Wax paper is a kind of paper

Paper

Paper is a thin material mainly used for writing upon, printing upon, drawing or for packaging. It is produced by pressing together moist fibers, typically cellulose pulp derived from wood, rags or grasses, and drying them into flexible sheets....

 that is made moisture proof through the application of wax

Wax

thumb|right|[[Cetyl palmitate]], a typical wax ester.Wax refers to a class of chemical compounds that are plastic near ambient temperatures. Characteristically, they melt above 45 °C to give a low viscosity liquid. Waxes are insoluble in water but soluble in organic, nonpolar solvents...

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The practice of oiling parchment or paper in order to make it semi-translucent or moisture-proof goes back at least to medieval times. The invention of wax paper has been credited to Thomas Edison

Thomas Edison

Thomas Alva Edison was an American inventor and businessman. He developed many devices that greatly influenced life around the world, including the phonograph, the motion picture camera, and a long-lasting, practical electric light bulb. In addition, he created the world’s first industrial...

 (1872-1876) and Herman Frasch

Herman Frasch

Herman Frasch [or Hermann Frasch] was a mining engineer and inventor known for his work with petroleum and sulphur.-Biography:...

 (1876?), although Gustave Le Gray

Gustave Le Gray

Jean-Baptiste Gustave Le Gray has been called "the most important French photographer of the nineteenth century" because of his technical innovations in the still new medium of photography, his role as the teacher of other noted photographers, and the extraordinary imagination he brought to picture...

 used a type of waxed paper for photographic negative processing (1851).