WEBVTT - Invention Playlist II: Toilets, Part 2 0:00:08.920 --> 0:00:11.960 Hey, welcome to Invention. My name is Robert Lamb and 0:00:12.000 --> 0:00:14.200 I'm Joe McCormick, and we're back with part two of 0:00:14.240 --> 0:00:17.680 our discussion of the history of toilet technology. In the 0:00:17.760 --> 0:00:20.280 last episode, you should probably go back if you haven't 0:00:20.320 --> 0:00:22.840 and listened to that episode first before you listen to 0:00:22.840 --> 0:00:25.160 this one. That's where we get all into the history 0:00:25.160 --> 0:00:30.040 of toilets and ancient civilizations, into latrine tech, into the 0:00:30.120 --> 0:00:37.519 Kloaca maximum, the maximum sewer of ancient But today we're 0:00:37.520 --> 0:00:41.000 going to get more into directly into the invention of 0:00:41.080 --> 0:00:43.360 the flush toilet. And I think we got to start 0:00:43.400 --> 0:00:47.440 off today by dispelling a common myth. That myth and 0:00:47.440 --> 0:00:50.680 I've actually I've heard this like repeated in movies and stuff. 0:00:50.720 --> 0:00:52.600 It seems to be a thing people actually do think, 0:00:53.040 --> 0:00:56.120 is that the flush toilet was invented by a Mr. 0:00:56.280 --> 0:01:00.400 Thomas Crapper. Now Crapper does play a role in history 0:01:00.440 --> 0:01:03.600 of the toilet, but he is not its inventor by 0:01:03.640 --> 0:01:07.440 any means whatsoever. This is not even close. And now, 0:01:07.480 --> 0:01:09.760 first of all, we can debate about what it means 0:01:09.800 --> 0:01:11.600 to have a flush toilet. If we're going to be 0:01:11.640 --> 0:01:15.840 discussing the idea of its invention, I'd say by some definitions, 0:01:15.840 --> 0:01:18.840 since waste was like washed away by water, you could 0:01:18.920 --> 0:01:21.760 argue that some people's of like ancient Rome and the 0:01:21.800 --> 0:01:25.600 ancient Indus Valley had flush toilets. But that's not usually 0:01:25.680 --> 0:01:27.560 what we mean when we say a flush toilet. We 0:01:27.560 --> 0:01:31.600 we usually mean a device that automatically removes waste with 0:01:31.720 --> 0:01:34.640 a simple mechanism. It's not like a hole over a 0:01:34.720 --> 0:01:37.200 drain pipe in which you can pour water. It's not 0:01:37.400 --> 0:01:40.880 something that constantly has water running running underneath it. It's 0:01:40.880 --> 0:01:44.160 a machine with a mechanical flushing action that doesn't need 0:01:44.200 --> 0:01:46.880 to be situated over like a flowing ditch or anything 0:01:46.920 --> 0:01:48.760 like that. And so there are a number of technologies 0:01:48.760 --> 0:01:50.520 that really need to be in place for this to 0:01:50.640 --> 0:01:54.040 come together, Like your your plumbing technology has to has 0:01:54.200 --> 0:01:57.160 has to reach the appropriate level of advancement before you 0:01:57.160 --> 0:02:00.960 can attach a toilet as we model and flushing toilet 0:02:01.000 --> 0:02:03.560 to the scenario and to and make it practical. Yeah, 0:02:03.600 --> 0:02:05.520 and this is gonna be a big problem with the 0:02:05.520 --> 0:02:08.520 earliest models of the flush toilet. So to see one 0:02:08.560 --> 0:02:11.919 of the probably uh the first real flush toilet. And 0:02:12.040 --> 0:02:15.679 since we mean but an impractical early model, we need 0:02:15.720 --> 0:02:18.200 to meet a poet. Uh, and I think that it 0:02:18.280 --> 0:02:21.920 is appropriate that the first real flush toilet was created 0:02:21.919 --> 0:02:25.320 by a poet. We mentioned him in the last episode. 