For years, I never gave a roll of toilet paper much thought. I was more concerned with who had to wash the coffee pot when the last cup was poured. My life was easy until I married a retired army veteran who said “over” was the “army way,” and the right way to hang the toilet paper roll.
For those of you who may be confused, there has been an ongoing verbal battle in households around the world for years on the proper way to hang a roll of toilet paper. The “unders” believe the-the end of the roll hanging down in the back is more esthetically pleasing, leaving the bathroom with a “neater look,” while making it harder for the puppy or cat to unravel the roll.
Another group, the “overs”, which I now belong to, believes inserting the roll so that the end sheet hangs down in front is the proper way. Those of us hanging our rolls of toilet paper this way proclaim there is less risk of germs getting on the paper, it looks good, and most important, it’s easier to find the end piece.
Now I always wondered if the “over” method was the army way, or anyone else’s way, for that matter, but I finally got used to it. But like taking out the trash, walking the dog or any of a myriad of other mundane chores that need to be worked out with family meetings, the answers lie in which partner holds out the longest.
But to my surprise, there is a sort-of–scientific reason behind how our toilet paper rolls are hung. And the answer has to do with a 124-year-old patent. Bet you never thought someone would patent a toilet paper roll, did you? Seth Wheeler is the inventor of the “perforated toilet paper roll. He applied for a patent on June 8, 1891.
“Le Troubadour” (French) – 1960s package of toilet paper.
Mr. Wheeler, in a letter to the U.S. Patent Office, wrote about how “wrapping paper” used to be packaged. (That’s what toilet paper used to be called). He wrote, “In the manufacture of wrapping-paper it is usual to cut the same into sheets, count them out into quires or half-quires, fold them, and tie them up into bundles, such as half-reams or reams.”
Wheeler went on to describe his idea. “My invention consists of a roll of connected sheets of paper for toilet use, said roll having incisions at intervals extending from the side of the web toward the center, but not meeting, and terminating in an angular out, whereby the slight connection left may be separated without injury to the connected sheets.”
The diagrams accompanying the patent show the toilet paper hanging down “over’ the roll, and if the guy who thought of toilet paper with those tiny perforations drew his pictures that way, well, it should be good enough for all of us to accept. So, no, it isn’t the army way, or my way. It’s Mr. Wheeler’s way.
If nothing else, hanging our toilet paper correctly will give us more time to argue about other important things, like who’s turn it is to get up and go jiggle the toilet handle to stop it running in the middle of the night.
