The Crocodile Cage

To the naked eye, paper looks very orderly, smooth and uniform. In fact, it is the very disorderliness of paper’s structure is what holds it together. Paper is made up of cellulose fibers without any sort of glue or base to hold them together.

You can see these fibers if you roughly tear a piece of paper. The edges of the tear will reveal individual fiber strands that have been torn free from the rest of the sheet although you may need a magnifying glass to see them clearly. These fibers are the paper and they are also what holds the paper together in a single sheet.

Paper is basically made by collecting cellulose or wood fiber in a liquid solution. In this solution, these fibers float freely. They are aligned in all different directions and tangled amongst themselves. This slurry of cellulose fibers is then drained of the supporting liquid leaving only the fibers behind. As the fiber mixture dries, it may be compressed and pressed flat by powerful rollers or presses. This compression helps to push the liquid out and to push the fibers even closer together. Heat may also be applied to help dry out the fibers.

Finally, all that’s left is the cellulose fibers. They are tangled amongst each other and so intertwined that they form a single sheet of paper. Think of each fiber as a Lego block or a thread. When they are woven together or interlocked all the small pieces make a larger whole. The interlocking fibers, all randomly tangled together, form smooth and cohesive paper.

Paper is created in mills in great long sheets. These raw sheets may be wound up and used for continuous Thermal Paper Rolls products in machines like cash registers, or they may be cut to specific sizes and use as typing paper or the pages of a book. Although modern machinery and electric dryers are used these days, the basic process of reducing plant fibers in a chemical slurry and then drying them out to form paper hasn’t really changed in hundreds, perhaps thousands, of years.

One thing that has changed is the invention of specialty papers. Some papers undergo another process to transform them into a specialized product. These papers may get an additional coating applied to the surface or may have chemicals mixed into the fiber matrix. These chemicals might make the paper photo sensitive as in the case of blue print paper, or heat sensitive as in the case of Thermal Paper.

The coarseness, color and strength of the paper is determined by the length of the cellulose fibers used in its construction, the chemicals added to separate and process the fibers, and any surface treatments. Some glossy paper has a very thin surface coating of fine clay or other material to give it an extra smooth feel and a glossy appearance, for example.