The people used before the advent of toilet paper

• The more people used before the advent of toilet paper

Now there are many kinds of toilet paper - different colors, different sizes, rolls and stacks tear and a continuous ribbon, a soft or a more dense texture. This invention of mankind seems so obvious as if it has always existed. But what is actually used before the advent of man toilet paper?

Discuss in polite company, any questions related to tuletom seems indecent. However, the invention of toilet paper was really serious event, which significantly affected the level of hygiene, and thus the health of society as a whole.

The first written mention of toilet paper refers as much to the sixth century AD. Diploma from the Middle East visited China during the Tang Dynasty and complained about their low level of hygiene: "They are so contemptuous of its purity, it is not even tempted, after all the procedures in the closet, but simply wiped off with paper."

Pieces of old paper made of hemp. China.

In ancient Rome, where the universally used public toilets (some of them have survived to the present day), use a special stick with a sponge on the end - a sort of toilet brush, only softer. After use, the sponge stick lowered down in a strongly concentrated salt water or vinegar.

The remains of the ancient Roman public toilets.

In the daytime, Greece also had a similar stick with a sponge, but the Greeks were also different, own invention - ceramic shards, which were supposed to scrape the leftovers.

Replica Roman tool for the toilet.

It is interesting that at the same time there were toilets with water, but of course such a luxury was available only to the elite. According to the newspaper Times, on the island of Crete have found the remains of the toilet (discovery has about 4000 years old), which consisted of wooden seats on top of a clay barrel, the contents of which poured into the stone trough, which served as a kind of sanitation.

Japan had previously used wooden sticks and metal flat. The main thing, obviously, was not confused with any end of the stick have to put your hand. In the Middle East, as we mentioned above, use running water - and it was at that time the most hygienic solution of all.

Hygiene toilet. Japan, approx. 750g. Ruloty toilet paper for size comparison.

In Europe, we used tryapchanymi towels, which were washed and used over and over again. These towels are not just found in excavations in the gutters, but to learn on this almost fossilized artifacts how many times they were used before the thrown of course, is not possible.

Advertising toilet paper in the women's magazine in 1948.

In America, the use of corn leaves, taken from the cob. You may also use other plants, but corn, at least those used in the tribes, who were engaged in its cultivation.

It is interesting that the first data on the toilet paper - such as we know it today - refer to 1857, which, in general, not so long ago, considering the known history of mankind. By this time, almost three hundred years was invented toilet with a dissolving device. The inventor of the toilet paper was the Joseph Gayetti - he began to produce "therapeutic paper" impregnated with aloe juice, especially for those who suffer from hemorrhoids.

Advertising Gayetti medical paper.

Before that people used, in principle, all that arm came across - newspapers, brochures, catalogs, books, moss, lapuh, some used river and sea shells - in short, everything that somehow suited for this function. Actually, people are accustomed to using everything they could - and free of charge, so to persuade people to pay for toilet paper was not so easy. Gayetti idea with its "therapeutic paper" failed. Other entrepreneurs are also trying to somehow let something like that, but popularity is not gained.

The rolls of toilet paper, released by Nokia in 1960.

It was only ten years later, when three brothers by the names of Scott decided to produce a conventional tissue paper rolls, this idea finally became a more or less popular. Soft paper, consisting of several layers of the finest, presented to the public for the first time a British company Paper Mill St Andrew. Since then, no innovation in this industry is not particularly observed - companies compete only in the level of softness and aesthetic appeal of your paper. Perhaps someday we will even learn in the future what to do with three shells, which are mentioned in the film "The Destroyer" with Sylvester Stallone.