Paper & paper making, ancient and modern

The work surveys the history and technology of making writing surfaces, tracing early media such as stone, skins, bark, and papyrus and following the adoption of fibrous sheets and mechanized manufacture; it explains raw materials and their preparation, including pulping, washing, bleaching, sizing, and cutting, compares hand and machine processes, and describes apparatus and watermark production and their uses for security and quality. Interleaved are practical anecdotes, regulatory and economic considerations, and illustrations of how improvements in machinery and materials transformed production and the appearance and durability of paper.