BEFORE PAPYRUS . . . BEYOND RAYON — ESSELEN 171 



told that the Arabs were attacked by the Chinese in Samarkand about 

 the middle of the eighth century. The Arabs repulsed their enemies 

 and succeeded in capturing some of the Chinese who knew how to 

 make paper and from them learned the secret. The knowledge of 

 papermaking spread rapidly in Arabia as is evidenced by the fact that 

 there are many early Arabian manuscripts on paper still preserved to- 

 day, the earliest being dated A. D. 866. Trade with Asia seems to 

 have been responsible for bringing a knowledge of paper manufacture 

 to Greece at about the end of the eleventh century, and the Moors 

 established it in Spain in the middle of the twelfth. It gradually 

 spread to Italy, Germany, and France, so that by the year 1350 the 

 manufacture and use of paper was well established in Western Europe 

 and vellum was gradually superseded. 



Today we have many grades and kinds of paper, but all are com- 

 posed mainly of cellulose, of degrees of purity which vary with the 

 particular kind of paper. At first all paper was made from cotton 

 or linen rags, but during the last century wood has become the chief 

 source of supply through the development of chemical methods for 

 separating the cellulose from the other constituents of wood. In 1932 

 in the United States alone there were consumed about 4,000,000 tons 

 of wood pulp which represents about 9,000,000 tons of wood. Of 

 this, a little more than half was of domestic production and the bal- 

 ance imported. The use of a natural resource at so rapid a rate has 

 naturally raised the question as to the steps which should be taken 

 to prevent exhaustion of the supply. To some, the answer seems to 

 be reforestation, while others prefer to rely on cutting trees only above 

 a certain size. By leaving the smaller trees in this way, it has been 

 demonstrated in several sections in the South that a 20-year crop 

 cycle is perfectly feasible. Many experts believe that if the cellulose 

 resources of the temperate zone should prove inadequate, the Tropics 

 could be relied upon for an adequate supply. Already the rapid- 

 growing bamboo of India is being converted into pulp, and studies 

 are being made of the pulp possibilities of varieties of African trees 

 Avhich yield as much or more cellulose per acre per year. 



Since cellulose forms the structural skeleton of all vegetable 

 growth, attention is also being focused on annual field crops as 

 possible sources of cellulose. Cornstalks were suggested for paper- 

 making well over 100 years ago, and chemically this has been pos- 

 sible for a long time. However, it is only within the last few years 

 that the economic problems of harvesting, collecting, and storage 

 have received the scientific study which is essential if these problems 

 are to be solved in such a way as to make the use of cornstalks eco- 

 nomically feasible. The sugarcane also has been the object of con- 

 siderable attention and many kinds of paper have been produced 



