The graceful water-plant whose plumy, drooping heads were swayed by the breezes that ruffled the waters of the Nile was one of the most useful plants known to Egypt, in whose commerce it long held a leading place. As early as 2000 B.C., or five hundred years before Moses led the children of Israel out of bondage, there was made from its smooth green stems a material called by the same name, papyrus, a kind of crude paper, which came into universal use, and was so valuable and in such great demand that one of the kings proposed to maintain his army from the sale of this product alone. The plant was the familiar bulrush of the Nile, which grew in forest-like profusion along the banks of that mighty stream; and from its strong stems was woven the ark in which the infant Moses was hidden away “among the flags by the river’s brink,” and so saved from the death that menaced him under Pharaoh’s cruel decree. The Egyptian papyrus was thus the means of preserving to the world the life of the greatest law-giver of history. It has been equally instrumental in perpetuating the code of laws whose principles still serve as foundation for the jurisprudence of the leading nations of the earth, nearly four thousand years after they were first promulgated to his own people, the wandering tribes in the desert.

The papyrus, a tall, smooth-stemmed reed of triangular form, grew to a height of ten or fifteen feet, and terminated in a tufted plume of leaves and flowers. Like so many plants that grow beneath the ardent skies of the tropics, it had numerous uses. It was noted especially for the soft, cellular substance found in the interior of its stems, which was a common article of food, both cooked and in its natural state. It was employed also for the making of mats, sail-cloth, cordage, and wearing apparel; while in Abyssinia, in whose marshes it is still to be found, boats were fashioned by weaving the stems closely together and covering them with a sort of resinous matter. At a very early day, judging from sculptures of the fourth dynasty, Egypt made a similar use of the papyrus, employing it in the construction of light skiffs suited to the navigation of the pools and shallows of the Nile. It is believed that Isaiah referred to boats of this sort when he spoke of the “vessels of bulrushes upon the waters.” But valuable as the papyrus was through these manifold uses, its enduring fame was due to an entirely different source. It held closely wrapped within its green stems the scrolls upon which, through hundreds of years, the history and literature of the world were to be written; and that fact alone was sufficient to engrave its name deeply on the thoughts and memories of men.

In the manufacture of this Egyptian paper, papyrus, the outer rind of the stem was first removed, exposing an interior made up of numerous successive fiber layers, some twenty in number. These were separated with a pointed instrument, or needle, arranged side by side on a hard, smooth table, crossed at right-angles with another set of slips placed above, and then dampened. After pressure had been applied for a number of hours, the sheets were taken out and rubbed with a piece of ivory, or with a smooth stone or shell, until the desired surface was obtained, when the process was complete, except for drying in the sun. The inner layers of the plant furnished the best product, the outer ones being coarse and suitable only for the making of cordage. Single sheets made in this way were fastened together, as many as might be required, to form the papyrus rolls, of which hundreds have been discovered in recent years. It is said that the Romans, when they undertook the manufacture of papyrus, made a great improvement in the sheets by sizing them with flour, to which a few drops of vinegar were added, and then beating the surface smooth. ?Early Chinese discoveries? The Chinese, far away to the East, also learned some of the secrets of paper-making. It is believed that in early times they used silk as their basis, but later on they made the so-called rice-paper by a method similar to that employed in the manufacture of papyrus, deftly cutting a continuous slice from the pith of the papyrifera.

From the reed, and the process of manufacture through which it passed, the English language has gained a number of words. The plant itself, called papyrus in the Latin tongue, byblos in the Greek, has given us the two words paper and bible. It is claimed further that the process of furrowing off the different layers of the pith gave us, through the Greek word charasso ?a?ass?, to furrow, and the Greek and Latin charta, a piece of paper, our several words chart, card, carte blanche, and, of course, the “charta” of that famous document, Magna Charta, the great sheet-anchor of English liberties. In the course of manufacture, twenty sheets of papyrus were glued together into a scapus by the glutinatorie, the first known bookbinders, and then into a roll known as a volumer, from which we get our word volume. The city of Paris boasts a volumer of this sort, a papyrus manuscript, well preserved, which is thirty feet in length.

The rolls, or papyri, are said to have become known in Europe through the French expedition into Egypt in 1798, and specimens were reproduced in print by one Cadet in 1805. The making of papyrus is mentioned by Philostratus as a staple manufacture of Alexandria in A.D. 244, and it continued to be used in Italy until the twelfth century. The extent to which it was employed may be judged by the fact that nearly 1,800 rolls were unearthed in the ruins of Herculaneum, about the year 1753. The durability of this substance added greatly to its value, and it is claimed that the ancient papyrus manuscripts that have been properly preserved are almost as serviceable to-day as when first made. It is doubtful whether a similar statement can be made four thousand or even two thousand years hence in regard to many of the books printed on nineteenth-century paper. Chicago has the largest collection of ancient papyri west of the Atlantic, consisting of three hundred complete pieces and hundreds of fragments, which were discovered by an Arab sheik while digging along the banks of the Nile.

Following the making of papyrus came the manufacture of parchment, the use of which in diplomas and certain public documents continues to the present time. As the story runs, the invention of the new writing material was due to the spirit of rivalry between two cities of the ancient world. Attalus, king of Pergamus, was anxious to establish in his capital a library that would excel the splendid collection at Alexandria, but Egypt, having a monopoly of papyrus, refused to sell to him. But no monopoly of that day or this could ever control all the means of supplying man’s needs. Nature is resourceful, and man, when driven by necessity, soon learns that her treasures are practically limitless. When the supply of one article is for any reason curtailed, she furnishes something as good or better to take its place. If all the paper in the world to-day were owned by a monopoly that refused to sell, something would speedily be found to take its place. So the inhabitants of Pergamus, being refused papyrus, set about manufacturing a substitute, which came to be known among the Romans as “pergamena,” from which comes our word parchment.

The skins of sheep and goats were employed in the making of parchment. These were steeped in pits impregnated with lime, and afterward stretched upon frames, where their thickness was reduced by paring and scraping them with sharp instruments. To obtain the fine, uniform, velvety surface characteristic of the best parchment, it was necessary to sprinkle the skin with chalk, and rub and polish it with fine pumice-stones, which not only smoothed and softened the leather, but also improved its color. When it had been reduced to about half its original thickness, it was dried for use. Vellum, which still represents the acme of luxury in bookbinding, was made in a similar manner, from the skins of young calves. As early as 1085 B.C., the Hebrews wrote on the skins of animals, and it is believed that the Medes, at about the same period, used a substance resembling parchment, and prepared in a similar manner, the cost of land carriage being too great to admit of any extensive introduction of papyrus into western Asia. “For public documents, the rock, and for private, the pen and the prepared skin, seem to have been preferred by them, and in the earlier times, at any rate, they employed no other materials.”

For many years parchment was used in England for all deeds of real estate, and so lengthy were these documents that it was said it took a flock of sheep to convey an acre of land or make a marriage settlement. As the age of stone, the carved obelisk, the clay tablet, and other crude materials was outgrown, so was that of papyrus and parchment. With the next step forward came paper, and the improvements in its manufacture with regard to quality, variety, and increase of production, have kept pace with the varying and growing demands. It is not given us to know what the future may bring forth, but paper seems likely to hold sway until the end of time.