The old saying "necessity is the mother of invention" applies also to the history of paper. In the beginning, man wrote on whatever was readily available, such as bone fragments, silk, turtle shells, and pieces of bamboo or wood. However, silk was very costly, and a less expensive substitute was sought. Around 105 AD, Ts'ai Lun, the Chinese Imperial workshops overseer, and his workers made a pulp from available materials such as hemp, linen rags, and mulberry bark. This pulp coulc be written on once dried. Paper was then produced in the first century AD.
Apparently, communication was really difficult for our ancestors because the new invention was brought by the Arabs to the West for almost one thousand years, and the Europeans still hadn’t developed their own paper industry. Paper was not commonly used at first, as the kings were doubtful about the durability of the unknown and apparently fragile substance. However, the increasing need for writing materials and the insufficiency of substitutes gave paper a significant foothold all over Europe during the early 14th century.
When paper is torn in one direction into strips, the tear’s edges are relatively straight. If paper is torn in the other direction, however, the edges of the torn paper are irregular and uneven, which means that paper is just like wood that is a lot easier to cut along the fibres than crosswise. Paper is also mades up of fibres that are lined up in a particular direction. Since paper is subjected to binding, printing, and other procedures, tear resistance is indeed a very important property.
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