In this era of information, a paper is one of the things that are widely used in all forms of communication, schools and workplaces among others.

Although humans had used other flat substances to write on, none of these were truly a paper. The materials included clay tablets, papyrus, hide parchment, but none of these were made from paper because papers are naturally made of plant fibres.

So, the contemporary records of AD 105 indicate that Emperor Hi-Ti, Ts’ai Lun of Lei-Yang of China conceived the idea of making papers from the bark of trees and that is how the paper became used in the whole universe.

Although most of the current papers are made from wood fibres, the first one was made from paper mulberry with the scientific name of Broussonetia papyrifera.

To make them, they stripped the fibre from young branches and boiled until they were soft. It was then pounded to separate the fibres and remove softer tissues, and they are suspended in water, and later on dried to make a sheet of paper.

Papermaking knowledge was then spread to the Islamic world after the battle of Talas when the two Chinese papermakers were captured as prisoners.

From there, it spread from the Middle East to Medieval Europe and in the 19th century, industrialisation speeded up paper making.