IMPROVEMENTS IN TOILET PAPER
Year: 1885

page_text: I, CHARLES AUBREY DAY of 321 High Holborn in the County of Middlesex,
Fellow of the Institute of Patent Agents, do hereby declare the nature of the said
invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN TOILET PAPER" (a communication to me from
abroad by Oliver Hewlett Hicks, manufacturer, of Chicago, Illinois, United States
of America) and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly
described and ascertained in and by the following statement :-
Heretofore toilet paper has been furnished to the public either in the form of
sheets cut to the proper size for use or in cylindrical rolls of continuous lengths.
In some cases the paper furnished in the forms of rolls has been perforated
transversly at regular intervals, with a view of enabling the user to separate it
into sheets of uniform size and thus obtain the advantages of the packages
composed of independent sheets. The chief objection to each of these modes of
Where the
furnishing toilet paper, is the great amount of wastage which occurs.
separate sheet plan is employed, the user is apt to detach a great many more sheets
than he actually uses, while where the roll plan is practised, the rolls are usually
hung so as to freely revolve and the user by a pull upon the depending and often-
times recklessly rolls off yards where feet would answer.
The object I have in view has been to furnish toilet paper in a form which
would prevent in a large measure, this vast amount of wastage. In carrying out
this object, I have put up one or more lengths of paper in the form of a continuous
band of oblong or oval shape, as contradistinguished from a roll, the short rounded
ends of the bundle thus produced, serving as guides for.determining the proper
points at which the paper is to be separated in order to produce sheets of a size
desirable for use and affording also the most advantageous surfaces upon which to
tear the paper. The band I make of a thickness calculated to produce sheets
severed at the points stated, of practical and economical lengths, from the time the
bundle is opened until it is consumed.
In the accompanying drawing I have illustrated my improved form of bundle.
Figure 1 shows the mode of tearing off the sheets, and,
Figure 2. is a side view of one of the bundles.

page_text: In the manufacture of these bundles I preferably form the band by winding
continuous lengths of paper upon a mandrel of suitable size with or without the
interposition of a thick paper core, a shown in Fig. 2, and when the band has
attained a sufficient thickness, it is removed from the mandrel and collapsed or
flattened into the oblong or oval shape, shown in both figures.
I make the internal diameter of the band when in cylindrical form, of not less
than twice the thickness of the band at any one point and the proportions which
I prefer to employ are as follows; width of paper, from four and one half to five
inches; internal diameter of band, when in cylindrical form, about two and three
quarter inches; external diameter, from four to five inches.
This form of bundle may be mounted in a fixture such as shown, described and
claimed in an application for patent N° 10,155 of 1885, made by the said Oliver
Hewlett Hicks, and dated August 27 AD 1885 or it may be used detached from
a fixture as shown in fig. 1, the user holding it on one hand, and the other hand
being employed to grasp the pendent end of the paper and by drawing the paper
tightly over one of the short rounded ends of the bundle causing it to separate at
that point and produce a sheet of convenient length.
The oblong flattened form of the bundle enables it to be packed in cases to
greater advantage than if it were of a cylindrical form, the small interstices
between the rounded ends being the only spaces left unoccupied.
In the use of my improved package, it is obvious that when one sheet is. torn
off, the end of the portion which is to form the next succeeding one, will automa-
tically descend into a convenient position to be grasped as shown in Fig. 2. This
is a feature of importance and it is obvious that the employment of any substance
which would cause the adherence of the layers or convolutions one to the other, or
of any form of contrivance that would prevent the free separation of the end from
the body of the paper, would entirely defeat it.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed I declare that what
1 claim is
1st As a new article of manufacture, a bundle of toilet paper consisting of one
or more lengths of paper formed into a flexible continuous band of oblong or oval
shape, the short rounded ends of said band serving as guides for determining the
proper points at which the paper is to be separated, in order to produce sheets of
a size desirable for use and affording also the most advantageous surfaces upon
which to tear the paper; substantially as described.
2nd A flexible hollow roll of paper, whose interior diameter exceeds the thick-
ness of paper.