It was the 1850s - an age of invention that saw the birth of the
modern sewing machine, the safety elevator and the machine gun. Readers
squinting at the small print below the eye-catching headline may have been
perplexed to find an advert for Joseph C. Gayetty's Medicated Paper, America's
first commercial toilet paper - the "greatest blessing of the age", he
trumpeted.
Gayetty's announcement proved to be surprisingly provocative. Whereas loo roll may now be considered an essential home comfort, in the 1850s the idea of forking out good money for mere "bum fodder" was greeted by a chorus of mocking laughter from scientists. Medics were particularly concerned by Gayetty's assertion that his new paper could cure piles, and soon took to the pages of leading medical journals to lampoon the loo-roll pioneer.
Despite his grandiose claims, Gayetty was not the first to "discover" toilet paper. As with the compass, the wheelbarrow, silk and gunpowder, the Chinese had got there hundreds of years earlier. Paper had been circulating in China since the 2nd century and it didn't take long for people to apply it to their behinds. Even the Emperor Hongwu, a brutal despot ruling in the 14th century, showed his more sensitive side by ordering 15,000 sheets of extra-soft, perfumed toilet paper for his imperial household.
- More Here
Gayetty's announcement proved to be surprisingly provocative. Whereas loo roll may now be considered an essential home comfort, in the 1850s the idea of forking out good money for mere "bum fodder" was greeted by a chorus of mocking laughter from scientists. Medics were particularly concerned by Gayetty's assertion that his new paper could cure piles, and soon took to the pages of leading medical journals to lampoon the loo-roll pioneer.
Despite his grandiose claims, Gayetty was not the first to "discover" toilet paper. As with the compass, the wheelbarrow, silk and gunpowder, the Chinese had got there hundreds of years earlier. Paper had been circulating in China since the 2nd century and it didn't take long for people to apply it to their behinds. Even the Emperor Hongwu, a brutal despot ruling in the 14th century, showed his more sensitive side by ordering 15,000 sheets of extra-soft, perfumed toilet paper for his imperial household.
- More Here
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