Posted on 08/06/2012 4:07:09 PM PDT by Sir Napsalot
... Toilet paper has a history. Of course it has a history. But who thinks of it? Like George (Costanza), we take most of our technology for granted. Of course, we pay a lot of attention to certain technologies, usually the newest and most innovative. But we don't think too much about those other technologies that have become more or less part of our natural environment ....
Toilet paper, in case you're wondering, was in use in China as early as the fourteenth century and it was made in 2′ x 3′ sheets. Everywhere else, and in China before then, people made use of what their environment offered. Leaves, mussel shells, corncobs were among the more common options. The Romans (what have they ever done for us!) used a sponge attached to the end of a stick and dipped in salt water. And yes, as you may have heard, in certain cultures the left hand was employed in the task of scatological hygiene, and in these cultures the left hand retains a certain stigma to this day.
Until the late-nineteenth century, Americans opted for discarded reading material. It's not clear if this is why Americans still today often take reading material into the bathroom, or if the practice of reading on the toilet yielded a eureka moment subsequently. In any case, magazines, newspapers, and almanacs were all precursors to the toilet paper as we know it today. It has been claimed that the Sears and Roebuck catalog was also known as the "Rears and Sorebutt" catalog. The Farmer's Almanac even came with a hole punched in it so that it could be hung and the pages torn off with ease.
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(Excerpt) Read more at gizmodo.com ...
No, not the muslims thats where the left hand comes in.
“In 1935, Northern Tissue advertised its toilet paper to be “splinter-free.” Apparently, early production techniques managed to embed splinters in the paper.”
Toilet paper has one very important function...that is it must dissolve readily in water. I learned this at a very young age when I was forced to help my dad unclog a septic tank on a motorhome. My stupid little sister clogged it up with paper towels.
Lol! I leave you all with this link that I picked up from a fellow Freeper.
http://www.banterist.com/archivefiles/000348.html
I know the original poster meant his comment in sarcasm.
But I had a conversation about toilet paper with some muslim students while in grad school. We were discussing different ways to clean yourself before toilet paper was invented. It appears the people in the middle east used a handfull of dry dirt, or sand to do the job if water was not available, and water does tend to be rare in the desert. And yes, they used the left hand for this. In europe they used paper or large leaves. In america they used empty corn cobs or paper. Currently in europe, the bidet is preferred...which is water. I believe the same is preferred in the middle east by wealthier people.
The corn cob thing really stunned them.
My first cousin was a missionary doctor in India for a few years and went to an Indian dentist. It was only after the dentist was done that my cousin remembered that in that part of India where he was, natives used their left hand. Too late. He never saw the dentist even once wash his hands or even wear disposable gloves to work on his mouth. Lesson learned.
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There I clicked, |
It’s taken for granted until you don’t have a square to spare.
Not splinters exactly, but I have used some very old (and very cheap) paper that had what appeared to be little tiny wood chips in it. And yes, I looked AFTER I felt.
In days of old
When Knights were bold
And paper wasn’t invented
They wiped their a$$
With a blade of grass
And went away quiet contented
My grandpappy told me that they used white and brown corncobs back then . . . they'd use the brown corncobs first and then use the white corncobs to see if they needed to use the brown corncobs. True story.
That's part of the reason that the beanbag tossing game is called "Cornhole." That's what they called the hole in the outhouse . . . the cornhole.
Of course, for us it's a noun, but in Jerry Sandusky's cell block it's a verb. (Get it?)
If you are a skinny, limber, 90 lb asian person, its probably a piece of cake. If you are a big, stiff, clumsy, arthritic, lardass american...well that’s your problem.
Yeah boy, we used to visit my aunt and uncle in the hills and hollers of Tennessee; and corncobs were plentiful for the job. Normally, we used the “Rears and Sorebutt” catalog in our little red outhouse; one page usually did the trick. - Oh, and the really refined used red and white corncobs for #2 and #1 jobs. - Were just glad to have what we had.
I had a rejection letter for a short story I wrote (small press F/SF mag) that had lots of check mark spots for different reasons they rejected it. One said “I’m sitting in the smallest room of my house. Your story is before me but soon it shall be behind me.” Luckily that wasn’t the one checked for my rejection.
Sitting on the crapper and reading was a natural symbiotic relationship as many people need to crap to clear their head.
You mean corn husks?
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