The History of Toilet Paper

The History of Toilet Paper…… as documented by Angel Soft! 

(Make sure you read ALL of this- it gets really hilarious!)

 

Ancient Rome- All public toilets had a stick with a sponge attached to its end that soaked in a bucket of brine so citizens could have a tool to freshen up with.

 

China, around 1391 AD- The Bureau of Imperial Supplies began producing 720,000 sheets of toilet paper per year. Each sheet measured two feet by three feet!

 

Viking Age- During this time, people would freshen up with discarded sheep’s wool.

 

Late Middle Ages- The French invented the bidet for proper cleansing.

 

1700s- Colonial Americans used corncobs to cleanse with. However, once newspapers became commonplace, people used the newspaper after they had finished reading it.

 

1880- The first actual paper produced for freshening up with was in England. The individual squares were sold in boxes, not rolls. 

 

1902- Northern Mills introduced toilet tissue on a roll.

 

1973- The Great Toilet Paper Shortage occurred in 1973, after a popular evening talk show host (Johnny Carson) made a joke that there was an acute shortage of toilet paper in the United States. The next morning, 20 million viewers bought up all the toilet paper they could find. By noon that day, most stores were out of toilet paper. This “shortage” turned into a panicked frenzy and lasted almost a month! Stores actually had to ration toilet paper!! I found this quite hilarious! 🙂