During the great toilet paper panic of 2020, American shoppers were desperate for just one roll of single ply. On March 12, toilet paper sales soared 734% compared to the same day a year before. Grocery store shelves and Amazon warehouses were wiped clean. Obscure secondary markets were often the only sources, and bartering among neighbors generated a type of moneyless economy not seen since WWII. By March 23, 70 percent of our grocery stores were out of stock. When a shipment did arrive, sales were often limited.
Standing in line with dozens of other masked shoppers, I pondered what we humans must have used prior to the invention of toilet paper. I recalled the hilarious tales my Grandmother told about Depression Era folks giddy over receiving their annual Sears, Roebuck and Montgomery Ward catalogs, which provided both new reading material and a fresh supply of paper for the outhouse, all in one thickly bound volume. But what did we use prior to mail order catalog pages, or for that matter any other product so essential to our modern lives?
TOILET PAPER
Prehistoric man wiped his bum with whatever was most handy: moss, leaves, animal fur, sand, bark, even seashells and corn husks. The ancient Greeks used pieces of ostraca, or broken pottery, its edges ground or sanded smooth. Greek warriors would carve an enemy’s name into the pottery, thus adding insult to their daily movements.
Romans took comfort further with the invention of the tersorium or sponge stick. A bit of sea sponge was tied onto a stick and kept in a bucket of vinegar or salt water. Wealthy Romans had their own sticks soaked in rose water while those lesser off shared sponge sticks stocked in communal toilets. The early Chinese preferred a carved bamboo spatula with soft cloth wrapped around the end. Since they later invented paper, we can assume the first toilet paper was much welcomed in Peking.
The first documented reference to toilet paper appeared in Europe in the sixteenth century, where by now most Europeans were using bidets after their morning chamber pots, the contents of which both pot and bidet were tossed out the window into the streets below.
Early settlers to America again resorted to whatever they could find in nature. In 1857, New York resident Joseph Gayetty patented the first toilet paper he called “Medicated Paper for the Water Closet”, with his name printed on every sheet. By 1890, toilet paper began looking like the stuff we use today.
DEODORANT
Early man was not likely too concerned with how they smelled. In fact, taking a tip from nature, the worse they smelled the better when it came to survival. As we developed into more complex social creatures, we became conscience of our stench.
Wealthy ancient Egyptians and Greeks relied on perfumed baths and aromatic oils. Egyptian women would often place a dollop of scented wax on top of their heads and allow it to melt throughout the day, spreading the liquefied scent over their bodies. Romans in particular worried about foul body odor and worked fastidiously to keep their bodies clean and smelling pleasant. Roman playwrights and poets rebuked and joked about body odor. In an epigram written by Latin poet Catullus, he accused those that did not bathe “that beneath one’s armpits dwells a ferocious goat.” Roman citizens viewed their cleanliness as a mark of superiority.
During the Medieval period, body odor took a turn for the worse. Socioeconomic collapse amid widespread syphilis and plague outbreaks, 1500 to 1850, were particularly malodorous. During first contact, Native Americans often commented on European stench. Exceptions existed in Scandinavia and Russia, where saunas, hot tubs and snow plunges helped keep their people clean. Men and women continued to perspire and stink until 1888, when the first-ever trademarked deodorant, Mum, arrived on the scene in the form of an underarm paste, followed by the rollerball antiperspirant.
TOOTHPASTE AND BRUSHES
Our bodies were not the only thing to create a stink. Our mouths were a close second. Poor oral health created mouths filled with rotten and missing teeth and gum disease. Ancient Egyptians are believed to have started using a paste to clean their teeth around 5000BC, even before toothbrushes were invented. Crushed rock salt, mint, pepper and iris petals were blended together and rubbed over teeth and gums. This created a great deal of irritation but was highly effective at cleaning and whitening.
The Greeks and Romans favored crushed bone and oyster shells, while the Chinese preferred salt, mint and ginseng. In other cultures, ground ox hooves, pumice, brick dust, burnt eggshells, ashes, chalk, pulverized charcoal and burnt breadcrumbs were used.
