| athoughtortwo.com |
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| a thought or two blog by Maurice Emery
Ramblings and ruminations about life after 60
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| TP | |||
| Published in the Littleton Observer: June 20, 2007 | |||
| Today’s column may offend some people but it is only meant to add a little humor and knowledge to your day. I have put this off for weeks because it is a topic I hold very close to me, TP. It is a topic that almost no one talks about. The fact is that when Scott Paper originally started to rewind paper into rolls for bathroom tissue they did not want to put their own name on it because of the social sensitivity of the users. This week’s column started with my wife complaining about how the size and thinness of TP continues to decline. Then two days later she informed me that if I were to go on the web and search for “Scott toilet paper” I would be amazed at the number of results and comments. At about the same time Sheryl Crow made a statement on Earth Day that people should use only one piece of bathroom tissue per visit. This evidently was to help save trees. Later she would report that she was only kidding, but this entire event was a major topic for late night comedians and talk show hosts for days. I am thankful that I was born when I was. If I had been born around 1391, when the first bathroom tissue is reported to have been available I would have to deal with sheets that were two feet by three feet. Talk about a clogged drain. Surprisingly it took more than 500 years for this necessity of life to be mass produced in a profitable way to ensure its availability. The stories you have probably heard about using the Sears Roebuck Catalog for meeting your needs are true. Depending on where you lived and your financial status people used many things including discarded sheep’s wool, frayed ends of anchor cables, newspapers, coconut shells and, if you lived in present day Alaska, snow was probably your choice. And I thought the outhouses were cold. In 1890 Scott paper started mass producing bathroom tissue for the American public, but because it really was an unmentionable product they did not sell it under their name. Instead it was sold to brokers and other private concerns. One private label was Waldorf TP which Scott eventually bought and then put its own name on the package. Scott was the first company to mass produce it profitably, thus ensuring its continuing presence on store shelves. Another reason I am thankful that I was born in the 1940’s is that up until the 1930’s bathroom tissue still had splinters in it. Northern was the first to offer splinter free bathroom tissue in the 1930’s. Surprisingly it was not until after World War I that TP was introduce in Europe. In 1942 a paper mill in England was the first to introduce the two ply toilet tissue. With this introduction the softness of the product became a selling point. As I mentioned earlier bathroom tissue has been in the news a lot lately for two reasons. One is the quantity we use and how to cut back on it and the other is its size. Crows’ statement about using only one sheet per bathroom visit started a storm of protest from all areas. Where as her limited use is probably not feasible, there is a discussion that this is one area where we can be more resourceful. According to one Web site I visited more than 6 billion humans require a daily production of 83,048,116 rolls per day. That is the equivalent of 5.3 million miles of bathroom tissue a day. If everyone used just a few less pieces per day it could make a major difference. Size wise a lot has been made of the new paper Scott is producing. For one of their product lines they have gone from the typical 4” to 3.7”. They claim it still weighs the same because they have found a way to make it softer. In order to keep the price the same they cut back the size. They claim it still has 1,000 sheets per roll, but the roll is shorter. There is also the continuing debate over which way the tissue should come off the roll – over the top or under the roll. Far more people place it over the top. Bathroom tissue is one of the few products that can claim to be hoarded by millions thanks to Johnny Carson on the Tonight show. In an on air comment he made in 1973 he joked that the United States was facing an acute shortage. This resulted in mass buying and hoarding of the tissue. The next day Carson told the audience he was just kidding. I guess it proves that this is one product that people do not want to do without. You can buy modern day bathroom tissue just about any way you want it. They sell it coreless, for environmental conscious people there is no core to deal with. You can buy it with your monogram on it. It is also sold in prints and fragrances. In closing I have to admit that I have one more reason why living at this time is really better than life for previous generations. With bathroom tissue just slightly over 100 years old I am overjoyed that I came along when it became softer and the softness race has been in full throttle. A special note: My email has decided to have its yearly breakdown and I have lost many of my emails for the last two weeks. This combined with the fact that my email provider has been sold, my new address is maurice@kmsuccess.com |
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