![]() ![]() The first paper was made from bark, hemp (a nettle-like herb) and flax (linen). In China paper is considered to have been first used as a writing substrate in the Han dynasty, fragments have been found as far back as the 2nd century BCE but more definitely 109CE. Good quality vellum (parchment) is expensive to produce and was reserved for official documents, it remained in use in Britain up to the 16th century. In the cold, moist climate of northern Europe writing on vellum (animal skins) became dominant for greater durability, as paper made from papyrus only lasted a few decades before it fell apart. Stacks of handmade paper / Wikimedia Commons However it is the Chinese form of paper that proved superior and longer lasting. ![]() It is from this origin that the English word ‘paper’ is derived. It is made from the central core of papyrus (a type of reed). In Egypt the somewhat similar substance papyrus was developed at about the same time as paper in China. Other materials like stone and pottery are permanent but just too bulky and slow to fashion in any quantity. Paper seems such an uninteresting thing, but when you think of it, the development of all scientific and artistic endeavor has needed a durable writing medium for permanent records to be kept. Paper is considered one of China’s greatest inventions. It can also make a justifiable claim to many other inventions including: Iron casting Examinations Spaghetti Fans Porcelain Blast furnaces the Abacus Ship rudders Silk Planetaria Printed books Pasta Kites Paper money Ice cream Wheelbarrows Acupuncture and many more. It seems that direct contacts between ‘Europe’ and ‘China’ were few and it was the Central Asian intermediaries who traded in the strange new inventions from the mysterious East.Ĭhina traditionally lays claim to four great inventions: paper printing gunpowder and the compass. Along the desert Silk Roads between the two great civilizations of the time there must have been the transmission of objects of the greatest value: ideas and inventions. In the case of China, the trade between Rome and China in the Han dynasty is well known and documented. An invention in one place can lead to it being found after a hundred years over a very widespread area. So tracing the first appearance of something is a case of careful detective work. ![]() Even so it is quite possible for the same idea to be independently discovered in several places at more or less the same time, greatly complicating any search for the origin. ![]() It is only when an invention becomes widely adopted that there is a realistic chance that someone will have written down an accurate account. The first invention of something is by its nature an isolated event and it is unlikely that the initial discovery is faithfully recorded. Working out who invented precisely what and when is a daunting task as contemporaneous records are fragmentary. Needham at Cambridge have discovered that many of the great achievements in science and technology actually originated from China. Up until the 1960s World Civilization was considered to have started in the Middle East and Mediterranean with not much of any consequence elsewhere. Ming dynasty (1368-1644) waterwheel at Lanzhou, Gansu / Photo by Giddens Memorial East Asian Museum, Wikimedia Commons ![]()
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