0:02:25.639 --> 0:02:30.040 Inter Sir John Harrington. So, Sir John Harrington was an 0:02:30.040 --> 0:02:34.320 English courtier and an author who lived from fifteen sixty 0:02:34.400 --> 0:02:38.680 or fifteen sixty one to sixteen twelve. Is uh in 0:02:38.680 --> 0:02:41.440 his life stories that his father had repeatedly sort of 0:02:41.520 --> 0:02:44.919 married up into royal circles. First his dad married one 0:02:44.919 --> 0:02:48.320 of Henry the eighth illegitimate daughters, and then later his 0:02:48.400 --> 0:02:51.840 father married a woman who served Queen Elizabeth the First 0:02:51.840 --> 0:02:54.680 before she was queen. And this seems to be what 0:02:54.880 --> 0:02:59.400 led to Elizabeth Queen Elizabeth becoming John Harrington's godmother. The 0:02:59.520 --> 0:03:03.960 apparent Lee Little John Harrington was a troublesome godson. He 0:03:04.040 --> 0:03:08.600 was prone to writing on embarrassing and morally impure subjects 0:03:08.639 --> 0:03:11.400 that repeatedly got him in trouble with the crown. He 0:03:11.520 --> 0:03:15.320 wrote insulting stuff about other kind of you know, pompous 0:03:15.400 --> 0:03:18.640 court people. As for his literary works, he was probably 0:03:18.680 --> 0:03:21.880 best known for his translation of the Italian poet Ludovico 0:03:21.919 --> 0:03:26.360 Ariosto's epic Orlando Furioso. Uh and UH we can come 0:03:26.400 --> 0:03:28.280 back and mention that in a minute. But that's like 0:03:28.560 --> 0:03:30.560 that doesn't know Orlando Furioso. It's got like a big 0:03:30.639 --> 0:03:34.600 dragon slaying thing in it. Trying to remember, I know 0:03:34.639 --> 0:03:36.680 I came across it when I was in school. That 0:03:36.760 --> 0:03:39.640 sounds familiar and I feel I feel like I read 0:03:39.680 --> 0:03:42.480 it in school as well, but I don't recall much 0:03:42.520 --> 0:03:45.760 about it. But at any right, this Harrington guys that 0:03:45.840 --> 0:03:49.080 sounds a little bit like he was kind of a brat. Yeah, 0:03:49.080 --> 0:03:51.680 a little bit. Well, I mean, so he he wrote 0:03:51.680 --> 0:03:55.480 these poems and epigrams and who boy, you know you 0:03:55.480 --> 0:03:58.120 can find these online. I don't know, maybe something's lost 0:03:58.120 --> 0:03:59.960 in the mix here, but if this guy can say 0:04:00.040 --> 0:04:03.480 dared himself a poet, first, I really hope his toilets 0:04:03.480 --> 0:04:06.440 were good. Uh So the poems are full of like 0:04:06.560 --> 0:04:10.960 really obvious, grown inducing turns of phrase, and then all 0:04:11.000 --> 0:04:15.400 these kind of caddy burns on other courtiers who he 0:04:15.440 --> 0:04:20.120 gives these like classical influenced nick nicknames like Sextus and 0:04:20.279 --> 0:04:23.640 itis Um. It also seems, it seems to me, at 0:04:23.680 --> 0:04:25.599 least like Harrington was sort of kind of a fan 0:04:25.680 --> 0:04:28.760 of himself, like he he thought he was pretty cool Robert. 0:04:28.760 --> 0:04:30.240 Do you feel like reading a couple of his short 0:04:30.279 --> 0:04:33.160 little poems here? Oh? Sure? Why not? Okay? So this 0:04:33.240 --> 0:04:35.919 is uh, this is one he wrote called U a 0:04:36.000 --> 0:04:40.960 comparison of a book with cheese. Old Haywood writes and 0:04:41.080 --> 0:04:43.839 proves in some degrees that one may well compare a 0:04:43.880 --> 0:04:47.400 book with cheese. Every market some by cheese to feed 0:04:47.440 --> 0:04:50.280 on at every marked. Some men buy books to read 0:04:50.360 --> 0:04:53.560 on all sorts seat cheese. But how there is the 0:04:53.640 --> 0:04:57.560 question the poor for food, the rich for good digestion. 0:04:58.040 --> 0:05:01.480 All sorts read books. But why will you discern the 0:05:01.520 --> 0:05:05.279 fool to laugh, the wiser sort to learn the site 0:05:05.480 --> 0:05:08.920 taste scent of cheese two some is hateful, the site 0:05:09.080 --> 0:05:13.440 taste sense of books two sums ungrateful. No cheese there 0:05:13.600 --> 0:05:16.880 was that ever pleased all feeders. No book there is 0:05:17.080 --> 0:05:20.880 that ever liked all readers. Yeah, I already hate this guy. 0:05:22.160 --> 0:05:24.279 You're about to like even better. Here. This one's just 0:05:24.360 --> 0:05:28.560 a short four line epigram. Here it's called against writers 0:05:28.600 --> 0:05:33.120 that carpet other men's books. This sounds like there's a 0:05:33.160 --> 0:05:37.880 little venom. And yeah, um, the readers and the hearers 0:05:38.000 --> 0:05:41.799 like my books, but yet some writers cannot them digest 0:05:42.279 --> 0:05:44.839 but what care I for? When I make a feast, 0:05:45.320 --> 0:05:49.640 I would my guests should praise it, not the cooks. Okay, 0:05:49.880 --> 0:05:52.240 so it's an A B, B A rhyme scheme there. 