1 00:00:08,920 --> 00:00:11,960 Speaker 1: Hey, welcome to Invention. My name is Robert Lamb and 2 00:00:12,000 --> 00:00:14,200 Speaker 1: I'm Joe McCormick, and we're back with part two of 3 00:00:14,240 --> 00:00:17,680 Speaker 1: our discussion of the history of toilet technology. In the 4 00:00:17,760 --> 00:00:20,280 Speaker 1: last episode, you should probably go back if you haven't 5 00:00:20,320 --> 00:00:22,840 Speaker 1: and listened to that episode first before you listen to 6 00:00:22,840 --> 00:00:25,160 Speaker 1: this one. That's where we get all into the history 7 00:00:25,160 --> 00:00:30,040 Speaker 1: of toilets and ancient civilizations, into latrine tech, into the 8 00:00:30,120 --> 00:00:37,519 Speaker 1: Kloaca maximum, the maximum sewer of ancient But today we're 9 00:00:37,520 --> 00:00:41,000 Speaker 1: going to get more into directly into the invention of 10 00:00:41,080 --> 00:00:43,360 Speaker 1: the flush toilet. And I think we got to start 11 00:00:43,400 --> 00:00:47,440 Speaker 1: off today by dispelling a common myth. That myth and 12 00:00:47,440 --> 00:00:50,680 Speaker 1: I've actually I've heard this like repeated in movies and stuff. 13 00:00:50,720 --> 00:00:52,600 Speaker 1: It seems to be a thing people actually do think, 14 00:00:53,040 --> 00:00:56,120 Speaker 1: is that the flush toilet was invented by a Mr. 15 00:00:56,280 --> 00:01:00,400 Speaker 1: Thomas Crapper. Now Crapper does play a role in history 16 00:01:00,440 --> 00:01:03,600 Speaker 1: of the toilet, but he is not its inventor by 17 00:01:03,640 --> 00:01:07,440 Speaker 1: any means whatsoever. This is not even close. And now, 18 00:01:07,480 --> 00:01:09,760 Speaker 1: first of all, we can debate about what it means 19 00:01:09,800 --> 00:01:11,600 Speaker 1: to have a flush toilet. If we're going to be 20 00:01:11,640 --> 00:01:15,840 Speaker 1: discussing the idea of its invention, I'd say by some definitions, 21 00:01:15,840 --> 00:01:18,840 Speaker 1: since waste was like washed away by water, you could 22 00:01:18,920 --> 00:01:21,760 Speaker 1: argue that some people's of like ancient Rome and the 23 00:01:21,800 --> 00:01:25,600 Speaker 1: ancient Indus Valley had flush toilets. But that's not usually 24 00:01:25,680 --> 00:01:27,560 Speaker 1: what we mean when we say a flush toilet. We 25 00:01:27,560 --> 00:01:31,600 Speaker 1: we usually mean a device that automatically removes waste with 26 00:01:31,720 --> 00:01:34,640 Speaker 1: a simple mechanism. It's not like a hole over a 27 00:01:34,720 --> 00:01:37,200 Speaker 1: drain pipe in which you can pour water. It's not 28 00:01:37,400 --> 00:01:40,880 Speaker 1: something that constantly has water running running underneath it. It's 29 00:01:40,880 --> 00:01:44,160 Speaker 1: a machine with a mechanical flushing action that doesn't need 30 00:01:44,200 --> 00:01:46,880 Speaker 1: to be situated over like a flowing ditch or anything 31 00:01:46,920 --> 00:01:48,760 Speaker 1: like that. And so there are a number of technologies 32 00:01:48,760 --> 00:01:50,520 Speaker 1: that really need to be in place for this to 33 00:01:50,640 --> 00:01:54,040 Speaker 1: come together, Like your your plumbing technology has to has 34 00:01:54,200 --> 00:01:57,160 Speaker 1: has to reach the appropriate level of advancement before you 35 00:01:57,160 --> 00:02:00,960 Speaker 1: can attach a toilet as we model and flushing toilet 36 00:02:01,000 --> 00:02:03,560 Speaker 1: to the scenario and to and make it practical. Yeah, 37 00:02:03,600 --> 00:02:05,520 Speaker 1: and this is gonna be a big problem with the 38 00:02:05,520 --> 00:02:08,520 Speaker 1: earliest models of the flush toilet. So to see one 39 00:02:08,560 --> 00:02:11,919 Speaker 1: of the probably uh the first real flush toilet. And 40 00:02:12,040 --> 00:02:15,679 Speaker 1: since we mean but an impractical early model, we need 41 00:02:15,720 --> 00:02:18,200 Speaker 1: to meet a poet. Uh, and I think that it 42 00:02:18,280 --> 00:02:21,920 Speaker 1: is appropriate that the first real flush toilet was created 43 00:02:21,919 --> 00:02:25,320 Speaker 1: by a poet. We mentioned him in the last episode. 44 00:02:25,639 --> 00:02:30,040 Speaker 1: Inter Sir John Harrington. So, Sir John Harrington was an 45 00:02:30,040 --> 00:02:34,320 Speaker 1: English courtier and an author who lived from fifteen sixty 46 00:02:34,400 --> 00:02:38,680 Speaker 1: or fifteen sixty one to sixteen twelve. Is uh in 47 00:02:38,680 --> 00:02:41,440 Speaker 1: his life stories that his father had repeatedly sort of 48 00:02:41,520 --> 00:02:44,919 Speaker 1: married up into royal circles. First his dad married one 49 00:02:44,919 --> 00:02:48,320 Speaker 1: of Henry the eighth illegitimate daughters, and then later his 50 00:02:48,400 --> 00:02:51,840 Speaker 1: father married a woman who served Queen Elizabeth the First 51 00:02:51,840 --> 00:02:54,680 Speaker 1: before she was queen. And this seems to be what 52 00:02:54,880 --> 00:02:59,400 Speaker 1: led to Elizabeth Queen Elizabeth becoming John Harrington's godmother. The 53 00:02:59,520 --> 00:03:03,960 Speaker 1: apparent Lee Little John Harrington was a troublesome godson. He 54 00:03:04,040 --> 00:03:08,600 Speaker 1: was prone to writing on embarrassing and morally impure subjects 55 00:03:08,639 --> 00:03:11,400 Speaker 1: that repeatedly got him in trouble with the crown. He 56 00:03:11,520 --> 00:03:15,320 Speaker 1: wrote insulting stuff about other kind of you know, pompous 57 00:03:15,400 --> 00:03:18,640 Speaker 1: court people. As for his literary works, he was probably 58 00:03:18,680 --> 00:03:21,880 Speaker 1: best known for his translation of the Italian poet Ludovico 59 00:03:21,919 --> 00:03:26,360 Speaker 1: Ariosto's epic Orlando Furioso. Uh and UH we can come 60 00:03:26,400 --> 00:03:28,280 Speaker 1: back and mention that in a minute. But that's like 61 00:03:28,560 --> 00:03:30,560 Speaker 1: that doesn't know Orlando Furioso. It's got like a big 62 00:03:30,639 --> 00:03:34,600 Speaker 1: dragon slaying thing in it. Trying to remember, I know 63 00:03:34,639 --> 00:03:36,680 Speaker 1: I came across it when I was in school. That 64 00:03:36,760 --> 00:03:39,640 Speaker 1: sounds familiar and I feel I feel like I read 65 00:03:39,680 --> 00:03:42,480 Speaker 1: it in school as well, but I don't recall much 66 00:03:42,520 --> 00:03:45,760 Speaker 1: about it. But at any right, this Harrington guys that 67 00:03:45,840 --> 00:03:49,080 Speaker 1: sounds a little bit like he was kind of a brat. Yeah, 68 00:03:49,080 --> 00:03:51,680 Speaker 1: a little bit. Well, I mean, so he he wrote 69 00:03:51,680 --> 00:03:55,480 Speaker 1: these poems and epigrams and who boy, you know you 70 00:03:55,480 --> 00:03:58,120 Speaker 1: can find these online. I don't know, maybe something's lost 71 00:03:58,120 --> 00:03:59,960 Speaker 1: in the mix here, but if this guy can say 72 00:04:00,040 --> 00:04:03,480 Speaker 1: dared himself a poet, first, I really hope his toilets 73 00:04:03,480 --> 00:04:06,440 Speaker 1: were good. Uh So the poems are full of like 74 00:04:06,560 --> 00:04:10,960 Speaker 1: really obvious, grown inducing turns of phrase, and then all 75 00:04:11,000 --> 00:04:15,400 Speaker 1: these kind of caddy burns on other courtiers who he 76 00:04:15,440 --> 00:04:20,120 Speaker 1: gives these like classical influenced nick nicknames like Sextus and 77 00:04:20,279 --> 00:04:23,640 Speaker 1: itis Um. It also seems, it seems to me, at 78 00:04:23,680 --> 00:04:25,599 Speaker 1: least like Harrington was sort of kind of a fan 79 00:04:25,680 --> 00:04:28,760 Speaker 1: of himself, like he he thought he was pretty cool Robert. 80 00:04:28,760 --> 00:04:30,240 Speaker 1: Do you feel like reading a couple of his short 81 00:04:30,279 --> 00:04:33,160 Speaker 1: little poems here? Oh? Sure? Why not? Okay? So this 82 00:04:33,240 --> 00:04:35,919 Speaker 1: is uh, this is one he wrote called U a 83 00:04:36,000 --> 00:04:40,960 Speaker 1: comparison of a book with cheese. Old Haywood writes and 84 00:04:41,080 --> 00:04:43,839 Speaker 1: proves in some degrees that one may well compare a 85 00:04:43,880 --> 00:04:47,400 Speaker 1: book with cheese. Every market some by cheese to feed 86 00:04:47,440 --> 00:04:50,280 Speaker 1: on at every marked. Some men buy books to read 87 00:04:50,360 --> 00:04:53,560 Speaker 1: on all sorts seat cheese. But how there is the 88 00:04:53,640 --> 00:04:57,560 Speaker 1: question the poor for food, the rich for good digestion. 89 00:04:58,040 --> 00:05:01,480 Speaker 1: All sorts read books. But why will you discern the 90 00:05:01,520 --> 00:05:05,279 Speaker 1: fool to laugh, the wiser sort to learn the site 91 00:05:05,480 --> 00:05:08,920 Speaker 1: taste scent of cheese two some is hateful, the site 92 00:05:09,080 --> 00:05:13,440 Speaker 1: taste sense of books two sums ungrateful. No cheese there 93 00:05:13,600 --> 00:05:16,880 Speaker 1: was that ever pleased all feeders. No book there is 94 00:05:17,080 --> 00:05:20,880 Speaker 1: that ever liked all readers. Yeah, I already hate this guy. 95 00:05:22,160 --> 00:05:24,279 Speaker 1: You're about to like even better. Here. This one's just 96 00:05:24,360 --> 00:05:28,560 Speaker 1: a short four line epigram. Here it's called against writers 97 00:05:28,600 --> 00:05:33,120 Speaker 1: that carpet other men's books. This sounds like there's a 98 00:05:33,160 --> 00:05:37,880 Speaker 1: little venom. And yeah, um, the readers and the hearers 99 00:05:38,000 --> 00:05:41,799 Speaker 1: like my books, but yet some writers cannot them digest 100 00:05:42,279 --> 00:05:44,839 Speaker 1: but what care I for? When I make a feast, 101 00:05:45,320 --> 00:05:49,640 Speaker 1: I would my guests should praise it, not the cooks. Okay, 102 00:05:49,880 --> 00:05:52,240 Speaker 1: so it's an A B, B A rhyme scheme there. 103 00:05:52,600 --> 00:05:55,200 Speaker 1: But I think he's saying like, hey, I don't write 104 00:05:55,200 --> 00:05:59,440 Speaker 1: for the critics, I write for the fans. Man. I 105 00:05:59,440 --> 00:06:01,240 Speaker 1: don't know. I mean, maybe this is all just like 106 00:06:01,680 --> 00:06:04,719 Speaker 1: if we think of the like the literary uh scene 107 00:06:04,760 --> 00:06:07,880 Speaker 1: at the time as being like kind of you know, 108 00:06:08,000 --> 00:06:10,799 Speaker 1: kind of like a like a few driven hip hop culture, 109 00:06:10,839 --> 00:06:14,560 Speaker 1: than you know, that's probably the place for all of this. Well, 110 00:06:14,600 --> 00:06:16,279 Speaker 1: there's some of that. I mean, I get the feeling 111 00:06:16,279 --> 00:06:17,680 Speaker 1: that he was sort of he was sort of like 112 00:06:17,720 --> 00:06:19,800 Speaker 1: a you know, a man about the court. He was 113 00:06:19,880 --> 00:06:23,200 Speaker 1: like within the scene. Um, he was he had all 114 00:06:23,240 --> 00:06:26,719 Speaker 1: these relationships. His poems are very like gossipy, and they're 115 00:06:26,720 --> 00:06:29,320 Speaker 1: full of all these burns and stuff. You get the 116 00:06:29,360 --> 00:06:31,960 Speaker 1: sense they were sort of written written not for a 117 00:06:32,000 --> 00:06:34,760 Speaker 1: wide audience, but for a select audience who would get 118 00:06:34,839 --> 00:06:39,520 Speaker 1: the you know who he is anonymously sending his burns at. 119 00:06:39,560 --> 00:06:41,720 Speaker 1: I also noticed how a lot of his work is 120 00:06:41,760 --> 00:06:45,400 Speaker 1: about how his poetry is good, how his critics are dumb, 121 00:06:45,400 --> 00:06:48,680 Speaker 1: and about food and comparing things to food is kind 122 00:06:48,680 --> 00:06:51,000 Speaker 1: of kind of weird, Alice. I was really thrown back 123 00:06:51,000 --> 00:06:54,160 Speaker 1: by the idea that the poor eat cheese for food, 124 00:06:54,680 --> 00:06:58,920 Speaker 1: but the rich only eat cheese for digestion. That's just 125 00:06:59,720 --> 00:07:03,000 Speaker 1: I'm I'm missing something there. Yeah, it's like the rich 126 00:07:03,040 --> 00:07:06,440 Speaker 1: don't need food. What it seems like it reveals some 