The age-old question that always causes conflict: Is toilet paper meant to be pulled out over or under?
It really doesn’t matter, so long as it’s there. Nothing is worst than heeding nature’s call only to find out there is no toilet paper.
Some people are firmly adamant: it’s only over or only under, and there is no in between.
New York businessman, Seth Wheeler, filed an 1891 patent on toilet paper that revealed…. the end of a toilet paper roll should be on the outside, also known as the “over” position.
The discovery was made by a writer named Owen Williams, who kindly shared his finding with the world on Twitter.
The patent for toilet paper should settle the over vs under debate pic.twitter.com/arZl6l6ALn
— Owen ⚡️ (@ow) March 17, 2015
Seth Wheeler, is also responsible for why toilet paper tears off in neat little squares. As part of the Albany Perforated Wrapping Paper Company, Albany Perforated patented the idea for “perforated wrapping paper” (toilet paper was called wrapping paper back then) in 1871.
“My invention … consists in a roll of wrapping paper with perforations on the line of the division between one sheet and the next, so as to be easily torn apart, such roll of wrapping paper forming a new article of manufacture,” the 1871 patent reads.
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