The story of genuine paper happened in what is now the People's Republic of China. Similar to the indigenous people of Egypt, the Chinese had, virtually 50 centuries in the past, invented a pictographic type of writing. They also had been making use of several types of objects to write on, most notably pieces of bamboo and silk woven into a fine fabric and possibly the barkcloth they were using for other unconnected purposes from the Paper. Mulberry was made use of too.
History leads us to believe that in 105AD a government worker named Tsai Lung, developed paper, though it is clear from archaeological digs that it was in fact being used in South East Asia for at least two centuries prior to Tsai Lung.
In olden times setting down words was generally on bamboo or on strips of silk, which were then called ji. However, the great price of silk and bamboo being very heavy, these materials were not of great use. About this time Tsai Lun thought of utilizing tree bark, rags, fish nets, and hemp. In 105 years after the birth of Christ he delivered a report to the emperor about the process of paper making and received high praise for his ability. Consequently, since then paper has been in use all over the world and is known as the "paper of Marquis Tsai".
If the above historical tag is deserved, will very likely never be uncovered! Nonetheless the most important thing has to be that it was discovered that they could grind particular substances taken from plant matter in to a mache, purge impurities, place the mache in liquid, screen it out onto textile sheets giving it time to dry. When it dried, it congealed into a hard, robust sheet that was surprisingly light, and provided that it was not allowed to come into contact with water, proved exceedingly dense.
It's a fact that this very straightforward of paper making technologies is still in use in precisely a similar way in and around Tibet and Nepal, the initial countries to learn the craft from China. A basic frame makes use of a kind of cotton cloth made to stretch over a side, watery grume is put into the far side and spread around until it has reached an even state. After which it is left suspended somewhere to enable the water to leave it and the paste to dry into a sheet of parchment which can be peeled off.
Eventually an extremely clever individual figured that constructing a frame with an arrangement of ribbing and putting a fine bamboo mat that is replaceable over it, would allow the paper-making process to be speeded up incredibly. Rather than utilizing a single mould for each parchment sheet, consequently severely restricting the amount of sheets that may be manufactured at the same time, a stack of sieved mash was able to be built up a layer at a time, with merely a strip of cotton thread between them which would help with later separation. The stack would then be squeezed lightly, and every sheet of mush moved to a place to dry.