127 00:07:06,520 --> 00:07:09,039 Speaker 1: kind of attitude I can't quite put my finger on. Plus, 128 00:07:09,040 --> 00:07:11,840 Speaker 1: eating nothing but cheese sounds exactly like the kind of 129 00:07:11,880 --> 00:07:15,040 Speaker 1: thing that some you know, upper class royal would do 130 00:07:15,320 --> 00:07:17,840 Speaker 1: and then be you know, gouty for it. Didn't Henry 131 00:07:17,840 --> 00:07:23,120 Speaker 1: the Eighth die of a surfeit of cheese. But so anyway, 132 00:07:23,160 --> 00:07:26,760 Speaker 1: So John Harrington, little little godson of Queen Elizabeth the first, 133 00:07:26,840 --> 00:07:29,400 Speaker 1: John Harrington, he's busy at court. He's trying not to 134 00:07:29,440 --> 00:07:32,200 Speaker 1: get caught up in political rat traps. And there's a 135 00:07:32,200 --> 00:07:34,320 Speaker 1: lot of those going on right now, you know, they're 136 00:07:34,360 --> 00:07:37,280 Speaker 1: they're all these plots and stuff. Uh. He gets in 137 00:07:37,320 --> 00:07:40,240 Speaker 1: trouble anyway, he writes some terrible poetry, at least in 138 00:07:40,280 --> 00:07:43,160 Speaker 1: my opinion. I should point out that around the same time, 139 00:07:43,240 --> 00:07:45,400 Speaker 1: this is around the same time that Shakespeare is writing 140 00:07:45,480 --> 00:07:49,080 Speaker 1: his plays, and Christopher Marlowe and At one point, Harrington 141 00:07:49,160 --> 00:07:52,240 Speaker 1: addresses some of his little barbs and epigrams to somebody 142 00:07:52,320 --> 00:07:56,080 Speaker 1: named Faustus. I have to wonder if Christopher Marlowe is 143 00:07:56,120 --> 00:08:00,280 Speaker 1: the target solid Burn referring to to him as the 144 00:08:00,440 --> 00:08:03,960 Speaker 1: as this great work that he would forever be remembered for. Right, 145 00:08:05,280 --> 00:08:07,200 Speaker 1: and yet we don't. We didn't even name the toilet 146 00:08:07,240 --> 00:08:10,360 Speaker 1: after Harrington's. So I decree all the toilets in the 147 00:08:10,440 --> 00:08:14,920 Speaker 1: land will be named Harrington's. Alright, So how does he 148 00:08:14,960 --> 00:08:16,840 Speaker 1: get around to inventing the toy? It sounds like he 149 00:08:16,840 --> 00:08:19,680 Speaker 1: has a pretty full plate with all of this, Uh, 150 00:08:20,360 --> 00:08:23,400 Speaker 1: these promos that he's cutting on other literary figures, Well, 151 00:08:23,440 --> 00:08:25,560 Speaker 1: he's getting in. So he he gets in and out 152 00:08:25,600 --> 00:08:28,920 Speaker 1: of trouble. Like apparently one of the I mentioned earlier, 153 00:08:28,960 --> 00:08:32,240 Speaker 1: the thing he's most famous for historically is this translation 154 00:08:32,240 --> 00:08:36,199 Speaker 1: of Orlando Furios. So apparently the way the story goes 155 00:08:36,480 --> 00:08:40,400 Speaker 1: is that he had translated one particularly racy passage and 156 00:08:40,480 --> 00:08:42,720 Speaker 1: he was sharing it around with ladies of the court, 157 00:08:43,080 --> 00:08:46,960 Speaker 1: and Queen Elizabeth was not amused, and as punishment for 158 00:08:47,080 --> 00:08:49,920 Speaker 1: his body behavior and his corruption of good ladies, she 159 00:08:50,040 --> 00:08:52,320 Speaker 1: told him he would be banished from the court and 160 00:08:52,360 --> 00:08:55,440 Speaker 1: that he shouldn't bother returning unless he had finished translating 161 00:08:55,440 --> 00:08:58,920 Speaker 1: the entire epic poem. So he did, he finished the translation, 162 00:08:58,960 --> 00:09:01,800 Speaker 1: and he came back, only to get banished again some 163 00:09:01,880 --> 00:09:06,040 Speaker 1: years later for insults and toilet humor. So sometime in 164 00:09:06,040 --> 00:09:08,400 Speaker 1: this whole mix, it was in like the fifteen nineties, 165 00:09:08,440 --> 00:09:12,640 Speaker 1: it seems, I think maybe around fIF so he actually 166 00:09:12,760 --> 00:09:16,760 Speaker 1: invented the flush toilet. He put together the plan for one, 167 00:09:17,080 --> 00:09:20,280 Speaker 1: and he installed one in his home, and then later 168 00:09:20,320 --> 00:09:24,400 Speaker 1: he actually installed one for Queen Elizabeth herself at her 169 00:09:24,440 --> 00:09:27,679 Speaker 1: home at Richmond Palace in what was then Surrey. And 170 00:09:27,920 --> 00:09:30,920 Speaker 1: we have some details on this because in fift Harrington 171 00:09:31,080 --> 00:09:34,640 Speaker 1: publishes his notes on the invention of the flush toilet 172 00:09:34,640 --> 00:09:38,040 Speaker 1: in a very strange book length text called a new 173 00:09:38,080 --> 00:09:41,960 Speaker 1: Discourse on a stale subject called the Metamorphosis of Ajax. 174 00:09:43,120 --> 00:09:46,640 Speaker 1: So this book is part description of an invention and 175 00:09:47,000 --> 00:09:51,400 Speaker 1: part like satire, and then part meditation on excrement and 176 00:09:51,520 --> 00:09:55,040 Speaker 1: related subjects, uh and a lot of Like it seems 177 00:09:55,080 --> 00:09:56,600 Speaker 1: like a big part of it is just like a 178 00:09:56,720 --> 00:10:00,120 Speaker 1: defense of him publishing the book that you're currently read ing. 179 00:10:01,240 --> 00:10:03,920 Speaker 1: I was trying to understand, like what the real vibe 180 00:10:03,920 --> 00:10:06,440 Speaker 1: of this work is and it just seems extremely odd. 181 00:10:07,040 --> 00:10:08,960 Speaker 1: The title is kind of interesting. What's the deal with 182 00:10:08,960 --> 00:10:15,360 Speaker 1: the metamorphosis of Ajax? Harrington apparently referred to the flush 183 00:10:15,440 --> 00:10:18,520 Speaker 1: toilet he had he had invented as Ajax is in 184 00:10:18,640 --> 00:10:20,760 Speaker 1: like a j a X the character in the Iliad 185 00:10:20,880 --> 00:10:24,880 Speaker 1: right now, the great Greek warrior. Uh. And so apparently 186 00:10:24,960 --> 00:10:28,520 Speaker 1: this is a pun on the word Jake's, which was 187 00:10:28,559 --> 00:10:31,520 Speaker 1: already at the time a slang word for a toilet. 188 00:10:31,559 --> 00:10:33,760 Speaker 1: Obviously wouldn't be a flush toilet, but for like, you know, 189 00:10:33,840 --> 00:10:36,640 Speaker 1: normal types of like pit toilets and stuff. It would 190 00:10:36,640 --> 00:10:38,600 Speaker 1: be like going to the Jake's or you know, I'm 191 00:10:38,600 --> 00:10:40,320 Speaker 1: gonna go sit on the Jake's. It's kind of like 192 00:10:40,320 --> 00:10:43,559 Speaker 1: I need to use the john all right, So now 193 00:10:43,600 --> 00:10:46,600 Speaker 1: we have the clever nature of the titles revealed, but 194 00:10:46,600 --> 00:10:49,600 Speaker 1: it's still weird. It's still makes me wonder what stages 195 00:10:49,640 --> 00:10:53,599 Speaker 1: syphilis was was that at the time. Well, maybe we 196 00:10:53,600 --> 00:10:55,960 Speaker 1: should take a quick break and then when we come back, 197 00:10:56,160 --> 00:11:00,880 Speaker 1: we will discuss, uh, we'll discuss the details of Harrington's 198 00:11:00,920 --> 00:11:09,360 Speaker 1: invention this this flush toilet model. Alright, we're back. So 199 00:11:09,400 --> 00:11:14,280 Speaker 1: we have a brady, privileged court poet who has managed 200 00:11:14,400 --> 00:11:19,040 Speaker 1: to invent, well ahead of its time, a flushing toilet. Yeah, 201 00:11:19,120 --> 00:11:20,920 Speaker 1: and and wrote a book about it. He calls it 202 00:11:21,000 --> 00:11:23,079 Speaker 1: a jax. I do like that name. I mean, even 203 00:11:23,120 --> 00:11:25,679 Speaker 1: though it's kind of a grown inducing pun. A lot 204 00:11:25,720 --> 00:11:27,400 Speaker 1: of what he seems to be doing is like grown 205 00:11:27,440 --> 00:11:30,840 Speaker 1: inducing humor. Nevertheless, I like the idea of the toilet 206 00:11:30,920 --> 00:11:34,559 Speaker 1: being a jax. It's this a keyan hero. Uh so 207 00:11:34,640 --> 00:11:38,200 Speaker 1: he's he's working on his water closet device. We should 208 00:11:38,200 --> 00:11:41,079 Speaker 1: say that the water closet device that he made, the ajax, 209 00:11:41,200 --> 00:11:43,600 Speaker 1: it no longer exists. There aren't any like models you 210 00:11:43,640 --> 00:11:46,360 Speaker 1: can find. I like to imagine it was dismantled and 211 00:11:46,400 --> 00:11:49,040 Speaker 1: its parts used to make gifts for the French royal family. 212 00:11:49,600 --> 00:11:52,000 Speaker 1: There there aren't any today, but there are like replicas 213 00:11:52,040 --> 00:11:55,240 Speaker 1: based on the description. And if you see one of these. 214 00:11:55,320 --> 00:11:59,080 Speaker 1: It's like a huge two level wooden box that looks 215 00:11:59,120 --> 00:12:02,640 Speaker 1: sort of like an upper piano, and the box hides 216 00:12:02,720 --> 00:12:06,440 Speaker 1: its inner workings inside these wood panels. Basically has two 217 00:12:06,440 --> 00:12:09,160 Speaker 1: major parts. It's got a bowl that you do your 218 00:12:09,200 --> 00:12:11,560 Speaker 1: stuff in, you know, you poop in the bowl, and 219 00:12:11,600 --> 00:12:13,680 Speaker 1: then it's got a hole in the bottom of the 220 00:12:13,720 --> 00:12:16,400 Speaker 1: bowl leading to a drainage pipe and the strainage pipe 221 00:12:16,400 --> 00:12:18,480 Speaker 1: could go wherever. At the time, of course, there was 222 00:12:18,520 --> 00:12:21,800 Speaker 1: not like a organized plumbing and sewage system, so it 223 00:12:21,800 --> 00:12:24,680 Speaker 1: would probably be going into like a pit, you know, 224 00:12:24,760 --> 00:12:28,480 Speaker 1: like a cess pit. And then above that you've got 225 00:12:28,520 --> 00:12:31,680 Speaker 1: a cistern that stores water, just like on the back 226 00:12:31,760 --> 00:12:34,200 Speaker 1: of not exactly, but much like on the back of 227 00:12:34,240 --> 00:12:36,440 Speaker 1: like a modern western toilet, you've got a cistern where 228 00:12:36,480 --> 00:12:39,880 Speaker 1: the flushing water is stored. The bowl itself was waterproofed 229 00:12:39,920 --> 00:12:43,040 Speaker 1: with pitch and wax and resin, and so when you 230 00:12:43,080 --> 00:12:44,760 Speaker 1: want to use the toilet, what you do is you 231 00:12:44,840 --> 00:12:48,560 Speaker 1: lift a handle to release the stopper on the cistern above. 232 00:12:48,640 --> 00:12:50,680 Speaker 1: So the cistern's got water on it, You release the 233 00:12:50,679 --> 00:12:54,200 Speaker 1: stopper and this floods the bowl with water from the cistern. 