Toilet paper is such a common thing that anyone can see every single day. It is so commonplace that people often take it for granted or even wonder who invented toilet paper. Toilet paper is actually different from facial competition when you compare their composition. It is actually designed to decompose once it reaches a septic tank. This might be its really distinct feature when compared to bathroom tissues and facial tissues.





Among the many peoples of the world, the toilet paper takes on various names. Several common names for today’s toilet paper include toilet roll, loo roll, loo paper, dunny paper, dunny roll, toilet tissue, bathroom tissue, and TP.


Early Origin


Ancient cleaning utensils


Those who wonder who invented toilet paper will be astonished to find out that its origin really dates back to the second century BC. It was already around in China but was used as a padding material or used for wrapping. It is known that it was first used in world history in the 6th century AD.


Early Chinese writers made mention of toilet paper in their works as early as 589 AD. Yan Zhitui wrote about it in 589 AD in his works. In 851 AD, it is known that a Muslim traveler traveling to China commented about the people’s cleanliness mentioning the use of paper instead of water.


It is recorded that ten million packages of toilet paper was manufactured annually in the Yuan Dynasty. Each package had about a thousand to ten thousand sheets of toilet paper. Another mass production was recorded during the Ming Dynasty. It is found that there were more than 700,000 sheets were manufactured. It was intended for general use within the imperial court. With the said records it is clear that the people of China are to be credited as the ones who invented toilet paper.


Modern Origin




Joseph Gayetty is credited as the one who invented toilet paper in the modern era. His toilet paper design was first introduced in 1857. It was made available to the public in the 1920′s. His toilet paper was sold as flat sheets and are watermarked. We can not credit Gayetty as the one who invented toilet paper since he made his innovations appeared much later.


The earliest US patents however were obtained by Seth Wheeler. His patent covered not only the toilet paper but it also covered its dispensers. Both the toilet paper and the dispensers became quite popular in the entire country. We may not credit both men as the ones who invented toilet paper but they indeed made strides to make it into the one that we know today.