It took toothbrushes awhile to catch up. Toothbrushing tools appeared in 3500 to 3000 BC when the Babylonians and the Egyptians made brushes by fraying the end of twigs. The Chinese are said to have invented the first natural bristle toothbrush made from hog bristles attached to a bone or bamboo handle. When it was brought from China to Europe, this design was adapted using softer horsehairs. When all else failed, cloves were often sucked on to freshen the breath.
The first toothbrush of a more familiar design was made in England around 1780 with a handle carved from cattle bone and the brush made from swine bristles. In 1844, the first three-row bristle brush was designed. Meanwhile, toothpaste continued to evolve. In 1824, dentists added soap to abrasive ingredients for better cleaning. Later on, soap was replaced by sodium lauryl sulfate for better blended consistency, similar to today’s toothpaste.
INSECT REPELLENT
Since the beginning of time, biting insects have plagued both man and beast. Ancient man used natural repellents that ranged from the use of fruits or leaves to the oils secreted by other insects. Native Americans used root vegetables as either ointments or fuel for fire to drive away insects. Early Jamestown settlers noted that the pungent odor emanating from the local inhabitants came from a rendering of bear fat smeared on their bodies to keep biting insects at bay.
In ancient Egypt, the oil of the odoriferous costar-oil plant was burnt in lamps and is the first recorded use of an insect repellent. In ancient Rome, one applied a vinegar concoction on the head and feet to ward off insects. They also burned herbs such as oregano and black cumin.
Pyrethrin or pyrethrum oils are a natural insect repellent derived from the seed coating of the genus Chrysanthemum or Dalmatian daisy. It was found throughout Persia and the Dalmatian coast of Croatia. These plants proliferated along the caravan routes into Asia, where it was burned as incense sticks. In powder form, pyrethrum was used by Napoleon’s army and during World War II to protect from lice and fleas. In one form or another, the practice of burning repellents is common.
COMMERCIAL DOG FOOD
Let’s change focus from ourselves to man’s best friend. For as long as many of us can remember, dog food has come in a can or bag. Prior to the 1880s, dogs lived primarily outdoors where they ate what was available: cereals, raw meat, table scraps or whatever they could scavenge. Far from a well-balanced diet, dogs subsisted on whatever food came their way.
As dogs became family pets and moved indoors, pet owners decided that meat was unhealthy and unsanitary, so they fed them diets heavy in carbohydrates: stale bread, vegetables and even hardtack. Hardtack (also called sea bread, sea biscuit, tooth dullers and dog biscuit) is a dense biscuit made from flour, water and salt. It was used for sustenance in the absence of perishable food. It would keep for months and, soaked in milk, it became a dog food staple.
After seeing dogs being fed leftover hardtack from a ship, English businessman James Spratt introduced the first commercially prepared pet food in 1860. The biscuits were a blend of wheat meal, vegetables, beetroot and beef blood. As the idea spread to the US, horse meat, which was readily obtainable, was added. In 1922, Ken-L-Ration canned its first dog food.
CALCULATOR
By now you have probably calculated there are thousands of items whose origins go back millenniums. In order to calculate them, we need...um… a calculator! The first calculator was the human brain, but since no one enjoyed doing math in their heads, man has utilized all manner of devices for calculating numbers.
The abacus was created by the Sumerians around 2500 BC. It worked by holding place values in columns of beads, pebbles or shells. By manipulating the number of beads in each column, complex additions and subtractions could be performed. The Chinese improved upon the concept by stringing the beads on wire attached inside a frame. Its limitation was that it only added and subtracted. It took more than 4000 years before a better method came along.
In 1617, Scottish mathematician John Napier developed a device, known as Napier’s Bones, which was a series of rods on which the multiplication table was written. To make calculations, the user changed the vertical positions of the rods and the answer was then shown horizontally.
Several inventions followed, each with improvements: the Blaise Pascal, the Arithmometer, the Curta calculator, the electrical calculator powered by enormous vacuum tubes and, of course, the portable slide rule that helped send man to the moon. Finally, in 1970, the Japanese invented the first digital calculator with microchip technology. They first sold in stores for a whopping $175!
By now you likely have your own list of “what did we use before…?” Mirrors, soap, antibiotics, shoelaces, umbrellas, eye glasses, my own list is endless. In fact, there are entire books written on the subject! A great bathroom read until it is time to reach for the toilet paper.