The story of proper paper began in China. Similar to the Egyptians, the Chinese had, nearly 50 centuries ago, created a style of pictographic writing. The Egyptians also had been utilizing several types of objects to scribe upon, notably lengths of bamboo and processed silk and possibly the barkcloth they were using for other purposes from the Paper. Mulberry was ased too.
Legend points to the fact that in 105AD a member of the government named Tsai Lung, brought out usable paper, although it is clear from finds by archaeologists that actually it was in existence in South East Asia for at least two centuries prior to Tsai Lung.
During olden times setting down words was usually done on some derivative of bamboo or sometimes on strips of silk, which were known as Ji then. However, the prohibitive cost of silk and bamboo being weighty, these two materials were not convenient. At this time Tsai Lun thought of making use of bark from trees, rags, hemp, and fish nets. In 105 years after the birth of Christ he put an idea to the emperor regarding the process of paper manufacture and got much praise for his thoughts. Consequently, from those distant times paper has been utilized all over and is known as the "paper of Marquis Tsai".
Whether this title is Marquis Tsai's entitlement, will likely not ever be known! But the main consideration has to be that they discovered that they could pound particular plant derived substances into a mache, oust spume, float the mache in water, sieve it out onto textile sheets giving it time to dry. After drying, it calcified into a hard, firm sheet that was surprisingly light, and as long as it was not allowed to get damp, proved very tenacious.
It's a fact that this most simple of paper making techniques is still practised in precisely the same way around Nepal and Tibet, the very first countries to make use of the craft from what is now the People's Republic of China. A simple frame makes use of a type of cotton cloth pulled and held over one side, watery paste is poured in to the opposite side and moved around until it has become even. After which it is left hanging so that it will allow the liquid to leave it and the pulp to dry into a paper sheet which will be able to be peeled off.
There came a time when an extremely clever individual came to the conclusion that making a frame with ribbing and placing a fine removable bamboo mat over this, would enable the process to be quickened fantastically. Rather than using one mould for each sheet of parchment, severely limiting the number of sheets that are able to be made at one time, a stack of sieved mush could be built up a layer at a time, with only a length of cotton thread between them in order to enable separation at a later time. The stack would then be pressed very lightly, and every sheet of grume moved to a board to dry.