to be quickened greatly. Instead of utilizing one mold for every sheet of parchment, severely limiting the number of sheets that could be produced at the same time, a stack of sieved grume was able to be built up a layer at a time, with only a length of cotton thread between them which would enable later separation. The stack would then be pressed gently, and each layer of mache moved to a board to dry.