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Forget about skyscrapers, protected harbors or capital markets. The lowly toilet is key to what makes modern cities possible
August 18, 2011 | 12
For millennia humans have relieved themselves anywhere they could—a practice public health experts call "open defecation."
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Roman engineers understood some of the important aspects of basic sanitation, including efforts to keep human excrement away from sources of drinking water....[More]
By the Middle Ages, sanitary engineering in Europe was still relatively primitive. These garderobes funneled human waste outside the walls of Hadleigh Castle in England.
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Even basic-looking latrines can be hygienic if they are carefully sited and properly maintained.
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Without functioning sewer systems, the buildup of waste from latrines requires either that they be cleaned out or regularly moved. Here a "frogman" cleans out a latrine pit in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania....[More]
As cities grew much larger in the late 19th century, precursors of the modern flush toilet became more popular. Innovations such as the water trap (which kept sewer odors from rising into the home) and the U-bend (which decreased the number of blockages) helped to increase the flush toilet's appeal....[More]
Toilets are still evolving. The Japanese company Toto introduced the Washlet in 1980, which uses a bidetlike warm water spray to automatically clean the anal/urethral area instead of relying on toilet paper, the latter of which can result in hand and finger contamination by disease-causing germs....[More]
If ever people build cities in space, they will have to deal with the human waste problem. The biggest challenge is weightlessness; without gravity a conventional toilet would allow human waste to escape into the air....[More]
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12 Comments
Add CommentThe development of the toilet is not only a linear progression towards high-tech cleanliness, but also rapid transportation soil nutrients to the sea. There has also been great progress towards nutrient recycling, composting, and water efficiency.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI would like to see the big name manufacturers compelled to put their name on a composting toilet. Then we may see some real innovation.
IN MOHEN JO DARO ( A Heap of Corpses:in SINDHI Language)TOWNSHIP ,NOW IN PAKISTAN,SOME 5000 YEARS BEFORE PRESENT,IN SINDHU(RIVER NAME)CIVILIZATION;THERE CAN BE SEEN WATER CANALS,DRAINING SYSTEMS,PUBLIC BATHS & TOILET SYSTEMS , ALMOST ON THE LINES OF MODERN DAY SERVICES IN A CITY.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI have long believed that plumbers and garbage collectors are the true foundation of civilization and deserve far more respect than they tend to get.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIn "H20 and the Waters of Forgetfulness," a chapter in his geat work IN THE MIRROR OF THE PAST, Ivan Illich traces the transformation of H20 from drinking fluid and a reflector of dreams to cleaning fluid by the mid 20th C. "In the United States the cost of sewage treatment and collection by 1980 has become the greatest expense of local government. Only schools cost more." And needless to say what comes out of our schools is not much better than the tap water which no longer can be trusted. The Water Closet or toilet got rid of smells only to infect our rivers and lakes. Civilization has its counterproductivities...
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisYears ago, in an apartment house, I made a "compost bucket" with a "valve" to allow food garbage to be dropped in, but no odor, or flies, get out. It consisted of a plastic grocery bag stretched over the top of a five-gallon paint bucket. The opened bottom of the bag was stretched into a line by rubber bands below on the sides of the bucket. (Some cutting to fit is needed.) I used it for a couple months without emptying it, until it was almost full and the contents had liquified and were difficult to empty. I never noticed any smell from it until it was opened. Such a valve could be made for a compost toilet.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI have others ideas for a "constant flow" compost toilet and organic garbage disposal (probably using the above valves), based on a regularly rotated sloping tube perhaps made of two or more oil drums. Has anyone heard of such being used?
Please copy replies to danrob@efn.org
The Ghost Map is a very interesting book about the Broad Street Cholera Outbreak in London, 1854, and how physician John Snow discovered where it started. The first chapters on removing waste from London's cesspools before they had sewers are unforgettable; quite a labor-intensive process. Johnson, Steven (2006). The Ghost Map: The Story of London's Most Terrifying Epidemic - and How it Changed Science, Cities and the Modern World. Riverhead Books. p. 206. ISBN 1-59448-925-4.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisDoes anyone recall Scientific American's Mathematical Games columnist, Martin Gardner's spoof of the invention of the commode by the ancient Romans (or Greeks, I cannot recall). It was in an April (of course) issue of Scientific American, but I cannot recall the year, probably a few decades ago. Very funny and well worth a reprint.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAccess to improved water and sanitation facilities does not, on its own, necessarily lead to improved health. There is now very clear evidence showing the importance of hygienic behaviour.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisDr. Muhammad Naeem ul Fateh, PhD
Thanks.The post is really informative. Another thing happens in today's toilet.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thishttp://goo.gl/dup8S
I've often wondered if there's any truth to the urban legend that the flush toilet was invented during Queen Victoria's reign by Lt. William Crapper.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWikipedia says "1880s: Thomas Crapper's plumbing company built flush toilets of Giblin's design. Although not the original inventor, Crapper popularized the siphon system for emptying the tank, replacing the earlier floating valve system which was prone to leaks. Some of Crapper's designs were made by Thomas Twyford. The similarity between Crapper's name and the much older word crap is a coincidence."
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisDarn, there goes a favourite urban legend.
...and money, they deserve a lot more money, suppose they all go on strike..
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