234 00:12:54,800 --> 00:12:56,720 Speaker 1: And then when you're done with your business, you lift 235 00:12:56,760 --> 00:12:59,640 Speaker 1: a second handle and that this releases a stopper at 236 00:12:59,640 --> 00:13:02,120 Speaker 1: the bottom of the bowl which allows its contents to 237 00:13:02,280 --> 00:13:05,040 Speaker 1: flow out into the drain pipe. And we should again 238 00:13:05,040 --> 00:13:07,240 Speaker 1: emphasize we talked about this in the last episode that 239 00:13:07,480 --> 00:13:10,400 Speaker 1: while we're focusing on the toilet itself today, like the 240 00:13:10,440 --> 00:13:14,079 Speaker 1: sewer system that supports the toilet is the probably even 241 00:13:14,160 --> 00:13:17,800 Speaker 1: more important invention for public sanitation because that you know 242 00:13:17,880 --> 00:13:21,040 Speaker 1: that's necessary, like a flush toilet that simply drains to 243 00:13:21,080 --> 00:13:24,040 Speaker 1: the outdoors or something like that. It leads to some 244 00:13:24,120 --> 00:13:26,920 Speaker 1: of the same problems as other non flushing methods, like 245 00:13:27,000 --> 00:13:29,440 Speaker 1: just throwing a chamber pot out the window. At the 246 00:13:29,480 --> 00:13:32,360 Speaker 1: time of Harrington's invention, there was obviously not a modern 247 00:13:32,440 --> 00:13:35,160 Speaker 1: sewer system in England, so this may have been an 248 00:13:35,200 --> 00:13:38,720 Speaker 1: improvement of personal convenience, like within your home, but it 249 00:13:38,760 --> 00:13:42,440 Speaker 1: wasn't making the public sanitation issue any better. But as 250 00:13:42,520 --> 00:13:46,960 Speaker 1: popular as like indoor flush toilets are today, you might guess, okay, 251 00:13:47,000 --> 00:13:50,200 Speaker 1: so this was immediately an overnight sensation, right everybody wanted 252 00:13:50,240 --> 00:13:53,080 Speaker 1: these things, And that's simply not the case. No, not 253 00:13:53,200 --> 00:13:56,240 Speaker 1: at all. So we we only have evidence that Harrington 254 00:13:56,320 --> 00:13:58,559 Speaker 1: ever built two of them. He built the one for 255 00:13:58,640 --> 00:14:01,600 Speaker 1: himself and the other one for Queen Elizabeth, and this 256 00:14:01,679 --> 00:14:04,599 Speaker 1: is probably for well. So there are some serious problems 257 00:14:04,600 --> 00:14:07,960 Speaker 1: with its design. Right. First, each flush required a ton 258 00:14:08,040 --> 00:14:10,880 Speaker 1: of water, like it required about seven and a half 259 00:14:10,960 --> 00:14:14,720 Speaker 1: gallons or twenty eight liters of water every single flush, 260 00:14:14,800 --> 00:14:16,800 Speaker 1: and you'd have to find some way because they didn't 261 00:14:16,840 --> 00:14:18,720 Speaker 1: have indoor plumbing at the time. You know, you'd have 262 00:14:18,760 --> 00:14:22,120 Speaker 1: to find some way to constantly refill the cistern with 263 00:14:22,240 --> 00:14:25,400 Speaker 1: water if you wanted to keep flushing, maybe manually with 264 00:14:25,440 --> 00:14:28,160 Speaker 1: buckets or something, I don't know. And then so, of 265 00:14:28,200 --> 00:14:31,640 Speaker 1: course that's troublesome work. And then a workaround, of course 266 00:14:31,720 --> 00:14:34,920 Speaker 1: that Harrington suggested is that, you know, maybe people could 267 00:14:34,960 --> 00:14:37,520 Speaker 1: just keep using the toilet without flushing it until it 268 00:14:37,600 --> 00:14:41,240 Speaker 1: was so piled up that it was absolutely necessary. Kind 269 00:14:41,240 --> 00:14:43,840 Speaker 1: of if it's yellow, let it mellow. If it's brown, 270 00:14:43,880 --> 00:14:47,880 Speaker 1: flush it down. Yeah, yeah, yeah, except he suggested, you know, 271 00:14:47,920 --> 00:14:50,000 Speaker 1: maybe you might want to let like twenty people poop 272 00:14:50,000 --> 00:14:53,640 Speaker 1: in it before you flush, because because you know, it's 273 00:14:53,720 --> 00:14:56,200 Speaker 1: just so yeah, there's a lot of water. You gotta 274 00:14:56,320 --> 00:14:59,720 Speaker 1: carry that water up to the thing. Um. This obviously 275 00:14:59,760 --> 00:15:03,000 Speaker 1: just wasn't the most beautiful option. I'm sure Queen Elizabeth 276 00:15:03,080 --> 00:15:05,080 Speaker 1: was not a huge fan of just letting the poop 277 00:15:05,080 --> 00:15:08,120 Speaker 1: pile up in there, so it was It was also 278 00:15:08,160 --> 00:15:11,320 Speaker 1: obviously expensive to have one of these things. And if 279 00:15:11,320 --> 00:15:14,680 Speaker 1: you consider it, even though there was a mechanical stopper 280 00:15:14,800 --> 00:15:17,840 Speaker 1: for the bowl drain, it probably would have smelled bad, 281 00:15:18,160 --> 00:15:21,120 Speaker 1: you know, because like, uh, you just get like stuff 282 00:15:21,200 --> 00:15:23,800 Speaker 1: stuck in there and you have smells coming through. It 283 00:15:23,920 --> 00:15:26,520 Speaker 1: just doesn't doesn't seem all that great of a design. 284 00:15:26,840 --> 00:15:29,040 Speaker 1: I'm reminded a lot of the jet pack in a way, 285 00:15:29,080 --> 00:15:31,640 Speaker 1: you know, because today we have jet packs. We've had 286 00:15:31,680 --> 00:15:35,320 Speaker 1: jet packs for for decades. But can everybody have a 287 00:15:35,400 --> 00:15:38,760 Speaker 1: jet pack? Should everyone have a jet pack? Is the 288 00:15:39,120 --> 00:15:42,960 Speaker 1: world properly? Um? Is the world ready for everyone to 289 00:15:42,960 --> 00:15:46,120 Speaker 1: have a jet pack? It's not. And in the same sense, yes, 290 00:15:46,520 --> 00:15:50,840 Speaker 1: flush toilets existed. Here is the example. And yet you 291 00:15:50,840 --> 00:15:54,600 Speaker 1: know clearly this was not scalable, like this was something 292 00:15:54,640 --> 00:15:59,360 Speaker 1: that it was was more of a curiosity than anything. Yeah, exactly, 293 00:15:59,640 --> 00:16:03,400 Speaker 1: Uh it was. It was an extravagant novel curiosity for 294 00:16:03,520 --> 00:16:07,720 Speaker 1: the extremely wealthy. And it wasn't until actually until a 295 00:16:07,760 --> 00:16:11,080 Speaker 1: couple of hundred years afterwards that really anybody else started 296 00:16:11,320 --> 00:16:15,480 Speaker 1: trying to build and use flush toilets. Basically, almost nobody 297 00:16:15,520 --> 00:16:18,600 Speaker 1: else use flush toilets until like the seventeen seventies. So 298 00:16:18,720 --> 00:16:21,360 Speaker 1: let's go to the seventeen seventies then, So around seventeen 299 00:16:21,440 --> 00:16:25,800 Speaker 1: seventy five, a watchmaker named Alexander Cumming or Alexander Cummings 300 00:16:26,240 --> 00:16:29,640 Speaker 1: uh files a patent for a flush toilet, and his 301 00:16:29,720 --> 00:16:32,880 Speaker 1: design introduces a crucial improvement, and I think this is 302 00:16:32,920 --> 00:16:36,680 Speaker 1: a pretty clever one. It introduces the S trap, and 303 00:16:36,840 --> 00:16:40,400 Speaker 1: this is an ingenious solution for preventing the toilet from 304 00:16:40,440 --> 00:16:43,680 Speaker 1: becoming a gate becoming a gateway for the demons of 305 00:16:43,720 --> 00:16:46,600 Speaker 1: odor hell to climb up into your home. Because if 306 00:16:46,640 --> 00:16:50,200 Speaker 1: you've got like a pipe connecting your toilet that's inside 307 00:16:50,240 --> 00:16:53,000 Speaker 1: your house to the pit where all of the poop goes, 308 00:16:53,600 --> 00:16:55,400 Speaker 1: you know, you can imagine that there are going to 309 00:16:55,480 --> 00:16:57,880 Speaker 1: be some smells coming up through it, so you would 310 00:16:57,880 --> 00:17:00,640 Speaker 1: want to find a way to seal it off. In 311 00:17:00,800 --> 00:17:03,800 Speaker 1: Harrington's water closet, the toilet bowl was sealed with this 312 00:17:03,920 --> 00:17:07,000 Speaker 1: mechanical stopper plugging a hole in the bottom of the bowl, 313 00:17:07,080 --> 00:17:09,119 Speaker 1: and after the bowl was flooded with water from the 314 00:17:09,119 --> 00:17:12,280 Speaker 1: cistern above, you could operate a lever to unplug the 315 00:17:12,320 --> 00:17:15,520 Speaker 1: stopper and release the contents into the pipe below. With 316 00:17:15,600 --> 00:17:19,080 Speaker 1: the S trap is different there, the seal between the 317 00:17:19,119 --> 00:17:22,640 Speaker 1: bowl and the sewer pipe is not just a mechanical stopper. 318 00:17:22,680 --> 00:17:25,240 Speaker 1: The Cummings model did have a mechanical stopper. It was 319 00:17:25,280 --> 00:17:28,200 Speaker 1: like a slide valve, but it's also a seal made 320 00:17:28,280 --> 00:17:31,840 Speaker 1: of the water itself. So the way it works is 321 00:17:31,880 --> 00:17:34,560 Speaker 1: like this, the drainage pipe where things leave the toilet. 322 00:17:34,640 --> 00:17:37,760 Speaker 1: It has a sideways S shaped bend in it. So 323 00:17:37,840 --> 00:17:39,680 Speaker 1: take a capital S, flip it on its side. I 324 00:17:39,680 --> 00:17:42,560 Speaker 1: guess it could be a lowercase S too, huh. You 325 00:17:42,640 --> 00:17:45,800 Speaker 1: flip it on its side, and then, um, it's always 326 00:17:45,880 --> 00:17:48,280 Speaker 1: going to be filled with water in the lower part 327 00:17:48,320 --> 00:17:51,840 Speaker 1: of the bend, right, So the reservoir of sitting water 328 00:17:51,920 --> 00:17:54,320 Speaker 1: there and the bottom of the sideways S shaped forms 329 00:17:54,320 --> 00:17:58,600 Speaker 1: this perfect natural seal that prevents sewer gas from escaping 330 00:17:58,640 --> 00:18:01,720 Speaker 1: up the pipes into your home. And so s traps 331 00:18:01,800 --> 00:18:05,680 Speaker 1: like this are still used today in in modern drains 332 00:18:05,720 --> 00:18:08,159 Speaker 1: and drains for sinks and toilets. And so here's some 333 00:18:08,200 --> 00:18:11,280 Speaker 1: toilet news you can use. If you have ever noticed 334 00:18:11,320 --> 00:18:13,679 Speaker 1: that there's like an unused drain in your home that 335 00:18:13,800 --> 00:18:17,600 Speaker 1: smells bad, it's likely because the trap, like the water 336 00:18:17,760 --> 00:18:21,080 Speaker 1: in the trap has evaporated and it's no longer forming 337 00:18:21,080 --> 00:18:24,159 Speaker 1: a seal against the sewer gases below. So the easy 338 00:18:24,240 --> 00:18:26,480 Speaker 1: fixes to just run some fresh water down the drain 339 00:18:26,520 --> 00:18:28,760 Speaker 1: to flood the trap again. So I like that S trap. 340 00:18:28,800 --> 00:18:32,520 Speaker 1: It's very, very brilliant, elegant solution to a problem. And 341 00:18:32,600 --> 00:18:35,880 Speaker 1: yet at the same time, the Ajax is still undergoing 342 00:18:35,880 --> 00:18:39,960 Speaker 1: its metamorphosis. Yes, it is not finished yet. The Ajax 343 00:18:40,040 --> 00:18:42,800 Speaker 1: is still a kind of clunky, unwieldy figure, kind of 344 00:18:42,840 --> 00:18:45,879 Speaker 1: like the Ajax. And well, I guess I'm trying to remember. 345 00:18:45,920 --> 00:18:47,919 Speaker 1: I think of Ajax is kind of like big and 346 00:18:48,040 --> 00:18:51,000 Speaker 1: buff and clunky. He was kind of graceful too, I guess, 347 00:18:51,080 --> 00:18:53,600 Speaker 1: you know, I'm not really remembering what a Jax, what 348 00:18:53,720 --> 00:18:56,960 Speaker 1: his main contribution was. Well, he's like a great warrior. 349 00:18:57,040 --> 00:19:00,280 Speaker 1: He's one of these are right of course, but he uh. 350 00:19:00,480 --> 00:19:03,160 Speaker 1: At the end, he gets into the argument with Odysseus 351 00:19:03,200 --> 00:19:05,600 Speaker 1: about the armor and then he I think he loses 352 00:19:05,640 --> 00:19:07,960 Speaker 1: the bait. And then he falls on his sword because 353 00:19:07,960 --> 00:19:11,120 Speaker 1: he does the I think Athena drives him mad or something. 354 00:19:11,160 --> 00:19:14,360 Speaker 1: I don't know, and a tensions were runn pretty high, ivolved. 355 00:19:14,359 --> 00:19:16,399 Speaker 1: I gotta go back and read the Iliot again, I guess. 