A Brief History of Toilet Paper

if you watch my shell you know that I avoid current politics and today is no exception but I did find a bit of current news to be somewhat surprising how ironic it is that in the modern world we find a product that is disposable to be the product that is apparently most indispensable it is funny that grocery store shelves are suddenly emptied of toilet paper because toilet paper is a relatively new invention that is still not universally accepted throughout the world and was rather reluctantly adopted even here in the United States historians of course have been rather reluctant to discuss the history of how people clean up after doing their business for obvious reasons but the invention of a product designed solely for that purpose really does represent the modern age yes the history of toilet paper deserves to be remembered the history of personal grooming can be difficult to determine as the various products used were often organic and did not remain in the archaeological record and historians have not always been comfortable talking about things like how a culture cleans up its rear end for much of history in many societies wiping was done with things that were commonly available and disposable grass leaves moss straw even snow the various materials used often depended upon climate and location for example wiping has historically been commonly done with coconut fibers in tropical zones in well in some ways it seems a pure aisle discussion actually it tells us something about culture for example ancient Greeks used bits of pottery to scrape themselves clean and there's evidence that they sometimes used ostracize Oster so where pieces of pottery that had a name inscribed on them and it was part of a voting process on whether a person was so bad that they should be kicked out of a community or ostracized and so if a Greek was using an ostrich for toilet purposes in essence they were wiping their bottom with their enemy's name and reusing ostrich and that purpose tells us something about the ancient Greek sense of humor as well as the extent to which they carried a grudge the Romans used a tool called a xylose pun geom which was essentially a bit of a sponge on a stick wealthy Romans might have their own personal xylose buns ium but for the most part they were communally you Payson latrines which might accommodate 10 to 20 patrons at a time the sponge would be rinsed in a mixture of water salt and vinegar sponges would have been breeding grounds for bacteria and some historians suggest they served to spread infectious disease and the items used for this purpose certainly dependent upon wealth and social class with one startling example being the position of groom of the stool which served the English monarchs from at least the 15th century all the way up to the 20th century the purpose of the position was to have a servant who was responsible for helping the king while he was doing his business and the first known person to have the position then called yeoman of the stool was one William Grimsby in 1455 it's not really clear if the person was directly responsible for wiping the Kings backside but one of their responsibilities was to make sure that there was blanket cotton or linen to wipe the nether end English commoners at the time were most likely using straw could not possibly afford to use something like linen for such a purpose well the position would see be one of the less savory in fact it became a highly prized position the groom of the stool referring to the Kings clothes stool which was black velvet and fringed with silk with two pewter basins and four broad yards of tawny cloth was one of a few attendants who shared true private time and able to speak intimately with the King although not a member of the Privy Council the groom was often more privy to the Kings private thoughts than the Kings closest advisors in fact the groom of the stool would often have so much access to the Kings private thoughts that other courtiers were afraid of them for the secrets they held over time the physician expanded to include control of the affairs of the Kings inner rooms including making sure the king was well dressed physician included perks like been given the Kings old clothes and furnishings people would petition the groom to advocate on their behalf so that he could use his private time with the King to help someone gain a prized position the position gained such a broad responsibilities and prestige that was often held by persons of high nobility physician continued through the Hanoverian Kings but was in a band center Victoria and finally eliminated by her son Edward the seventh in 1901 not surprisingly the first culture to use paper for their bathroom needs was the Chinese where paper was invented perhaps as early as the 8th century BC toilet paper was used in China as early as the 6th century AD when the Chinese official noted paper on which there are quotations or commentaries from the 5 classics or the names of sages I dare not use for toilet paper 9th century Arab scholar Abu zayeed Hassan al Shariff noted the Chinese use of paper in the bathroom with some disgust saying they do not take care for cleanliness in general most people would have used leftover scraps of paper but paper specifically for use in the toilet was being mass-produced in China as early as the 14th century although that might have been largely reserved to the wealthy and much of it used by the Emperor's court an edict in 1391 specified that sheets of paper were supposed to be made for the Emperor's toilet time and rank does have its privileges because according to that edict those sheets of paper were to be approximately two foot by three foot paper didn't make it to Europe until the 11th century the process was done by hand pressing fibres on the screen mold while there were early paper mills in Europe in the 12th century in general the demand for paper was low as there was little advantage over parchment made from animal skin but Johan Gutenberg's invention of the movable-type printing press around 1440 caused a printing revolution in Europe and greatly increased demand for paper and paper making became an industry well people were likely using paper scraps in the bathroom in Europe as soon as paper reached the continent in practice paper was expensive and would hardly been used for such purpose there were however exceptions 16th century English churchmen John Bale mourned that books dispersed from the dissolution of the monasteries by Henry the 8th were being purchased by Nobles to rub their booties a bizarre example was provided by Philip dormer Stanhope the 4th Earl of Chesterfield in his letters to his son published in 1747 as a lesson on the careful use of time he provides the example of a gentleman who bought himself a common version of Horace and gradually tore off a couple of pages and carried them with him to that necessary place where after having read them he sent them away as a sacrifice thus the Earl contends