This Week's Composition

After a successful paper making activity we have launched into our composition about the history of paper. We learned many facinating facts about paper including:

In 105 AD, in the Han Dynasty a man named Ts'ai Lun invented paper
He used mulberry bark and hemp rags.
He chopped them up and added water to them.
Then he pressed it flat and let it dry.
This technique spread to India by 400 AD.
The Chinese kept it a secret from the west until 751 AD.
In a battle in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, some Chinese papermakers were captured.
In order to gain their freedom they told the Arabs the secrets of papermaking.
Paper spread across Africa and into Europe through Spain in 1150 AD.
So much paper was being made in Europe, there was a rag shortage.
Paper came to America in 1690 AD.
William Rittenhouse made the first paper mill in America near Philadelphia.

The video shows the boys hard at work with a water wheel similar to the one William Rittenhouse used. I made it a few weeks ago to illustrate the basic principles of how water can be used to create power. It has been a huge hit in class.