The story of true paper happened in South East Asia. Like the people of Egypt, the Chinese had, nearly five thousand years in the past, invented a style of pictographic writing. They too had been making use of many different objects to scribe on, most commonly strips of bamboo and woven silk and it is possible that the barkcloth they made for other reasons derived out of the Paper. Mulberry was ased too.
Legend leads us to believe that in 105 years after the birth of Christ a government worker going by the name of Tsai Lung, created papyrus, although it is almost certain from finds by archaeologists that it was in fact in existence in what is now the People's Republic of China for more than likely two hundred years prior to him.
Way back in ancient times setting down words was usually on some derivative of bamboo or on lengths of silk, which were called Ji in those days. But the soaring cost of silk and bamboo being too heavy, these materials were not convenient. At this time Tsai Lun came up with the idea of using bark from trees, hemp, fish nets, and rags. In 105AD he delivered a report to the emperor on the production of paper and was endowed with many accolades for his idea. Consequently, from this time paper has been utilized universally and is known as the "paper of Marquis Tsai".
Whether this historical reference is deserved or not, will probably never be known! Nevertheless the most important consideration is that they discovered that if they pounded particular compounds taken from plant matter into a mache, expel impurities, place the mache in water, sieve it out onto cloth sheets giving it enough time to dry out. After drying, it conglomerated into a firm, resilient sheet that was incredibly light, and as long as it did not get wet, turned out to be surprisingly durable.
This most simple of paper making technologies is still being used in precisely a similar way within Nepal and Tibet, the first areas to take the craft from China. A simple frame utilizes a cloth made from cotton pulled and held over a single side, diluted grume is emptied in to the opposite end and spread around until it is level. After which it is suspended so that it will enable the liquid to leave it and the mush to dry in to a sheet of parchment which will be able to be peeled off.
At some stage an extremely talented developer figured that manufacturing a frame with ribs and placing a delicate bamboo mat that is replaceable over it, would allow the paper-making procedure to be accelerated enormously. Instead of utilizing one mold for every parchment sheet, consequently severely restricting the number of sheets that can be produced at the same time, a stack of sieved paste could be built up a layer at a time, with merely a strip of cotton thread between them to facilitate later separation. The stack would then be squeezed slightly, and each layer of mash shifted to a place to dry.