Monday, April 25, 2016

U is for Under or Over






U is for Under or Over
or How does your toilet paper roll?

I've spoken about this issue before--how do you install a roll of toilet paper?  Do you put it on so it unrolls from the bottom or unrolls from the top? This seems to be an issue that generates much argument.

Google patents
Recently "new" data has surfaced* that some claim has important bearing on this under/over argument. The information comes from the original patent application for a roll of  perforated toilet paper by Seth Wheeler in 1891. The perforations were seen as an inexpensive way to help prevent the waste of paper. Before this, waste prevention was done by expensive holders that were awkward to use.

But it seems that no one these days is much interested in Wheeler's clever use of perforations to tear toilet paper. Everyone seems to be interested in the pictures that went with the patent. In those pictures, the paper is rolled from the top. The proponents of the over method say that this is definitive evidence that over is the correct way for a roll to flow.

However, the under proponents are holding fast to their beliefs. They are making arguments that the way the pictures were oriented was only to demonstrate the points of the invention and aren't necessarily an endorsement by Wheeler.

So the debate continues. Which side are you on ?


*Recently, I have seen this picture on several social media sites. This also happened last year at this time. Of course, it's not new data since it's been around since 1891.

Two posts do not make a trend, but if I keep this up, I may have one going. That is, a trend of posts about unimportant things that people care about. Yesterday was about pedicures and today is about toilet paper.


18 comments:

  1. I am in the under camp, but if anyone besides me ever will put the toilet paper on the holder I don't care how they do it!

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    1. Here, someone usually puts a roll of paper on top of the empty roll even if they don't install it. I hope you at least get that.

      Delete
  2. Ha! Further evidence that people will argue about ANYTHING! I'm on team over personally, but I have heard that the under method prevents scenes like this:
    https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/30/ff/6d/30ff6deca10812b28ceb2c19f36f63f2.jpg

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    1. Cute link! :) I am also in the over camp. My mom and my husband are in the under camp. I think it's easier to find the end of the TP in the dark when I get up to go in the middle of the night. Also, we use the Mega Rolls and I think over makes it easier to get what you need without the TP breaking off at every square.

      I like your trend of unimportant things that people care about. Makes me smile.

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    2. We have had rolls undone (although not entirely) by cats and the over method. But it hasn't happened in a long time.

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    3. I still have several empty letters left with no subject. If I can, I will work in more unimportant things.

      Delete
    4. but you know... there is a downside to the under method where cats are concerned... some cats get a bet perturbed if they can't unroll the thing, which leads to scenes like this:
      https://www.fugly.com/media/IMAGES/Random/why-do-all-cats-love-toilet-paper.jpg

      At least the unrolled stuff is still usable! :-)

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    5. Now, that one made me chuckle. We have a lot of shredded things in our house from the cats, but we've never had that.

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  3. It differs at my house. I put it under, Hubby puts it over. Neither one of us complain. :)

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    Replies
    1. Now that's what I call compromise! Good for you and Hubby.

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  4. This is one of those matter of taste topics for which there is no correct answer. I suspect what people prefer boils down to the way a roll was loaded onto the roll in their homes. I prefer over to under and take my cue from the way rolls are loaded and folded in hotel rooms. You can't see a fancy seal on the paper when the roll has the paper hanging from underneath. Glenda from
    Evolving English Teacher

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    Replies
    1. Ooh, a fancy seal on the roll. Now that's makes me think of a whole other topic. Toilet paper of hotels and other places. I may have to start collecting data. I'll start with a data point we already have with the toilet paper my husband brought home from Murmansk, Russia, and expand to what we used in my grandmother's outhouse.

      Yes, this is the season of unimportant topics.

      Delete
  5. I am negligent, and cannot even tell you how I insert the roll.

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    1. That's sort of how I was until Ward asked me to do it just one way.

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  6. I was raised to believe the over method was unsightly and got used to the under. I prefer the under and will reverse the roll if another person should replace an empty the "wrong" way. :-) I'm at least not as bad as my brother who is so adamant his way is right and his wife is wrong that they have two holders hung on their bathroom wall,his and hers. :-)

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    1. I understand the various arguments about which way the paper unrolls, but never thought either way was unsightly. I guess we all see things differently.

      So the two different holders in the bathroom begs the question--is this really about the toilet paper or some bigger issue? But if it works for them, that's all that really matters.

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  7. Definitely over. In fact, whenever I'm at my daughter's house if I use her bathroom and see the roll is under, I reverse it. :-)
    Carol at My Writer's Journal

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What do you think?