WEBVTT - Techstuff Classic: TechStuff Gets Flushed 0:00:04.680 --> 0:00:07.720 Get in touch with technology with tech Stuff from how 0:00:07.760 --> 0:00:13.960 stuff works dot com. Hey there, and welcome to tex Stuff. 0:00:14.000 --> 0:00:16.840 I'm your host, Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer here 0:00:16.840 --> 0:00:18.919 at how Stuff Works and I love all things tech 0:00:19.000 --> 0:00:23.960 and it's time for a Friday Classic episode. Get ready 0:00:24.000 --> 0:00:26.920 for this blast from the past from tech Stuff. So 0:00:27.160 --> 0:00:32.680 we are talking about toilets today. Yeah, it's gonna be ah. 0:00:33.000 --> 0:00:35.840 This episode is going to be flush with puns. Man, 0:00:35.920 --> 0:00:38.559 I can't take this already, and I know it's bad already, right, 0:00:38.840 --> 0:00:41.720 So before I really get into that, you know, there 0:00:41.760 --> 0:00:44.320 will obviously be some levity in this, but this is 0:00:44.360 --> 0:00:48.320 actually a very serious topic. And to kind of illustrate that, 0:00:48.720 --> 0:00:51.919 I wanted to mention something else. Now this is this 0:00:52.000 --> 0:00:55.360 is half a year away from us. But November nineteenth 0:00:55.720 --> 0:00:59.360 is World Toilet Day, which at first sounds kind of comedic, right, 0:00:59.440 --> 0:01:02.520 I'm think it's hilarious. It sounds funny. It's it's an 0:01:02.520 --> 0:01:06.880 event hosted by the World Toilet Organization. Still sounds at 0:01:06.920 --> 0:01:09.560 first when you think about it, because the mean toilet 0:01:09.640 --> 0:01:12.520 humor has become like a real it's a real industry 0:01:12.560 --> 0:01:16.039 into itself. But this is not about humor. It's actually 0:01:16.480 --> 0:01:18.000 the purpose of the day and the purpose of the 0:01:18.080 --> 0:01:22.120 organization is to help provide support for getting proper sanitation 0:01:22.200 --> 0:01:28.160 to the world's population. According to that organization, of the 0:01:28.200 --> 0:01:34.160 world's population still practices open defecation. That's a billion people. 0:01:34.319 --> 0:01:36.080 I mean, I knew a lot of people, did I 0:01:36.080 --> 0:01:38.840 didn't realize it was that high a percentage. Now I 0:01:38.880 --> 0:01:41.560 saw a figure back in I think two thousand nine 0:01:41.640 --> 0:01:45.320 that was two point five billion people. So clearly we've 0:01:45.360 --> 0:01:50.440 made some great strides in in raising sanitation levels, but 0:01:50.640 --> 0:01:52.720 there's still so much work to be done. And I mean, 0:01:52.760 --> 0:01:56.040 this is obviously something that we have to be concerned 0:01:56.080 --> 0:02:00.080 with because it can lead to you know, pandemics or 0:02:00.080 --> 0:02:03.880 at least a really bad outbreak of disease, not to 0:02:03.920 --> 0:02:07.360 mention just unpleasant living conditions. Well, you know what's funny 0:02:07.400 --> 0:02:09.400 is UM. I think part of it also is not 0:02:09.480 --> 0:02:13.040 just that people practice open defecation, but that a lot 0:02:13.080 --> 0:02:17.120 of them don't have access to sanitary drinking water as 0:02:17.120 --> 0:02:20.760 a result of their of their waste disposal. UM. But 0:02:21.160 --> 0:02:24.840 I have there are places, especially in um parts of 0:02:24.919 --> 0:02:29.040 rural India, where open defecation is practiced where the people 0:02:29.040 --> 0:02:31.480 are like you can put toilets in here all day long, 0:02:31.720 --> 0:02:35.239 We're not going to use them because we find open 0:02:35.280 --> 0:02:38.720 defecation as part of like wholesome country living. Is the 0:02:38.720 --> 0:02:41.519 way that I've seen it put like it's just part 0:02:41.600 --> 0:02:44.560 and parcel with being outside and you know, watching a 0:02:44.680 --> 0:02:47.280 squirrel run past you