Dissolved and mixed in the pulp.

Take pulp with lime added to make paper. When the paper is finished, the color of the paper will turn white. The fineness and toughness of the paper have not changed much. Use a pen to draw a line on the paper and compare it with ordinary paper. By comparison, it is found that the paper pulp is white.

After spreading the lime, the ink blur became even worse.

It seems that the only advantage of lime over flour is that it is cheaper.

Be it flour or lime, both of these things absorb water.

So, is there something cheap, white, and non-absorbent?

Li Mengxi thought about many materials. He thought of stones. Stones definitely do not absorb water. He found a pure white stone, ground it fine enough, and added it to the pulp. In this way, the paper produced was not only white, but also did not smear with ink.

Maybe even stronger.

But then I thought about how difficult it was to break solid rock into powder with the technical conditions of the Han Dynasty.

Li Mengxi then gave up this thought method.

Ahead, the papermakers added so much flour to the paper pulp that it almost turned into soup. The craftsmen came over and asked if they wanted to add more flour.

Li Mengxi went over and took a look. The pulp with too much flour had almost turned into a pot of water.

He ordered the craftsmen to use this pot of extremely viscous pulp to make paper. In the end, because too much flour was added and the fiber was insufficient, the paper could not be formed, and the papermaking failed.

Another test was completed, and it was found that a small amount of flour can improve the whiteness, fineness, and toughness of the paper, but it will reduce the waterproof performance. Adding too much flour will lead to papermaking failure.
Chapter completed!