time immemorial, people have used to store information written signs and parchment.What is it can tell each student, which was a little attentive to the lessons of history.
treated in a certain way the skin of different animals for economic purposes was used by the ancient Persians in the fifth century BC.They called her "diphtheria".In Egypt, papyrus was used for writing.This material is produced only here.Soon, however, the Pharaohs have banned the export of papyrus from the country.Their objective was to deprive the famous Pergamon library material for the production of books and exalt the Alexandrian library.Residents of the city of Pergamum fallen on hard times, but began to look for an alternative.Someone thought of diphtheria.Thus it came into use ancient parchment.Its production is perfected, and the name has changed.
ancient production
material, named for the city of Pergamum, was expensive.The skins of sheep, pigs, calves (except the donkey) were processed by special technology, and multi-stage for a long time.They are carefully washed, removed rough and coarse hair, soaked for two weeks in a solution of lime.Then the skin, depriving the wool pulled over the frame and removed the subcutaneous tissue.Then the material was ground pumice and ironed, rubbed chalk (to absorb the remnants of fat and make the surface uniformity).Whitens old parchment rubbing flour, milk, or protein, although produced and colored materials.The cost of its veil on the thickness.To write using ink recipe which is kept secret, especially important documents written in silver and gold.
So, parchment (which it is already understood) - a material for the production of books, and has written the manuscript text.Despite its high price, the inhabitants of Pergamum invention favorably differed from the papyrus.It was a strong and durable material, which could bend, reused, which it was possible to write on both sides.But most importantly, this is what made it in any place where the animals were.
In everyday life, and was a palimpsest - a special parchment.What it is?This recycled material from old texts erased and written new.Sometimes you can read both manuscripts, but in 691 the clergy banned erase the sacred texts.
appearance of paper and printing mass resulted in the decline of manufacturing and the use of parchment because it was too expensive material.For a time they were used interchangeably, but in the end the paper won.Today, parchment made from the skins of kosher animals, use only the Jews to write their sacred books.
Economic parchment
There is also an economic parchment.What it is?To date, the material of the skins of animals he has nothing.This is the usual waterproof paper, packing material, which has a vegetable origin.Vegetable parchment rugged, almost transparent, do not miss the fat and water, so it is widely used in cooking, pharmacology, and medicine.He invented it in the late nineteenth century, the French chemist Louis Guillaume Fige.
