TS'AI LUN
The invention of paper goes to
Ts'ai Lun back in A.D. 105. The way that people made parchments and stuff to write on before Ts'ai Lun invented paper was through the use of silk. However, at the time there was a huge problem that occurred and that was that there wasn't enough silk to be produced at the time with inventions of calligraphy and animal hairbrushes that also needed silk. This caused a massive reduction in production of books to the point where a better source of material was needed to mass produce books at that time. Ts'ai Lun made paper out of rags, fishing nets, hemps, and China grass, which caused a massive production increase in China.
Printing Press
The printing press was invented in 1450 by
Johannes Gutenburg. Unlike the paper model made by Ts'ai Lun, the printing press was much more efficient when it came to paper making. Instead of using silk, the printing press used metal and placed blocks with each letter of the alphabet. He also made larger quantities of the printing press by using replicas casting which created brass and made replicas by pouring molten lead over them. He also made his own ink when making the printing press because it would not have worked without a very specific type of ink that could affix to metal instead of wood.
Impacts
There are
four major impacts that paper had on society when it was invented, and mass produced.
One big impact that paper had on society was that it helped retain information and knowledge in the form of scholarly journals and books. Because of these inventions that helped mass produce paper, it led to a wider publication of books and knowledge to be spread among the population. This let people around the world instead of just the rich to be able to absorb knowledge that has been written down.
Another big impact that paper had on society was hygiene. Back before paper wasn't invented and mass produced, people were unhygienic because they didn't really have a way to clean themselves. Now with paper being invented, people can now wash their hands wipe them off or just clean themselves up using paper towels or toilet paper. This also impacted the spread of bacteria at the time and it reduced it by a large margin. This led to people living healthier and cleaner lives.
Another big impact was the invention of newspapers. News papers allowed for wider communication to the public, revealing news about what is going on in society such as politics and economics. It also helped keep the population entertained with the wide variety of little games that appeared frequently on news papers such as word searches and cross word puzzles. But the biggest impact that news papers had was just the amount of information being speeded through them. It lead to a massive increase in demand to the point that there were even "rag wars" in America which is using rag paper to produce newspapers instead of regular paper. This also lead to the invention of the Paper Mill which helped mass produce paper using lumber and wood.
The last major impact that paper had on society was the usage of recycling paper to make more products. The recycling industry was actually made because of the amount of paper that has been wasted in the past, which people realized it as an issue. Now because we recycle paper, it has helped reduce deforestation on our environment and helped increase the production of paper because all the recycling goes back into paper mills. It also helped clean up city streets and helped keep our towns and city clean from landfill.
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