How did toilet paper become a household product?

Toilet paper became a household item mainly because indoor flush toilets spread in the late 19th century and created demand for a paper that could be flushed. Joseph Gayetty sold the first commercial packaged sheets in the United States in 1857, perforated rolls followed in the 1870s and 1890s, and companies such as Scott Paper worked around Victorian embarrassment to sell them. By the 1940s, according to one account, Americans could not imagine life without it. [1] [2] [3]

Gayetty, a New Yorker, marketed medicated paper for the water-closet in 1857, in packs of 500 sheets for 50 cents. The V&A describes it as soaked in disinfecting medicinal oils. It did not take off at first, since Americans were used to improvising. Corncobs were common through the 1700s, and newspapers, magazines and catalogs later filled the role. The story that the Sears catalog was the usual choice is described by design researcher Barry Kudrowitz as a legend. [1] [4] [2]

In the 1880s, public health reformers and growing acceptance of germ theory led cities to install water and sewer systems, and flush toilets became more common. Newsprint, catalog pages and corncobs were fine for outhouse pits but were not flushable. The Smithsonian notes that rolled, perforated paper was first patented in the late 1870s and had taken its familiar form on a tube by the 1890s. New York's Tenement House Act of 1901 was among the first laws to require indoor toilets in new buildings. [3] [2]

Sources differ on credit and dates. The V&A says the first perforated paper produced in rolls was invented in 1879 by British businessman Walter Alcock, whose British Perforated Paper Company product was rough on one side and shiny on the other. A Jack Byrd article also credits Alcock, adding that Victorian England was not ready for it. The LSU AgCenter credits the Scott brothers with first marketing toilet paper on a roll in 1879, while Scott's own company history and the HISTORY site place its perforated rolls in 1890. The results do not settle the matter, though the 1870s patents and the 1890s Scott rolls are both supported. [4] [5] [2] [6] [1]

Scott Paper faced a product that consumers would not mention, merchants would not display and publications would not advertise. Its answer, from 1890, was private labeling: merchants chose the package, tissue weight and brand name, and Scott eventually supplied more than 2,000 customers. In 1902 Scott bought the Waldorf trademark as its first own brand, ended private-label manufacturing in 1911, and by 1925 was the world's leading toilet paper company. Early ads stressed sanitation and health, and the LSU AgCenter says they cited dysentery, typhoid and cholera. In 1928 Charmin shifted the message toward softness, and in the 1930s Northern Tissue advertised splinter-free paper. Wood pulp from the sulfate process, adopted in 1910, also helped American mills produce it. [6] [2] [1]