while you're pooping, that kind of thing, 0:02:47.280 --> 0:02:49.640 and like really taken in the whole scene. It's a 0:02:49.680 --> 0:02:52.560 cultural thing at that point. Yeah, where it goes beyond, 0:02:52.760 --> 0:02:55.720 it goes beyond, like it's it's not necessarily just the 0:02:56.120 --> 0:03:00.239 lack of facilities, it's this has become a way of life. 0:03:01.080 --> 0:03:03.480 I could understand that. I mean, I know there was 0:03:03.520 --> 0:03:09.000 even some reluctance in Japan to go from the uh 0:03:09.040 --> 0:03:12.680 the more trough like toilets that they used to. Yeah, 0:03:12.720 --> 0:03:16.160 there's there's much smaller percentage of the toilets in Japan 0:03:16.160 --> 0:03:19.280 are those, but they still do exist. But there was 0:03:19.560 --> 0:03:24.560 a large uh hesitate to use the word, movement trend 0:03:24.600 --> 0:03:27.320 to going toward more Western style toilets over the last 0:03:27.360 --> 0:03:30.360 couple of years. I know, I'm sorry it's gonna happen. 0:03:30.440 --> 0:03:33.880 Chris Palette is only here in spirit, but he is here. 0:03:34.360 --> 0:03:37.320 You're channeling him pretty hard. Yeah, So let's go with 0:03:37.400 --> 0:03:41.240 a little history lesson before we get into how toilets 0:03:41.240 --> 0:03:44.880 actually work. Now, if you're looking for the earliest evidence 0:03:44.920 --> 0:03:50.240 of organized waste management systems, you look at Mesopotamia, which 0:03:50.320 --> 0:03:53.560 makes sense because that's where the original civilizations were. Yeah, 0:03:53.560 --> 0:03:57.480 it's also a great song, but this would be back 0:03:57.480 --> 0:04:01.960 at the c E around approximately around that era, when 0:04:01.960 --> 0:04:05.680 you would see these organized systems for waste management. One 0:04:05.720 --> 0:04:08.880 thing I thought was really interesting was I watched a 0:04:08.960 --> 0:04:16.760 documentary about a neolithic village that was on the Orkney Islands. Uh, 0:04:16.839 --> 0:04:21.200 in Scotland. We call it scare Bray. That's the name 0:04:21.240 --> 0:04:24.800 we've given it. Because any actual records of this village 0:04:25.240 --> 0:04:28.400 haven't existed for more than a couple of thousand years. 0:04:29.640 --> 0:04:32.719 This village was forgotten. No one knew it was even 0:04:32.760 --> 0:04:35.440 there until there was a major storm that washed away 0:04:35.480 --> 0:04:37.719 some of the land that had grown up built up 0:04:37.800 --> 0:04:42.560 around on top of the village. Is amazing. Right when 0:04:42.560 --> 0:04:47.520 it was discovered, you immediately had a and uh there 0:04:47.600 --> 0:04:51.640 was an expedition, let's say, to uncover the village, but 0:04:51.720 --> 0:04:55.080 it was not led by anyone who's ever been actually identified. 0:04:55.080 --> 0:04:58.159 In other words, it was treasure hunters. I didn't probably 0:04:58.160 --> 0:05:00.760 didn't find anything really of value there. There was certainly 0:05:00.760 --> 0:05:05.000 no you know, hordes of gold and diamonds and jewels there. Uh. 0:05:05.040 --> 0:05:08.080 And it wouldn't be until the nineteen thirties that a 0:05:08.120 --> 0:05:13.279 more organized archaeological dig would take place. And after that 0:05:13.320 --> 0:05:15.800 there was another storm and they had to actually shore 0:05:15.920 --> 0:05:18.600 up the area to protect it as an archaeological site. 0:05:18.600 --> 0:05:21.880 And what they found was that this tiny village, which 0:05:21.960 --> 0:05:26.320 dates to around three thousand BC in Scotland, had these 0:05:26.320 --> 0:05:29.799 homes that were very sophisticated. You would walk in, there'd 0:05:29.800 --> 0:05:32.200 be a large bed on the right hand side, a 0:05:32.240 --> 0:05:36.800 smaller bed on the left, which mirrors regular practices of 0:05:36.839 --> 0:05:40.000 the time where the husband and wife. The husband would 0:05:40.040 --> 0:05:43.640 have the larger of two beds. They had a fire 0:05:43.720 --> 0:05:49.480 pit hearth, but they also had a essentially a toilet. 