Bobrick Paper Towel Dispenser
The bobrick paper towel dispenser system is the older cousin to the touchless paper towel system. The bobrick system was born, shortly after the product for tri- and bi-fold paper towel sheets began to be produced in large quantities. In the 1950s in the United States, the dispenser type reached true mainstream and mass market saturation. Almost every commercial and industrial area requiring a constant feed of paper towel tri- or bi-fold sheets had such a dispenser. It isn’t uncommon to find such a dispenser in a 1950s stylized diner, for example.
In the 1950s, mass production was a method well exploited: from production lines for military development, to management styles that enforced strict adherence to mass production ideals in the corporate and private sectors. This, anthropologists and historical economists say, can be read from such products as the bobrick dispenser. The idea of the dispenser differs from the roll. The idea invokes digitization (plies and sheets of paper, instead of one organic roll) for the sake of efficiency, mass distribution for the sake of a centralized control store (the paper roll model). Instead of bulky large rolls of paper, located at central locations, the bobrick was desirable to commercial space managers because the small stores of paper towel can be placed in various places throughout the area. The design of the dispenser, which hung close the wall, meant that it could be placed in tight areas, whereas the larger roll dispenser could not.
The dispenser was all about efficiency. To load, you just dropped a stack of sheets into the bottom, and pull the bottom sheet out from the bottom lip of the dispenser, halfway; this would start a chain reaction that would pull the next sheet or couple of plies, one after the other.
Although the dispenser was popularized and brought to mass market in the United States, its history is the stuff of urban legend and myth. Furthermore, today, tragically some might say, many of these dispensers aren’t even manufactured in the States anymore. They’re manufactured off-shore by manufacturing havens such as China and other Southeast Asian countries.
The dispenser type, today, is ubiquitous and even some home owners prefer this model. They’re found in gas station restrooms. They’re found on the side of gasoline pumps. They’re found in hospitals. An iconic and popular CEO is said to keep a dispenser at his suite office. The bottom line about the dispenser is this: it’s cheap; it does what it claims to do (dispense towels); and it gives the user an experience of, or the illusion of, a clean and sterile method for drying your hands or receiving a material with which to wipe up a spill or clean a window.