A Brief History of Papermaking.

The article presents a brief history of papermaking from its origin in the Orient in the first century to the Western World in the twelfth century. Chinese eunuch Ts'ai Lun invented the paper in 105 A.D. The papermaking process slowly moved westward into Damascus and Egypt in the tenth century and then came into Europe. Then printing multiple impressions from movable type was invented. The first paper mill in the U.S. was erected in 1690 in Germantown, Pennsylvania, by German papermaker William Rittenhouse who had emigrated to Pennsylvania.