toilet paper! what was used during the transition between the moss of the olden days, and modern toilet paper?

Question

and if you were to date the transition, what year did the new-fangled toilet paper come in?

Answer 1

Toilet Paper Fun Facts. There is lots of information on the website but this is the answer you asked for.
http://www.toiletpaperworld.com/tpw/encyclopedia/navigation/funfacts.htm

The first paper roll towel - the ScotTowel.

There is a story that in 1907, a teacher in Philadelphia blamed a mild cold epidemic on the fact that students used the same cloth towel.
So she cut up paper into squares and used them as individual towels.
Around that time Scott was experimenting with a new type of crepe tissue.
It was so thick that it couldn't be cut and rolled into toilet paper.
So Arthur Scott ordered it to be made into rolls of towels and perforated into individual 13" x 18" sheets.
This was called the Sani-Towels.
Advertisements said, " For use once by one user."
Success was helped by states that outlawed the use of cloth-roll towels because of spreading disease.

Answer 2

Well, for quite a while people used cut up pieces of paper such as pages from magazines, catalogues, or newspapers. As far as I know this was going on during the 19th century and as recently as the second World War. Then when I was a child in the 50's we had factory made 'toilet paper' which was hard, shiny on one side and quite rough on the nether regions! One brand I remember was 'Izal Germicide'. The appearance of soft loo paper was warmly welcomed - I can't remember exactly when it was - maybe the early 60's?

Answer 3

Here's a Timeline.

1391 Toilet paper first produced in China (for the Emperor's use). Each sheet 2' by 3'
1857 Joseph Gayetty sells first factory-made toilet paper These were loose, flat, sheets of paper
1871 Zeth Wheeler patents rolled and perforated wrapping paper
1872 John Kimberly, H. Babcock, Charles Clark, and F.Shattuck open Kimberly, Clark and Company
1874 Wheller created the Rolled Wrapping Paper Company, but the company couldn't turn a profit,
1877 Wheller reorganized into the Albany Perforated Wrapping Paper Company
1877 Albany Perforated Wrapping Paper Co. sells Perforated Toilet Paper ('The Standard') on a roll.
1879 Walter Alcock, of England introduced the perforated toilet roll
1879 Scott Paper Company sells the toilet paper on a roll, which led to the popular Waldorf brand
1885 Oliver Hewlett Hicks patents package of toilet paper.and the manufacturing process
1894 U.S. Supreme Court invalidate Hicks patents in favor of Seth Wheeler's 1871 patent.
1935 Northern Tissue advertises its toilet paper as "splinter-free"
1942 First two-ply toilet paper from St. Andrew's Paper Mill in England; paper becomes softer
CAPs: Wheeler, Seth Wheeler, Joseph Gayetty, Walter Alcock, Oliver Hewlett Hicks, Edward Scott, Clarence Scott, Irwin Scott, John Kimberly, H. Babcock, Charles Clark, F.Shattuck, ARYs: toilet paper, TP, lavatory paper, toilet tissue, bathroom tissue, toilet roll, SIP, history, invention, stroy, facts, inventor, biography.

Answer 4

During Victorian times I believe the poor (most of us) used a corn on the cob (minus the corn I guess) which must have played havoc on your piles, whilst the gentry used coarse paper (think the stuff you got in the school toilets, but even more useless).

With the industrial revolution, paper became more common and cheaper, hence toilet paper became the norm.

Someone will no doubt supply you with a link.

Oh, and in the middle ages Royalty had someone to do it for them, and it was a very highly regarded position held by important gentry, but I forget it's title.

Keeper of the Privy I think, or something like that.

Answer 5

I recall in Shakespeare's Othello the mention of "clyster pipes," which as I recall were used to, without getting too much into it, clean one's ***. I also heard a strange story about the feathers of a live goose being used (don't ask me how this happened). References to using paper date back to 6th Century AD China. From what I understand, the first commercially produced toilet paper was in about the 1880s, produced by a company in Britain and another company in the states we've heard of...Scott's!

Answer 6

Some did yes, and in some cultures it was normal to use their hand, not either, just one particular hand (seriously, and that is how the right-handed hand shake came to be. As well, if someone was caught stealing in that culture they sometimes cut off the hand they did not wipe with so no one would want to shake their hand...therefore knowing that the person was a less than honest individual). I will not say who they were in case I am wrong....and I wouldn't want to offend someone. Hopefully, someone will have the brass to tell us who it was, even I am curious. Mean Mike Wow, just realized I won't make points from this. Oh well, it'll be worth it if someone tells us, eh?

Answer 7

Stones are used in many places in the world (nice rounded ones or course) those that live near the sea/lakes just did in the sea and washed in the water after. In Victorian times cut up newspaper was used buy those that could get newspapers. Soldiers used wadding that was made for their guns.

Answer 8

Toilet roll is a relatively new concept. My Dad used to tear up squares of newspaper for the hook in the outside loo for bog roll.
Thank goodness for Andrex!

Answer 9

Newspaper was common in society, and still is across many parts of the third world. Even in my house when I run out of toilet paper.

Answer 10

The Romans used a sponge on a stick.
In some places, you wipe with 1 hand & eat with the other