Paper and Its Uses
We need paper for writing, typewriting and printing. Paper is one of the most useful articles in everyday life. But man did not invent paper.
The wasps cut wood from trees, chew them into a fine pulp from which they make the grey walls of their nests.
Thousands of years ago, the people of Egypt made paper from the Papyrus plants which grew by the side of the river Nile. Papyrus paper was made in long rolls and books written upon it were rolled up and kept.
Clay tablet, skins of animals, silk and soft wood were also used for writing. From the word papyrus we obtain our word paper.
The Chinese discovered that by beating linen and other materials to a fine pulp with water and drying in thin layers paper could be made. But they kept it secret. Some Arabs learnt it from the Chinese and slowly the secret was known to the west.
The finest paper is made from rags of cotton or linen. Paper is manufactured from experto grass and wood pulp and from straw, jute and bamboos. Wood pulp is made in Canada, Norway and Sweden. Nowadays paper is made from Sugar cane waste called ‘Bagasse’.
In olden days paper making was done entirely by hand except for a few simple tools. Rags were soaked and then pounded to a fine pulp with heavy hammers. A thin layer of watery pulp was on a very fine sieve and when a sheet was formed, it was pressed firmly, allowed to dry and finally polished by rubbing.
Although paper for special purposes is stilt made by hand, most of the paper of our newspapers and books is now made by machinery.
It is very interesting to watch for many days and visit different mills to see the making of papers. Ali papers are made by crating paper with china clay.
Stage by stage we have progressed in the art of paper making. Now we have paper industries developed in many parts of India. Their production may be sufficient for our day to day need. But they lack the fineness and superiority of the foreign paper.
We have to import raw materials from other countries to manufacture such kind of paper. The cost of importing raw materials is greater than the cost of importing paper from other lands.
But still the oldest paper maker in the world is the wasp. The world has learnt the art of paper making from nature through the wasp and has made vast strides in improving and modernizing the technique. Considering the modern development in the field of science and technology one cannot but wonder, “Where would be if we did not know of the use and produce of paper?”
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