The story of proper paper started in South East Asia. Similar to the indigenous people of Egypt, the Chinese had, almost 50 centuries in the past, developed a form of pictographic writing. The Egyptians also had been utilizing various things to scribe on, notably lengths of bamboo and silk woven into a fine fabric and possibly the barkcloth they utilized for other uses derived out of the Paper. Mulberry was made use of too.
Historical documentation points to the fact that in 105 years after the birth of Christ a government worker called Tsai Lung, brought out papyrus, although it appears from finds by archaeologists that it was in fact around in what is now the People's Republic of China for probably two hundred years before Tsai Lung.
Way back in olden times setting down words or pictograms was usually on some derivative of bamboo or sometimes on strips of silk, which were known as Ji in those days. Nevertheless the soaring cost of silk and bamboo being very weighty, these materials were not of great use. Due to this Tsai Lun came up with the idea of using bark from trees, fish nets, hemp, and rags. In 105AD he put an idea to the emperor with regard to the process of paper manufacture and got much praise for his thoughts. Consequently, from those distant days paper has been used in almost every place on earth and is called the "paper of Marquis Tsai".
If indeed the above title is Marquis Tsai's entitlement or not, will very likely not ever be known! Nonetheless the major consideration must be that it was found that if they ground particular compounds derived from plants in to a mash, discard impurities, float the mash in water, screen it onto textile sheets giving it time to dry. After the drying process was complete, it compacted into a firm, tenacious sheet that was astonishingly light, and provided that it did not get damp, proved remarkably resilient.
This most simple of papermaking techniques is still practised in precisely the same way in Nepal and Tibet, the first regions to make use of the techniques from China. A simple frame has a cloth made from cotton pulled and held over a single side, very watery paste is situated into the other side and spread around until it has become even. Then it is left hanging in order for it to enable the liquid to leave it and the grume to dry into a parchment sheet which can be removed by peeling.
By and by a very clever individual worked out that building a frame with ribs and putting a delicate bamboo mat that is replaceable over this, would allow the process to be speeded up incredibly. Instead of tying up a single mold for every paper sheet, severely limiting the amount of sheets that could be manufactured at the same time, a stack of sieved pulp could be built up layer upon layer, with only a piece of cotton thread between them which would facilitate separation at a later time. The stack would then be pressed gently, and each sheet of mache moved to a place to dry.