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Well, first of all we needed paper. To create paper you need to suspend your material as fibres and allow it to drain. The fibres form a mat which can then be pressed to form paper. It started in China in the first century when Cai Lun, an official attached to the Imperial court during the Han Dynasty (202 BC – 220 AD), created a sheet of paper using mulberry and other fibres along with fishnets, old rags, and hemp waste. The Chinese used it for wrapping and padding. They also used it as toilet paper and to make little tea bags. They did not use it for writing on until the second century AD. The Chinese invented water powered presses to create the paper sheets.

 

 

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