Papermaking

Papermaking is the process of manufacturing paper by draining a dilute suspension of cellulose fibers through a screen so the fibers interweave into a mat, which is then pressed and dried into sheets used for writing, printing, packaging and many other purposes. The formal invention of paper is traditionally credited to Cai Lun, an official of China's Han dynasty, who is said to have devised a method around AD 105 using mulberry bark and other bast fibers along with old fishnets, rags and hemp waste, though the credit is not entirely uncontested: hemp paper had already been in use in China since at least the 8th century BC, and paper bearing legible writing has been found dating to 8 BC, before Cai Lun's traditional date. By the third century AD paper had become the standard writing material across China, and papermaking later spread outward to the rest of the world.