CHAPTER ONE
1.0 INTRODUCTION
1.1 HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
The earlist information about usage of grasses as a writing material dates back to 3000 be in Egypt where the pressed pith tissue of papyrus sedge Cyperus Papyrus L. was the most widely used writing material. Actual papermaking was discovered by a Chinese Ts’ ai Lun in 105 AD, when he found a way of making sheets using fibres from hemp rags and mulberry plant. Straw was used for the first time as a raw material for paper in 1800, and in 1827 started the first commercial mill to pulp straw in the USA Atchison and MCGovern 1987. In the 1830’s Anseline payer found a resistant fibrous material which exists in most plant tissue, payen 1842. The substance, which the French Academy named Cellulose in 1839, Brongiart et al, 1839, Hon 1994. This was the turning point in the use of all fibres, and it led to the invention of the new pulping methods which used soda, sulphite or sulphate as a cooking chemical. Paper could be made from ceveal straw, reed, esparto grass, independence weed and even from wood became the main raw material for paper.
During the next several centuries, the art of papermaking grew far and wide from Japan in the east, to siam “now Thailand in the south, to Chinese Turkestan in the west.
In Turkestan, in 751 AD, papermaking was learned by the Arabs who brought it westward over their trade routes. Papermaking reached Samarkand, Baghdad 793AD, Damascus, Cairo 900AD and fez 1100AD. From there it spread to Spain in 1151AD then to France in 1348AD and later on to Germany in 1390AD. In the region where paper mulberry bamboo and China grass as linen and cotton rags were used. Atchison and Micgovern, 1989.
In Europe and North America active research has been Undertaken to find a new non-wood raw material for paper production. The driving force was the shortage of short-fibre raw material i.e hardwood in Nordic countries which export pulp and paper and, at the same time face problem of agricultural over production. The consumption of paper, especially fine paper, continuous to grow, which will increase the demand of short-fibre pulp, paavilianen 1996.