356 00:19:17,000 --> 00:19:19,960 Speaker 1: But anyway, so talking about the Ajax machine, so there 357 00:19:19,960 --> 00:19:22,400 Speaker 1: were some even even though you've got the S trap, 358 00:19:22,440 --> 00:19:26,120 Speaker 1: there were some kinks incomings design that were worked out 359 00:19:26,160 --> 00:19:29,199 Speaker 1: in later models by other inventors. Like, one problem was 360 00:19:29,280 --> 00:19:32,320 Speaker 1: apparently that it had a sliding valve. So you imagine 361 00:19:32,320 --> 00:19:34,320 Speaker 1: it's got a valve at the bottom of the toilet bowl. 362 00:19:34,760 --> 00:19:37,240 Speaker 1: Um that you know, it's different than most of the 363 00:19:37,240 --> 00:19:39,480 Speaker 1: toilets we see today because it actually had like a 364 00:19:39,600 --> 00:19:42,520 Speaker 1: lid that would close on the bottom, and this was 365 00:19:42,560 --> 00:19:44,840 Speaker 1: like a sliding thing. And this was a problem because 366 00:19:44,840 --> 00:19:47,640 Speaker 1: of course it could get gross and gunky, Like one 367 00:19:47,640 --> 00:19:50,959 Speaker 1: of the most beautiful aspects of the modern toilet is 368 00:19:51,000 --> 00:19:53,919 Speaker 1: that there are no moving parts coming into contact with 369 00:19:53,960 --> 00:19:57,800 Speaker 1: fecal matter. You're using it correctly, exactly. Yes, yes, that's 370 00:19:57,800 --> 00:20:00,240 Speaker 1: that's a very good point. So it could get roast 371 00:20:00,240 --> 00:20:03,720 Speaker 1: and gunky, and it could freeze and that's not good. Um. 372 00:20:03,840 --> 00:20:06,320 Speaker 1: So this was later improved by being replaced with a 373 00:20:06,400 --> 00:20:10,440 Speaker 1: downward opening flap valve, and the patent for this innovation 374 00:20:10,960 --> 00:20:14,680 Speaker 1: went to a water closet installer, an inventor named Joseph Brahma, 375 00:20:14,720 --> 00:20:16,720 Speaker 1: though I think there might be some disagreement about whether 376 00:20:16,760 --> 00:20:20,840 Speaker 1: Brahma himself actually invented this, you know, flap modification, but 377 00:20:20,920 --> 00:20:23,480 Speaker 1: he held the patent for it. And then this model, 378 00:20:23,520 --> 00:20:26,960 Speaker 1: the Brahma model, became popular and basically remained popular for 379 00:20:27,000 --> 00:20:30,479 Speaker 1: those who could afford it until the mid twentieth century. Uh, 380 00:20:30,520 --> 00:20:33,119 Speaker 1: and it's it's spread around like that. This did become 381 00:20:33,160 --> 00:20:35,600 Speaker 1: like a kind of a sensation. Yeah, this was the 382 00:20:36,280 --> 00:20:39,840 Speaker 1: version of the technology. They really spread and became became 383 00:20:39,880 --> 00:20:44,040 Speaker 1: a truly popular way to poop. But as is often 384 00:20:44,119 --> 00:20:46,280 Speaker 1: the case, I mean, part of the problem with the 385 00:20:46,359 --> 00:20:50,679 Speaker 1: history of sanitation development and and like indit access to 386 00:20:50,680 --> 00:20:53,919 Speaker 1: toilet facilities had to do with money, right, It was 387 00:20:54,000 --> 00:20:56,720 Speaker 1: like people who could afford to install these kinds of 388 00:20:56,760 --> 00:20:59,080 Speaker 1: toilet facilities, they would have them, but a lot of 389 00:20:59,080 --> 00:21:02,679 Speaker 1: people couldn't afford that. Yeah, Like it often reminds me 390 00:21:02,720 --> 00:21:06,960 Speaker 1: of the fancy garbage can scenario, you know, like, how 391 00:21:07,000 --> 00:21:09,280 Speaker 1: how much are you willing to pay for the thing 392 00:21:09,320 --> 00:21:11,920 Speaker 1: in which you are going to put trash right when 393 00:21:11,960 --> 00:21:14,679 Speaker 1: a simpler model will will do the job, you know. 394 00:21:15,680 --> 00:21:17,760 Speaker 1: So Yeah, for many people that the idea of a 395 00:21:17,760 --> 00:21:20,960 Speaker 1: flushing toilet was just ludicrous for for a number of reasons, 396 00:21:20,960 --> 00:21:23,440 Speaker 1: most of which were financial. But I think one of 397 00:21:23,480 --> 00:21:26,840 Speaker 1: the big things that helped push toilet technology along was 398 00:21:26,920 --> 00:21:31,200 Speaker 1: the development of sewer infrastructure to support it. That made 399 00:21:31,240 --> 00:21:34,480 Speaker 1: it that made it not just a thing that's nice 400 00:21:34,520 --> 00:21:37,560 Speaker 1: to have, not just a more aesthetically pleasing way to 401 00:21:37,560 --> 00:21:41,200 Speaker 1: have a home, but also a major part of public 402 00:21:41,240 --> 00:21:44,359 Speaker 1: health and so like in the mid nineteenth century in London, 403 00:21:44,400 --> 00:21:46,639 Speaker 1: for example, it's a good example of London is getting 404 00:21:46,720 --> 00:21:50,520 Speaker 1: very crowded. You've got the Industrial Revolution. Crowded London was 405 00:21:50,560 --> 00:21:53,640 Speaker 1: becoming just unbearable, and in many ways because of its 406 00:21:53,680 --> 00:21:56,760 Speaker 1: sewage and sanitation system. So you've got a crowded city. 407 00:21:57,119 --> 00:21:59,640 Speaker 1: Lots of people are using chamber pots and just emptying 408 00:21:59,680 --> 00:22:03,000 Speaker 1: them in the streets or where there are other generally 409 00:22:03,160 --> 00:22:07,240 Speaker 1: uncontained ways of disposing of human waste, for example, water 410 00:22:07,280 --> 00:22:11,159 Speaker 1: closets like the Brahma toilets, not connected to a dedicated 411 00:22:11,160 --> 00:22:14,199 Speaker 1: sewage system for waste. In these methods, you just have 412 00:22:14,280 --> 00:22:18,320 Speaker 1: sewage draining off into simple sewers that were originally designed 413 00:22:18,359 --> 00:22:22,920 Speaker 1: to just accept and channel rainwater um and of course 414 00:22:23,000 --> 00:22:26,359 Speaker 1: then these sewers would later become sources of drinking water 415 00:22:26,440 --> 00:22:29,120 Speaker 1: for other people, or the sewage would just end up 416 00:22:29,119 --> 00:22:31,840 Speaker 1: in the River Thames and other water sources. So in 417 00:22:31,920 --> 00:22:35,840 Speaker 1: this period the city and the river just stank. Supposedly, 418 00:22:35,880 --> 00:22:39,560 Speaker 1: it was awful. Like in the e in eighteen fifty Uh. 419 00:22:39,640 --> 00:22:43,800 Speaker 1: The English magazine Punch published the cartoon I've got here 420 00:22:44,200 --> 00:22:45,879 Speaker 1: of what was supposed to be like a close up 421 00:22:45,920 --> 00:22:48,439 Speaker 1: illustration of what a drop of water from the Thames 422 00:22:48,560 --> 00:22:51,920 Speaker 1: must look like. Basically, it's full of like it's got 423 00:22:51,920 --> 00:22:55,280 Speaker 1: skeletal murder clowns, and it's got this snapping turtle with 424 00:22:55,320 --> 00:22:58,879 Speaker 1: big hug arms, and it's got a hieronymous bosh type 425 00:22:58,920 --> 00:23:03,320 Speaker 1: birdman from Alabolga. It's just like crazy. I wish political 426 00:23:03,359 --> 00:23:06,440 Speaker 1: cartoons were still this creative instead of just being like 427 00:23:07,080 --> 00:23:10,000 Speaker 1: some caricature of you know, like an ugly guy that 428 00:23:10,080 --> 00:23:13,560 Speaker 1: has like taxes written on it. But anyway, the point 429 00:23:13,560 --> 00:23:16,399 Speaker 1: it's making is that, hey, we've got a problem. You know, 430 00:23:16,480 --> 00:23:18,760 Speaker 1: the river that runs through the middle of our city 431 00:23:18,840 --> 00:23:22,480 Speaker 1: is becoming absolutely filthy. And uh. Of course, during the 432 00:23:22,480 --> 00:23:24,720 Speaker 1: first half of the eighteen hundreds there were we've talked 433 00:23:24,720 --> 00:23:26,920 Speaker 1: about on Stuff to Blow your Mind before, frequent collar 434 00:23:27,000 --> 00:23:29,600 Speaker 1: out breaks, I mean all over the place and whenever 435 00:23:29,600 --> 00:23:32,960 Speaker 1: there's like crowded human civilization. But they were frequently going 436 00:23:32,960 --> 00:23:35,840 Speaker 1: on in London. We did the we did an episode 437 00:23:35,880 --> 00:23:40,199 Speaker 1: about uh, the this epidemiological history and UH an episode 438 00:23:40,200 --> 00:23:42,399 Speaker 1: of Stuff to blow your mind on miasthma theory that 439 00:23:42,440 --> 00:23:44,640 Speaker 1: you can go and check out. But the short story 440 00:23:44,680 --> 00:23:48,240 Speaker 1: there is that a surgeon named John Snow in mid 441 00:23:48,320 --> 00:23:51,600 Speaker 1: nineteenth century London eventually showed that the cause of these 442 00:23:51,680 --> 00:23:55,320 Speaker 1: collar outbreaks was the consumption of unclean water which was 443 00:23:55,400 --> 00:23:58,159 Speaker 1: tainted by mixing with sewage. And in the summer of 444 00:23:58,200 --> 00:24:01,680 Speaker 1: eighteen fifty eight, all this septic horror culminated in this 445 00:24:01,760 --> 00:24:04,240 Speaker 1: event that is known in history as the Great Stink 446 00:24:04,400 --> 00:24:07,560 Speaker 1: or the Great Stink of London, when the foul odor 447 00:24:07,600 --> 00:24:10,000 Speaker 1: of the Thames in the city was just overwhelming. A 448 00:24:10,040 --> 00:24:12,520 Speaker 1: commonly cited story about this period is that members of 449 00:24:12,560 --> 00:24:15,679 Speaker 1: Parliament were so like panicked to get rid of the 450 00:24:15,680 --> 00:24:18,800 Speaker 1: stink they doused the curtains of their chamber and chloride 451 00:24:18,800 --> 00:24:22,240 Speaker 1: of lime to try to counteract the smell. It's also like, 452 00:24:22,760 --> 00:24:26,200 Speaker 1: you know, just huff some chlorine and see if that 453 00:24:27,160 --> 00:24:30,280 Speaker 1: wards it away. But pretty soon after this, Parliament authorized 454 00:24:30,320 --> 00:24:33,440 Speaker 1: the construction of a new sewer system, and uh, and 455 00:24:33,480 --> 00:24:36,800 Speaker 1: of course you know that it's like classic politician issues, right, 456 00:24:36,880 --> 00:24:40,200 Speaker 1: like there's a major public problem and then nothing gets 457 00:24:40,200 --> 00:24:44,000 Speaker 1: done about it until it like personally affects them, until 458 00:24:44,080 --> 00:24:48,680 Speaker 1: you're actually dousing your drapes with chlorine. But of course 459 00:24:48,800 --> 00:24:51,680 Speaker 1: the installation of the sewer system was was a great 460 00:24:51,720 --> 00:24:54,200 Speaker 1: thing for England. During the eighteen sixties and seventies, there 461 00:24:54,240 --> 00:24:57,320 Speaker 1: was this engineer named Sir Joseph basil get Uh. He 462 00:24:57,359 --> 00:25:00,560 Speaker 1: had plans for a contained sewer and drainage system and 463 00:25:01,040 --> 00:25:04,119 Speaker 1: during the sixties and seventies these were built. And so 464 00:25:04,160 --> 00:25:06,119 Speaker 1: the main benefit of the sewer system was that it 465 00:25:06,160 --> 00:25:09,960 Speaker 1: would keep sewage separate from the water supply, and this 466 00:25:10,080 --> 00:25:12,760 Speaker 1: of course was this huge revolution in public health. Like 467 00:25:13,200 --> 00:25:16,200 Speaker 1: they they found afterwards that of course well drained areas 468 00:25:16,240 --> 00:25:19,840 Speaker 1: that had this sewer system functioning uh and safely removing 469 00:25:19,840 --> 00:25:22,760 Speaker 1: sewage were kept free from cholera epidemics that broke out 470 00:25:22,800 --> 00:25:25,960 Speaker 1: in other areas in the following years. And I think 471 00:25:26,000 --> 00:25:28,120 Speaker 1: this brings us to a major issue from this era 472 00:25:28,240 --> 00:25:31,400 Speaker 1: that we need to consider about um, about the toilet 473 00:25:31,440 --> 00:25:34,919 Speaker 1: and about sewer systems. While the flush toilet in the 474 00:25:34,960 --> 00:25:38,320 Speaker 1: form of the nineteenth century water closet the ajax was 475 00:25:38,359 --> 00:25:41,359 Speaker 1: a great invention in a way, it did not make 476 00:25:41,480 --> 00:25:43,879 Speaker 1: things better on its own, or at least not in 477 00:25:43,920 --> 00:25:47,320 Speaker 1: a public way, because simply flushing your untreated waste out 478 00:25:47,359 --> 00:25:51,359 Speaker 1: into channels mingled with downstream drinking water actually makes things 479 00:25:51,560 --> 00:25:54,760 Speaker 1: like worse than simply pooping in a pit latrine. In 480 00:25:54,920 --> 00:25:57,919 Speaker 1: order to improve public health and save lives, the flush 481 00:25:57,960 --> 00:26:00,399 Speaker 1: toilet couldn't exist on its own. It had to be 482 00:26:00,480 --> 00:26:03,399 Speaker 1: paired with a safe, dedicated sewage system to deal with 483 00:26:03,440 --> 00:26:07,800 Speaker 1: waste properly. It's only because of public infrastructure that the 484 00:26:07,800 --> 00:26:11,320 Speaker 1: toilet could become all it could be. Absolutely it reminds 485 00:26:11,359 --> 00:26:14,720 Speaker 1: me of our recent discussion of wheels. You know, the 486 00:26:14,760 --> 00:26:17,800 Speaker 1: wheel is great, the wheel card is great, but you've 487 00:26:17,800 --> 00:26:19,480 Speaker 1: got to have roads. You've got to have some sort 488 00:26:19,480 --> 00:26:23,760 Speaker 1: of system, uh that that allows you to maximize this technology. 489 00:26:23,840 --> 00:26:25,879 Speaker 1: This is a really common theme that's coming up in 490 00:26:26,040 --> 00:26:30,240 Speaker 1: invention history is that people often have this idea of like, 491 00:26:30,400 --> 00:26:35,240 Speaker 1: you know, technological revolutions happening because a lone inventor had 492 00:26:35,320 --> 00:26:39,399 Speaker 1: a brilliant idea and that one idea changed everything. That 493 00:26:39,480 --> 00:26:42,160 Speaker 1: seems like it's it's so rarely that that's the case. 494 00:26:42,240 --> 00:26:46,400 Speaker 1: I mean, major technological revolutions tend very often to depend 495 00:26:46,520 --> 00:26:51,600 Speaker 1: on large investments in public infrastructure to support the new technology. 