Egypt-China Paper Wars

It is erroneously believed that papyrus is an old Egyptian word for paper. However even though the word, paper is derived from papyrus, papyrus is not the same as paper. Papyrus is a laminated material that is manufactured from thinly cut strips of the Papyrus plant’s stalk. Paper on the other hand is manufactured from fiber of different materials soaked and cleaned to produce thin sheets of matted fibers. Incidentally, Egyptians, who had mastered the art of manufacturing papyrus guarded the code of papyrus manufacture closely. They retained some sort of monopoly in the manufacture of the product till 105 AD when an enterprising Chinese court official invented paper as a result of which papyrus’ monopoly as a writing surface declined.