0:05:52.600 --> 0:05:55.200 But I think he's saying like, hey, I don't write 0:05:55.200 --> 0:05:59.440 for the critics, I write for the fans. Man. I 0:05:59.440 --> 0:06:01.240 don't know. I mean, maybe this is all just like 0:06:01.680 --> 0:06:04.719 if we think of the like the literary uh scene 0:06:04.760 --> 0:06:07.880 at the time as being like kind of you know, 0:06:08.000 --> 0:06:10.799 kind of like a like a few driven hip hop culture, 0:06:10.839 --> 0:06:14.560 than you know, that's probably the place for all of this. Well, 0:06:14.600 --> 0:06:16.279 there's some of that. I mean, I get the feeling 0:06:16.279 --> 0:06:17.680 that he was sort of he was sort of like 0:06:17.720 --> 0:06:19.800 a you know, a man about the court. He was 0:06:19.880 --> 0:06:23.200 like within the scene. Um, he was he had all 0:06:23.240 --> 0:06:26.719 these relationships. His poems are very like gossipy, and they're 0:06:26.720 --> 0:06:29.320 full of all these burns and stuff. You get the 0:06:29.360 --> 0:06:31.960 sense they were sort of written written not for a 0:06:32.000 --> 0:06:34.760 wide audience, but for a select audience who would get 0:06:34.839 --> 0:06:39.520 the you know who he is anonymously sending his burns at. 0:06:39.560 --> 0:06:41.720 I also noticed how a lot of his work is 0:06:41.760 --> 0:06:45.400 about how his poetry is good, how his critics are dumb, 0:06:45.400 --> 0:06:48.680 and about food and comparing things to food is kind 0:06:48.680 --> 0:06:51.000 of kind of weird, Alice. I was really thrown back 0:06:51.000 --> 0:06:54.160 by the idea that the poor eat cheese for food, 0:06:54.680 --> 0:06:58.920 but the rich only eat cheese for digestion. That's just 0:06:59.720 --> 0:07:03.000 I'm I'm missing something there. Yeah, it's like the rich 0:07:03.040 --> 0:07:06.440 don't need food. What it seems like it reveals some 0:07:06.520 --> 0:07:09.039 kind of attitude I can't quite put my finger on. Plus, 0:07:09.040 --> 0:07:11.840 eating nothing but cheese sounds exactly like the kind of 0:07:11.880 --> 0:07:15.040 thing that some you know, upper class royal would do 0:07:15.320 --> 0:07:17.840 and then be you know, gouty for it. Didn't Henry 0:07:17.840 --> 0:07:23.120 the Eighth die of a surfeit of cheese. But so anyway, 0:07:23.160 --> 0:07:26.760 So John Harrington, little little godson of Queen Elizabeth the first, 0:07:26.840 --> 0:07:29.400 John Harrington, he's busy at court. He's trying not to 0:07:29.440 --> 0:07:32.200 get caught up in political rat traps. And there's a 0:07:32.200 --> 0:07:34.320 lot of those going on right now, you know, they're 0:07:34.360 --> 0:07:37.280 they're all these plots and stuff. Uh. He gets in 0:07:37.320 --> 0:07:40.240 trouble anyway, he writes some terrible poetry, at least in 0:07:40.280 --> 0:07:43.160 my opinion. I should point out that around the same time, 0:07:43.240 --> 0:07:45.400 this is around the same time that Shakespeare is writing 0:07:45.480 --> 0:07:49.080 his plays, and Christopher Marlowe and At one point, Harrington 0:07:49.160 --> 0:07:52.240 addresses some of his little barbs and epigrams to somebody 0:07:52.320 --> 0:07:56.080 named Faustus. I have to wonder if Christopher Marlowe is 0:07:56.120 --> 0:08:00.280 the target solid Burn referring to to him as the 0:08:00.440 --> 0:08:03.960 as this great work that he would forever be remembered for. Right, 0:08:05.280 --> 0:08:07.200 and yet we don't. We didn't even name the toilet 0:08:07.240 --> 0:08:10.360 after Harrington's. So I decree all the toilets in the 0:08:10.440 --> 0:08:14.920 land will be named Harrington's. Alright, So how does he 0:08:14.960 --> 0:08:16.840 get around to inventing the toy? It sounds like he 0:08:16.840 --> 0:08:19.680 has a pretty full plate with all of this, Uh, 0:08:20.360 --> 0:08:23.400 these promos that he's cutting on other literary figures, Well, 0:08:23.440 --> 0:08:25.560 he's getting