0:05:49.560 --> 0:05:54.680 They had a stone cabinet with a hole cut so 0:05:54.720 --> 0:05:57.640 that you could sit down on it, with channels that 0:05:58.000 --> 0:06:00.599 lead out to the ocean, and ocean water with the 0:06:00.640 --> 0:06:05.279 tides would actually flush smart this, so these were flushing toilets. 0:06:05.320 --> 0:06:09.040 They weren't manual flush. You title flushed, so you had 0:06:09.080 --> 0:06:12.480 to wait, hey it's still flushed. Yeah, that's the important 0:06:12.520 --> 0:06:15.880 point and this took the waste away, right Yeah, yeah, 0:06:15.920 --> 0:06:19.000 so all the way back to three thousand BC. Uh, 0:06:19.080 --> 0:06:23.440 the actual the whole area of scare Break. Its fascinating. 0:06:23.480 --> 0:06:25.440 So definitely look into that if you get a chance. 0:06:25.720 --> 0:06:29.039 I mean, I've seen him before. I've seen just the 0:06:29.080 --> 0:06:32.760 settlement pictures of the settlement. It is pretty advanced. You 0:06:32.800 --> 0:06:35.360 don't think of the Orkney Islands and three thousand b C. 0:06:35.800 --> 0:06:40.520 Is you know, the seed of civilization technology. But yeah, 0:06:40.600 --> 0:06:43.160 they had something going on. It's pretty surprising, yeah, because 0:06:43.160 --> 0:06:47.720 I mean, you know, when I think of of society 0:06:47.880 --> 0:06:53.320 civilization in the British Islands, I'm thinking closer to the 0:06:53.440 --> 0:06:56.960 Roman times. But it's pretty amazing how sophisticated was even 0:06:57.000 --> 0:07:02.520 back then. Uh. Ancient Greeks also they used sewage systems 0:07:02.520 --> 0:07:05.560 to channel waste away from living quarters. The Romans would 0:07:05.600 --> 0:07:09.040 even further. They would have these, especially if you were 0:07:09.080 --> 0:07:12.080 a very wealthy or powerful Roman. You might have a 0:07:12.160 --> 0:07:20.840 pretty styling, you know, bathroom, heated seats, heated marble seats, um. 0:07:20.880 --> 0:07:24.200 And it maybe private from what I understood, but for 0:07:24.240 --> 0:07:29.280 the most part, public bathrooms really took the public thing 0:07:29.600 --> 0:07:33.000 to the nth degree, where it was just like basically 0:07:33.360 --> 0:07:37.360 a long bench with different cutouts, you know, space not 0:07:37.600 --> 0:07:41.080 very far apart. Frankly, um, and you'd have maybe eight 0:07:41.200 --> 0:07:45.000 or ten, maybe fifteen. Yeah. I saw there was a 0:07:45.000 --> 0:07:49.560 public restroom in Syria. UM. I think was contemporaneous to 0:07:49.560 --> 0:07:54.600 to Greece. UM that sat like eighty and there's no partitions, 0:07:54.600 --> 0:07:57.400 there's no nothing. And it seemed to be um kind 0:07:57.440 --> 0:08:00.160 of a social endeavor where like you just said, are 0:08:00.160 --> 0:08:03.160 in chat with somebody while you're a pooping. Yeah. It's 0:08:03.200 --> 0:08:06.000 kind of funny to think about how it was this 0:08:06.160 --> 0:08:11.280 communal social activity, or at least it wasn't separated from 0:08:11.280 --> 0:08:14.560 any of the communal and social activities, whereas today we 0:08:14.600 --> 0:08:18.120 have all these unspoken rules of of you know, no 0:08:18.280 --> 0:08:22.280 talking in the bathroom, to keep your dirty behavior to yourself. Yeah, 0:08:22.440 --> 0:08:24.080 I don't know if you've ever seen it. There's actually 0:08:24.280 --> 0:08:28.440 if I'm a Shinima cartoon using the I think it's 0:08:28.440 --> 0:08:32.880 the sims where it's to illustrate the rules in the 0:08:32.920 --> 0:08:35.679 men's restroom. And rule number one is if there's a 0:08:35.720 --> 