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A courtier named Ts'ai-Lun,
from Lei-yang in China, was the inventor of paper (not papyrus)
circa 105 A.D. However, the word paper is derived from the
name of the reedy plant papyrus, which grows abundantly
along the Nile River in Egypt. Paper is made of pulped cellulose
fibers like wood, cotton or flax. Papyrus is made from the
sliced sections of the flower stem of the papyrus plant,
pressed together and dried.
General Papermaking
History
Starting with the year
3000 BC, this is a timeline of paper invention.
American Museum of Papermaking
- The Robert C. Williams American Museum is a renowned resource
on the history of paper and paper technology. Virtual Tour
Contents Forerunners to Paper - The Invention of Paper -
The Spread of Papermaking in Europe - The Papermaker - Dard
Hunter - Papermaking Moves to the United States - The Advent
of the Paper Machine - Watermarks - The Modern Paper Mill
- Paper in Our Lives - Recycling in the Paper Industry.
A Short History
of Paper and Cardboard
America's First Papermill
The Rittenhouse Mill -
Alex Buntin established the first commercial mechanical
pulp mill in North America at Valleyfield, Quebec, in 1866.
Charles Fenerty of Halifax
made the first paper from wood pulp (newsprint) in 1838.
Charles Fenerty was helping a local paper mill maintain
an adequate supply of rags to make paper, when he succeeded
in making paper from wood pulp. He neglected to patent his
invention and others did patent papermaking processes based
on wood fiber.
Cardboard
and Packaging
Grocery
Paper Bags.
The first recorded historical reference to grocery paper
bags was made in 1630.
The
History of Paper Sacks
The use of sacks only really started to take off during
the Industrial Revolution: between 1700 and 1800.
Grocery Bags
Margaret (Mattie) Knight (1838-1914) - Knight was an employee
in a paper bag factory when she invented a new machine part
to make square bottoms for paper bags. Paper bags had been
more like envelopes before. Knight can be considered the
mother of the grocery bag, she founded the Eastern Paper
Bag Company in 1870.
Paper
Bags
On February 20, 1872, Luther Crowell also patented a machine
that manufactured paper bags.
A History of Packaging
The first commercial cardboard box was produced in England
in 1817, more than two hundred years after the Chinese invented
cardboard. Corrugated paper appeared in the 1850s; about
1900, shipping cartons of faced corrugated paperboard began
to replace self-made wooden crates and boxes used for trade.
Packaging's
Continued History
The cardboard box emerged at the end of the 19th century,
a simple yet revolutionary invention. An American, Robert
Gair, had the bright idea of manufacturing in bulk a pre-cut
cardboard panel which, once folded, would form a box.
Corrugated
Paper Products
In 1856, Englishmen, Healey and Allen, received a patent
for the first corrugated or pleated paper. The paper was
used to line tall men's hats. However, this was not the
corrugated cardboard we know today. On December 20, 1871,
Albert Jones of New York NY, patented a stronger corrugated
paper (cardboard) used as a shipping material. This was
the first cardboard and stronger than paperboard. In 1874,
G. Smyth built the first single sided corrugated board machine.
Also in 1874, Oliver Long improved upon the Jones patent
and invented a lined corrugated material and this was modern
cardboard as we know it today - which led to the invention
of the Corrugated Cardboard Box
American,
Robert Gair promptly invented the corrugated cardboard box
in 1890. These were pre-cut flat pieces manufactured in
bulk that opened up and folded into boxes. Gair made his
first plain paper folding box in 1870.
Containerboard
or Corrugated Containers
The first use of corrugated paper for packaging came in
1871, when an American, Albert Jones, introduced an idea
of wrapping bottles and glass chimneys in it. However, it
was the addition of a liner to one and then to the other
side of corrugated paper that signaled the birth of cardboard
as we know it.
http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blpapermaking.htm
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