in. So he he gets in and out 0:08:25.600 --> 0:08:28.920 of trouble. Like apparently one of the I mentioned earlier, 0:08:28.960 --> 0:08:32.240 the thing he's most famous for historically is this translation 0:08:32.240 --> 0:08:36.199 of Orlando Furios. So apparently the way the story goes 0:08:36.480 --> 0:08:40.400 is that he had translated one particularly racy passage and 0:08:40.480 --> 0:08:42.720 he was sharing it around with ladies of the court, 0:08:43.080 --> 0:08:46.960 and Queen Elizabeth was not amused, and as punishment for 0:08:47.080 --> 0:08:49.920 his body behavior and his corruption of good ladies, she 0:08:50.040 --> 0:08:52.320 told him he would be banished from the court and 0:08:52.360 --> 0:08:55.440 that he shouldn't bother returning unless he had finished translating 0:08:55.440 --> 0:08:58.920 the entire epic poem. So he did, he finished the translation, 0:08:58.960 --> 0:09:01.800 and he came back, only to get banished again some 0:09:01.880 --> 0:09:06.040 years later for insults and toilet humor. So sometime in 0:09:06.040 --> 0:09:08.400 this whole mix, it was in like the fifteen nineties, 0:09:08.440 --> 0:09:12.640 it seems, I think maybe around fIF so he actually 0:09:12.760 --> 0:09:16.760 invented the flush toilet. He put together the plan for one, 0:09:17.080 --> 0:09:20.280 and he installed one in his home, and then later 0:09:20.320 --> 0:09:24.400 he actually installed one for Queen Elizabeth herself at her 0:09:24.440 --> 0:09:27.679 home at Richmond Palace in what was then Surrey. And 0:09:27.920 --> 0:09:30.920 we have some details on this because in fift Harrington 0:09:31.080 --> 0:09:34.640 publishes his notes on the invention of the flush toilet 0:09:34.640 --> 0:09:38.040 in a very strange book length text called a new 0:09:38.080 --> 0:09:41.960 Discourse on a stale subject called the Metamorphosis of Ajax. 0:09:43.120 --> 0:09:46.640 So this book is part description of an invention and 0:09:47.000 --> 0:09:51.400 part like satire, and then part meditation on excrement and 0:09:51.520 --> 0:09:55.040 related subjects, uh and a lot of Like it seems 0:09:55.080 --> 0:09:56.600 like a big part of it is just like a 0:09:56.720 --> 0:10:00.120 defense of him publishing the book that you're currently read ing. 0:10:01.240 --> 0:10:03.920 I was trying to understand, like what the real vibe 0:10:03.920 --> 0:10:06.440 of this work is and it just seems extremely odd. 0:10:07.040 --> 0:10:08.960 The title is kind of interesting. What's the deal with 0:10:08.960 --> 0:10:15.360 the metamorphosis of Ajax? Harrington apparently referred to the flush 0:10:15.440 --> 0:10:18.520 toilet he had he had invented as Ajax is in 0:10:18.640 --> 0:10:20.760 like a j a X the character in the Iliad 0:10:20.880 --> 0:10:24.880 right now, the great Greek warrior. Uh. And so apparently 0:10:24.960 --> 0:10:28.520 this is a pun on the word Jake's, which was 0:10:28.559 --> 0:10:31.520 already at the time a slang word for a toilet. 0:10:31.559 --> 0:10:33.760 Obviously wouldn't be a flush toilet, but for like, you know, 0:10:33.840 --> 0:10:36.640 normal types of like pit toilets and stuff. It would 0:10:36.640 --> 0:10:38.600 be like going to the Jake's or you know, I'm 0:10:38.600 --> 0:10:40.320 gonna go sit on the Jake's. It's kind of like 0:10:40.320 --> 0:10:43.559 I need to use the john all right, So now 0:10:43.600 --> 0:10:46.600 we have the clever nature of the titles revealed, but 0:10:46.600 --> 0:10:49.600 it's still weird. It's still makes me wonder what stages 0:10:49.640 --> 0:10:53.599 syphilis was was that at the time. Well, maybe we 0:10:53.600 --> 0:10:55.960 should take a quick break and then when we come back, 0:10:56.160 --> 0:11:00.880 we will discuss, uh, we'll discuss the details of Harrington's 0:11:00.920 --> 0:11:09.360 invention this this flush toilet model. Alright, we're back. So 0:11:09.400 --> 0:11:14.280 we have a brady, privileged court poet who has managed 0:11:14.400 --> 0:11:19.040 to invent, well ahead of its time, a flushing toilet. Yeah, 0:11:19.120 --> 0:11:20.920 and and