50 Fun Facts About Paper

Which Han dynasty court official is traditionally credited with inventing paper in 105 CE?

He was a eunuch who improved the process using tree bark, hemp waste, old rags and fishnets; older paper fragments show he refined rather than invented it.

The word 'paper' derives from the name of which plant-based writing material?

Despite the shared name, the two are separate technologies: papyrus is laminated plant strips, paper is macerated fibre.

The Egyptian writing material that gave paper its name was made from the pith of what kind of plant?

Cyperus papyrus once grew abundantly across the Nile Delta, and Arab attempts to grow it north of Baghdad in the 830s failed.

Before wood pulp, the most common paper was made from what?

Ragpickers collected worn-out natural-fibre textiles to feed the mills, and shortages of rags drove the search for alternatives.

The earliest surviving paper fragment, found at Fangmatan in Gansu, was probably part of what?

It dates from 179–141 BCE, roughly two and a half centuries before Cai Lun.

Popular history says papermaking reached the Islamic world via Chinese prisoners taken at which 751 CE battle?

The story comes from an 11th-century Persian historian; paper had in fact been in Central Asia for centuries already.

Because paper reached the West via one city, it was at first called 'bagdatikos'. Which city?

Paper was being made there by the late 8th century, when the Abbasid vizier ordered it to replace parchment.

Papermaking was firmly established in Europe by 1150 in which Spanish town?

From Spain it spread to Amalfi, Fabriano and Treviso in Italy during the 13th century.

Watermarks were first introduced in 1282 in which Italian papermaking town?

They were made by varying the thickness of the wet sheet; Fabriano papermakers also pioneered sizing paper with animal glue.

Who set up the first paper mill in England, around 1490 near Hertford?

The first commercially successful British mill only came in 1588, when John Spilman opened one near Dartford.

Under which Chinese dynasty was the world's first known paper money printed?

The notes, known as jiaozi and huizi, were also handed to officials as gifts in special paper envelopes.

In 589 CE a scholar-official wrote he dared not use paper quoting the Classics for what?

Toilet paper was in use in China from the late 6th century, and an Arab traveller remarked on the custom in 851.

What did the Chinese fold and sew paper into during the Tang dynasty to preserve the flavour of tea?

The same period saw tea served with multicoloured paper cups and napkins of different shapes.

Who invented the modern commercially available toilet paper in the United States, first sold in 1857?

His Medicated Paper came as flat sheets watermarked with his name and was still on sale in the 1920s.

Which company popularised toilet paper on rolls when it began marketing it in 1890?

As late as the 1930s a rival, Northern Tissue, was still advertising its product as 'splinter free'.

In 1393 the Ming court recorded how many sheets of toilet paper a year for imperial use?

Each sheet measured roughly two by three feet.

Which two inventors, in Canada and Germany, independently developed wood-pulping processes in 1844?

Fenerty worked in Nova Scotia; both announced their findings by mid-1844 and wood pulp has dominated ever since.

Which chemical pulping process, invented in the 1870s, became the dominant method?

Its reaction with lignin gives off heat, so most kraft mills are net contributors to the electricity grid.

Who developed the kraft (sulfate) pulping process in 1879?

The first kraft mill opened in Sweden in 1890; Tomlinson's 1930s recovery boiler later let mills recycle almost all their chemicals.

What substance left by mechanical pulping makes newsprint yellow and go brittle?

Chemical pulping dissolves it out, which is why 'wood-free' paper contains no lignin even though it comes from trees.

Paper made from chemical pulp is called 'wood-free'. Why?

It should not be confused with tree-free paper, which really is made from other plants.

Who invented deinking, the process for removing printing ink from recycled paper, in 1774?

Ink makes up only about 2% of the weight of a waste-paper stock, but removing it is essential for reuse.

Which Frenchman patented the first continuous papermaking machine in 1799?

He quarrelled with his employer over ownership, and the design ended up being developed in England.

The improved continuous paper machine of 1806 is named after which brothers?

The first working version was installed at Frogmore Mill in Hertfordshire in 1803.

