The Origin of Toilet Paper by a student.
We find toilet paper so familiar and use it daily, but have you ever wondered what people used before they had toilet paper?
In China, perfumed toilet paper was made for the royal family members as early as the 14th century. But this was not the case in other parts of the world.
In the 1800’s ordinary people in different climate zones used leaves, grass, ferns, corn cobs, maize, fruit skins, seashells, stone, sand, moss, snow and water. The simplest and most economical way was physical use of your hand.
Wealthy people usually used wool, lace or hemp. The first products designed specifically to wipe were aloe-infused sheets of manila hemp dispensed from Kleenex-like boxes. They were invented in 1857 by a New York entrepreneur named Joseph Gayetty, who claimed his sheets prevented hemorrhoids.
Now toilet paper has become such an ordinary item that many people don’t know what people did before it was invented.