wrote a book about it. He calls it 0:11:21.000 --> 0:11:23.079 a jax. I do like that name. I mean, even 0:11:23.120 --> 0:11:25.679 though it's kind of a grown inducing pun. A lot 0:11:25.720 --> 0:11:27.400 of what he seems to be doing is like grown 0:11:27.440 --> 0:11:30.840 inducing humor. Nevertheless, I like the idea of the toilet 0:11:30.920 --> 0:11:34.559 being a jax. It's this a keyan hero. Uh so 0:11:34.640 --> 0:11:38.200 he's he's working on his water closet device. We should 0:11:38.200 --> 0:11:41.079 say that the water closet device that he made, the ajax, 0:11:41.200 --> 0:11:43.600 it no longer exists. There aren't any like models you 0:11:43.640 --> 0:11:46.360 can find. I like to imagine it was dismantled and 0:11:46.400 --> 0:11:49.040 its parts used to make gifts for the French royal family. 0:11:49.600 --> 0:11:52.000 There there aren't any today, but there are like replicas 0:11:52.040 --> 0:11:55.240 based on the description. And if you see one of these. 0:11:55.320 --> 0:11:59.080 It's like a huge two level wooden box that looks 0:11:59.120 --> 0:12:02.640 sort of like an upper piano, and the box hides 0:12:02.720 --> 0:12:06.440 its inner workings inside these wood panels. Basically has two 0:12:06.440 --> 0:12:09.160 major parts. It's got a bowl that you do your 0:12:09.200 --> 0:12:11.560 stuff in, you know, you poop in the bowl, and 0:12:11.600 --> 0:12:13.680 then it's got a hole in the bottom of the 0:12:13.720 --> 0:12:16.400 bowl leading to a drainage pipe and the strainage pipe 0:12:16.400 --> 0:12:18.480 could go wherever. At the time, of course, there was 0:12:18.520 --> 0:12:21.800 not like a organized plumbing and sewage system, so it 0:12:21.800 --> 0:12:24.680 would probably be going into like a pit, you know, 0:12:24.760 --> 0:12:28.480 like a cess pit. And then above that you've got 0:12:28.520 --> 0:12:31.680 a cistern that stores water, just like on the back 0:12:31.760 --> 0:12:34.200 of not exactly, but much like on the back of 0:12:34.240 --> 0:12:36.440 like a modern western toilet, you've got a cistern where 0:12:36.480 --> 0:12:39.880 the flushing water is stored. The bowl itself was waterproofed 0:12:39.920 --> 0:12:43.040 with pitch and wax and resin, and so when you 0:12:43.080 --> 0:12:44.760 want to use the toilet, what you do is you 0:12:44.840 --> 0:12:48.560 lift a handle to release the stopper on the cistern above. 0:12:48.640 --> 0:12:50.680 So the cistern's got water on it, You release the 0:12:50.679 --> 0:12:54.200 stopper and this floods the bowl with water from the cistern. 0:12:54.800 --> 0:12:56.720 And then when you're done with your business, you lift 0:12:56.760 --> 0:12:59.640 a second handle and that this releases a stopper at 0:12:59.640 --> 0:13:02.120 the bottom of the bowl which allows its contents to 0:13:02.280 --> 0:13:05.040 flow out into the drain pipe. And we should again 0:13:05.040 --> 0:13:07.240 emphasize we talked about this in the last episode that 0:13:07.480 --> 0:13:10.400 while we're focusing on the toilet itself today, like the 0:13:10.440 --> 0:13:14.079 sewer system that supports the toilet is the probably even 0:13:14.160 --> 0:13:17.800 more important invention for public sanitation because that you know 0:13:17.880 --> 0:13:21.040 that's necessary, like a flush toilet that simply drains to 0:13:21.080 --> 0:13:24.040 the outdoors or something like that. It leads to some 0:13:24.120 --> 0:13:26.920 of the same problems as other non flushing methods, like 0:13:27.000 --> 0:13:29.440 just throwing a chamber pot out the window. At the 0:13:29.480 --> 0:13:32.360 time of Harrington's invention, there was obviously not a modern 0:13:32.440 --> 0:13:35.160 sewer system in England, so this may have been an 0:13:35.200 --> 0:13:38.720 improvement of personal convenience, like within your home, but it 0:13:38.760 --> 0:13:42.440 wasn't making the public sanitation issue any better. But as 0:13:42.520 --> 0:13:46.960 popular as like indoor flush toilets are today, you might guess, okay, 0:13:47.000 --> 0:13:50.200 so this was immediately an overnight