was so much time Fairley gained while the era of newspapers made further their supply for the toilet and editors might happily suggest as much of their rivals papers still paper was rare enough in the 18th century that it was not the most common tool for the job in colonial America despite the availability of printed materials corn cobs were most commonly used for bathroom duty it wasn't until the end of the 18th century the first patent was in France in 1799 that paper making machines using continuous rollers were invented the new process was far cheaper and faster and printing and paper products proliferated by the early part of the 19th century people in Europe and America were most commonly using scrap paper in their bathrooms using a bit of newspaper or catalog makes sense the paper was essentially free and offered reading material for that private time as well the hole that is traditionally drilled in the corner of the Old Farmer's Almanac was reportedly to allow the book to be hung by a hook in the outhouse Joseph Teti is generally credited with producing the first commercially marketed toilet paper in 1857 deity's paper was called therapeutic paper and was sold in single sheets at the cost of a thousand sheets for a dollar his paper was claimed to have medical benefits especially as treatment for hemorrhoids ads at the time suggested that ink papers were toxic when used on sensitive parts ugly deities papers were each water marked JC Chieti New York Yeti's product is one of the few sold at the time and continued to be sold into the 20th century but the product had limited success it was a prudish age and Americans were embarrassed by a product meant for their behinds and many could not afford to or see the value in paying for paper when so much of it for example the Sears & Roebuck catalog was free developments such as patenting processes to sell paper on a roll with perforated sheets still struggled commercially because in Victorian times the use of the paper was well unmentionable but another new technology was about to change that in 1829 the Tremont House Hotel in Boston became the first hotel in America to use indoor plumbin as cities developed municipal water systems slowly technology for the water closet improved early in the 19th century American manufacturers we behind those of Britain and equipment for water closets was imported but by the end of the century American manufacturers were producing better products and more and more upscale homes featured indoor water closets New Yorkers Clarence and Edward Scott founded Scott paper in 1879 in Philadelphia they didn't make paper no that they sell directly to consumers and said they bought paper in bulk and marketed rolls of perforated toilet paper through third parties such as hotels and drugstores that avoided the sensitivity of the subject and the paper became seen as a special amenity of fancy hotels and featured indoor water closets as a healthy and hygienic product sold at drugstores their marketing system worked and they eventually packaged their paper for more than 2,000 brands but as more and more homes were being equipped with indoor bathrooms and newspapers and catalogs seemed less appropriate and would clog the pipes at the same time people wanted to buy brands that they'd seen at upscale hotels in 1902 the Scott company purchased the trademark to their most popular third party seller Waldorf bathroom tissue and began marketing it to consumers directly under the Scott brand for the first time the company started manufacturing its own paper again the product was successful although still marketed as a health product whose packaging did not mention the products unmentionable function the company quickly became the world's largest manufacturer of the product as indoor plumbing became more common in the United States and Europe the products only became indispensable but there were developments in both marketing and manufacturing in 1928 the brand Charmin a play on the word charming began packaging the product using feminine looking designs appealing to homemakers and creating an image of softness and femininity the shift once again help to remove stigma from marking it as late as 1935 that quilted northern brand advertised that their paper was splinter free which may have been more of a marketing strategy than a different paper process but emphasized that the product was about comfort as well as hygiene later things like multipied tissue and scented brands broaden and differentiated the market further still it took a long time for the unmentionable to become mentionable it wasn't until the 1970s that television networks in the u.s. allowed advertising under the name toilet paper rather than the less descriptive name bathroom tissue today toilet paper is big business more than 7 billion rolls sold in the United States annually although for some 70% of the world toilet paper is still not the primary way that they deal with their bathroom business it's become such a part of culture in America that a character in the Sherman ad campaign called mr. Whipple a store manager extorted customers to please don't squeeze the Charmin ran for nearly 60 years a 1978 TV Guide survey found that mr. Whipple was the third most recognized man in America behind former President Richard Nixon and evangelist Billy Graham and if that's true it means that in 1978 mr. Whipple was more widely recognized in America than then President Jimmy Carter and this isn't the first time that we've had a shortage of toilet paper due to a run on stores in 1973 an increase in the export of wood pulp led to a shortage of newsprint and a congressman suggested that that could eventually lead to a shortage of toilet paper talk-show host Johnny Carson mentioned that in his opening monologue in December of that year and that resulted in a run on toilet paper in the stores and while the actual shortage of paper never materialized it did take some time for retailers to catch up with the panic buying I can't explain why people are panicked buying toilet paper today I'll leave current events up to other people but it does seem ironic that we're rushing out to buy toilet paper when just a hundred years ago Americans couldn't even figure out why they needed the product when there was so much free paper available but one of the most common solutions is no longer available to us according to the Sears archive due to changes in retailing trends Sears stopped producing its general catalog in 1993 [Music] [Applause] you

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Views: 530,183

Rating: 4.9683256 out of 5

Keywords: history, the history guy, history guy, invention, plumbing, toilet paper, bathroom tissue

Id: IVTRpTHPs3o

Length: 13min 0sec (780 seconds)

Published: Mon Mar 16 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/GlaxoJohnSmith]

Interesting. And in a different context, it could've been enjoyed.

But not while we're eating. What, are you trying to drum up business for the Smith family's therapist?