The History of Paper — The Chinese Secret That Changed the World

Paper is so ordinary that we throw it away without a thought — yet it carried the words that built our world. This documentary traces paper's two-thousand-year journey: from Egyptian papyrus and Chinese oracle bones, to the court official Cai Lun, who in 105 AD perfected a recipe of bark, rags, and fishing nets and gave humanity true paper. Follow the secret west after the Battle of Talas carries captured papermakers to Samarkand, into the mills of Baghdad where paper fuels the Islamic Golden Age, and through Muslim Spain into the workshops of Italy. Then watch Gutenberg's press create an appetite paper must feed, Europe run out of rags, a wasp teach inventors the secret of wood pulp, and the Fourdrinier machine learn to pour paper out by the ton — until cheap paper puts newspapers and books into every hand on Earth, and even the computer fails to kill it. This is the complete history of paper. CHAPTERS 00:00 Welcome to History Lens 00:05 Before Paper — Papyrus, Bone and Bamboo 01:12 Cai Lun Invents True Paper — China, 105 AD 02:03 Paper Transforms China 02:55 The Battle of Talas — The Secret Escapes 03:48 Baghdad and the Islamic Golden Age 04:41 Paper Reaches Europe — Spain and Italy 05:36 Gutenberg's Press — Print Explodes 06:29 The Rag Crisis and the Secret of Wood 07:26 The Fourdrinier Machine — Paper by the Ton 08:20 Newspapers and Books for Everyone 09:10 Paper in the Digital Age #history #paper #documentary #historyofpaper Subscribe to History Lens for more fascinating documentaries about the hidden histories behind everyday things!