Paper was made out of hemp fibers, fishing nets, and reeds. This recipe replaced the previous recipe of silk. This recipe was then replaced by the first wood mills that ground wood into fine pulp. The impact of paper was that we could write down sacred knowledge in books. We could also make hygiene products out of paper. Art was also made from paper.
The invention of paper had a vast impact on the environment because we suddenly had to farm mass amounts of wood to make all the paper we needed. Paper can be made out of wood, rags, grasses, and even herbivore dung. The papermaking process was developed in east Asia as early as 105 CE. Paper was originally made by hand. Nowadays paper is mass produced by industrial machines that turn wood fibers into thin sheets and dehydrate them so that they stick together. Paper led to greater enlightenment in the world because of its ability to store ideas by scribing them on sheets of paper instead of carving them into stones. Painting especially saw new heights as artists could use new techniques on canvases. A form of precursor to paper was the papyrus sheets used by ancient Egyptians for the same purpose. Paper can even be used as a filter. This potentially led to quality of life improvements where people could drink cleaner water because of this new technology originally meant for scribing. The knowledge of papermaking spread from east Asia to the middle east, and then to Europe through the capturing of enemy scientists.
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