PaperOne might be looking for: academic paper \n----\n
Paper is a thin, flat material produced by the compression of fibres. The fibres used are usually natural and based upon cellulose. The most common material is wood pulp from pulpwood (largely softwood) trees such as pines, but other vegetable fiber materials including cotton, linen, and hemp may be used.
History\nA word paper comes from ancient Egyptian writing material called papyrus, which was woven from reedss. It was produced as early as 3000 BC Egypt, and then in ancient Greece and Rome. \nEventually, parchment or vellum, made of processed sheep or calfskins, replaced papyrus. In China, documents were ordinarily written on bamboo, making them very heavy and awkward to transport. Silk was sometimes used, but was usually too expensive to consider. Most of the above materials were rare and costly. The modern method of papermaking was created by Chinese court official Ts'ai Lun in AD 105; he developed a method to make paper out of cotton rags. It spread slowly outside of China: other East Asian cultures, even after seeing paper, could not figure out how to make it themselves; instruction in the manufacturing process was required, and the Chinese were reluctant to share their secrets. The technology was first exported to Japan in 610, where fibres (called bast) from the mulberry tree were used. After commercial trades and the defeat of the Chinese in the Battle of Talas, the invention spread to the Middle East, where it was adopted by the Indians and subsequently by the Italians in about the 13th century. They used hemp and linen rags. Some historians speculate that paper was the key element in global cultural advancement. According to this theory, Chinese culture was less developed than the West's in ancient times because bamboo was a clumsier writing material than papyrus; Chinese culture advanced during the Tang Dynasty and preceding centuries due to the invention of paper; and Europe advanced during the Renaissance due to the introduction of paper and the printing press. Paper remained a luxury item through the centuries, until the advent of steam-driven paper making machines in the 19th century, which could make paper with fibres from wood pulp. Although older machines predated it, the Fourdrinier paper making machine became the basis for most modern papermaking. Together with the invention of the practical fountain pen and the mass produced pencil of the same period, and in conjunction with the advent of the steam driven rotary printing press, wood based paper caused a major transformation of the 19th century economy and society in industrialized countries. Before this era a book or a newspaper was a rare luxury object and illiteracy was the norm for the majority. With the gradual introduction of cheap paper, schoolbooks, fiction, non-fiction, and newspapers became slowly available to nearly all the members of an industrial society. Cheap wood based paper also meant that keeping personal diaries or writing letters ceased to be reserved to a privileged few in those same societies. The office worker or the white-collar worker was slowly born of this transformation, which can be considered as a part of the industrial revolution. Unfortunately, the original wood-based paper was more acidic and more prone to disintegrate over time. Documents written on more expensive rag paper were more stable. The majority of modern book publishers now use acid-free paper.Conservation issues\nThe pulp and paper industry has been accused of being instrumental in forest destruction. Several major Asian producers, for example, with strong connections to their respective Governments and bureaucracy have been systematically stripping rainforest for many years. Often the logs are transhipped to other countries to disguise the damaging trade. The Indonesian, Malaysian, Cambodian, Amazon rainforests are currently being subject to some of the worst excesses of environmental vandalism. The processes by which paper is rendered white, in most cases, is also a source of concern. Many rivers have been badly damaged by the discharges from mills processing the wood pulp. These concerns are not merely side issues but rather display the comprehensive problems that occur when production dominates thinking. As in many problems over the years the mistaken belief is, and has traditionally been, that nature can cope. The short answer now is that nature cannot and increasingly the state of the ecosystems has been rendered such that the position has, and is becoming, terminal. The flow-on effect compounds and already disastrous position as in (for example) water quality.External links\n*Indonesian Paper Trade \n*Paper Consumption Trends & Its EffectsSee also\ncardboard, illegal logging. \nISO 216, newsprint, paper sizes, paper mill, paper recycling, stationery, washi, substrate (printing) \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nsimple:paper\n\nCategory:Materials |
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"Men and nations behave wisely once they have exhausted all the other alternatives." - Abba Eban (1915-) |
