The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1892-06-24
oEFORE PAPER WAS INVENTED.
Come Interesting Facts Which every
EOy and Girl Should Knnw.

I hoy Nhu UEEA 6hONlu 1AhO".
The invention of paper was, perhaps,
more useful to the world than that OF
printing. 1t vastly increased the spread
of knowledge, making possible the pos
session, upon the payment of few cents,
of knowledge which in the fourteenth
century, the day of rare and costly manu-
scripts, could only be procured upon the
payment of large sum of money.
In the most ancient times writing was
Used for rare occasions only, and rock, /,
tablet of stone or plate of metal was
the receptacle. Moses, you remember.
wrote upon stone tables. The works Of
| Homer and Hesiod were said to have
been first written on plates of lead. And
ancient documents on copper are still
met with in India.
Some persons are of the opinion that
the first writing was upon thin pieces of
| wood. From their convenience this
seems probable. Such boards were used
at an early period by the Greeks and Ro-
mans, and were frequently covered with
wax, which was, of course, more easily
written upon than the bare wood. Where
wax was used errors were readily erased
by rubbing with the blunt end of the
piece of metal which served for a pen.
10 make the writing more visible it ap-
pears that some black substance was
smeared over the surface of the white
wax and remained in the scratched
marks.
Leaves of trees were used very early
by the Egyptians, and probably by the
Greeks. The Hindoos continued the use
of this material until within few CEN
turies. Even at the present time books
of leaves are not uncommon in the south
of India and the Island of Ceylon. The
leaves of some Asiatic trees, from their
size and smoothness, are admirably
adapted for books. If we may judge
from the name "leaf" being still applied
to the paper of books, we should imagine
these leaves to have been formerly the
principal material in use.
The interior bark of trees was formerly
used to write upon, and its latin name
Qiber, bark) seems to intimate that its
use was as ancient as the art of writing
itself. In one respect the bark was su-
perior to the leaf it could be rolled into
volume, while the leaf would crack if
subjected to such process.
The skins of animals were another an
cient material for writing. The rolls of
books mentioned by Bible writers were
probably rolls of skins, and some very
ancient copies of the Bible preserved by
the people of India are said to be of
leather.
Linen cloth was occasionally used, but
was never very common. Linen manu-
scripts have been found folded in
mummy cases, and the Chinese, before
the invention of paper, used silk and cot
ton cloth. The Romans also wrote upon
linen. The use of this material intro
duced change in the manner of writing.
The other substances were rather en-
graved than written upon, an iron point
being used for the purpose. To write
upon linen it was necessary to have some
colored fluid which might get dry and
leave permanent mark. The first ink
used was probably some sort of SCOT OF
Iamp-black, mixed with size or gum
water, and the first instrument answer
ing to our pen was reed.
Parchment is thought to have been
first used about the third century B. G.
1t was superior in many ways to every
other material. Even at the present day
the use of parchment for documents Of
Importance prevails over that of paper.
The first paper, made from the papyrus
plant by the Egyptians. was not what
we understand by the term paper. 1t
was made of the inner ba rk of the plant
and prepared and polished by peculiar
process. 1t was not until the ninth or
tenth century that the use of paper,
probably so called, was introduced into
Europe.