sensation, right everybody wanted 0:13:50.240 --> 0:13:53.080 these things, And that's simply not the case. No, not 0:13:53.200 --> 0:13:56.240 at all. So we we only have evidence that Harrington 0:13:56.320 --> 0:13:58.559 ever built two of them. He built the one for 0:13:58.640 --> 0:14:01.600 himself and the other one for Queen Elizabeth, and this 0:14:01.679 --> 0:14:04.599 is probably for well. So there are some serious problems 0:14:04.600 --> 0:14:07.960 with its design. Right. First, each flush required a ton 0:14:08.040 --> 0:14:10.880 of water, like it required about seven and a half 0:14:10.960 --> 0:14:14.720 gallons or twenty eight liters of water every single flush, 0:14:14.800 --> 0:14:16.800 and you'd have to find some way because they didn't 0:14:16.840 --> 0:14:18.720 have indoor plumbing at the time. You know, you'd have 0:14:18.760 --> 0:14:22.120 to find some way to constantly refill the cistern with 0:14:22.240 --> 0:14:25.400 water if you wanted to keep flushing, maybe manually with 0:14:25.440 --> 0:14:28.160 buckets or something, I don't know. And then so, of 0:14:28.200 --> 0:14:31.640 course that's troublesome work. And then a workaround, of course 0:14:31.720 --> 0:14:34.920 that Harrington suggested is that, you know, maybe people could 0:14:34.960 --> 0:14:37.520 just keep using the toilet without flushing it until it 0:14:37.600 --> 0:14:41.240 was so piled up that it was absolutely necessary. Kind 0:14:41.240 --> 0:14:43.840 of if it's yellow, let it mellow. If it's brown, 0:14:43.880 --> 0:14:47.880 flush it down. Yeah, yeah, yeah, except he suggested, you know, 0:14:47.920 --> 0:14:50.000 maybe you might want to let like twenty people poop 0:14:50.000 --> 0:14:53.640 in it before you flush, because because you know, it's 0:14:53.720 --> 0:14:56.200 just so yeah, there's a lot of water. You gotta 0:14:56.320 --> 0:14:59.720 carry that water up to the thing. Um. This obviously 0:14:59.760 --> 0:15:03.000 just wasn't the most beautiful option. I'm sure Queen Elizabeth 0:15:03.080 --> 0:15:05.080 was not a huge fan of just letting the poop 0:15:05.080 --> 0:15:08.120 pile up in there, so it was It was also 0:15:08.160 --> 0:15:11.320 obviously expensive to have one of these things. And if 0:15:11.320 --> 0:15:14.680 you consider it, even though there was a mechanical stopper 0:15:14.800 --> 0:15:17.840 for the bowl drain, it probably would have smelled bad, 0:15:18.160 --> 0:15:21.120 you know, because like, uh, you just get like stuff 0:15:21.200 --> 0:15:23.800 stuck in there and you have smells coming through. It 0:15:23.920 --> 0:15:26.520 just doesn't doesn't seem all that great of a design. 0:15:26.840 --> 0:15:29.040 I'm reminded a lot of the jet pack in a way, 0:15:29.080 --> 0:15:31.640 you know, because today we have jet packs. We've had 0:15:31.680 --> 0:15:35.320 jet packs for for decades. But can everybody have a 0:15:35.400 --> 0:15:38.760 jet pack? Should everyone have a jet pack? Is the 0:15:39.120 --> 0:15:42.960 world properly? Um? Is the world ready for everyone to 0:15:42.960 --> 0:15:46.120 have a jet pack? It's not. And in the same sense, yes, 0:15:46.520 --> 0:15:50.840 flush toilets existed. Here is the example. And yet you 0:15:50.840 --> 0:15:54.600 know clearly this was not scalable, like this was something 0:15:54.640 --> 0:15:59.360 that it was was more of a curiosity than anything. Yeah, exactly, 0:15:59.640 --> 0:16:03.400 Uh it was. It was an extravagant novel curiosity for 0:16:03.520 --> 0:16:07.720 the extremely wealthy. And it wasn't until actually until a 0:16:07.760 --> 0:16:11.080 couple of hundred years afterwards that really anybody else started 0:16:11.320 --> 0:16:15.480 trying to build and use flush toilets. Basically, almost nobody 0:16:15.520 --> 0:16:18.600 else use flush toilets until like the seventeen seventies. So 0:16:18.720 --> 0:16:21.360 let's go to the seventeen seventies then, So around seventeen 0:16:21.440 --> 0:16:25.800 seventy five, a watchmaker named Alexander Cumming or Alexander Cummings 0:16:26.240 --> 0:16:29.640 uh files a patent for