496 00:26:51,720 --> 00:26:54,200 Speaker 1: That's an excellent point. And on that note, we're gonna 497 00:26:54,200 --> 00:26:56,640 Speaker 1: take one more break, and when we come back, we're 498 00:26:56,640 --> 00:26:59,280 Speaker 1: going to talk about Thomas Crapper, and we're going to 499 00:26:59,359 --> 00:27:08,240 Speaker 1: talk about the I can see of the flush toilet. Okay, 500 00:27:08,240 --> 00:27:10,479 Speaker 1: we're back, so it's time to talk about Thomas Crapper. 501 00:27:10,680 --> 00:27:13,160 Speaker 1: We know now he did not invent the flush toilet? 502 00:27:13,200 --> 00:27:15,960 Speaker 1: But what was the role of Mr Thomas Crapper? And 503 00:27:16,359 --> 00:27:18,879 Speaker 1: I noticed I was doing this when I was like 504 00:27:18,960 --> 00:27:21,359 Speaker 1: making notes for this episode. I don't know why my 505 00:27:21,400 --> 00:27:24,360 Speaker 1: brain keeps doing this, But I don't usually call random 506 00:27:24,400 --> 00:27:28,760 Speaker 1: historical dudes MR when I type their names. But I 507 00:27:28,840 --> 00:27:31,720 Speaker 1: wonder if like talking about toilets and makes me naturally 508 00:27:31,800 --> 00:27:36,480 Speaker 1: tend towards sort of pointless formality, maybe an interesting psychological 509 00:27:36,520 --> 00:27:38,439 Speaker 1: thing to return. Maybe you just feel weird referring to 510 00:27:38,480 --> 00:27:40,239 Speaker 1: him as Crapper, and you feel like you need to 511 00:27:40,320 --> 00:27:42,760 Speaker 1: designate that you're talking about a person and you're not 512 00:27:43,119 --> 00:27:46,280 Speaker 1: using a crude term for a toilet. I'm distinguishing him 513 00:27:46,320 --> 00:27:50,640 Speaker 1: from Dr Thomas Crapper. All right, Well, Thomas Crapper enters 514 00:27:50,680 --> 00:27:53,879 Speaker 1: the picture in the eighteen sixties, and basically what he 515 00:27:53,920 --> 00:27:58,080 Speaker 1: does is he redesigns and supplies high end plumbed in products. 516 00:27:58,280 --> 00:28:01,200 Speaker 1: So we're talking the likes of the cast iron bath 517 00:28:01,280 --> 00:28:06,400 Speaker 1: shower combo, elaborate shower screens, cast iron pedestal wash binds. Uh. 518 00:28:06,440 --> 00:28:08,840 Speaker 1: You know, he installed some extra mirrors, hot and cold 519 00:28:08,880 --> 00:28:12,600 Speaker 1: mixture taps. He improved the s Ben plumbing trap uh 520 00:28:12,680 --> 00:28:15,040 Speaker 1: that we talked about in the eighteen eighties and invented 521 00:28:15,080 --> 00:28:19,080 Speaker 1: the U Ben plumbing trap. Uh. And then but you 522 00:28:19,080 --> 00:28:20,560 Speaker 1: know this is all part of all It's not just 523 00:28:20,640 --> 00:28:23,720 Speaker 1: one plumber going around doing all this. He founded Thomas 524 00:28:23,800 --> 00:28:27,840 Speaker 1: Crapper and Company in London, a sanitary equipment company, and 525 00:28:27,880 --> 00:28:32,320 Speaker 1: he held nine patents, three for water closet designs such 526 00:28:32,359 --> 00:28:36,000 Speaker 1: as the floating ballcock inside the toilet tank. But he 527 00:28:36,040 --> 00:28:39,920 Speaker 1: didn't actually patent a toilet. So we have to double 528 00:28:39,920 --> 00:28:41,800 Speaker 1: down on what we said earlier. Not only did he 529 00:28:41,840 --> 00:28:44,920 Speaker 1: not invent the toilet, he didn't even reinvent the toilet, 530 00:28:45,640 --> 00:28:50,400 Speaker 1: but he did improve upon some of the the details 531 00:28:50,400 --> 00:28:52,719 Speaker 1: of the design. Yeah, his major role seems to be 532 00:28:52,720 --> 00:28:55,720 Speaker 1: more case of like owning a business and practicing good 533 00:28:55,760 --> 00:28:59,480 Speaker 1: branding of actual invention. Uh. You know everywhere around the 534 00:28:59,480 --> 00:29:03,920 Speaker 1: world will associate my name with toilets, and appairly this 535 00:29:03,960 --> 00:29:06,480 Speaker 1: happened because like you know, you'd go and look inside 536 00:29:06,520 --> 00:29:09,080 Speaker 1: toilets and in Great Britain and they just say crapper 537 00:29:09,120 --> 00:29:11,960 Speaker 1: in them, And this helped to lead to the two 538 00:29:11,960 --> 00:29:15,240 Speaker 1: people calling the toilet a crapper in a vulgar way. 539 00:29:15,480 --> 00:29:19,920 Speaker 1: Though you're probably now wondering, Thomas Crapper is his name 540 00:29:20,160 --> 00:29:23,520 Speaker 1: and association with the toilet the origin of the term 541 00:29:23,600 --> 00:29:26,720 Speaker 1: crap meaning human excrement. Before I looked this up, I 542 00:29:27,280 --> 00:29:30,000 Speaker 1: was thinking, well, maybe it is. Maybe the term comes 543 00:29:30,080 --> 00:29:32,800 Speaker 1: from his name and his association with the toilet, because 544 00:29:32,800 --> 00:29:36,800 Speaker 1: it would seem a huge coincidence, right that this, this 545 00:29:36,840 --> 00:29:39,800 Speaker 1: guy who made his his his money off of the 546 00:29:39,800 --> 00:29:42,640 Speaker 1: toilet would be named crapper. Actually, it just is a 547 00:29:42,720 --> 00:29:46,600 Speaker 1: huge coincidence his The word crap does not come from 548 00:29:46,680 --> 00:29:49,640 Speaker 1: his name. So the word crap comes in English. It 549 00:29:49,680 --> 00:29:54,120 Speaker 1: comes from originally the Old French crap or crape, from 550 00:29:54,200 --> 00:29:59,680 Speaker 1: the Middle Latin crappa words meaning something like siftings or chaff. 551 00:30:00,040 --> 00:30:02,640 Speaker 1: So the original use of the word crap in English 552 00:30:02,640 --> 00:30:07,160 Speaker 1: refers to things dropped or cast away or discarded. So 553 00:30:07,240 --> 00:30:09,719 Speaker 1: you can see why this might come to mean excrement, right, 554 00:30:09,760 --> 00:30:14,160 Speaker 1: It's the thing you throw away or shed. Okay, So 555 00:30:14,520 --> 00:30:17,080 Speaker 1: when when we're using the word now and we're referring 556 00:30:17,120 --> 00:30:20,160 Speaker 1: to our stuff is our crap? Like that is actually 557 00:30:20,240 --> 00:30:22,880 Speaker 1: more the more authentic use of the word kind of Yeah, 558 00:30:22,920 --> 00:30:25,280 Speaker 1: it's it's the stuff that could be, you know, it's 559 00:30:25,360 --> 00:30:28,360 Speaker 1: it's execrable. Yeah, Like I left all my crap at 560 00:30:28,360 --> 00:30:31,360 Speaker 1: the hotel. Well I've got to go go back for that. 561 00:30:31,360 --> 00:30:33,440 Speaker 1: That's the authentic use of crap. Well, I don't know, 562 00:30:33,480 --> 00:30:35,880 Speaker 1: if you really want it back, then maybe it's not crap, though, 563 00:30:35,920 --> 00:30:38,000 Speaker 1: I guess you're just like being cynical. They're you know, 564 00:30:38,040 --> 00:30:40,080 Speaker 1: like that's all crap and I could lose it all 565 00:30:40,120 --> 00:30:43,040 Speaker 1: it doesn't matter, funny enough. This also seems to be 566 00:30:43,760 --> 00:30:47,240 Speaker 1: uh very similar to the etymology of another English word, 567 00:30:47,320 --> 00:30:51,640 Speaker 1: which comes from the Anglo Saxon skitton and turn from 568 00:30:51,680 --> 00:30:56,200 Speaker 1: the Proto Germanic skit, meaning to cut or shear or split, 569 00:30:56,280 --> 00:30:59,600 Speaker 1: in other words, to separate from the body. And just 570 00:30:59,640 --> 00:31:02,000 Speaker 1: because as this sent me down a rabbit trail that 571 00:31:02,040 --> 00:31:05,320 Speaker 1: I ended up finding interesting, the root of the English 572 00:31:05,360 --> 00:31:10,200 Speaker 1: word science is also apparently somewhat related here. So the 573 00:31:10,200 --> 00:31:14,479 Speaker 1: word science comes from Latin scientia or scientia knowledge and 574 00:31:14,560 --> 00:31:18,400 Speaker 1: from skierra or to know, which in Latin is probably 575 00:31:18,480 --> 00:31:21,760 Speaker 1: derived from the proto Indo European, which of course is 576 00:31:21,800 --> 00:31:24,760 Speaker 1: like the granddaddy language of of many languages around the world. 577 00:31:25,280 --> 00:31:29,080 Speaker 1: Uh ski or sky, meaning to cut or separate, because 578 00:31:29,120 --> 00:31:32,000 Speaker 1: I think the the logic of this word is when 579 00:31:32,000 --> 00:31:35,959 Speaker 1: you know things, you separate fact from fiction, you separate 580 00:31:36,000 --> 00:31:39,880 Speaker 1: truth from falsehood, and so knowledge and science is sort 581 00:31:39,880 --> 00:31:44,240 Speaker 1: of metaphorically a cutting and separating process. Another one of 582 00:31:44,240 --> 00:31:48,160 Speaker 1: these wonderful examples of abstract words in language with concrete 583 00:31:48,160 --> 00:31:52,080 Speaker 1: metaphorical roots. But anyway, whether you are crapping or science ng, 584 00:31:52,200 --> 00:31:55,640 Speaker 1: some part of you is cutting away and separating. All right, Well, 585 00:31:55,720 --> 00:31:58,320 Speaker 1: let's get to the modern toilet. Then let's get let's 586 00:31:58,360 --> 00:32:02,120 Speaker 1: get to the modern western flushing toilet dealing with here 587 00:32:02,320 --> 00:32:04,600 Speaker 1: now there, of course, there are plenty of different designs 588 00:32:04,680 --> 00:32:07,160 Speaker 1: for like what you do when it's time to use 589 00:32:07,240 --> 00:32:09,840 Speaker 1: the toilet, right uh, And we can talk about those 590 00:32:09,880 --> 00:32:12,000 Speaker 1: as we go on. But one of the features that 591 00:32:12,040 --> 00:32:15,640 Speaker 1: I think many modern toilets uh can really boast about 592 00:32:15,680 --> 00:32:18,080 Speaker 1: this really cool, is that they don't bother with solid 593 00:32:18,280 --> 00:32:21,040 Speaker 1: valves at the bottom of the bowls and do like 594 00:32:21,040 --> 00:32:23,600 Speaker 1: like some airplane toilets do. Right, But that's a whole 595 00:32:23,640 --> 00:32:25,600 Speaker 1: different kettle of fish. We'll have to come back to 596 00:32:25,640 --> 00:32:29,080 Speaker 1: airline toilets and space toilets in the future, right Instead, 597 00:32:29,200 --> 00:32:31,239 Speaker 1: in in a lot of these modern toilets, it's all 598 00:32:31,280 --> 00:32:34,280 Speaker 1: just water and pipe design making use of the physics 599 00:32:34,320 --> 00:32:36,920 Speaker 1: concept of a siphon. So, Robert, have you ever made 600 00:32:36,920 --> 00:32:39,640 Speaker 1: a siphon? Oh? Yes, of course, every time I use 601 00:32:39,720 --> 00:32:42,640 Speaker 1: the drinking straw. Oh exactly. Yeah, So, like you know, 602 00:32:42,680 --> 00:32:45,480 Speaker 1: of course, a siphon, Like you can put one bucket 603 00:32:45,560 --> 00:32:48,600 Speaker 1: up on a counter and another bucket down on the floor, 604 00:32:48,720 --> 00:32:50,640 Speaker 1: and you can, like if you put a hose between 605 00:32:50,680 --> 00:32:53,640 Speaker 1: them and you start sucking water up into the hose 606 00:32:53,720 --> 00:32:55,520 Speaker 1: from the top one and then put the bottom of 607 00:32:55,560 --> 00:32:57,480 Speaker 1: the hose in the bottom bucket, it'll drain all the 608 00:32:57,480 --> 00:32:59,440 Speaker 1: way down, even though the water has to go up 609 00:32:59,520 --> 00:33:02,080 Speaker 1: into the hose from the top bucket. Yeah. I feel 610 00:33:02,120 --> 00:33:04,640 Speaker 1: like if you've, if you've ever you know, spend enough 611 00:33:04,680 --> 00:33:07,240 Speaker 1: time playing with like a you know, one of those 612 00:33:08,040 --> 00:33:10,800 Speaker 1: those those cheap yard swimming pools and a hose as 613 00:33:10,840 --> 00:33:14,320 Speaker 1: a child, you probably did this. Yeah. Um. So in 614 00:33:14,360 --> 00:33:17,160 Speaker 1: the most common model of like the modern western toilet, 615 00:33:17,160 --> 00:33:21,200 Speaker 1: there's always water sitting in the bowl and the evacuation 616 00:33:21,240 --> 00:33:23,440 Speaker 1: pipe where the stuff goes away from the bottom of 617 00:33:23,480 --> 00:33:26,480 Speaker 1: the bowl, it curves up when it leaves the bowl, 618 00:33:26,520 --> 00:33:29,040 Speaker 1: it curves up higher than the water level within the 619 00:33:29,080 --> 00:33:32,880 Speaker 1: toilet before snaking back down under the floor. And this 620 00:33:33,160 --> 00:33:36,480 Speaker 1: keeps the water sitting in the toilet without draining out 621 00:33:36,520 --> 00:33:39,520 Speaker 1: when it's not being flushed. And it also forms a 622 00:33:39,600 --> 00:33:42,840 Speaker 1: type of s trap to block sewer gases from from 623 00:33:42,920 --> 00:33:45,520 Speaker 1: escaping into the house. So then when it's time to flush, 624 00:33:45,600 --> 00:33:48,400 Speaker 1: water from the cistern is released down into the bowl. 625 00:33:48,720 --> 00:33:52,440 Speaker 1: This raises the water level above the bend in the pipe, 626 00:33:52,520 --> 00:33:55,440 Speaker 1: which of course causes the water to begin draining down 627 00:33:55,480 --> 00:33:57,840 Speaker 1: into the lower part of the pipe, which sucks all 628 00:33:57,880 --> 00:34:00,920 Speaker 1: the contents out of the bowl by a siphon action. 