At which Hertfordshire mill did Bryan Donkin install an improved Robert paper machine in 1803?

A third machine went into the Fourdriniers' own mill at Two Waters.

On a paper machine, what is the mesh-covered cylinder that can impress a watermark called?

Cylinder-mould watermarks are clearer still, which is why banknotes and passports use them.

What are the fine, closely spaced marks seen in handmade paper called?

They run perpendicular to the more widely spaced chain lines, and machine paper imitates them with special rollers.

The rough, feathery border on a sheet of handmade paper is known as what?

It comes from pulp seeping under the deckle frame of the mould.

The international paper-size standard that includes A4 is known by what number?

It grew out of the German DIN 476 standard and was formalised internationally in 1975.

What is the aspect ratio of every sheet in the A series of paper sizes?

It means a sheet folded in half keeps the same proportions, a property noted by Georg Christoph Lichtenberg in 1786.

What is the area of a sheet of A0 paper?

Walter Porstmann started the system from the largest sheet, so each halving down to A4 gives one-sixteenth of a square metre.

Which German scientist noted in 1786 the advantages of the sheet proportions now used by the A series?

He observed that some raw paper sizes already had the ratio, so folding a sheet did not change its shape.

What are the dimensions of US Letter paper?

Its origins are lost in tradition; 8.5 × 14 inches is Legal size.

The German standard from which ISO 216 originated was known as what?

Japan's JIS P 0138 system closely follows ISO 216 but adds its own sizes.

Which historic British paper size, along with 'Imperial', has largely given way to ISO sizes?

North America instead uses ANSI sizes such as Letter, Legal and Ledger.

What is the best-known model in origami?

Traditional Japanese origami has been practised since the Edo period and often starts from a square sheet.

Published in 1797, Hiden senbazuru orikata is the oldest known technical book on what?

It contains 49 pieces created by a Buddhist monk named Gidō in Ise Province.

Which Japanese origami master introduced wet-folding and co-created the standard diagramming system?

The Yoshizawa–Randlett system of dotted lines and arrows is still used in origami books worldwide.

The Miura map fold, a rigid origami pattern, has been used to deploy what in space?

Rigid origami asks whether a model would still fold if the paper were sheet metal with hinges at the creases.

How many times did Britney Gallivan fold paper in half in 2002, disproving the eight-fold myth?

She used a 4,000-foot length of toilet paper folded in the same direction, having first derived the formula for the limit.

Who set the paper-plane time-aloft world record of 29.2 seconds in 2010?

Ken Blackburn had held the record for 13 years with 27.6 seconds; the flight took place in Fukuyama, Japan.

The paper-plane distance record set in December 2022 by Dillon Ruble was roughly how far?

The throw took place in Crown Point, Indiana, with support from Nathaniel Erickson and Garrett Jensen.

Marco Polo remarked that the Chinese burned paper effigies of servants, camels and horses during what?

He was the first well-documented European in medieval China, during the Yuan dynasty.

By the early 2020s, world 'other papers and paperboard' output topped how many tonnes?

Graphic paper, by contrast, has been falling since a mid-2000s peak and by the early 2020s sat below 100 million tonnes.

Where was Cai Lun born, in a town with a long tradition of paper production?

He is deified as the god of papermaking in China but remains little known outside East Asia.

How did Cai Lun die in 121 CE?

Implicated in the death of the emperor's grandmother after his patron died, he expected a death sentence and pre-empted it.

How many sheets are in a ream, the bundle used to rate US paper weights?

A ream of '20 lb' letter paper actually weighs 5 pounds, because the rating refers to the larger uncut basic sheet.

Under the ISO system, paper heavier than what weight is considered card?

Ordinary printing paper runs between 60 and 120 grams per square metre.

Which two minerals are typical coatings applied to make coated paper?

The coating changes the paper's feel and keeps ink from running on printer paper.

Roughly how many paper cups do Americans use each year?

Paper waste makes up as much as 40% of US waste, and the average office worker prints 31 pages a day.