The initial factory-made paper commercialized solely for toilet use was invented by Joseph Gayetty in the year 1857. Gayetty invented it in the United States.

Before this discovery, rich people utilized wool, lace or hemp for their ablutions, whereas less affluent people made use of their hands when defecating into streams, or cleaned themselves with a range of materials comprising rags, wood shavings, leaves, grass, fodder, stone, sand, moss, water, snow, maize husks, fruit skins, or shells, and cob of the corn hinging upon the nation and atmospheric conditions or traditions.