629 00:34:01,120 --> 00:34:04,000 Speaker 1: And something about me just finds this a really beautiful 630 00:34:04,040 --> 00:34:07,320 Speaker 1: and elegant solution. I love the fact that the toilet 631 00:34:07,400 --> 00:34:09,839 Speaker 1: doesn't need to have a trap door or anything like 632 00:34:09,880 --> 00:34:12,200 Speaker 1: that in the bottom of it. It's just a correctly 633 00:34:12,400 --> 00:34:15,480 Speaker 1: shaped pipe. Absolutely, and again we should we should, We 634 00:34:15,480 --> 00:34:19,000 Speaker 1: should thank the universe every day that that is the case. Yeah, 635 00:34:19,680 --> 00:34:22,040 Speaker 1: uh yeah. And so another thing, of course, is that 636 00:34:22,160 --> 00:34:24,799 Speaker 1: there are other components. Like you you could talk about 637 00:34:24,840 --> 00:34:27,040 Speaker 1: how the cistern tends to work in a toilet with 638 00:34:27,040 --> 00:34:28,960 Speaker 1: the sister and the It tends to have components like 639 00:34:28,960 --> 00:34:31,880 Speaker 1: a float which is designed to measure the right amount 640 00:34:31,920 --> 00:34:34,200 Speaker 1: of water to allow into the sister, and like one 641 00:34:34,239 --> 00:34:36,719 Speaker 1: of the things that Thomas Crapper held one of the 642 00:34:36,719 --> 00:34:39,759 Speaker 1: patents for was the ballcock right, which floats up and 643 00:34:39,800 --> 00:34:42,040 Speaker 1: it like trips a switch that says, hey, you can 644 00:34:42,040 --> 00:34:44,520 Speaker 1: stop filling the cistern with water now because the water 645 00:34:44,640 --> 00:34:47,239 Speaker 1: level has reached the right level. And there's all that 646 00:34:47,280 --> 00:34:49,839 Speaker 1: kind of stuff. But the basic principles of the toilet, well, 647 00:34:49,880 --> 00:34:51,839 Speaker 1: we don't often think about them. Once you see how 648 00:34:51,880 --> 00:34:54,680 Speaker 1: it works, it's actually very simple. It's very elegant. It's 649 00:34:54,719 --> 00:34:57,680 Speaker 1: a beautiful machine. Yeah, I will say that I'm not 650 00:34:57,920 --> 00:35:00,960 Speaker 1: really a handy person at all, but I I've recently 651 00:35:01,080 --> 00:35:05,400 Speaker 1: repaired uh, the the machinery and the tank of my 652 00:35:05,440 --> 00:35:08,360 Speaker 1: toilet when something was off and I was able to 653 00:35:08,360 --> 00:35:11,560 Speaker 1: look up a video on YouTube, follow the instructions, make 654 00:35:11,600 --> 00:35:13,920 Speaker 1: the repair of myself, and I just felt like a 655 00:35:13,960 --> 00:35:16,759 Speaker 1: million bucks afterwards. It's a great feeling, isn't it like 656 00:35:16,840 --> 00:35:19,480 Speaker 1: fixing the water appliants? Yeah, But then also it's like 657 00:35:19,520 --> 00:35:21,840 Speaker 1: you can you can see it all working like it all, 658 00:35:22,280 --> 00:35:24,319 Speaker 1: It all makes sense. You know, when when you when 659 00:35:24,320 --> 00:35:26,640 Speaker 1: you when you when you can you can flush the toilet. 660 00:35:26,640 --> 00:35:32,360 Speaker 1: Watch watch these mechanisms move, Watch the water level change. Uh, 661 00:35:32,520 --> 00:35:34,200 Speaker 1: you know, it's very it's very you can absorb it 662 00:35:34,320 --> 00:35:36,800 Speaker 1: very easily. But as we talked about in the last episode, 663 00:35:37,080 --> 00:35:40,600 Speaker 1: the toilet is not just a beautiful and elegant machine 664 00:35:40,640 --> 00:35:43,399 Speaker 1: to admire from a design point of view. Of course, 665 00:35:43,400 --> 00:35:45,640 Speaker 1: it does provide a ton of convenience in our lives, 666 00:35:45,680 --> 00:35:49,520 Speaker 1: but also, as we said last time, the toilet saves lives. 667 00:35:50,040 --> 00:35:53,160 Speaker 1: They said again, toilets save lives. This is a life 668 00:35:53,160 --> 00:35:57,279 Speaker 1: and death issue. This is a major important technology that 669 00:35:57,440 --> 00:36:00,120 Speaker 1: that needs that we need to improve access to all 670 00:36:00,120 --> 00:36:03,319 Speaker 1: around the world. Yeah, I mean yeah, we really have 671 00:36:03,400 --> 00:36:06,560 Speaker 1: to to stress the sanitation issues here. Um, you know, 672 00:36:06,600 --> 00:36:09,200 Speaker 1: and it you know, it reminds me of another issue 673 00:36:09,280 --> 00:36:14,400 Speaker 1: with with with waste and the spread of illnesses and parasites, 674 00:36:14,880 --> 00:36:20,520 Speaker 1: especially hookworms. Hookworms being you know, a parasite that can 675 00:36:21,239 --> 00:36:25,440 Speaker 1: can cause illness in humans and these will typically be 676 00:36:25,480 --> 00:36:31,280 Speaker 1: acquired in sail, latrine field um and basically a parasites 677 00:36:31,600 --> 00:36:35,080 Speaker 1: are acquired when bare feet come into contact with infected feces, 678 00:36:35,680 --> 00:36:37,560 Speaker 1: they enter through the feet and they make their way 679 00:36:37,560 --> 00:36:42,160 Speaker 1: into the hosts and testines, resulting and anemia mannutrition. And 680 00:36:42,239 --> 00:36:45,440 Speaker 1: in the early twentieth century, John D. Rockefeller funded a 681 00:36:45,520 --> 00:36:50,040 Speaker 1: campaign to decrease huge hookworm infections in the American South, 682 00:36:50,360 --> 00:36:52,920 Speaker 1: and one of the key methods was to impose latrine 683 00:36:52,960 --> 00:36:56,799 Speaker 1: pits of at least four feet, as microscopic hookworms can 684 00:36:56,840 --> 00:36:59,160 Speaker 1: travel up to four feet in soil from a side 685 00:36:59,160 --> 00:37:02,400 Speaker 1: of defecation. Yeah, and so this emphasizes again that like 686 00:37:02,520 --> 00:37:06,280 Speaker 1: if you're not removing sewage to like a treatment facility 687 00:37:06,400 --> 00:37:08,839 Speaker 1: or something like that, or you know, there are all 688 00:37:08,920 --> 00:37:11,480 Speaker 1: kinds of variables that come into play about how safe 689 00:37:11,560 --> 00:37:14,239 Speaker 1: like a pit storage kind of thing can be. You 690 00:37:14,239 --> 00:37:16,680 Speaker 1: want to keep it closed to prevent like flies and 691 00:37:16,719 --> 00:37:19,080 Speaker 1: stuff from getting out, but also if it's not sealed 692 00:37:19,120 --> 00:37:22,279 Speaker 1: off from the ground soil, if it's not dug deep enough, 693 00:37:22,320 --> 00:37:24,480 Speaker 1: you can encounter problems as well. Now I have to 694 00:37:24,520 --> 00:37:29,319 Speaker 1: stress that I do really love my current plumbing situation. Uh, 695 00:37:29,320 --> 00:37:33,160 Speaker 1: and I really especially after these episodes, I really am 696 00:37:33,160 --> 00:37:37,120 Speaker 1: thankful for my functional toilet. But I sense a butt coming. 697 00:37:37,480 --> 00:37:40,480 Speaker 1: You've got beef, I do, I do, and it's twofold. 698 00:37:40,560 --> 00:37:44,680 Speaker 1: On one hand, there's the there's the just the weirdness 699 00:37:44,680 --> 00:37:48,080 Speaker 1: of the fact that that when you flush a toilet, 700 00:37:48,080 --> 00:37:51,400 Speaker 1: you are flushing unless you have a gray water system 701 00:37:51,440 --> 00:37:54,080 Speaker 1: hooked up in some way, shape or form, and you 702 00:37:54,160 --> 00:37:58,839 Speaker 1: are flushing drinking water. You're using perfectly drinkable water, uh 703 00:37:59,040 --> 00:38:03,520 Speaker 1: to send your urine fecis down into the sewer. It 704 00:38:03,520 --> 00:38:05,520 Speaker 1: would be great if there was a gray water system 705 00:38:05,719 --> 00:38:08,239 Speaker 1: for right, and people have worked in some places these 706 00:38:08,239 --> 00:38:11,520 Speaker 1: are in place. And then of course in some parts 707 00:38:11,520 --> 00:38:15,319 Speaker 1: of the world you're going to have a toilet that 708 00:38:15,440 --> 00:38:18,840 Speaker 1: is not using drinkable water to flush, just by virtue 709 00:38:18,880 --> 00:38:22,279 Speaker 1: of the availability of drinkable water. Okay, so that's one 710 00:38:22,920 --> 00:38:26,080 Speaker 1: ridiculous level. But the other is that the western toilets 711 00:38:26,200 --> 00:38:29,759 Speaker 1: have rebranded defecation is something that should be done from 712 00:38:29,800 --> 00:38:34,080 Speaker 1: a seated position, uh, you know, the throne, the chair, 713 00:38:34,440 --> 00:38:37,840 Speaker 1: when naturally the human body evolved to defecate from a 714 00:38:37,880 --> 00:38:41,239 Speaker 1: squatting position, and plenty of people still do it this way, 715 00:38:41,320 --> 00:38:44,520 Speaker 1: especially in Asia, Africa, in the Middle East. Squat toilets 716 00:38:44,560 --> 00:38:47,680 Speaker 1: can still be found all over the place in these areas, 717 00:38:47,719 --> 00:38:52,239 Speaker 1: utilizing modern flushing aesthetics. In many cases and functionality, but 718 00:38:52,400 --> 00:38:55,279 Speaker 1: with the basic concept of squatting still in play. I 719 00:38:55,320 --> 00:38:58,040 Speaker 1: think squatting toilets are becoming trendy in the West, too, 720 00:38:58,040 --> 00:39:02,640 Speaker 1: aren't they. Well, not full blown squatting toilets where they 721 00:39:02,760 --> 00:39:07,600 Speaker 1: where you squat over the floor based apparatus. You'll see 722 00:39:07,640 --> 00:39:11,080 Speaker 1: more like the squatty potty, which I have a squatty potty. 723 00:39:11,239 --> 00:39:14,840 Speaker 1: I love it. Uh but it allows you to essentially 724 00:39:14,960 --> 00:39:18,920 Speaker 1: use a Western thrown toilet, but with more of a 725 00:39:19,000 --> 00:39:23,520 Speaker 1: squatting posture, which again is what our bodies evolved to do. Likewise, 726 00:39:23,560 --> 00:39:26,080 Speaker 1: you can get some toilet seats that have room for 727 00:39:26,160 --> 00:39:29,840 Speaker 1: your bare feet to uh to to to rest on, 728 00:39:29,960 --> 00:39:32,200 Speaker 1: so you can squat over that. I've never used one 729 00:39:32,239 --> 00:39:35,479 Speaker 1: of those, but but but I'm interested because that's that's 730 00:39:35,600 --> 00:39:38,240 Speaker 1: that's basically how my son likes to use a toilet. 731 00:39:39,080 --> 00:39:41,279 Speaker 1: Uh so maybe that's what I need to get him 732 00:39:41,320 --> 00:39:44,880 Speaker 1: down the line. Now, toilet designs continue to evolve. We 733 00:39:44,880 --> 00:39:48,480 Speaker 1: were utilizing high tech bells and whistles typified by some 734 00:39:48,560 --> 00:39:52,239 Speaker 1: of the Japanese toilets that we often see featured in videos. 