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'Toilet paper' (or, usually, 'toilet roll' in the UK) is a soft tissue paper product used to maintain personal hygiene by cleansing after defecation and urination.
Toilet paper, which differs in composition from facial tissue, is designed to deteriorate when wet in order to keep drain pipes clear. Some types of toilet paper are designed to decompose in septic tanks, which some other bathroom and facial tissues do not. Most septic tank manufacturers advise against using paper products that are non-septic tank safe. In different countries, toilet paper is called "loo roll/paper", "toilet roll", "dunny roll/paper", "bog roll" or "bathroom tissue". "Jax roll" (a simplified version of "jacks-roll") is a widely used expression in rural Ireland.

Contents

History

Alternatives

Timeline

Modern toilet paper

Installation

Wiping technique and related health issues

Printed toilet paper

Sheet sizes

Art

See also

Notes

References

External links

History

Although paper had been known as a wrapping and padding material in China since the 2nd century BC,^[1] the first use of toilet paper in human history dates back to the 6th century AD, in early medieval China.^[2] In 589 AD the scholar-official Yan Zhitui (531–591) wrote about the use of toilet paper:
During the later Tang Dynasty (618–907 AD) a Muslim Arab traveler to China in the year 851 AD remarked:
During the early 14th century (Yuan Dynasty) it was recorded that in modern-day Zhejiang province alone there was an annual manufacturing of toilet paper amounting in ten million packages of 1,000 to 10,000 sheets of toilet paper each. During the Ming Dynasty (1368–1644 AD), it was recorded in 1393 AD that 720,000 sheets of toilet paper (two by three feet in size) were produced for the general use of the Imperial court at the capital of Beijing. From the records of the Imperial Bureau of Supplies (Bao Chao Si) of that same year, it was also recorded that for Emperor Hongwu's imperial family alone, there were 15,000 sheets of special soft-fabric toilet paper made, and each sheet of toilet paper was even perfumed.
The 16th Century French satirical writer François Rabelais in his series of novels Gargantua and Pantagruel, discussing the various ways of cleansing oneself at the toilet, wrote that:
"He who uses paper on his filthy bum, will always find his ballocks lined with scum", proposing that the soft feathers on the back of a live goose provide an optimum cleansing medium.
The first producer of 'perforated' toilet paper was the British Perforated Paper Company in 1880. Other forms of non-perforated toilet paper were available the same time and earlier, notably from the Scott brothers (Scott Paper Company) and Joseph Gayetty. Before this invention, wealthy people used wool, lace or hemp for their ablutions, while less wealthy people used their hand when defecating into rivers, or cleaned themselves with various materials such as rags, wood shavings, leaves, grass, hay, stone, sand, moss, water, snow, maize husks, fruit skins, or seashells, and cob of the corn depending upon the country and weather conditions or social customs. In Ancient Rome, a sponge on a stick was commonly used, and, after usage, placed back in a bucket of saltwater.

Alternatives

Main articles: Anal cleansing

In many parts of the world, especially where toilet paper may be unavailable or unaffordable, toilet paper is not used. Cleansing is then performed with other methods or materials, such as water, for example using a bidet, rags, sand, leaves (including seaweed), corn cobs or sticks. In some parts of the world, especially before toilet paper was available or affordable, the use of newspaper, telephone directory pages, or other paper products was common.

Timeline

A print by William Hogarth entitled ''A just view of the British stage'' from 1724 depicting Robert Wilks, Colley Cibber, and Barton Booth rehearsing a pantomime play with puppets enacting a prison break down a privy. The "play" is comprised of nothing but special effects, and the scripts for ''Hamlet'', ''inter al.'', are toilet paper.

★ 589 AD: the first mentioning of toilet paper in China.

★ 851 AD: the first foreign source (Arab-Muslim) to confirm the use of toilet paper in China.

★ c. 1300 AD: first records of the massive amounts of toilet paper manufactured in China.

★ 1391: 720 sheets of toilet paper produced in China for the Hongwu Emperor's court, while 15,000 special sheets were produced solely for the royal family. Sheets were approximately 60cm × 90cm.

★ 1596: invention of the flushing toilet.

