Toilet paper is a tissue paper, used to wipe urine or feces after using the toilet. It is usually sold in white rolls, made up of square sheets.
For a long time people had no toilet paper and instead they used other things to clean themselves after bodily fluid releases. The Greeks, for example, used stones or human hair.
In ancient Rome instead of toilet paper, all public toilets had a sponge attached to the end of a stick that was soaked in a bucket of brine. The rich used wool and rosewater.
In the Middle Ages people used moss instead of toilet paper and the rich ones preferred sheep wool.
The first documented use of toilet paper in human history dates back 589 AD, in early medieval China, when the scholar-official Yan Zhitui (531–591) wrote "Paper on which there are quotations or commentaries from the Five Classics or the names of sages, I dare not use for toilet purposes."
The picture below shows anal cleansing instruments known as chūgi from the Nara period (710 to 784) in Japan. The modern rolls in the background are for size comparison.
It was recorded in 1393 that the Bureau of Imperial Supplies produced an annual supply of 720,000 sheets of toilet paper (two by three feet in size) for the general use of the Chinese emperor and his imperial court at the capital of Nanjing.
For the English working classes, newspapers were sometimes a source of toilet paper. In the 18th century Old Farmer's Almanac was sold with a hole in the corner to be hung in the privy.
Joseph C. Gayetty of New York City invented the first factory-produced toilet paper in 1857 and he proudly had his name watermarked on each sheet. Advertising it - very personalized - as "Gayetty's Medicated Paper," he recommended it as "a pure article for the toilet and a prevention for piles!" It is said that the early specimens were made of pearl-colored manila hemp paper.
Gayetty's Medicated Paper was sold in packs of 500 pieces at 50 cents a pack. It was not successful as people thought it wasteful to use perfectly good paper on such things.
The Victorians referred to toilet paper as "curl papers". The product's present-day description as toilet paper goes back only to the 1880s.
An English businessman Walter Alcock had the bright idea of putting toilet paper on rolls. In 1879, he came up with the perforated toilet roll instead of the common flat sheets.
The British Perforated Paper Company began selling toilet paper in 1880. This paper did not come in roll form, it came in boxes of small pre-cut squares.
Before bath tissue was introduced in the United States in perforated form in 1884, a number of outhouses in America were stocked with dried leaves.
A 1891 patent for toilet paper features an illustration that would imply the correct way the roll should be placed would be so the paper hangs over, and not under.
Toilet-paper in roll form became common in America by 1907.
By the 1930s, production techniques of toilet paper had improved. In 1935 Northern Tissue advertised its toilet paper as "splinter-free".
The word 'bumph' in relation to piles of paperwork originates from World War II slang for toilet paper.
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| Pixiebay |
HISTORY
For a long time people had no toilet paper and instead they used other things to clean themselves after bodily fluid releases. The Greeks, for example, used stones or human hair.
In ancient Rome instead of toilet paper, all public toilets had a sponge attached to the end of a stick that was soaked in a bucket of brine. The rich used wool and rosewater.
In the Middle Ages people used moss instead of toilet paper and the rich ones preferred sheep wool.
The first documented use of toilet paper in human history dates back 589 AD, in early medieval China, when the scholar-official Yan Zhitui (531–591) wrote "Paper on which there are quotations or commentaries from the Five Classics or the names of sages, I dare not use for toilet purposes."
The picture below shows anal cleansing instruments known as chūgi from the Nara period (710 to 784) in Japan. The modern rolls in the background are for size comparison.
 |
| By Chris 73 / Wikimedia Commons, |
It was recorded in 1393 that the Bureau of Imperial Supplies produced an annual supply of 720,000 sheets of toilet paper (two by three feet in size) for the general use of the Chinese emperor and his imperial court at the capital of Nanjing.
For the English working classes, newspapers were sometimes a source of toilet paper. In the 18th century Old Farmer's Almanac was sold with a hole in the corner to be hung in the privy.
Joseph C. Gayetty of New York City invented the first factory-produced toilet paper in 1857 and he proudly had his name watermarked on each sheet. Advertising it - very personalized - as "Gayetty's Medicated Paper," he recommended it as "a pure article for the toilet and a prevention for piles!" It is said that the early specimens were made of pearl-colored manila hemp paper.
Gayetty's Medicated Paper was sold in packs of 500 pieces at 50 cents a pack. It was not successful as people thought it wasteful to use perfectly good paper on such things.
 |
| An advertisement for Gayetty's Medicated Paper |
The Victorians referred to toilet paper as "curl papers". The product's present-day description as toilet paper goes back only to the 1880s.
An English businessman Walter Alcock had the bright idea of putting toilet paper on rolls. In 1879, he came up with the perforated toilet roll instead of the common flat sheets.
The British Perforated Paper Company began selling toilet paper in 1880. This paper did not come in roll form, it came in boxes of small pre-cut squares.
Before bath tissue was introduced in the United States in perforated form in 1884, a number of outhouses in America were stocked with dried leaves.
A 1891 patent for toilet paper features an illustration that would imply the correct way the roll should be placed would be so the paper hangs over, and not under.
Toilet-paper in roll form became common in America by 1907.
By the 1930s, production techniques of toilet paper had improved. In 1935 Northern Tissue advertised its toilet paper as "splinter-free".
The word 'bumph' in relation to piles of paperwork originates from World War II slang for toilet paper.
The first toilet paper factory in the USSR was built in 1969, 8 years after they went to space.
In 1973, Johnny Carson created a fake joke on national TV about a nationwide toilet paper shortage, unintentionally causing a real shortage of toilet paper across the USA.
Colored toilet paper used to be popular in the U.S. until the 80s. It was colored to better match different bathroom decors. Colored toilet paper is still widely used in France today.
There is an average of 333 squares of toilet paper in each roll.
Toilet Paper demand results in 27,000 trees being cut down every day.
In 2012, British supermarket Sainsbury's discovered that reducing the size of a toilet paper tube from 123mm to 112mm would allow more rolls in each truck, taking 500 trucks off the road and reducing carbon emissions by 140 tonnes.
In 1973, Johnny Carson created a fake joke on national TV about a nationwide toilet paper shortage, unintentionally causing a real shortage of toilet paper across the USA.
Colored toilet paper used to be popular in the U.S. until the 80s. It was colored to better match different bathroom decors. Colored toilet paper is still widely used in France today.
FUN TOILET PAPER FACTS
There is an average of 333 squares of toilet paper in each roll.
Toilet Paper demand results in 27,000 trees being cut down every day.
In 2012, British supermarket Sainsbury's discovered that reducing the size of a toilet paper tube from 123mm to 112mm would allow more rolls in each truck, taking 500 trucks off the road and reducing carbon emissions by 140 tonnes.
The 2016 Oscars goody bag, given to nominees, contained a £194 luxury toilet paper set. Made by Joseph's Toiletries of Switzerland, it had ‘cloud-like' tissue paper wipes, which apparently took 60 experts five years to create.
Source Europress Family Encyclopedia 1999.
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