735 00:39:52,800 --> 00:39:54,759 Speaker 1: It's almost a cliche at this point, like the high 736 00:39:54,800 --> 00:39:57,680 Speaker 1: tech Japanese toilet, right, Yeah, various buttons that you can 737 00:39:57,680 --> 00:40:00,720 Speaker 1: push for. I mean, some of it may it's perfect sense, 738 00:40:00,719 --> 00:40:02,920 Speaker 1: Like being able to call for help from the toilet 739 00:40:03,360 --> 00:40:07,480 Speaker 1: is a great idea, especially if you're dealing with with 740 00:40:07,840 --> 00:40:11,160 Speaker 1: an elderly population. One thing I've seen that I thought 741 00:40:11,200 --> 00:40:15,040 Speaker 1: was kind of interesting was a I believe this was Japanese, 742 00:40:15,040 --> 00:40:17,160 Speaker 1: but I'm not positive, but it was a toilet that 743 00:40:17,239 --> 00:40:21,239 Speaker 1: has built in sort of like noisemaker. Uh that. So 744 00:40:22,160 --> 00:40:25,560 Speaker 1: there's of course a common cultural phenomenon of people being 745 00:40:25,560 --> 00:40:27,759 Speaker 1: embarrassed about the sounds they make when they're on the 746 00:40:27,760 --> 00:40:30,000 Speaker 1: toilet in a place where people can hear them. So 747 00:40:30,040 --> 00:40:32,560 Speaker 1: if you're in a public bathroom, in a stall or something, 748 00:40:32,600 --> 00:40:36,600 Speaker 1: you're using a toilet, people will often just continuously flush 749 00:40:36,719 --> 00:40:39,720 Speaker 1: the toilet to cut because it's loud and that covers 750 00:40:39,800 --> 00:40:41,560 Speaker 1: up the sounds of what they're doing. But that also 751 00:40:41,640 --> 00:40:44,160 Speaker 1: wastes a lot of water. You don't need to do that. 752 00:40:44,440 --> 00:40:46,839 Speaker 1: So a way around that is you can you can 753 00:40:46,880 --> 00:40:51,840 Speaker 1: help accommodate people sense of embarrassment and modesty without wasting 754 00:40:51,880 --> 00:40:54,880 Speaker 1: all the water by just having a loud flushing sound 755 00:40:55,000 --> 00:40:58,200 Speaker 1: play when you press a button. Well, I think the 756 00:40:58,280 --> 00:41:00,879 Speaker 1: Romans might have been onto something here with having live 757 00:41:01,000 --> 00:41:04,040 Speaker 1: music in the toilet. Maybe we should go that route. 758 00:41:04,080 --> 00:41:07,240 Speaker 1: Maybe not live music, but maybe just piped in um 759 00:41:07,280 --> 00:41:10,680 Speaker 1: like loud rock music. Maybe that will be better for everybody. 760 00:41:10,719 --> 00:41:14,399 Speaker 1: Just save you'll save money. Uh. I guess two other 761 00:41:14,600 --> 00:41:17,120 Speaker 1: key innovations here. One that I think is is excellent, 762 00:41:17,160 --> 00:41:20,440 Speaker 1: and that is various low flush features, which I'll save 763 00:41:20,480 --> 00:41:22,960 Speaker 1: the amount of water reduced the amount of water that 764 00:41:23,000 --> 00:41:26,759 Speaker 1: you're you're doing to flush your business. Another innovation that 765 00:41:26,840 --> 00:41:31,399 Speaker 1: I absolutely despise is the auto flush toilet, in which 766 00:41:31,440 --> 00:41:35,680 Speaker 1: a yeah will decide when you need a flush, and 767 00:41:35,719 --> 00:41:37,759 Speaker 1: it almost at least the ones that I've ever used, 768 00:41:37,840 --> 00:41:40,760 Speaker 1: almost always decides to flush at the the the absolute 769 00:41:40,800 --> 00:41:43,680 Speaker 1: wrong time and will end up flushing too many times 770 00:41:43,800 --> 00:41:47,360 Speaker 1: or just phantom flushing. Uh, you know, with nobody in there. 771 00:41:47,160 --> 00:41:49,880 Speaker 1: There's a toilet in the building here. One time that 772 00:41:49,960 --> 00:41:53,040 Speaker 1: I encountered that was just forever flushing. It was stuck 773 00:41:53,040 --> 00:41:57,480 Speaker 1: in eternal flush. It never stopped. Like I I seriously, 774 00:41:57,600 --> 00:42:01,240 Speaker 1: I end up wasting extra toylet paper because my first 775 00:42:01,280 --> 00:42:04,800 Speaker 1: step is to mask the sensor with toilet paper, to 776 00:42:04,800 --> 00:42:07,640 Speaker 1: to wrap to give it a blindfold so that it 777 00:42:07,719 --> 00:42:12,880 Speaker 1: won't scare me and friends, and like, I don't need 778 00:42:12,920 --> 00:42:15,200 Speaker 1: to feel like a predator is about to attack me 779 00:42:15,600 --> 00:42:18,080 Speaker 1: while I'm doing my business. And I've done the same one. 780 00:42:18,120 --> 00:42:19,879 Speaker 1: I've had to take my son to the toilet. It's 781 00:42:19,920 --> 00:42:24,279 Speaker 1: like it's gonna scare It's gonna scare him. It's just ridiculous. So, 782 00:42:24,400 --> 00:42:27,120 Speaker 1: I mean it's a great idea ultimately, but I think 783 00:42:27,120 --> 00:42:29,520 Speaker 1: the sensor technology is not quite there. Are you the 784 00:42:29,560 --> 00:42:34,040 Speaker 1: person who keeps vandalizing the auto toilets and our building? 785 00:42:34,040 --> 00:42:36,319 Speaker 1: There's no need to vandalize them, I want to I 786 00:42:36,360 --> 00:42:39,759 Speaker 1: want to stress that because people do literally take them apart. Yeah, 787 00:42:39,800 --> 00:42:41,080 Speaker 1: but there's no need to do that. You can just 788 00:42:41,120 --> 00:42:44,720 Speaker 1: wrap some toilet paper around their sensor, blindfold the toilet 789 00:42:44,800 --> 00:42:48,000 Speaker 1: and it'll be fine. Now. Another interesting bit of difference 790 00:42:48,040 --> 00:42:52,520 Speaker 1: in cultural toilet design, uh is the the flox spuler 791 00:42:52,760 --> 00:42:56,400 Speaker 1: plate in older German toilets. Did you did you ever 792 00:42:56,480 --> 00:42:58,600 Speaker 1: encounter any? I don't think so. So I got to 793 00:42:58,680 --> 00:43:00,800 Speaker 1: experience some of these when I went on high school 794 00:43:00,840 --> 00:43:03,239 Speaker 1: trip to Germany back I guess it was like the 795 00:43:03,320 --> 00:43:06,080 Speaker 1: late nineties. They weren't everywhere, but they were some of 796 00:43:06,080 --> 00:43:11,520 Speaker 1: the places, and apparently you don't find as many anymore. Um, Basically, 797 00:43:11,640 --> 00:43:14,400 Speaker 1: it's it's very much just like any other Western toilet, 798 00:43:14,440 --> 00:43:17,840 Speaker 1: except there's kind of a raised plate upon which the 799 00:43:18,200 --> 00:43:21,040 Speaker 1: fecal matter will will fall and then when you flush, 800 00:43:21,120 --> 00:43:24,680 Speaker 1: it's uh, it's flushed away off of that little plate. 801 00:43:25,360 --> 00:43:28,279 Speaker 1: And contrary to what you might have heard, these are 802 00:43:28,320 --> 00:43:32,240 Speaker 1: not examination plates. That was kind of like the the 803 00:43:32,800 --> 00:43:34,919 Speaker 1: I don't know, the not not even an urban legend, 804 00:43:34,960 --> 00:43:37,160 Speaker 1: but it was just like false information where people say, oh, 805 00:43:37,160 --> 00:43:38,719 Speaker 1: that's so that you can poop, and then you want 806 00:43:38,719 --> 00:43:40,560 Speaker 1: to look at your poop and it's on a plate 807 00:43:40,600 --> 00:43:43,680 Speaker 1: for you to see it, you know. Rather, the feature 808 00:43:43,760 --> 00:43:47,040 Speaker 1: was aimed at preventing you from splashing yourself with toilet 809 00:43:47,080 --> 00:43:50,880 Speaker 1: water when you defecated. Yeah, well that's a smart idea, 810 00:43:51,040 --> 00:43:54,480 Speaker 1: I agree, But apparently they you can you can design 811 00:43:54,480 --> 00:43:56,600 Speaker 1: a toilet in such a way that maybe there's less 812 00:43:56,600 --> 00:43:59,840 Speaker 1: splash without having to use the plate, because the drawback 813 00:43:59,880 --> 00:44:03,920 Speaker 1: to a plate is that sometimes it requires more brushing 814 00:44:03,920 --> 00:44:07,520 Speaker 1: of the toilet bowl. Now, speaking of toilet bowl innovation, 815 00:44:07,920 --> 00:44:11,000 Speaker 1: we would be remiss if we didn't mention the infamous 816 00:44:11,040 --> 00:44:14,080 Speaker 1: masculine toilet. Yes, this has been in the news. Yeah, 817 00:44:14,239 --> 00:44:18,359 Speaker 1: championed by former acting United States Attorney General Matt Whittaker. Yeah. 818 00:44:18,400 --> 00:44:21,879 Speaker 1: What he was representing some business that like, uh they 819 00:44:21,960 --> 00:44:24,840 Speaker 1: what they claim to sort of like be advocates on 820 00:44:24,880 --> 00:44:28,960 Speaker 1: behalf of inventions. And one of the inventions that somebody 821 00:44:29,280 --> 00:44:32,360 Speaker 1: was doing business with them with was this this toilet 822 00:44:32,400 --> 00:44:35,400 Speaker 1: for how did they put it? What was the polite terminology? 823 00:44:35,480 --> 00:44:39,200 Speaker 1: Well endowed men? Yes, the idea being that that, oh, well, 824 00:44:39,239 --> 00:44:41,759 Speaker 1: these men their penises are longer, and if they sit 825 00:44:41,840 --> 00:44:43,520 Speaker 1: on the toilet, their penis is going to get in 826 00:44:43,560 --> 00:44:46,160 Speaker 1: the water of the toilet, and therefore they need more 827 00:44:46,239 --> 00:44:51,279 Speaker 1: distance between seat and water. Um, which you know. I 828 00:44:51,280 --> 00:44:53,960 Speaker 1: I would argue that this could be avoided in plenty 829 00:44:54,000 --> 00:44:56,600 Speaker 1: of other ways, such as you could use a squatty potty. 830 00:44:56,640 --> 00:44:59,959 Speaker 1: I think that would probably help, or just basic manipulation 831 00:45:00,000 --> 00:45:03,840 Speaker 1: and an awareness of one's own genitals. Uh. But I 832 00:45:03,840 --> 00:45:05,799 Speaker 1: also I can't help but wonder, and maybe this is 833 00:45:05,840 --> 00:45:09,279 Speaker 1: something that is detailed in the patent information or the 834 00:45:09,880 --> 00:45:13,320 Speaker 1: literature surrounding the masculine toilet is wouldn't it results in 835 00:45:13,360 --> 00:45:16,839 Speaker 1: a maximum splashdown It's like a giant deep bowl. Yeah yeah, 836 00:45:17,040 --> 00:45:20,600 Speaker 1: so it seems like, yeah, okay, you can sit on 837 00:45:20,640 --> 00:45:23,360 Speaker 1: the toilet and you can feel like, you know, you 838 00:45:23,400 --> 00:45:25,840 Speaker 1: don't have to worry about your anatomy touching the water 839 00:45:26,239 --> 00:45:30,200 Speaker 1: until you know the fecal matter drops like five feet 840 00:45:30,239 --> 00:45:33,759 Speaker 1: and then splashes up like a torpedo went off. So 841 00:45:33,920 --> 00:45:35,399 Speaker 1: I don't know. I have a lot of questions about 842 00:45:35,440 --> 00:45:37,839 Speaker 1: the practicality of the masculine toilet. I think it's only 843 00:45:37,880 --> 00:45:42,520 Speaker 1: twelve inches, but that seems actually that's like the worst distance, right, Yeah, 844 00:45:42,560 --> 00:45:45,360 Speaker 1: that that seems like that would be maximum splashdown distance. 845 00:45:45,880 --> 00:45:49,080 Speaker 1: If it were five feet, Yeah, you'd be fine. You 846 00:45:49,120 --> 00:45:50,759 Speaker 1: don't have to climb up a ladder to get on 847 00:45:50,880 --> 00:45:52,799 Speaker 1: your toilet, and then it would make you look like 848 00:45:52,840 --> 00:45:56,040 Speaker 1: a tiny person on a giant toilet, which probably runs 849 00:45:56,040 --> 00:45:59,520 Speaker 1: against like the masculine impulse of the design, right. I'd 850 00:45:59,520 --> 00:46:02,040 Speaker 1: have to imagin jen if anybody actually bought something like that, 851 00:46:02,080 --> 00:46:04,960 Speaker 1: it was probably not someone who literally needed it. They 852 00:46:05,000 --> 00:46:08,400 Speaker 1: just they needed the world to to think they needed it. 853 00:46:08,440 --> 00:46:10,799 Speaker 1: But maybe we're wrong. Hey, if if anyone listening out 854 00:46:10,840 --> 00:46:14,279 Speaker 1: there has used a masculine toilet, uh, let us do 855 00:46:14,320 --> 00:46:17,160 Speaker 1: not email us. Do not. I don't want to hear 856 00:46:17,200 --> 00:46:19,680 Speaker 1: about it. That I seriously do want to hear about 857 00:46:19,680 --> 00:46:22,279 Speaker 1: anybody any kind of toilet we've we've discussed here, any 858 00:46:22,360 --> 00:46:27,520 Speaker 1: kind of latrine situation if you have insightful um experience 859 00:46:27,560 --> 00:46:31,759 Speaker 1: with them, be it a various so squat toilet, squatty potties, 860 00:46:32,280 --> 00:46:38,040 Speaker 1: um dry latrines, wet latrines, washing versus um wiping. I 861 00:46:38,040 --> 00:46:39,600 Speaker 1: want to hear about all of it. You know we can. 862 00:46:39,640 --> 00:46:42,640 Speaker 1: We can withhold the names as necessary. Okay, I gotta 863 00:46:42,680 --> 00:46:46,880 Speaker 1: finish today with a with a great story about toilet 864 00:46:46,920 --> 00:46:52,680 Speaker 1: technology and and a flush fiasco from the twentieth century history. 