Aloud about the delicate: how toilet paper appeared and what they did before it

Every second, 1,000 rolls of toilet paper are consumed in the world, which is 30 billion pieces per year. Pipifax, for some reason, is considered one of the essential attributes of modern civilization, although this hygiene product was invented in immemorial times. It is possible that after learning more about toilet paper, you will treat this unsightly, but such an important product of the pulp and paper industry with great respect.

Like many other iconic items, toilet paper first appeared in ancient China. The first mention of the use of rice paper for hygienic purposes is contained in a letter from the sage Yan Zhitui, who in 589 AD formulated the problem that bothered him in this way:

This ambiguous remark says not only that in The Celestial Empire has disrespect for philosophical works, but also that in the VI century the Chinese already knew what to do with tedious treatises and used them not only for kindling the furnace.

In the IX century, paper was already used in full swing, as many testimonies of contemporaries have been preserved. The most interesting is the mention of Chinese toilet paper in the travel notes of an Arab merchant. A Muslim, accustomed to using only water for hygienic purposes, was outraged by the uncleanness of Asians.

By the XIV century, the production of toilet paper in China was already taking place on an industrial scale. Then it was produced in sheets and counted by the piece. In a document of 1393, an entry was found that 720 thousand sheets were produced only for the needs of the imperial palace. At that time, paper was used on a large scale — there is evidence that toilet paper sheets had dimensions of 50 by 90 cm.

However, the emperor was far from his subjects and a special kind of toilet paper was made for him and his family. In the records of the imperial palace supply service, there is a mention that 15 thousand specially soft sheets impregnated with incense were produced for the Hongwu Emperor, as well as his relatives.

While the Chinese practiced in the delights, in Europe everything was much more prosaic. The days of the noble Romans wiping their asses with a wet sponge on a stick, one for all, have sunk into oblivion. In the Middle Ages, ordinary people held leaves and grass in high esteem, and the nobility had lumps of wool or pieces of cloth. The harsh Vikings preferred moss in summer, and snow in winter, of which there was plenty in their region.

The discovery of the Americas brought a certain variety to hygiene. The first settlers saw that the Indians were solving their problems with corn cobs and followed their example. But this can be called babbling, because on the islands of Oceania, shells and coconut shells were used instead of toilet paper.The intensive development of the printing business, which occurred at the beginning of the XIX century, allowed many to switch to newspapers. There were gourmets who knew a lot about the rigidity of paper and its structure, preferring some publications to others. In the USA, throughout the XIX century and even at the beginning of the XX, The Old Farmer's Almanac was in special demand. This edition is also notable for being considered one of the oldest in the Western Hemisphere. The publishers were so kind that they even made a hole in the almanac so that it could be hung on a nail.

But the owners of the Sears Roebuck trade catalog did not take into account the specifics of their product and switched from offset paper to coated paper. Perhaps this gave the commercial publication a special presentability, but the demand for it immediately fell. Moreover, the most active readers began to write letters to the publisher asking them to return the porous and soft paper on which it is much more pleasant to read the catalog.

The year of the appearance of toilet paper in the USA is considered to be 1857, when entrepreneur Joseph Gayetti began selling Gayetti's Medicated Paper - special hygienic sheets of paper soaked in aloe juice. The first roll appeared later — in 1879 and was produced by the American Scott Paper Company. The apotheosis of toilet thought was a two-layer paper presented by the British company St. Andrew's Paper Mill.Oddly enough, in our age of technological progress, toilet paper is used by barely a third of the world's population. Some of the earthlings do not have access to such excesses, and someone traditionally prefers other methods of toilet hygiene. It is also known that in different countries the preferences for the properties of toilet paper are somewhat different.

For example, the Germans like the densest varieties of this product, but we prefer softer ones. Color, as it turned out, also plays an important role. Almost all of Europe chooses white paper, except France, where pink paper is held in special esteem. In China, white rolls are also most often found — in this country, the white color embodies the desire for cleanliness. As for high-tech Japan, toilet paper is gradually becoming obsolete there. Toilets in Japanese toilets perfectly implement hygienic functions and banal rolls can be found there less and less every year.