★ 1700s: newspaper is a popular choice of toilet paper, since it is widely available.

★ 1710s: the bidet invented.

★ 1792: the ''Old Farmer's Almanac'' begins publication; there are several publications by the same name, as well as the ''Farmer's Almanac'', which began publication in 1960. Pages from these publications were often ripped out and used as toilet paper, and later editions have holes punched in them so they could be hung from a hook in outhouses.

★ 1857: Joseph Gayetty sells first factory-made toilet paper (Gayetty's Medicated Paper) in the USA. These were loose, flat, sheets of paper, pre-moistened and medicated with aloe; each sheet has Gayetty's name printed on it. It sold at five hundred sheets for fifty cents and was known as Gayetty's Medicated Paper—"a perfectly pure article for the toilet and for the prevention of piles." An advertisement for Gayetty's Medicated Paper can be found here.

★ 1877: The Albany Perforated Wrapping Paper Company of Albany, New York sells Perforated toilet paper ("The Standard"). It is sold "by all the leading druggists" and is not medicated. It is marketed as being free of "all deleterious substances" which includes printed materials and chemicals "incident to the ordinary process of manufacture (which is) a cause of hemorrhoids." In addition, medicated toilet paper which is "heavily charged with ointment" was offered for "sufferers of hemorrhoids."

★ 1879: Scott Paper Company sells the first toilet paper on a roll, although initially they do not print their company name on the packaging. Toilet paper was sold under the name of various industrial customers, including the Waldorf Hotel, which led to the popular Waldorf brand of toilet paper.

★ late 19th century: rolls of perforated toilet paper available for the first time, replaces razor or knife on dispensers.

★ 1900: plumbing improvements of the Victorian era have led to wide use of flushing toilet and (in Europe) the bidet.

★ 1935: Northern Tissue advertises its toilet paper as "splinter-free".

★ 1942: first two-ply toilet paper from St. Andrew's Paper Mill in England; toilet paper becomes softer and more pliable. For most of the rest of the twentieth century, both "hard" and "soft" paper was common. Hard was cheaper, and was shiny on one side. Sometimes it had messages like "GOVERNMENT PROPERTY", "IZAL MEDICATED" or "NOW WASH YOUR HANDS PLEASE" written on each sheet near the perforation. Eventually soft paper won out as the price differential between the two papers vanished. Hard paper is seldom seen these days in UK, but is still available.

★ 1943: novelty toilet paper printed with images of Adolf Hitler. (Note: The use of toilet paper of any type in wartime Britain was officially discouraged due to paper shortages. The widespread use of newspaper for this purpose was revived and one government propaganda newsreel suggested that anyone finding Nazi propaganda leaflets dropped from planes should use them for this purpose.)

★ 1964: Procter and Gamble introduces a fictitious Mr. Whipple, a grocer who begins admonishing customers, “Please don’t squeeze the Charmin!” ^[3]

★ 1973, December 19: comedian Johnny Carson causes a three week toilet paper shortage in the USA after a joke scares consumers into stockpiling supplies.

★ 1980: the paperless toilet invented in Japan (combination toilet, bidet and drying element, see Japanese toilet)

★ 1990s: papers containing ingredients like aloe begin to be heavily marketed in the USA.

★ 2000s: toilet paper is commonly available in hundreds of different designs, colors, and prints.
Today in some Muslim countries, toilet paper with added "wet strength" (chemicals to keep it from dissolving in water too quickly) is beginning to be accepted for drying (rather than cleaning, as is common in Western countries).