865 00:46:52,719 --> 00:46:54,520 Speaker 1: Do you want to hear about when a toilet sik 866 00:46:54,560 --> 00:46:57,359 Speaker 1: a Nazi submarine? Oh? Yes, please? So had you come 867 00:46:57,360 --> 00:46:59,400 Speaker 1: across this story before? I had not. No, I had 868 00:46:59,520 --> 00:47:02,239 Speaker 1: rebly thought much about U boats and toilets. Really, Oh, 869 00:47:02,280 --> 00:47:05,480 Speaker 1: I mean, yeah, that's inherently a fascinating subject, right, So 870 00:47:05,560 --> 00:47:10,439 Speaker 1: on April fourteenth, you had a German U boat called 871 00:47:10,480 --> 00:47:14,040 Speaker 1: You one two oh six that was forced to surface 872 00:47:14,560 --> 00:47:18,160 Speaker 1: after a German officer screwed up the toilet and caused 873 00:47:18,239 --> 00:47:22,560 Speaker 1: poison gas to vent into the crew areas. So, unfortunately 874 00:47:22,640 --> 00:47:25,120 Speaker 1: we know this officer's name, and he will be remembered 875 00:47:25,160 --> 00:47:29,800 Speaker 1: in history. The officer was named Captain Lieutenant Carl Adolph Schlit, 876 00:47:30,880 --> 00:47:34,080 Speaker 1: and the submarine was so it was traveling submerged I think, 877 00:47:34,120 --> 00:47:36,160 Speaker 1: in the North Sea. It was off the coast of Scotland, 878 00:47:36,640 --> 00:47:39,080 Speaker 1: and this particular U boat had been fitted with a 879 00:47:39,160 --> 00:47:42,440 Speaker 1: new model of underwater toilet that was supposed to work 880 00:47:42,480 --> 00:47:44,279 Speaker 1: at greater depths, I think, and there might be some 881 00:47:44,360 --> 00:47:47,839 Speaker 1: kind of pressure pressurization issue going on, I'm not sure, 882 00:47:48,400 --> 00:47:50,640 Speaker 1: but so anyway, for whatever reason, it was a new 883 00:47:50,680 --> 00:47:53,400 Speaker 1: model of toilet. And the story goes that Schlit did 884 00:47:53,440 --> 00:47:56,840 Speaker 1: his business on this new high tech toilet but couldn't 885 00:47:56,880 --> 00:47:59,439 Speaker 1: figure out how he was supposed to flush it. Uh 886 00:47:59,480 --> 00:48:01,960 Speaker 1: So he called in tech support and the engineer who 887 00:48:02,040 --> 00:48:06,040 Speaker 1: arrived apparently pulled the wrong lever or something, operated the 888 00:48:06,080 --> 00:48:10,080 Speaker 1: machine incorrectly, and seawater flooded in and it soaked a 889 00:48:10,080 --> 00:48:13,720 Speaker 1: bunch of electrical batteries underneath the toilet, which in turn 890 00:48:13,840 --> 00:48:17,879 Speaker 1: started releasing poisonous chlorine gas into the cabin and then 891 00:48:17,880 --> 00:48:20,000 Speaker 1: the boat was forced to go to the surface to 892 00:48:20,120 --> 00:48:23,400 Speaker 1: ventilate with the outside air because the poison gas. But 893 00:48:23,480 --> 00:48:25,840 Speaker 1: it was in enemy waters off the coast of Scotland, 894 00:48:25,920 --> 00:48:29,120 Speaker 1: and Allied aircraft quickly attacked it. Then the boat was 895 00:48:29,239 --> 00:48:32,480 Speaker 1: damaged and the crew was forced to abandon ship somehow. 896 00:48:32,520 --> 00:48:35,560 Speaker 1: I'm sure this is not the only case in history 897 00:48:35,560 --> 00:48:38,680 Speaker 1: of critical problems caused by pooping on a submarine. It 898 00:48:38,760 --> 00:48:42,160 Speaker 1: had to have happened before. But this is the story 899 00:48:42,239 --> 00:48:46,920 Speaker 1: of car of a Carl Adolf Schlitt. That is interesting. 900 00:48:47,200 --> 00:48:49,160 Speaker 1: I've never heard that one before. But like, this was 901 00:48:49,239 --> 00:48:52,720 Speaker 1: the new model. It was perhaps it was invented because 902 00:48:52,719 --> 00:48:55,839 Speaker 1: of previous problems, so it was there perhaps a whole 903 00:48:55,880 --> 00:49:01,920 Speaker 1: string of other U boat just general submarine in bathroom issues. 904 00:49:02,560 --> 00:49:04,200 Speaker 1: I mean, we've covered on the show before and stuff 905 00:49:04,200 --> 00:49:08,120 Speaker 1: to blow your mind. Anyway, the history of of toilets 906 00:49:08,120 --> 00:49:11,719 Speaker 1: in in orbit, toilets in in in microgravity, and like 907 00:49:11,760 --> 00:49:16,600 Speaker 1: that's that's a whole engineering fiasco into itself. But it's 908 00:49:16,640 --> 00:49:19,799 Speaker 1: also amazing. I mean, if you ever wanted to poop 909 00:49:19,840 --> 00:49:22,879 Speaker 1: into a vacuum cleaner as opposed to just pooping into 910 00:49:22,880 --> 00:49:26,560 Speaker 1: a bag, which was the earlier option, right, everybody else 911 00:49:26,600 --> 00:49:28,919 Speaker 1: wanted to poop into a vacuum cleaner. Who hasn't thought 912 00:49:28,960 --> 00:49:31,239 Speaker 1: about that? All Right, Well, we're gonna leave it there 913 00:49:31,520 --> 00:49:34,680 Speaker 1: with pooping into the vacuum cleaner, because it does make 914 00:49:34,719 --> 00:49:37,080 Speaker 1: you wonder, like, what does the future hold for the toilet? 915 00:49:37,400 --> 00:49:39,960 Speaker 1: To what extent have we we reach peak toilet? I 916 00:49:39,960 --> 00:49:42,759 Speaker 1: mean we keep we We do see new models, new 917 00:49:42,760 --> 00:49:46,600 Speaker 1: innovations coming out every year. There are toilet companies that 918 00:49:46,640 --> 00:49:50,920 Speaker 1: depend on finding new twists, pushing new designs. So I 919 00:49:51,040 --> 00:49:55,360 Speaker 1: wonder what humans will be pooping into and say a 920 00:49:55,400 --> 00:49:58,480 Speaker 1: hundred years, two hundred years. Yeah, one thing I could 921 00:49:58,600 --> 00:50:01,160 Speaker 1: mention in my re search I came across there was 922 00:50:01,200 --> 00:50:03,880 Speaker 1: an article that had a quote from a Dutch architect 923 00:50:04,040 --> 00:50:08,279 Speaker 1: named Rim Kolas, and he said that the toilet, this 924 00:50:08,360 --> 00:50:12,280 Speaker 1: is where you put it. It's the fundamental zone of interaction, 925 00:50:12,520 --> 00:50:17,839 Speaker 1: on the most intimate level between humans and architecture. Okay, 926 00:50:17,880 --> 00:50:20,120 Speaker 1: I can kind of see that. Yeah, it's almost like 927 00:50:20,200 --> 00:50:23,040 Speaker 1: where we're built. Because like, you've got other furniture in 928 00:50:23,080 --> 00:50:26,200 Speaker 1: your house, but you can move that around usually or 929 00:50:26,320 --> 00:50:30,200 Speaker 1: you don't have such a deeply intimate relationship with it 930 00:50:30,239 --> 00:50:34,279 Speaker 1: as you do with the toilet, but usually not. Yeah, 931 00:50:34,760 --> 00:50:38,719 Speaker 1: most people do not have a carnal relationship with their furniture, 932 00:50:39,320 --> 00:50:44,280 Speaker 1: but everybody has a very intimate relationship with the toilet. Yeah, 933 00:50:44,360 --> 00:50:46,240 Speaker 1: so I like thinking about it like that. It's almost 934 00:50:46,320 --> 00:50:48,520 Speaker 1: like it's the you know you mentioned earlier that like 935 00:50:48,600 --> 00:50:51,239 Speaker 1: the s pipe is sort of like the century that 936 00:50:51,640 --> 00:50:53,920 Speaker 1: they were, the trap whatever it is that the water 937 00:50:54,000 --> 00:50:57,640 Speaker 1: trap that the century that guards the gates and doesn't 938 00:50:57,719 --> 00:51:00,000 Speaker 1: let demons from odor hell come up into your house. 939 00:51:00,480 --> 00:51:04,080 Speaker 1: The toilet is also sort of like a diplomat. Uh. 940 00:51:04,160 --> 00:51:08,600 Speaker 1: It's it's how you interface with the world of infrastructure beyond, 941 00:51:08,800 --> 00:51:12,000 Speaker 1: most most deeply, and most fundamentally. It's what it's how 942 00:51:12,040 --> 00:51:16,440 Speaker 1: you interface your body with the sewer. It's communion with 943 00:51:16,480 --> 00:51:19,839 Speaker 1: the arteries of civilization and modern sanitation. It does make 944 00:51:19,920 --> 00:51:22,560 Speaker 1: me wonder, however, how did the toilets on the Starship 945 00:51:22,640 --> 00:51:26,200 Speaker 1: Enterprise work? Do you think they're like teleporter based? Well, 946 00:51:26,320 --> 00:51:30,759 Speaker 1: I would guess that they probably just atomize the uh, 947 00:51:31,480 --> 00:51:34,160 Speaker 1: the stuff and turned it into raw materials to be 948 00:51:34,280 --> 00:51:37,200 Speaker 1: used in the what's it called the you know the 949 00:51:37,239 --> 00:51:41,839 Speaker 1: stuff that the what's it called the replicated? Yeah? Okay, yeah, 950 00:51:41,840 --> 00:51:43,920 Speaker 1: I mean it's just atoms. Why not? Yeah, no problem 951 00:51:43,960 --> 00:51:47,160 Speaker 1: with that. I mean, poop is poop is unclean, but 952 00:51:47,280 --> 00:51:50,120 Speaker 1: atoms aren't unclean. That's right. You reduce everything to its 953 00:51:50,200 --> 00:51:52,799 Speaker 1: basic atoms. It's it's all good and it only takes 954 00:51:52,840 --> 00:51:58,960 Speaker 1: the energy of like thirty thousand nuclear bomb. All right, Well, again, 955 00:51:59,000 --> 00:52:00,480 Speaker 1: we'd love to hear from everyone out there if you 956 00:52:00,560 --> 00:52:03,600 Speaker 1: have any insight on the the the evolution of the 957 00:52:03,640 --> 00:52:07,560 Speaker 1: toilet uh toilet technology across the ages, and indeed where 958 00:52:07,560 --> 00:52:09,920 Speaker 1: it will go in the future. Perhaps there there is 959 00:52:09,960 --> 00:52:14,680 Speaker 1: a wonderful treatment of of of science fiction uh toilets 960 00:52:14,719 --> 00:52:16,920 Speaker 1: out there, and we'd love to hear about that as well. 961 00:52:17,360 --> 00:52:19,480 Speaker 1: If you want to check out other episodes of Invention, 962 00:52:19,520 --> 00:52:21,640 Speaker 1: head on over to invention pod dot com. That's where 963 00:52:21,640 --> 00:52:23,520 Speaker 1: you'll find all the episodes. You'll find links out her 964 00:52:23,600 --> 00:52:26,000 Speaker 1: very social media accounts. If you want to talk about 965 00:52:26,000 --> 00:52:29,720 Speaker 1: the show with other listeners and with us, you should 966 00:52:29,760 --> 00:52:32,319 Speaker 1: look up stuff to Blow your Mind discussion module. It's 967 00:52:32,320 --> 00:52:35,799 Speaker 1: a Facebook group and really it's like the only thing 968 00:52:35,800 --> 00:52:39,600 Speaker 1: I use Facebook for. I'll do some family photos from 969 00:52:39,600 --> 00:52:42,400 Speaker 1: my own private uh stuff, but then as far as 970 00:52:42,440 --> 00:52:44,720 Speaker 1: like sharing things on Facebook, I feel like I generally 971 00:52:44,800 --> 00:52:47,840 Speaker 1: just share them there. Uh. So go there. It's a 972 00:52:47,840 --> 00:52:51,319 Speaker 1: cool place. Uh. Let's see what else. Oh yeah, you 973 00:52:51,320 --> 00:52:54,359 Speaker 1: can also buy an invention Invention merchandise. If you want, 974 00:52:54,440 --> 00:52:56,319 Speaker 1: we have our cool logo, you can get that on 975 00:52:56,360 --> 00:52:59,239 Speaker 1: a sugar and a sticker, and the best thing you 976 00:52:59,280 --> 00:53:02,279 Speaker 1: can do you just simply make sure you have subscribed 977 00:53:02,320 --> 00:53:04,200 Speaker 1: to the show and then rate and review us wherever 978 00:53:04,239 --> 00:53:07,200 Speaker 1: you have the power to do so. Absolutely huge thanks 979 00:53:07,280 --> 00:53:11,319 Speaker 1: as always to our excellent audio producer Tory Harrison. If 980 00:53:11,360 --> 00:53:12,759 Speaker 1: you would like to get in touch with us to 981 00:53:12,880 --> 00:53:14,879 Speaker 1: let us know feedback on this episode or any other, 982 00:53:14,960 --> 00:53:17,600 Speaker 1: to suggest topic for a future to tell us finally 983 00:53:17,640 --> 00:53:21,080 Speaker 1: how to use the three cshells, or just to say hello, 984 00:53:21,280 --> 00:53:25,319 Speaker 1: you can email us at uh contact at invention pod 985 00:53:25,480 --> 00:53:42,680 Speaker 1: dot com.