a flush toilet, and his 0:16:29.720 --> 0:16:32.880 design introduces a crucial improvement, and I think this is 0:16:32.920 --> 0:16:36.680 a pretty clever one. It introduces the S trap, and 0:16:36.840 --> 0:16:40.400 this is an ingenious solution for preventing the toilet from 0:16:40.440 --> 0:16:43.680 becoming a gate becoming a gateway for the demons of 0:16:43.720 --> 0:16:46.600 odor hell to climb up into your home. Because if 0:16:46.640 --> 0:16:50.200 you've got like a pipe connecting your toilet that's inside 0:16:50.240 --> 0:16:53.000 your house to the pit where all of the poop goes, 0:16:53.600 --> 0:16:55.400 you know, you can imagine that there are going to 0:16:55.480 --> 0:16:57.880 be some smells coming up through it, so you would 0:16:57.880 --> 0:17:00.640 want to find a way to seal it off. In 0:17:00.800 --> 0:17:03.800 Harrington's water closet, the toilet bowl was sealed with this 0:17:03.920 --> 0:17:07.000 mechanical stopper plugging a hole in the bottom of the bowl, 0:17:07.080 --> 0:17:09.119 and after the bowl was flooded with water from the 0:17:09.119 --> 0:17:12.280 cistern above, you could operate a lever to unplug the 0:17:12.320 --> 0:17:15.520 stopper and release the contents into the pipe below. With 0:17:15.600 --> 0:17:19.080 the S trap is different there, the seal between the 0:17:19.119 --> 0:17:22.640 bowl and the sewer pipe is not just a mechanical stopper. 0:17:22.680 --> 0:17:25.240 The Cummings model did have a mechanical stopper. It was 0:17:25.280 --> 0:17:28.200 like a slide valve, but it's also a seal made 0:17:28.280 --> 0:17:31.840 of the water itself. So the way it works is 0:17:31.880 --> 0:17:34.560 like this, the drainage pipe where things leave the toilet. 0:17:34.640 --> 0:17:37.760 It has a sideways S shaped bend in it. So 0:17:37.840 --> 0:17:39.680 take a capital S, flip it on its side. I 0:17:39.680 --> 0:17:42.560 guess it could be a lowercase S too, huh. You 0:17:42.640 --> 0:17:45.800 flip it on its side, and then, um, it's always 0:17:45.880 --> 0:17:48.280 going to be filled with water in the lower part 0:17:48.320 --> 0:17:51.840 of the bend, right, So the reservoir of sitting water 0:17:51.920 --> 0:17:54.320 there and the bottom of the sideways S shaped forms 0:17:54.320 --> 0:17:58.600 this perfect natural seal that prevents sewer gas from escaping 0:17:58.640 --> 0:18:01.720 up the pipes into your home. And so s traps 0:18:01.800 --> 0:18:05.680 like this are still used today in in modern drains 0:18:05.720 --> 0:18:08.159 and drains for sinks and toilets. And so here's some 0:18:08.200 --> 0:18:11.280 toilet news you can use. If you have ever noticed 0:18:11.320 --> 0:18:13.679 that there's like an unused drain in your home that 0:18:13.800 --> 0:18:17.600 smells bad, it's likely because the trap, like the water 0:18:17.760 --> 0:18:21.080 in the trap has evaporated and it's no longer forming 0:18:21.080 --> 0:18:24.159 a seal against the sewer gases below. So the easy 0:18:24.240 --> 0:18:26.480 fixes to just run some fresh water down the drain 0:18:26.520 --> 0:18:28.760 to flood the trap again. So I like that S trap. 0:18:28.800 --> 0:18:32.520 It's very, very brilliant, elegant solution to a problem. And 0:18:32.600 --> 0:18:35.880 yet at the same time, the Ajax is still undergoing 0:18:35.880 --> 0:18:39.960 its metamorphosis. Yes, it is not finished yet. The Ajax 0:18:40.040 --> 0:18:42.800 is still a kind of clunky, unwieldy figure, kind of 0:18:42.840 --> 0:18:45.879 like the Ajax. And well, I guess I'm trying to remember. 0:18:45.920 --> 0:18:47.919 I think of Ajax is kind of like big and 0:18:48.040 --> 0:18:51.000 buff and clunky. He was kind of graceful too, I guess, 0:18:51.080 --> 0:18:53.600 you know, I'm not really remembering what a Jax, what 0:18:53.720 --> 0:18:56.960 his main contribution was. Well, he's like a great warrior. 0:18:57.040 --> 0:19:00.280 He's one of these are right of course, but he uh. 0:19:00.480 --> 0:19:03.160 At the end, he gets into the argument with Odysseus 0:19:03.200 --> 0:19:05.600 about the armor and then he I think he loses 0:19:05.640 --> 0:19:07.960 the bait. And then he falls on his sword because 0:19:07.960 --> 0:19:11.120 he does the I think Athena drives him mad or something. 