We pass a fair amount of time on the toilet . We depend on the porcelain fixtures to move themetabolic productsof ourbodiesout of batch and out of our dwellings . Throughout history , societies have had dissimilar attitudes , habits , and etiquette regarding toilets , and evenvaried destinationsfor their toilet outputs . Despite their ubiquitousness today , half of the mankind ’s population — nearly 4 billion masses — lack safe and healthful toilet facility . Here are a few facts to make you apprise our lovely loos on World Toilet Day , November 19 .
1. Late Stone Age humans built rudimentary toilets 5000 years ago.
InSkara Brae , a Neolithic village on Scotland ’s Orkney Islands , archaeologistsfound “ a 5000 - yr - old , stone - make drainage canal which connected the sign of the zodiac to an outfall at the ocean edge . ” The drains had originally been lined with tree bark to make them watertight — a signally sophisticated organisation for its clip . A moment afterward , upper - class homes inMesopotamiaandancient Egypthad benches laid over drain that led to cesspool , where waste was collected for use as fertilizer . Some of the earliestflushing toiletsappeared among settlement in the Indus Valley around 2500 BCE .
2. Using public toilets in ancient Rome was a social experience.
To prevent their big metropolis from drown in human dung , theRomans built public can . Their remnants can still be found in the ruins of some papist cities — for case , in Ephesus in modern - day Turkey . They were unremarkably just a series of butt - sized holes , carved about 10 inch apart , in retentive marble slabs lay overopen sewergutters . They had neither stalls nor dividers , so emptying one ’s intestine was a social experience . The ancient potty - leaver had importantly few inhibitions than we do today when it came to doing their individual business — though their togas may have provided some modest screening .
Despite the deficiency oftoilet paper — which would n’t be mass - produceduntil 1857 — the Romans did wipe . They cleaned their rear end with atersorium(literally , “ a wiping thing ” ) , a tool be of a sea sponge attached to a stick . Users washed the sponge in pee that flowed through a shallow sewer at their feet .
Whether they dampen their paw after using the toilets is unclear . If they did , it believably did n’t make much of a healthful dispute , because thetersoriawere likely shared by all the posterior - wipers who amount and went throughout the day .
3. Ancient Chinese and Japanese societies didn’t flush—they recycled.
In pre - industrial Japan and China , excretion was a commodity too valuable to redden down the waste pipe . Farmer used human poop as a much - needed fertilizer to keep feeding the growing urban universe . dub “ night soil , ” it was painstakingly collected in buckets by each urban house , and picked up every dawn by particular collectors calledfenfu . They brought their cart full of shit to the ports , where it was loaded into boats and sail out to the countryside . Farmers purchased the guck and composted it into humanure . The Japanesecalled itshimogoe , “ fertiliser from the bottom of a somebody . ” granger of the time could n’t imagine wasting that valued waste .
4. The first modern toilet prototype was built by a poet.
The great - granddaddy of our porcelain john was devised by Sir John Harington , agodsonofQueen Elizabeth I. Harington , a poet who fell in and out of her majesty ’s favor for his risqué poesy , was finally ban from the court and direct to Bath in southwesterly England . There , he traded his pen for plumbing tools and forgeda flushing toiletin 1596 . Named Ajax ( a shimmer onjakes , Elizabethanslang for a lavatory ) , it had a scheme of handles to empty piss from a cistern while the user at the same time start the valve lever tumbler to flush the fecal capacity down the pipe . ( precisely where the pipes led is n’t live , but it ’s likely they go just outside the habitation . )
Allegedly , the queen visited her naughty godson some months afterwards , attempt the contraption herself , and liked it . Harington built a exchangeable apparatus for her at Richmond Palace .
5. British engineer Thomas Crapper perfected the flush toilet.
Harington ’s Ajax did n’t catch on right away . A couple hundred years later , British engine driver Thomas Crapper ( yes , that ’s where the technical term comes from!)refined the designto depend almost like our modern toilet and did more to generalise toilets thanalmost anyonein Victorian England . Crapper update the plumbing system in Windsor Castle , Buckingham Palace , and Westminster Abbey . He patented the ballcock , the bob mechanism inside a toilette tank , which prevents pee from overflowing . In 1870 , he even opened thefirst toilet showroomand allowed customers to try out the ware before purchase .
The Crapper name wasemblazonedon the overhead cisterns of Crapper ’s toilets , finally becoming synonymous with the product . As the Thomas Crapper & Co. Ltd.says on its website , “ We conceive that you ca n’t say ‘ throne ’ without smile . ”
6. Flush toilets aren’t the only kind of toilet.
In rural areas and parts of the world without sanitization base , where flush toilets are n’t hard-nosed , many multitude use dry toilets . These system do n’t utilize water , but do dispose of human waste safely . teetotal throne can be as basic as a pit latrine , where the privy exploiter ride or squats over a muddle in the ground and the waste is deposited to an underground pit , which may or may not be plan to be empty . Port - a - potties , composting toilets , “ treebogs ” ( an elevated structure and waste megabucks fence in by alimental - take in industrial plant ) , andincinerating toiletsare all examples of wry toilets .
7. High-tech smart toilets can clean themselves.
Modern fresh modern toilets can do awful things . They can rise their lids when they see you come so you do n’t have to touch them . Their seats can instantly warm up to your body temperature . They can flirt music to keep you occupy while you do your line of work . At the remnant , they moisten your butt and blow lovesome air to dry it ( especially helpful for people with limited mobility ) . Japanese manufacturerTOTOtakes that aspect so severely that its staff member quiz new models in special mobility - limiting suits .
American manufacturerKohlerhas similarlyinnovative modelsthat come with a phone - size remote control for the toilet ’s full list of functions . They can bet your favorite tune and reply to your voice commands . After cleaning your nether realm , these toilets clean house themselves with gamy - tech features : swirling the same H2O around the pipe bowl multiple time before even ; electrolyzing the water with built - in electrode to make it more disinfectant ; and even ruin germs with ultraviolet light igniter .
8. Half of the world’s population doesn’t have access to safe toilets.
toilette in the West may be draw as smart as their substance abuser , but intimately a half of the world ’s population lack access to toilets and proper sanitisation . The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention calculate that about3.6 billion peoplelack “ safely manage sanitization ” in their homes , such as affluent toilets that incline of barren in a sewer organization or infected tank . Of those , 1.9 billion people live with only “ basic ” sanitisation services , which often intend outhouses and latrines that be given to fill up or overflow in heavy rains .
And , virtually half a billion people are forced to head out into the Dubyuh when nature holler . That ’s peculiarly serious for women and girls , specially when they have to do so at night and in poorly - lit places . On top of that risk of infection , snakes , poisonous insects , and larger marauder can be lurking in the dark — dangers most of us ca n’t even imagine .
Yep , life without toilets is pretty sh*tty — so the next metre you pull that lever tumbler , think how fortunate you are .
Additional sources : Pillars of the Past , book IV;Archaeology of Sanitation in Roman Italy;The Other Dark Matter : The Science and Business of Turning Waste into Wealth and Health;Sir John Harington