Modern toilet paper

The advantages of toilet paper are that it is easy and intuitive to use, fairly absorbent, can be conveniently made available near toilets and it can be flushed in most countries where toilet paper is common. Most modern sewage systems, including septic tanks, can accept toilet paper along with human excreta. In many instances, used toilet paper is placed in a tin or dustbin next to the toilet if the plumbing or septic system cannot cope with toilet paper. Misplacing the soiled paper can be a serious faux pas, regardless of culture.
Regarding toilet paper, as with any commercial product, deceptive marketing techniques are used. One of the most common is to increase the size of the empty hole or narrow the width and size of the paper. Fancy packaging is another common method, allied with carefully placed advertisements and publicity techniques.
Toilet paper is available in several types of paper, a variety of colors, decorations, and textures, to appeal to individual preference. Toilet paper is sometimes made from recycled paper; however, large amounts of virgin tree pulp is still used.^[4] Kimberly-Clark has come under recent fire from Greenpeace in an international campaign entitled Kleercut because of the company's manufacture of toilet paper and other tissue products from pulp from Canada's Boreal forest. Environmentally friendly toilet paper may also be unbleached, which reduces pollution of waterways and is safer, as fewer chemicals are used.
Toilet paper products vary immensely in the technical factors that distinguish them: sizes, weights, roughness, softness, chemical residues, "finger-breakthrough" resistance, water-absorption, etc. The larger companies have very detailed, scientific market surveys to determine which marketing sectors require/demand which of the many technical qualities. Modern toilet paper may have a light coating of aloe or lotion or wax worked into the paper to reduce roughness. Quality is usually determined by the number of plies (stacked sheets), coarseness, and durability. Low grade institutional toilet paper is typically of the lowest grade of paper, have only one or two plies, are very coarse and sometimes have small amounts of unbleached/unpulped paper embedded in it. Mid-grade two ply is somewhat textured to provide some softness, and is somewhat durable. Premium toilet paper may have lotion and wax, and has two to four plies made of very finely pulped paper.
Two-ply toilet paper is the standard in many countries, although one-ply is often available and marketed as a budget option, it may also be more appropriate for use in toilets on boats and in camper-vans. Toilet paper, especially if it is marketed as "luxury", may be quilted or rippled (embossed), perfumed, colored or patterned, medicated (with anti-bacterial chemicals), treated with aloe, etc. Many novelty designs are also available on toilet paper, from cute cartoon animals to pictures of disfavored political celebrities to pictures of dollar bills. Women who are prone to vaginal Candidiasis yeast infections are advised by some medical experts to use white, unperfumed toilet paper.
Moist toilet paper was first introduced by the Kimberly-Clark Corporation in the United Kingdom by Andrex in the 1990s, and in the United States in 2001, two countries in which bidets are rare. It is designed to clean better than dry toilet paper after defecation, and may be useful for women during menstruation.
The manufacture of toilet paper is a large industry. The toilet paper market is worth about US$2.4 billion a year in America alone.
The term ''toilet paper'' has been used throughout this article but it is often known by other (mostly slang) names such as ''toilet tissue'', ''loo paper'', ''lavatory paper'', ''shit tickets'', ''mountain money'', ''TP'', ''toilet roll'', ''striking paper'', ''loo roll'', ''bumf'', ''bumfodder'', ''bog roll'', ''date roll'', and ''arse wipe''.

