††The first writing was done on animal skins, or on papyrus made from reed fibre, by the Egyptians as long ago as 3000 BC.
The first paper was made by the Chinese around the year 140 BC, but this paper was used as a packing material and for clothing and personal hygiene, rather than for writing.
The invention of writing paper is attributed to a Chinese court official, Tsai Lun, who in 105 AD steeped a mixture of rags, hemp, mulberry bark and old fishing nets in water. He then spread the mixture across a sieve to drain. When the resulting sheet of pulp was dried it produced a perfectly smooth writing surface.
Paper came to the West in 751 AD. During a battle in central Asia between the Arabs and Chinese, the Arabs captured two Chinese papermakers. They passed their secrets to the Arabs, who in the 12th century, opened Europe's first paper mill in Spain. The first paper mills opened in Stevenage, England in 1494.