0:19:11.160 --> 0:19:14.360 I don't know, and a tensions were runn pretty high, ivolved. 0:19:14.359 --> 0:19:16.399 I gotta go back and read the Iliot again, I guess. 0:19:17.000 --> 0:19:19.960 But anyway, so talking about the Ajax machine, so there 0:19:19.960 --> 0:19:22.400 were some even even though you've got the S trap, 0:19:22.440 --> 0:19:26.120 there were some kinks incomings design that were worked out 0:19:26.160 --> 0:19:29.199 in later models by other inventors. Like, one problem was 0:19:29.280 --> 0:19:32.320 apparently that it had a sliding valve. So you imagine 0:19:32.320 --> 0:19:34.320 it's got a valve at the bottom of the toilet bowl. 0:19:34.760 --> 0:19:37.240 Um that you know, it's different than most of the 0:19:37.240 --> 0:19:39.480 toilets we see today because it actually had like a 0:19:39.600 --> 0:19:42.520 lid that would close on the bottom, and this was 0:19:42.560 --> 0:19:44.840 like a sliding thing. And this was a problem because 0:19:44.840 --> 0:19:47.640 of course it could get gross and gunky, Like one 0:19:47.640 --> 0:19:50.959 of the most beautiful aspects of the modern toilet is 0:19:51.000 --> 0:19:53.919 that there are no moving parts coming into contact with 0:19:53.960 --> 0:19:57.800 fecal matter. You're using it correctly, exactly. Yes, yes, that's 0:19:57.800 --> 0:20:00.240 that's a very good point. So it could get roast 0:20:00.240 --> 0:20:03.720 and gunky, and it could freeze and that's not good. Um. 0:20:03.840 --> 0:20:06.320 So this was later improved by being replaced with a 0:20:06.400 --> 0:20:10.440 downward opening flap valve, and the patent for this innovation 0:20:10.960 --> 0:20:14.680 went to a water closet installer, an inventor named Joseph Brahma, 0:20:14.720 --> 0:20:16.720 though I think there might be some disagreement about whether 0:20:16.760 --> 0:20:20.840 Brahma himself actually invented this, you know, flap modification, but 0:20:20.920 --> 0:20:23.480 he held the patent for it. And then this model, 0:20:23.520 --> 0:20:26.960 the Brahma model, became popular and basically remained popular for 0:20:27.000 --> 0:20:30.479 those who could afford it until the mid twentieth century. Uh, 0:20:30.520 --> 0:20:33.119 and it's it's spread around like that. This did become 0:20:33.160 --> 0:20:35.600 like a kind of a sensation. Yeah, this was the 0:20:36.280 --> 0:20:39.840 version of the technology. They really spread and became became 0:20:39.880 --> 0:20:44.040 a truly popular way to poop. But as is often 0:20:44.119 --> 0:20:46.280 the case, I mean, part of the problem with the 0:20:46.359 --> 0:20:50.679 history of sanitation development and and like indit access to 0:20:50.680 --> 0:20:53.919 toilet facilities had to do with money, right, It was 0:20:54.000 --> 0:20:56.720 like people who could afford to install these kinds of 0:20:56.760 --> 0:20:59.080 toilet facilities, they would have them, but a lot of 0:20:59.080 --> 0:21:02.679 people couldn't afford that. Yeah, Like it often reminds me 0:21:02.720 --> 0:21:06.960 of the fancy garbage can scenario, you know, like, how 0:21:07.000 --> 0:21:09.280 how much are you willing to pay for the thing 0:21:09.320 --> 0:21:11.920 in which you are going to put trash right when 0:21:11.960 --> 0:21:14.679 a simpler model will will do the job, you know. 0:21:15.680 --> 0:21:17.760 So Yeah, for many people that the idea of a 0:21:17.760 --> 0:21:20.960 flushing toilet was just ludicrous for for a number of reasons, 0:21:20.960 --> 0:21:23.440 most of which were financial. But I think one of 0:21:23.480 --> 0:21:26.840 the big things that helped push toilet technology along was 0:21:26.920 --> 0:21:31.200 the development of sewer infrastructure to support it. That made 0:21:31.240 --> 0:21:34.480 it that made it not just a thing that's nice 0:21:34.520 --> 0:21:37.560 to have, not just a more aesthetically pleasing way to 0:21:37.560 --> 0:21:41.200