In 1879 the most commonly used method to clean yourself after using the bathroom was a piece of cloth, newspaper, catalog pages, or corn husks which had been acceptable for use in the outhouse. None of these were very comfortable, but more importantly, the pipes in a house could not handle them and as a result, the plumbing would clog up and overflow.
Irving and Clarence Scott out of Philadelphia owned a wrapping paper and paper bag company and therefore had rollers for long sheets of paper, which is what gave them the idea for toilet paper. The problem was, this was the height of the Victorian Era and bathroom talk of any kind was strictly taboo. To talk about something that personal would be bordering on the obscene. Americans would rather keep their old uncomfortable methods and keep paying a plumber rather than ask for or pay for toilet paper in the store.
So, the Scott brothers came up with a plan. They went to the hotels and asked if they would like to stock it in their bathrooms. They figured if people could get used to using it they would love it so much they would want to ask for it. The hotels, sick of the plumbing bills, gladly bought the toilet paper. And the Scott brothers were right. People fell so in love with toilet paper they couldn't dream of ever going back to what they had used before and they got over their embarrassment about asking for it. You can still buy Scott toilet paper today.
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