# Breaking news: Toilet paper goes over not under **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [March 18, 2015, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-news-toilet-paper-goes-over-not-under/715296 "2015-03-18T15:14:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Cabin\_Fever\_1](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cabin_fever_1/32/2908_2.png) [@Cabin\_Fever\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cabin_Fever_1)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2015, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-news-toilet-paper-goes-over-not-under/715296/21 "2015-03-18T19:21:36Z")
> [@WOOKINPANUB](#): > > **Cabin Fever** , that is a \*shit ton \*of toilet information; thanks 😉 > > On a cat / toilet related note - though nothing at all to do with _paper_- Cosmo, aka Brigadier General Pissy Britches apparently thinks I do something or another bathroom related incorrectly because he unceremoniously backed that cat ass up and sprayed me the other day while I was sitting on the toilet :eek: LOL. We still have to hear from the OP. I fear the worst. BTW - Cosmo needs to learn how post kitty pictures here. 🙂 As in another post in another thread, in a far away galaxy, where Kittens don’t deliver appliance parts on on time…I have cab fare. Maybe we could all go over and fix the dang thing. I’ll buy the pizza. ---
**Author:** ![Cabin\_Fever\_1](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cabin_fever_1/32/2908_2.png) [@Cabin\_Fever\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cabin_Fever_1)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2015, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-news-toilet-paper-goes-over-not-under/715296/22 "2015-03-18T19:25:50Z")
> [@WOOKINPANUB](#): > > aka Brigadier General Pissy Britches I take that is a term of endearment :D:D:D:D ---
**Author:** ![WOOKINPANUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wookinpanub/32/132_2.png) [@WOOKINPANUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WOOKINPANUB)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2015, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-news-toilet-paper-goes-over-not-under/715296/23 "2015-03-18T20:30:38Z")
> [@Cabin\_Fever](#): > > I take that is a term of endearment :D:D:D:D As I often tell him, lucky for him he’s cute. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2015, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-news-toilet-paper-goes-over-not-under/715296/24 "2015-03-18T21:18:12Z")
Note, BTW, that the photo in the article linked by the OP doesn’t clarify anything at all, because it doesn’t show which side of the roll is facing the wall. It doesn’t even seem to show any wall at all. To see the original patent diagram mentioned (a copy of which was posted to twetter by somebody), you have to follow one of the links in the article. [Here it is.](https://twitter.com/ow/status/577665896241504256/photo/1) ---
**Author:** ![iamthewalrus\_3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/258eb7/32.png) [@iamthewalrus\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamthewalrus_3)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2015, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-news-toilet-paper-goes-over-not-under/715296/25 "2015-03-18T22:32:03Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > Note, BTW, that the photo in the article linked by the OP doesn’t clarify anything at all, because it doesn’t show which side of the roll is facing the wall. It doesn’t even seem to show any wall at all. Exactly. Obviously, it’s drawn that way, because if you drew it the other way, you couldn’t see what it looked like, which would make for a poor patent drawing. But as hung for use, it doesn’t matter if you can see the mechanism by which the paper functions. ---
**Author:** ![DinoR](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dinor/32/2821_2.png) [@DinoR](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DinoR)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2015, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-news-toilet-paper-goes-over-not-under/715296/26 "2015-03-18T23:36:23Z")
One patent on one way of making the perforation…that’s nothing. Dad was a patent attorney. In the days before internet that meant physical patents searches of records in DC. Every now and then he’d go to DC himself (I think partly sort of a going “home” but there was some aspect of specific cases he wanted to follow up on the paid search they’d contracted.) As sort of a career exploration / bring your kid to work experience I’ve been in the archives in DC and assisted with a couple searches. One of the drawers of records that might have been related contained dozens (if not hundreds) of patents related to toilet paper. There were a plethora of dispensers, rolls (that sometimes were proprietary and linked to specific dispensers), machines, improvements on existing patents that expanded the art of toilet paper production and dispensing. This is **one** patent on making perforations. It may or may not even be the method used by modern toilet paper manufacturers. I’d bet roll orientation isn’t claimed as being relevant to performance of the tear in this patent (although I DID see dispensers that sought to improve that. :P) ---
**Author:** ![GrumpyBunny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bc8723/32.png) [@GrumpyBunny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrumpyBunny)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2015, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-news-toilet-paper-goes-over-not-under/715296/27 "2015-03-19T00:02:43Z")
**vindication!!!** ---
**Author:** ![california\_jobcase](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9d8465/32.png) [@california\_jobcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/california_jobcase)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2015, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-news-toilet-paper-goes-over-not-under/715296/28 "2015-03-19T01:51:12Z")
All TP hangs down from over the roll. I suggest “towards” (the wall) and “away” be used in the future in this perennial argument. Away, of course, is the proper arrangement. How do rest stop attendants argue about those giant rolls with the core hung perpendicular to the wall? ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2015, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-news-toilet-paper-goes-over-not-under/715296/29 "2015-03-19T02:32:03Z")
Whenever I hear “Australia” and “toilet paper” together, [I think of this](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xpC1vAlBULg). Over is of course normally correct, but around here it’s “loose, sitting on top of the toilet” because we have an odd cat. He doesn’t unroll it, he grabs it with both claws, bites it, and the puncture marks end up pushing the outer layer deep so that it unrolls in shreds. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-news-toilet-paper-goes-over-not-under/715296.md?page=1)