Paper-Making
an account of paper-making from its earliest
known record down to the present time by
J.W. Butler Paper Company 1901
swayed by the breezes that ruffled the waters of the Nile was one
of the most useful plants known to Egypt, in whose commerce it
long held a leading place. As early as 2000 B.C., or five hundred
years before Moses led the children of Israel out of bondage,
there was made from its smooth green stems a material called by
the same name, papyrus, a kind of crude paper, which came into
universal use, and was so valuable and in such great demand that
one of the kings proposed to maintain his army from the sale of
this product alone. The plant was the familiar bulrush of the Nile,
which grew in forest-like profusion along the banks of that mighty
stream; and from its strong stems was woven the ark in which the
infant Moses was hidden away" among the flags by the river's
brink," and so saved from the death that menaced him under
Pharaoh's cruel decree. The Egyptian papyrus was thus the means
of preserving to the world the life of the greatest law giver of
history. It has been equally instrumental in perpetuating the code
of laws whose principles still serve as foundation for the
jurisprudence of the leading nations of the earth, nearly four
The papyrus, a tall, smooth-stemmed reed of triangular form, grew to a height of ten or fifteen feet, and terminated in
a tufted plume of leaves and flowers. Like so many plants that grow beneath the ardent skies of the tropics, it had
numerous uses. It was noted especially for the soft, cellular substance found in the interior of its stems, which was a
common article of food, both cooked and in its natural state. It was employed also for the making of mats, sail-cloth,
cordage, and wearing apparel; while in Abyssinia, in whose marshes it is still to be found, boats were fashioned by
weaving the stems closely together and covering them with a sort of resinous matter. At a very early day, judging
from sculptures of the fourth dynasty, Egypt made a similar use of the papyrus, employing it in the construction of light
skiffs suited to the navigation of the pools and shallows of the Nile. It is believed that Isaiah referred to boats of this
sort when he spoke of the vessels of bulrushes upon the waters." But valuable as the papyrus was through these
manifold uses, its enduring fame was due to an entirely different source. It held closely wrapped within its green
stems the scrolls upon which, through hundreds of years, the history and literature of the world were to be written;
and that fact alone was sufficient to engrave its name deeply on the thoughts and memories of men. In the
manufacture of this Egyptian paper, papyrus, the outer rind of the stem was first removed, exposing an interior made
up of numerous successive fiber layers, some twenty in number.