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Papir
Where does paper come from?
Ecology
Where
does paper come from? |

papyrus

pergament

clay boards

Chinese paper production
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It's got its name after papyrus, a plant very similar to reed,
which was used in ancient Egypt for making sheets or even whole papyrus coils. Ancient
Romans had cut their notes on wax tables. A well-known writing pad is
also pergament, which has been used by ancient Greeks and monks (copiers of texts in the
middle age). Pergament is
actually specially cultivated animal skin and it has got name after town of Pergam in
Small Asia, where it was produced from the very beginning. But paper, that we know
nowadays, is an invention of Chinese, which used knowledge of wasps.
The story tells that the Chinese Tsai-Lun watched
wasps building the nest. These animals chew wood and other vegetable fibers, mix it with
saliva (glue!) and build their nest with that mixture. Tsai-Lun made something
similar: he ground small pieces of bamboo and mulberry tree wood to tiny pieces. He got
liquid mixture, which he filtered and dried. That's how he got a sheet of paper. That
happened almost 2000 years ago. Chinese kept their secret for 700 years.

Then the Arabians caught by accident a group
of Chinese paper makers who revealed the secret how to make it to them to them. |
Ecology |

We are not really aware how significant the protection of nature and human's
living and working environment is. People pollute environment with waste (even with
returnable packing). They threaten water sources and in this way stimulate evolution of
disease carrying germs and diseases and also spoil the look of nice and settled
environment.
Beside protection, taking care and maintaining correct relation to earth, air
and water, a rational and humane consumption of wood requires raising and maintaining the
correct relation to returnable and non-returnable packing.

Packing is made from a lot of different substances and we can change them with
chemical (recycling) and mechanical (remaking, working) procedures into materials for
remaking or building them into new products, which are nicer and friendlier to humans and
environment. Waste paper packing and waste paper, after being cleaned and ground are a
very important additive in the production of pasteboard and newspaper paper. That's why
it's important to point out that it is important to organize collecting of waste paper and
to recycle it. |
Materials collected and translated by students: Matej, Peter and
Grega, class 8. |
Resources:
- Vesela šola, PIL, št.13, 1999
- website for craft
- website of Franceta
Prešerna Kranj Primary School |
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