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Scott Paper Company turned unusable thick paper into individual sections sold as an alternative to cloth towels. Sani-Towels® were introduced in 1907, but perforated rolls of paper towels weren’t available until 1931. Improvements include more layers, patterns, embossed designs, and varying perforation length.
The paper towel story is a story of serendipity stemming from a problem the size of a train car. The Scott Paper Company of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania had already been established as a major toilet paper manufacturer by 1907. In that year, Scott Paper’s president, Arthur Scott, received some distressing news from the railroad docks.
An entire train car was filled with paper that was simply too thick to use as toilet paper or any other purpose. Scott pondered the fate of this unusable paper, then recalled an 1879 local newspaper article about a Philadelphia teacher who handed out sections of soft paper to her students as a replacement for the communally used cloth towel in the school bathroom. Her hope was that individual students would use the paper once and dispose of it properly.
Scott established that paper unusable in the railroad could be cut into individual sections and sold as an alternative to the cloth towels commonly used in homes. The Scott Paper Company sold these paper towels under the brand name Sani-Towels® to emphasize their hygienic advantages over germ-filled cloth towels. However, the original paper napkins weren’t an instant hit with consumers. In fact, the familiar perforated rolls of paper towels wouldn’t be introduced to grocery store shelves until 1931.
Most paper towels marketed today contain at least two layers of paper pressed together, but more absorbent brands may have three or more layers. Early paper napkins were often bleached white to emphasize their clean and hygienic nature, but manufacturers eventually began printing distinctive patterns on the paper to enhance their aesthetic appeal. Other improvements include adding more surface area via embossed designs and varying the length between perforations to allow users to choose how much blotting paper is needed for a particular task.
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