Modern chemical bleaches date from the end of the Eighteenth century. Before those were invented how was paper made white (or even a pale ivory/cream)? If you or your kids have ever dabbled in handcrafted paper you’re probably aware that you’re lucky to get a medium gray at best.
Whitish paper was somewhat premium. They didn’t use wood-pulp as much as used up white linen and cotton rags.
The heavy use of wood pulp for printing paper didn’t happen until chlorine bleach was a part of the process. That was around 1800.
An example of non-premium printing would be Poor Richard’s Almanack made from crappy rags so the paper was pretty much brown.
Sunshine works well. Bleach is said to have originated in ancient Egypt with sun-bleached garments, later evolving in 3000 B.C. to lye solutions made from wood ashes and water.
This is due to photodegradation, where light-absorbing colour bodies are altered. When these bonds break, the material’s ability to absorb specific wavelengths of light changes, leading to colour fading.
Answered in one. I came here to say that. White rags being the answer.
Yep, cotton paper is still used for fine art prints and drawings. Rives BFK is a pretty popular 100% cotton paper.
There’s reference to chemical bleaching in the Bible: The transcendent Jesus’s garments are said to be “white as no fuller can bleach them”.
But then- how did they get the rags white? As said below, a “fuller” did that
And how? Material was soaked in aged urine, then the material was “treaded” for quite some time- then Fuller’s earth (hence the name) for the next level of clean- finishing with Sulphur bleaching by burning Sulphur underneath drying racks. whew! Lots of work there.
Roman Togas were at times, whitened with chalk- a candidate for office had to have a spotless white toga.
Urine is a bleach.
Goes back to the Greeks and Romans. It was collected from the households.
As late as the Edwardian Era great houses would collect urine from chamberpots and ferment it to make lant. The concentrated ammonia made it ideal for laundry and floor cleaning.
Isn’t US paper currency made from cotton and linen and not wood pulp?
25% linen and 75% cotton
“Pecunia non olet.”
“Money doesn’t stink.” Emperor Vespasian to his son Titus after assigning him the apparently odious task of supervising the collective of urine taxes.
And in the Discworld books, the richest man in the city of Ankh-Morpork was the “King of the Golden River”, who charged for hauling away waste, and then charged again in selling it to all of the various industries that used it.