Toilet roll holder in NZ

Original toilet roll holder

Installation

Most of the discussion below is about household uses of toilet paper. In large buildings, there are many users, so many very competitive industrial methods exist for the use of toilet paper.
There are two common methods of installing toilet paper rolls on a toilet roll holder. Often a matter of stern debate, and a contentious problem in households with opposing viewpoints (second only to the "toilet seat up/down" debate), the variances are mainly that of personal preference.
The first method of installation has the edge of the roll facing away from the wall and commonly facing the toilet (that is, overhand). This method allows the defecator easy access to grab the toilet paper and pull off the desired amount of paper, as the roll spins toward the user. This, in fact, is the protocol advocated by the toilet paper industry itself, including at Scott Paper's factory. Since the industry designs toilet paper to be used overhand, designs that are patterned, quilted or printed upon toilet paper are found on the outside of the roll; i.e. so that it is displayed. In institutions where there is a defined protocol (e.g. Marriott, Holiday Inn/InterContinental Hotels, United Airlines, the U.S. Army), the "overhand" method is specified.
The second method of installation has the edge of the roll facing the wall and commonly facing away from the toilet (underhand). This method makes it a bit more difficult for the defecator to grab the toilet paper: as the roll spins, it spins away from the user. However, there is an advantage to this method in a household with toddlers or cats, as it is less likely that toilet paper will spin off the roll. This is because they are most likely to spin the roll toward themselves. In the case of this installation, as the roll spins, the paper remains wound on the roll. Yet another advantage of this method is that when the toilet paper is folded directly from the roll, it allows the embossed or printed side of the paper to face out. Many modern toilet papers are advertised as being "quilted" or "embossed", so this method would let the user take full advantage of the un-printed or un-quilted side of the product (if that is what one prefers).
A third (but far less common) toilet paper installation method is to dispense without any roller mechanism at all, or use a vertical toilet roll holder.
A fourth method involves a portable roll dispenser that encloses the roll entirely. The roll is oriented vertically, and there is an opening on the top of the container. Before installing the roll into the portable roll dispenser, the cardboard core is removed. The paper is then extracted from the center rather than the edge.
Another method of dispensing the paper does not use a roll at all. Cut sheets are stacked in a dispenser, folded in such a way that removing a sheet causes the next sheet to protrude from the dispenser. This method has the advantage that it can be refilled at any time without waiting for the supply to run out completely (as would be the case with a roll) and is therefore popular in public buildings. Cut sheet dispensers force users to help themselves to one sheet at a time, thus preventing wastefulness. They are also commonly used on rail transports where the motion of the train would cause a roll to rotate and cause a mess. This method may also be used alongside toilets that may be used by observant Jews, because tearing is an activity forbidden on the Jewish Sabbath. It is also common to find that on a Friday night a Jewish family will sit down and tear single sheets of toilet paper from a roll in preparation for the Sabbath. This is often made into an enjoyable recreational activity for Jewish families.

Wiping technique and related health issues

The recommended method for a woman to wipe after defecating is from the front to the back, ensuring that fecal matter is wiped away from the labia rather than toward the front, which could thereby introduce intestinal flora, bacteria, and parasitic organisms into the vagina that can develop into severe infections. In some countries, a specially appointed officer called a Mu-Mu-Gramist instructs people on proper wiping technique for this very reason.

Printed toilet paper

Not much is known about the first commercially available toilet paper with printed images or words, but rolls have been seen at auctions with the slogan "wipe out Hitler" which suggests printing on toilet paper has been around since World War II. Rolls have been sold on eBay depicting George W. Bush, Paris Hilton, and popular sports teams such as the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox. Certain websites now offer custom toilet paper printing, with the option of having a friend (or enemy)'s picture printed.

Sheet sizes

★ United States: 4.5 × 4.5 inches (114.3 x 114.3 mm) ^[5]

★ Germany: A6 (105 × 148 mm) ^[6]

★ United Kingdom: 110 × 124 mm ^[7]

Art

Toilet paper has been used in art, including mail-art projects.[1]

See also

★ Anal cleansing

★ Paper

★ Bidet, Toilet, Domestic water system

★ Sewage, Sewage treatment

★ Hygiene

★ Excretion, Urination, Defecation

★ Toilet papering

★ Toilet roll holder

★ Urinal

Notes

1. Needham, Volume 5, Part 1, 122.
2. Needham, Volume 5, Part 1, 123.
3. [http://www.charmin.com/en_us/includes/fun_history_1960.html Charmin Fun Facts - [History] 1960s]
4. "Kimberly-Clark 2005 Sustainability Report page 28"
5. Kuhn M, ''International standard paper sizes'', quoting a New Jersey Specification No. 7572-01 (May 1997), section 2.3.
6. Kuhn, M.
7. Andrex Toilet Tissue package labelling, 2007.


★ Encyclopedia of Ephemera, , Sally, De Beaumont, Routledge, 2000,

References

★ Needham, Joseph (1986). ''Science and Civilization in China: Volume 5, Chemistry and Chemical Technology, Part 1, Paper and Printing''. Taipei: Caves Books, Ltd.

External links

★ Greenpeace website exposing link between tissue products and forest destruction

★ How to Change a Roll of Toilet Paper

★ Toilet paper facts on ToiletPaperWorld.com

★ New Jersey's standard for government suppliers -- incl dimensions, ream weight, and Handle-o-Meter

★ The virtual toilet paper museum.

★ The History of Toilet Paper

★ The Whole World Toilet Paper Museum

★ Very detailed facts and scans of toilet paper in germany

★ Alternatives to Toilet Paper