The History of Toilet Paper

Toilet paper has a relatively short history in the world of modern conveniences. This now common household item has become a commodity that is taken for granted over the last 100 years or so. Toilet paper is ranked third among all non-food product categories sold in stores. It is even sold online. Let's take a closer look at a commodity that is close to . . . well, at least close to our hearts.

The earliest form toilet material ranged from sticks to corncobs to linen to leaves. Toilet paper, as we have come to think of it, actually had its start in 14th Century China. It was produced for the Chinese emperors in 2 by 3-foot sheets. It is reported that the Bureau of Imperial Supplies produced about 720,000 sheets of toilet paper a year.

The first commercially packaged toilet paper in the United States was produced in 1857. A New York man by the name of Joseph C. Gayetty packaged the first toilet paper in flat sheets that were medicated with aloe. He named it "Gayetty's Medicated Paper." He even monogrammed his name on each sheet. He either had a big ego or a sense of humor. We'll never know for sure.

The rolled and perforated toilet paper that we are familiar with was invented in the late 1870's. The Albany Perforated Wrapping Paper Company developed a perforated, medicated rolled toilet paper in 1877 that was marketed to the general public. This began the never-ending debate as to whether toilet paper should roll off the top of the roll or the bottom.

A couple of years later the Scott Paper Company also produced rolled toilet paper. The company was founded in Philadelphia in 1879 by brothers E. Irvin and Clarence Scott. At that time Scott didn't put its name on the toilet paper rolls because it was considered an "unmentionable" product during the Victorian era and, hence, there was a large amount of public resistance to buying such a commodity. To solve that problem, Scott began customizing toilet paper for each merchant-customer.

As toilet paper gained more public acceptance, the Scott Company began producing toilet paper under its own brand name in 1896. By 1925 Scott had become the world's leading producer of toilet paper. The Scott Company was eventually acquired by Kimberly Clark in 1995.

In 1935, Northern Tissue manufactured the first "splinter free" toilet paper. It seems the manufacturing process of early toilet paper occasionally left wood splinters in the paper. The results of using the earlier non-splinter free toilet paper are too painful to contemplate. On a lighter note, the world's first soft, two-ply toilet paper was manufactured in 1942 by the St. Andrews Paper Mill in Walthamstow, London, England.

Kimberly Clark, Georgia Pacific, Fort James, and Proctor and Gamble are the major manufacturers of toilet paper in the United States. There are approximately 86,000,000 rolls of toilet paper produced each day worldwide. That's about 30 billions rolls of toilet paper per year which equals about 3 rolls produced per second, seven days a weeks, 365 days a year.

Toilet paper has been adapted by ingenious humans for many uses, such as packaging material, eyeglass wipes, wiping noses, removing makeup, and toilet seat covers, just to mention a few.

To bring our little tale of toilet paper to an end, just remember that the next time you skip to the loo you can thank President Bill Clinton for signing into law the Toilet Paper Tax of 1996. This law increased the price of each toilet paper roll 6 cents. There is no end to insanity in the world.