Why izal toilet paper

Potter down the loo-paper section of a supermarket aisle today and you will be confronted by a baffling range of products. Hard was in later years probably one of two brands, Izal or Bronco. Hard toilet paper was opaque, crinkly, scratchy.

Dreadful stuff, really — but cheap. In its prime function it was less praiseworthy. Hard toilet paper often had a slightly waxy, disinfectant coating which made it less than fully absorbent. Skiddy, too. Sometimes, no amount of it would bring a decent polish.

You would hear the chap in the neighbouring cubicle huffing and puffing as he gave his hindquarters the most tremendous scouring. My parents ran a boarding school and I had to put up with hard paper both in term-time, at the school where I was sent, and during the holidays back home. A cold, dank jacks with a swinging chain and the whiff of medicated Izal — this is one memory of my childhood.

Talking of blocking, rolls of hard paper would occasionally be thrown down the bowl by infuriated users. Despite that wax coating, they swelled to double their size in the water. This led to frequent flooding. The Romans used sponges on sticks. Usually not quite enough. Peta Benson Holt, Norfolk.

Recollections of Izal and Bronco, and reaching the bottom line. Readers share their experiences of the classic — but not greatly missed — toilet products. Photograph: Getty.

Martin Sheldon Oxford In the s Izal would interweave into their toilet rolls small slips which children used to collect. Sylvia Dunkley Sheffield, South Yorkshire As a keen child artist in the s with an insatiable need for drawing paper, my thrifty mother suggested I draw on the matt side of Izal, perfect for my copious friezes and narrative drawings.

David Cairns London At my Essex primary school in the s, if you knew you would need paper when using the outside toilets, you had to ask the teacher. By the Victorian era, you could purchase specially manufactured toilet paper, often with wire at the corner, or in a box so that one sheet could be pulled out at a time. What could that mean? Our archives show that in , the company asked the psychologists of the Tavistock Institute to do some consumer research into whether they should begin manufacturing a new line: were British people ready for soft, unmedicated toilet tissue?

More than interviews later, the psychologists reported back. In Glasgow, the psychologists said, many people still used newspaper. Any new paper would have to be marketed as strong and good value for money to win over these customers. And people were reluctant to change their bathroom fittings, so free roll-holders might be a good incentive to change.

In London, Birmingham and Manchester, women and young couples were making the move to soft paper. So it was that in , the British civil service were just beginning to consider whether they should adopt soft toilet tissue. Our archives tell the story. Wilson went to remarkable lengths to compare toilet papers. He studied them under the microscope, tested their absorbency hard toilet paper takes two hours to absorb a drop of water!

He pressed the third finger of his right hand onto paper with a stool sample underneath, then pressed this onto a Petri dish. Would germs get through?

This explains why many people today remember hard toilet paper from institutions like schools! Though the civil service could not accept soft toilet paper, British householders did.

As this trade advertisement shows, more and more people went over to soft toilet tissue.