{"id":23675,"date":"2013-07-11T22:09:11","date_gmt":"2013-07-12T05:09:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/?p=23675"},"modified":"2013-07-11T22:14:05","modified_gmt":"2013-07-12T05:14:05","slug":"toilet-paper-wasnt-commonly-used-in-the-united-states-until-the-early-20th-century","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/index.php\/2013\/07\/toilet-paper-wasnt-commonly-used-in-the-united-states-until-the-early-20th-century\/","title":{"rendered":"Toilet Paper wasn’t Commonly Used in the United States Until the Early 20th Century"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"toilet-paper\"<\/a>Today I found out<\/a> it’s only been very recently that people in the U.S. started using toilet paper.<\/p>\n

Despite toilet paper having been around since at least the 6th century AD (initially in China), it wouldn\u2019t be until the late 19th century when toilet paper would be first introduced in America and England and it wasn\u2019t until the 1900s, around the same time the indoor toilet became common, that toilet paper would catch on with the masses.<\/p>\n

So what did people use for wiping before toilet paper?\u00a0 This depended greatly on region, personal preference, and wealth.\u00a0 Rich people often used hemp, lace, or wool. The 16th century French writer Francois Rabelais, in his work Gargantua and Pantagruel, recommended using \u201cthe neck of a goose, that is well downed\u201d.\u00a0 The goose is kind of getting the crappy end of that deal. *crickets*<\/p>\n

Poor people would poop in rivers and clean off with water, rags, wood shavings (ouch!), leaves, hay, rocks, sand, moss, sea weed, apple husks, seashells, ferns, and pretty much whatever else was at hand and cheap\/free.<\/p>\n

For seaman, the common thing was to use old frayed anchor cables (seriously).\u00a0\u00a0 The Inuit\u2019s and other peoples living in frigid regions tended to go with clumps of snow to wipe with, which, other than the coldness factor, is actually one of the better options it seems compared to many other of the above methods.<\/p>\n

Going back a ways in history, we know the Ancient Roman’s favorite wiping item, including in public restrooms, was a sponge on a stick that would sit in salt water and be placed back in the salt water when done\u2026 waiting for the next person\u2026<\/p>\n

Back to America, one extremely popular wiping item for a time was corn cobs and, later, Sears and Roebucks, Farmers Almanac, and other catalogs.\u00a0 The Farmers Almanac even came with a hole in it so it could be easily hung in bathrooms for just this purpose\u2026 reading and wiping material in one!<\/p>\n

Around 1857, Joseph Gayetty came up with the first commercially available toilet paper in the United States.\u00a0 His paper \u201cThe greatest necessity of the age!\u00a0 Gayetty\u2019s medicated paper for the water-closet\u201d was sold in packages of flat sheets that were moistened and soaked with aloe.\u00a0 Gayetty\u2019s toilet paper sold for about 50 cents a pack ($12 today), with 500 sheets in that package.\u00a0 This wasn\u2019t terribly popular, presumably because up to this point most people got their wiping materials for free from whatever was at hand.<\/p>\n

Around 1867, brothers Edward, Clarence, and Thomas Scott, who sold products from a push cart, started making and selling toilet paper as well.\u00a0 They did a bit better than Gayetty; their original toilet paper was much cheaper as it was not coated with aloe and moistened, but was just rolls of somewhat soft paper (often with splinters).<\/p>\n

As the indoor flushable toilet started to become popular, so did toilet paper. This is not surprising considering there was nothing really to grab in an indoor bathroom to wipe with, unlike outdoors where nature is at your disposal.\u00a0 The age old Farmers Almanac and similar such catalogs also were not well suited for this purpose because their pages tended to clog up the pipes in indoor plumbing.<\/p>\n

Even once it became popular, wiping with toilet paper still doesn’t appear to have been painless until surprisingly recently.\u00a0 The aforementioned splinter problem seems to have been somewhat common until a few decades into the 20th century. In the 1930s, this changed with such companies as Northern Tissue boasting a \u201csplinter free\u201d toilet tissue.<\/p>\n

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