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Topic starter
02/09/2021 5:14 pm
1. The first recorded use of toilet paper was in 6th Century China and by the 14th Century, the Chinese government was mass-producing it.
2. In 1973, Johnny Carson caused a toilet paper shortage. He said as a joke that there was a shortage, which there wasn't, until everyone believed him and ran out to buy up the supply. It took three weeks for some stores to get more stock.
3. Packaged toilet paper wasn't sold in the United States until 1857.
4. Joseph Gayety, the man who introduced packaged toilet paper to the U.S., had his name printed on every sheet.
5. Global toilet paper demand uses nearly 30,000 trees every day. That's 10 million trees a year.
6. Things that were used before toilet paper include wool soaked in rose water, hay, corn cobs, sticks, stones, sand, moss, hemp, wool, husks, fruit peels, ferns, sponges, seashells, knotted ropes, and broken pottery (ouch!).
7. It wasn't until 1935 that a manufacturer was able to promise Splinter-Free Toilet Paper.
8. Seven percent of Americans admit to stealing rolls of toilet paper from hotels.
9. Americans use an average of 8.6 sheets of toilet paper per trip to the bathroom.
10. Coloured toilet paper was popular in the U.S. until the 1940s.
11. During Desert Storm, the U.S. Army used toilet paper to camouflage their tanks.
12. On the International Space Station, they still use regular toilet paper, but it has to be sealed in special containers and compressed.
02/09/2021 9:14 pm
@djtusn3950 ....While in the Army, stationed in Germany,,when we went on field maneuvers for at least a week, I always brought along toilet paper, smokes and candy bars. 
David Green and David Green reacted
02/09/2021 9:53 pm
Back in the 1980s and 1990s, I went on interesting vacations in other continents. I always travelled with some extra toilet paper, just in case.
Also, though interesting, David's post provided more information than most of us need (or want) to know.
Ed Davis
Inverness, Illinois, USA
David Green and David Green reacted
02/09/2021 10:29 pm
Well, in those early days... some of the things they used was pretty scary. Yikes!
John Merritt
South Lyon, Michigan - USA
02/09/2021 11:07 pm
this is what the French came up with in 16th century
The chapter of the book discussing the best method of wiping yourself is one of the most colorful writing I have ever read.
this text came from Why You Should Wipe Yourself With A Goose's Neck - KnowledgeNuts
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Why You Should Wipe Yourself With A Goose’s Neck
“You will thereby feel in your nockhole a most wonderful pleasure.” —Francois Rabelais, Gargantua and Pantagruel
In A Nutshell
In the early 16th century, French monk Francois Rabelais released his famous comic work Gargantua and Pantagruel. A satire on (among other things) Renaissance learning and the Europe of the time, it nonetheless contained plenty of digressions on all sorts of odd topics. The oddest of these would probably be the passage where Rabelais recommends a goose’s neck as an ideal alternative to toilet paper.
The Whole Bushel
Gargantua and Pantagruel is a book that has to be read to be believed. Written in the 16th century by a French monk, it still somehow manages to be cruder than an entire season of South Park. Ostensibly the tale of two giants and their misadventures in a grotesque version of Europe, it’s also famous for its long passages giving advice on everything from managing debt to foretelling the future. But the passage everyone remembers is the one about the goose.
In Chapter 13 of the first book, the characters take time out to discuss the best method for wiping oneself without toilet paper. After a long and heated debate on the merits of using everything from old hats to attorney’s bags to a spare slipper, they finally settle on the feathers of a goose. But they don’t mean any old feathers; they specifically mean the feathers of a goose’s neck. And for best results, they should still be attached to the goose. According to the book:
“But, to conclude, I say and maintain, that of all torcheculs, arsewisps, bumfodders, tail-napkins, bunghole cleansers, and wipe-breeches, there is none in the world comparable to the neck of a goose, that is well downed, if you hold her head betwixt your legs. And believe me therein upon mine honour, for you will thereby feel in your nockhole a most wonderful pleasure, both in regard of the softness of the said down and of the temporate heat of the goose, which is easily communicated to the bum-gut and the rest the inwards, in so far as to come even to the regions of the heart and brains.”
Quite why Rabelais settled on a goose has long been a matter for critical debate. Some have seen the whole discussion as emblematic of the “new era” of the Renaissance, when old certainties were washed away and the purpose of everything had to be rediscovered afresh. Others think it’s simply the perfect way to crown a diabolically funny scene. One thing’s for sure: Next time you get caught short in the woods, you’ll know to keep an eye out for any wandering geese.
David Green and David Green reacted
03/09/2021 1:24 am
😖 What a shitty subject.
17/09/2021 1:04 am
Thank you for all of this; a person just can't get enough toilet paper data.
17/09/2021 12:56 pm
So in fact I didn't see falling stars some week ago, but compressed toilet-paper.... 
17/09/2021 3:05 pm
All very interesting, but let’s not forget that the direction (over/under) that the paper “hangs” is patented…
Zeeky Banutski
The People’s Republic of Maryland
Topic starter
17/09/2021 3:26 pm
Yes Terry, I hear that you are required to pay a royalty of one cent per sheet for each one that you take off of a roll fastened in that way.
How much do you owe Seth Wheeler's estate?
John Kuvakas and John Kuvakas reacted
17/09/2021 5:54 pm
Yes Terry, I hear that you are required to pay a royalty of one cent per sheet for each one that you take off of a roll fastened in that way.
How much do you owe Seth Wheeler's estate?
I think I owe a “brazillion”…maybe more… 
Zeeky Banutski
The People’s Republic of Maryland
David Green and David Green reacted