Hands That Changed Everyday Life
Old scraps become part of a story about a material we still use every day.
Four stories explore Cai Lun and paper, Bi Sheng and movable type, the compass, and Zhang Heng's earthquake instrument.
Story 1 of 4
Cai Lun and the First Paper
In the yard of a workshop in the capital, Luoyang, lay a pile of things nobody wanted. There were a few rags, faded and fraying into threads at a touch.
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