ABSTRACT
Ts’ai-Lun apparently produced a sheet of paper in about a.d. 100 in China and became the rst recorded papermaker in the world. However, it took about 1000 years for this new art to reach Europe. In the medieval era, the progress of papermaking was very slow and the major ingredient of paper was old rags. By the beginning of the nineteenth century, the progress of this industry was enormously accelerated. The rst practical paper machine was produced in the early 1800s; then continuous drying techniques were introduced to the industry by means of cylinder drying in 1817 by John Dickinson; later, in the mid-1840s, the extensive use of wood as a cellulose-ber source began by the advent of the rst wood grinder. Today, papermaking has become one of the major industries in the world. The production of paper increased enormously, over 60 million tons per year in the United States alone. The machine speeds also increased up to 10-15 m/s and even higher for tissue products, to keep pace with the increased production rates.
