In fact, if you were to imagine the human existence as a single layer of toilet paper unfolded, the actual toilet paper would only be about the last seven squares! (A typical single-ply roll of industrial toilet paper has about 1,000 sheets; the first Homo sapiens appeared 200,000 years ago; the first toilet paper originated in the 6th century. You do the math.) And people were fine before that. the last seven squares.
We will live to see the time when TP too ends up in the toilet bowl of history. Because it’s everywhere, but cleaning with a rough, dry paper towel might not be the best choice after you’ve been in the bathroom for a while. Don’t tell Big TP that—the industry’s top five producers made nearly $6 billion in 2017. As a nation, there are very powerful forces to which we are bound and which meet our needs.
Here are a few reasons why toilet paper might not be as good as you think.
- We just got along without him…
Some early toilet paper options were as soft as or as soft as paper, while others were tougher and tougher. Grass, leaves, stones, shells and sticks are just a few of the things our ancestors used to wipe with, according to the BMJ article, Toilet Hygiene in the Classical Age. In Greco-Roman times, bathers used a sponge or tersorium attached to a stick, which they called a weapon.
The use of paper for wiping first appears in 6th-century Chinese literature, and toilet paper was used in the Chinese imperial court in the 14th century, according to the Washington Post. However, it didn’t really catch on beyond that.
Americans have long been big fans of corn, if you can imagine it. Some time after the advent of the printing press, they began to keep catalogs in the bathroom, not for reading.