The story of genuine paper happened 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 pictographic form of writing. They too had been utilizing many different things to scribe upon, usually lengths of bamboo and processed silk and it is possible that the barkcloth they made for other unconnected purposes derived from the Paper. Mulberry was used also.
History leads us to believe that in 105AD a member of the government named Tsai Lung, brought out papyrus, although it appears from archaeological discoveries that in fact it was around in South East Asia for more than likely two centuries before Tsai Lung.
During ancient times gone by setting down words or pictograms was mainly on some derivative of bamboo or on strips of silk, which were then called ji. However, the great price of silk and bamboo being too weighty, these materials were not of great use. About this time Tsai Lun came up with the idea of making use of bark, rags, fish nets, and hemp. In 105 years after the birth of Christ he submitted a report to the emperor about the production of paper and received high accolade for his thoughts. From those distant times paper has been availed of globally and is known as the "paper of Marquis Tsai".
If indeed the above title is deserved or not, will likely not ever be known! But the major factor is that it was discovered that if they pounded certain substances derived from plants in to a mush, shed impurities, place the mush in water, filter it onto cloth sheets and give it time to dry out. After drying, it conglomerated into a hard, dense sheet that was very light, and as long as it did not get damp, proved exceedingly robust.
It's a fact that this most simple of papermaking technologies is even now still being used in precisely a similar way in Tibet and Nepal, the initial countries to pick up the craft from China. A simple frame utilizes a cloth manufactured from cotton pulled and held over a single side, thin mash is put into the opposite end and moved around until it has become even. It is then suspended so that it will enable the liquid to drain and the mache to dry in to a sheet of parchment which may be peeled off.
There came a time when an extremely talented individual realized that building a frame with an arrangement of ribbing and putting in place a fine bamboo mat that is replaceable over it, would allow the procedure to be speeded up to a great degree. Instead of utilizing a single mould for each sheet of paper, severely restricting the number of sheets that are able to be manufactured at one time, a stack of sieved paste was able to be built up layer upon layer, with only a length of cotton thread between them which would enable separation at a later time. The stack would then be squeezed gently, and every layer of grume moved to a board to dry.