The origins of true paper started in what is now the People's Republic of China. Like the indigenous people of Egypt, the Chinese had, almost 5,000 years in the past, brought out a pictographic type of writing. They also had been making use of many different things to write on, usually pieces of bamboo and silk woven into a fine fabric and possibly the barkcloth they made for other uses from the Paper. Mulberry was ased too.
History leads us to believe that in 105 years after the birth of Christ an official by the name of Tsai Lung, invented paper, although it is clear from archaeological discoveries that actually it was being worked with in South East Asia for more than likely two centuries prior to Tsai Lung.
Back in ancient times writing was usually on some derivative of bamboo or sometimes on strips of silk, which were known as Ji in those days. Nonetheless silk was expensive and bamboo being very heavy, these two materials were not convenient. About this time Tsai Lun came up with the idea of utilizing the bark from trees, rags, fish nets, and hemp. In 105AD he delivered a report to the emperor regarding the process of making paper and got many accolades for his thoughts. Consequently, from that period paper has been availed of all over the world and is known as the "paper of Marquis Tsai".
If the above title is relevant or not, will probably never be uncovered! Nevertheless the important thing has to be that they found that they could pound some compounds taken from plant matter into a pulp, purge spume, float the pulp in water, sieve it out onto fabric sheets and give it time to dry out. When fully dried, it consolidated into a hard, resilient sheet that turned out to be remarkably light, and provided that it was not allowed to come into contact with water, proved extraordinarily dense.
It's a fact that this very straightforward of paper making technologies is still practised in precisely the same way within Tibet and Nepal, the first regions to make use of the craft from China. A simple frame utilizes a type of cotton cloth pulled and held over one side, diluted paste is put in to the far side and moved around until it has reached an even state. After which it is suspended so that it will let the liquid to drain and the mush to dry in to a paper sheet which can be removed.
By and by an extremely clever individual came to the conclusion that constructing a frame with ribbing and putting in place a delicate bamboo mat that is removable across this, would allow the process to be quickened fantastically. Instead of tying up one mould for each sheet of parchment, severely limiting the number of sheets that are able to be produced at one time, a stack of sieved mache was able to be built up layer upon layer, with merely a piece of cotton thread between them which would enable later separation. The stack would then be pressed gently, and every sheet of grume shifted to a place to dry.