Book History from A to Z: P is for Papyrus and Paper

Papyrus was an early form of paper, made from papyrus plants which grew in the Nile valley of Egypt.  The stems of the plants, which are fibrous, were laid in layers and pressed.  The pressure caused the stems to bond together when they dried and form into a white paper.  Because of the ridges caused by the stems, the papyrus was difficult to write on horizontally, one reason that parchment was preferred for Western writing.  Papyrus could only be used on one side, and it was normally rolled and tied with string, though it could be made into codices. 

Paper making began in China in the early 100s CE, was established in Bagdad around 795, and came to the West by way of the Crusades and the Moorish conquest of Spain and Portugal.  The demand for paper grew as the printing industry grew, replacing parchment in the 1400s.  At first, paper was made of rags, which were bleached and made into a pulp, pressed into forms and dried.  This early paper was very durable.  In the 1840s, German paper manufacturers discovered how to make paper using wood pulp.  Later in the same century, chemicals were added to the process, especially acid, and the paper from this period is very delicate—it turns yellow and brittle with age and begins to crumble.  Newspapers, especially from the 1800s and early 1900s have greatly deteriorated, while books made from the rag paper in the 1700s and the first half of the 1800s are still usable. Be sure to print anything you want to keep for a long time on acid free paper.  :)

Image  is the Edwin Smith Papyrus from en.wikipedia.org