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Show IRAR DEVELOPMENTS IN THE MACERATIO OF PAPERMAKING MATERIALS, FROM TH ANCIENT CHINESE M THE INVENTION OF THE "HOLLANDER N the preceding chapter it has been explained how in both th Orient and Occident the paper was actually formed into sheets It will now be interesting to trace the development of p\ptrmaking materials, but more especially their maceration; for all stances, no matter of what origin or nature, have first to duced to fibre before they can be suspended in water and forme into sheets of paper Th carliest papc|m1Lcrs, the Chinese, may at first have use silk e and woven, as material for their paper. Certainly i ¢ that the Chinese character for paper () is co o e raw silk, and the second, radical 83, with fou strokes (smh ), denoting sir or family. The original Oriental mod of beating or macerating the substance to a pulp was by placin the mas in stone mortars and pounding the ibes o a paste b hand with wooden mallets. About Ax. 10 whose mor tar was still s a curiosity in the tim e Than Dynasty (\.n. ms«m), made the important discovery that vegetable fibres such as the bark of trees and the filaments of plant and grasses, could be substituted for silk, or animal, fibres, Th definition of the word paper, given in the Shuo-wén, which wa compiled about this time, would indicate that to the compiler th word applied not only to the pieces of woven silk fbric in use a the time by the Chinese for their calligraphy, but that it meant als a sort of paper or paperlike substance. The usual date given fo the invention of papermaking in China, A.. 105, would sugges 15 Digital Imag © 2004 University of Utah. All rights reserved |