Discoveries: Paper

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Paper

Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh

Pittsburgh, PA

Explore more at

http://www.pittsburghkids.org/

Materials


 Paper (check your recycle bin for old mail or newspapers)
 A large bowl
 Kitchen blender
 A small piece of window screen
 Sponges
 Dish towels
 A rolling pin

Instructions

  1. Rip the paper in the small pieces.
  2. Soak in a large bowl of water overnight, or until the paper is very soft.
  3. Pour the paper AND the water into a blender. Ask a grown-up Sprout to blend for it for one minute to make pulp.
  4. Over the sink or a bucket, pour your pulp over the window screen.
  5. Rub with dry sponges or paper towels to get as much water out as possible. Wring out the sponges or get dry paper towels if you need to.
  6. Lay a dish towel out flat and then turn the screen over, releasing the pulp onto the towel.
  7. Place another dish towel over the pulp.
  8. Use a rolling pin to flatten and squeeze out the rest of the water.
  9. Set your paper on a windowsill to dry.

 

More Ideas

 Can’t find a rolling pin? Ask a grown-up Sprout for something heavy to put on top of your dish towel.  Let it sit for a half and hour and then remove to let your paper dry.

 Next time, add leaves or flower petals to the blender when you are making your pulp. Or add confetti or tissue paper. See how this changes your piece of paper!

 Ask a grown-up Sprout for food coloring, and add a few drops to white or newspaper pulp to make your paper beautiful!

Why It’s So

Paper was invented almost 2,000 years ago by a Chinese court official named Ts’ai Lun who first mixed plant fibers with water to create a soupy pulp and then dried the pulp into a flat sheet. In 1719, French naturalist René De Réaumur watched wasps build their nests with wood that they had chewed up and spit out. This gave De Réaumur the idea that humans could make paper with tree fibers.

Today, wood from the pulpwood tree is the most common fiber in paper. Most of the paper we use is made at large paper mills. Huge machines add dye to color the pulp, mix in chemicals to make it smooth and press the pulp into giant rolls of paper.

In the future, fewer trees might be used in this process as more and more paper is made from recycled paper, just like you made! Many paper mills accept paper recycled from our homes, schools and offices. Mills can use our old paper to make new pulp, which then becomes new paper. When they use old paper, mills don’t need to cut down as many trees to make paper. Saving trees is good for the birds and animals that live in them, nearby plants that need shade and for humans, because trees make our air cleaner. Do you recycle paper at home or school?

Information provided by Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA
Explore more at
www.pittsburghkids.org

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