Although paper gets its name from papyrus the latter was not paper, for it was a felt of pith rather than fiber. The ancients produced a very fair writing material from the rushlike plants that grew in the swamps along the Nile. The stem of the papyrus was stripped of its bark and the pith was cut into thin ribbons which were laid side by side to form a sheet. Over these and at right angles to them was laid another layer of pith ribbons. The material was then soaked in water, pressed into a continuous sheet and dried. These sheets were then pasted together and rolled up into scrolls. Unquestionably they played a most important part in the civilization of ancient Egypt, providing, as they did, a ready means of recording knowledge and disseminating it among the people. CHINESE INVENTION OF PAPER Like so many inventions that are of vital importance to modern civilization, paper is a Chinese invention. The Chinese made paper from the fibers of trees, a material to which we have reverted in recent years. The invention dates from about 150 A. D., when some one devised a process of reducing the bark of the mulberry tree to a pulp, beating it and boiling it in lye and then matting the fibers on a screen and pressing them into a finished sheet. The process was introduced into Europe by the crusaders in the 12th Century. In 1150 a paper-making plant was established in Italy and soon the new writing material was being made in increasing quantities and became a common article throughout Europe. It was not until the end of the 18th Century that machinery for making paper came into use. In the old hand process which is still used to a very limited extent for special papers, the pulp, after being reduced to a thin milky fluid, was dipped out of a vat with a rectangular sieve which had a wire screen bottom of fine mesh. The water drained off, leaving the fibers upon the screen. As the pulp was draining the sieve was shaken about to distribute the fibers evenly and interlace them as much as possible. The depth of the sieve determined the amount of pulp that was dipped out and hence the thickness of the paper. The soft, matted mass of fibers was turned out upon a felt mat and left to dry. Soon other fibers came to be used and the finest grades of paper were made from linen and cotton rags. The rags were carefully sorted out and washed after which they were stored in a damp place to rot for a number of weeks. Then they were cut and shredded and boiled until they were converted into a pulp. The complete process of making fine paper by hand took from two to three months. Paper was made in small sheets limited by the size of sieve that could readily be operated by hand.