Paper Making through the Ages

Paper through the Ages

In this day and age, we make paper using the wood from trees. but is that the only way? Is that how it was always done?

Ancient Egypt

 Ancient Egyptians are the first people known to use the material Papyrus. It is a material similar to thick paper and was used as a writing surface. 

It was made using the Pith of a Papyrus Plant, which is a wetland sedge. It was later on discovered that Papyrus was also used through the Mediterranean region, and by the Kingdom of Kush (an ancient kingdom in Nubia, located at the confluences of the Blue Nile, White Nile and River Atbara in what is now Sudan and South Sudan.) 

Papyrus was first manufactured in Egypt as far back as the fourth millenium BCE. The earliest archaeologoical evidence of Papyrus was excavated in 2012 and 2013 in the Eyptian harbour Wadi-al-jarf, located near the Red Sea.

China

Paper was invented by the Ancient Chinese between the year 71 B.C and 21 A.D. Initially silk fibre was used to create paper: it was processed until being turned into uniform mass. The first paper making was documented in Chine during the Eastern Harn period. (25-220 C.E) During the 8th century Chinese paper making spread to the Islamic world.

Samarkand

The art of paper making, brought to Samarkand by the Chinese in the 7th century. Samarkand paper is made from Mulberry fibre. Today, Konigil, a village near Samarkand has the "Meros" paper mill, founded by the well-known masters, the Mukhtarov brothers.

Religion

Religion-based battles and invasions, caused other religions to steal the recipe for paper. Do you know what the original bible was made out of? The answer is: Sheepskin

Paper Making in New Zealand

In New Zealand, our paper is made in the Kinleith pulp and paper mill, and is made out of wood pulp. Once the paper has been made, it is rolled and cut to size.

How we made our own Archimedes Screw

Using three slim long cans, tubing and tape, we made an Archimedes screw. We taped the three cans together, and attached the tubing in a spiral form along the side of the cans. We then turned the contraption clockwise, and water travelled up the tube and into the other bucket.

We made sure the water was hot so it softened the tubing. I think we could've improved it if we had added some sort of handle so we didn't have to spin the whole thing to get the water in the other bucket.

How Do You Get Water Uphill?

How do you get water uphill?

Job: agricultural soil specialist

Scenario: Your client wants top plant crops in a field 1.5 metres above the local river. He needs to get water to this field and has no electricity to run a pump and no hose.  He must start from scratch. How will he achieve this?

Answer: Archimedes screw

The Archimedes screw was invented by Greek scientist Archimedes who lived in Syracuse Sicily (Found at the 'toe' of Italy, now apart of Italy, and also the largest Mediterranean island in the world) between the years 212 B.C and 287 B.C. The year the Archimedes drill was invented is unknown. Archimedes is also known for discovering the law of hydro-statics, sometimes known as 'Archimedes principle'.

The Archimedes screw is a machine historically used for transferring water from a low-lying body of water into irrigation ditches. Water is pumped by turning a screw-shaped surface inside of a pipe.

Christchurch Water

Christchurch storm water

Christchurch storm water is water collected during storms and rain that can't soak through the pavements and other hard surfaces. It travels down gutters and into sewers, or from roof guttering down drains and again, into sewers. It is contaminated by mud, waste water, pollution and more.

Christchurch wastewater

Christchurch waste water, is water that is collected from kitchens, laundry's, bathrooms and toilets. It travels down pipes connected to sinks, toilets etc and into sewers, also contaminating storm water when it reaches the sewers.

Where does Christchurch get its water?

Christchurch water comes from underground aquifers, which are used to supply Christchurch, Lyttelton, Diamond Harbour and Governors Bay. It is polluted by waste water and storm water, along with microbedes, bacteria etc.

Where does Auckland's water supplies come from?

There are dams located mainly in the Hunua and Waitakere Ranges. Together, these dams supply 80% of Aucklands drinking water. It is also polluted by litter, waste water, microbedes, bacteria etc.

What water borne diseases and parasites can we catch in New Zealand?

Campylobacter, Salmonella, Shigella, Yersinia, Toxigenic Escherichia coli, Giardia, Cryptosporidium, Enteroviruses, Noroviruses and Hepatitis A

Christchurchs waste water is treated after use

Waste water flows by gravity to pump stations, which pump the wastewater from low areas around the city, particularly near the Avon and Heathcote rivers. Five terminal pump stations then pump all the flow to the treatment plant.

It goes from your home, down to the nearest pump station, then through a screen and grit removal system, cleaning all the small grit and stone out of the water. It then travels to a sedimentation tank, where heavy organic matter settles to the bottom of the tank and is scraped to one end and sent to the digesters for treatment. From their, the water travels to a trickling filter, which evenly spreads the clear liquid over the surfaces of the filters.

The water then goes to an aeration tank where air is injected into the bottom in fine bubbles. This air allows the fine slime solids to form larger solids which settle to the bottom of the next tanks, clarifier tanks.

Clarifier tanks then suck the the solids off of the bottom, leaving a clear liquid which then floats out to the oxidation ponds. The water then travels to the ocean.

Where is Hanmer waste water treated?

Hanmer Springs has a fully reticulated wastewater collection plus treatment and disposal facility. Treatment is by a dual passive pond and disposal is by gravity to an open pipe into the Chatterton River.The original system was installed in 1949 to service the hospital and older part of the township. This fed to a large settling tank, below the hospital. The system was upgraded in 1966 to the ponds and has progressively grown from there.

Chemist

What does a chemist do?

A chemist is a scientist who researches and experiments with the properties of chemical substances. They measure the effects of chemical compounds in various situations and study inter-chemical reactions.

Practical

We used 4 Quiz Eze tablets and dropped them in water to time how long it would take for it to completely dissolve. One tablet was whole, one was halfed, one was quartered and one was crushed into hundreds of small pieces. 

Here are the results:

As you can see, there aren't any apart from the fact we now know that a whole indigestion tablet takes over 14 minutes to dissolve, and the halfed tablet took around 7 minutes. In warm water.

Building a Bridge

Task: Make a bridge using a metre of tape and three sheets of news paper. 

We cut two of the sheets of paper into small rolls, and taped them to the last piece, in the shape of a X and then the last two went across the sides (My team mate was Trisha). These were our results...

We managed to use every weight, and our bridge STILL didn't break.

Printmaking Process

Woodblock Printing Ink

Brayer- Ink Roller

Lino and Woodcut tools

Barren and Presses

Printmaking Paper

Bench Hook

1. Create a sketch form a variety of resources
2. Draw/transcribe drawing on to wood
3. Cover desks with newpaper
4. Put on apron
5. Put down material/tarp to catch wood shavings
6. Set up bench hook on table
7. Carve/Cut wood with tools
8. Cut paper for printing onto
9. Roll out ink
10. Roll ink onto wood
11. Press paper over inked block with Baren to create print
12. Peel print carefully off inked block and put somewhere safe to dry
13. Fold up material/tarp and shake outside
14. Wash rollers, and surface/block used for ink rolling
15. Stack chairs

At the moment, I am printing my drawing onto the wood block. The hardest part so far has been printing my drawing onto the wood, because you have to press down on the back and colour the whole back of the drawing in pencil. I'm enjoying creating pasifika patterns because it isn't like anything I've done before. I think if I made some of the patterns smaller, I probably could've added more patterns. Throughout making the Pasifika print so far, I have learnt more about how to make woodcuts and prints.