What People Used Before Toilet Paper

For almost all of human history, there was no toilet paper. So what did people actually use? Pottery shards, sponges on sticks, corncobs, almanacs and mail-order catalogs – and some of it was still normal when your grandparents were kids. In this video: ancient Greek and Roman toilets, the first paper in China, sailors and farmers, the man who printed his name on every sheet, the "splinter-free" ad, and why toilet paper is a much newer invention than it feels. Chapters 0:00 A catalog on a nail 0:57 Ancient Greece: pottery 1:18 Roman public toilets and the sponge on a stick 1:54 Water and the left hand 2:13 China: the first paper 2:57 Europe: whatever was nearby 3:23 Corncobs in rural America 3:46 Newspapers and the almanac with a hole 4:09 The mail-order catalog 4:39 Joseph Gayetty's "medicated paper" (1857) 5:30 Plumbing changes everything 6:16 Not everywhere: America in 1940 6:33 The Soviet Union and 1969 7:20 Spring 2020 and the roll in your bathroom