CHAPTER XVIII
THE MAKING OF PAPER
THE MAKING of paper is closely related to that of textiles. In each case the same basic materials are used. A mass of interlacing fibers is formed into a continuous sheet, but the method of interlacing the fibers and holding them together is entirely different. Paper resembles felt more closely than any other form of fabric. The fibers are not woven but are matted together and compressed. In the case of felt the fibers of wool or hair are held together mainly by the microscopic barbs that they possess while paper fibers are held together by means of sizing.
Although paper gets its name from papyrus the latter was not paper, for it was a felt of pith rather than fiber. The ancients produced a very fair writing material from the rushlike plants that grew in the swamps along the Nile. The stem of the papyrus was stripped of its bark and the pith was cut into thin ribbons which were laid side by side to form a sheet. Over these and at right angles to them was laid another layer of pith ribbons. The material was then soaked in water, pressed into a continuous sheet and dried. These sheets were then pasted together and rolled up into scrolls. Unquestionably they played a most important part in the civilization of ancient Egypt, providing, as they did, a ready means of recording knowledge and disseminating it among the people.