0:08:38.640 line of urnals, you take one on either end. It 0:08:38.640 --> 0:08:40.520 doesn't matter which end, just it has to be on 0:08:40.640 --> 0:08:43.000 the end. The next person end has to take the 0:08:43.040 --> 0:08:46.640 one on the furthest end, and then as long as 0:08:46.640 --> 0:08:49.080 there's at least one empty one separating you and the 0:08:49.120 --> 0:08:51.600 next person, you can take one. But if there isn't, 0:08:51.960 --> 0:08:54.720 you gotta leave. Like like there's there was this crazy 0:08:54.800 --> 0:08:56.680 series of but it was a series of rules where 0:08:56.679 --> 0:08:58.560 and then the comedy came from the fact that you're like, 0:08:58.960 --> 0:09:01.320 this is kind of how guy has behave in the bathroom. Yeah, 0:09:02.000 --> 0:09:06.320 for me, it's the cardinal rule is if there's two 0:09:06.720 --> 0:09:11.079 two stalls, um, and the doors shut on one, then 0:09:11.200 --> 0:09:14.600 both are occupied by by default. That must make it 0:09:14.600 --> 0:09:18.480 difficult here in this office because the bathrooms go uh, 0:09:18.720 --> 0:09:21.400 floor to ceiling with the doors and they're shut all 0:09:21.440 --> 0:09:24.479 the time. So that's that's different like that these bathrooms 0:09:24.480 --> 0:09:27.760 are prime real estate in my opinion. But if you 0:09:27.880 --> 0:09:30.800 remember in the last place where the first was headquartered, 0:09:30.840 --> 0:09:32.920 it was you know, just a partition and you can 0:09:32.960 --> 0:09:36.240 see feet and everything. And it's that's just to me, 0:09:37.040 --> 0:09:40.920 like we we really have advanced to the point where 0:09:40.960 --> 0:09:45.160 you know, it is a private act and um, it's 0:09:45.200 --> 0:09:47.120 not to be shared. It's not public. We're not in 0:09:47.160 --> 0:09:50.920 ancient Greece any longer. Um. And so if somebody's in 0:09:50.920 --> 0:09:53.400 a stall, you don't sit down next to him. I 0:09:53.480 --> 0:09:57.920 just I just really feel strongly about that. I can understand. 0:09:58.000 --> 0:10:01.520 And it's interesting because when we get into advanced toilets 0:10:01.520 --> 0:10:05.160 like the Japanese toilets, they take that to the next 0:10:05.240 --> 0:10:11.280 level to create another another level of privacy for that. Yeah, 0:10:11.280 --> 0:10:13.240 it's pretty neat, Like you swipe your hand in front 0:10:13.280 --> 0:10:16.520 of a sensor and it takes you to the seventh dimension, 0:10:17.440 --> 0:10:22.800 completely out of anybody here. If you and Bubanza and 0:10:22.880 --> 0:10:25.600 that's it's in the ninth, isn't it. Yeah, I think 0:10:25.600 --> 0:10:28.160 he is, or the tenth. It's one of those. Yeah. 0:10:28.200 --> 0:10:31.080 So one of the other things we can talk about 0:10:31.080 --> 0:10:34.960 before we move into the earliest flush toilet is that 0:10:35.080 --> 0:10:37.920 when you're looking at say Europe in the Middle Ages 0:10:37.960 --> 0:10:40.920 all the way up into the Renaissance. Uh, you're talking 0:10:40.960 --> 0:10:43.560 about especially like for you know, I think about castles. 0:10:44.480 --> 0:10:50.920 I do, I really do frequently think about castles. Um. 0:10:51.000 --> 0:10:53.960 Their facilities were pretty primitive. It was essentially a hole 0:10:54.120 --> 0:10:58.800 cut into the you know, like a like a stone 0:10:58.920 --> 0:11:02.000 seat some with a wooden panel on top of it. 0:11:02.400 --> 0:11:06.160 Uh that then had a channel that that slanted away 0:11:06.320 --> 0:11:10.000 from the wall and your your waist would drop down 0:11:10.080 --> 0:11:14.680 either into a cesspit, a moat, moat, sometimes just the ground. 0:11:15.000 --> 0:11:18.480 On the invading armies, that is also a possibility. And 0:11:18.520 --> 0:11:22.319 these were called garter robes, and they were also closets. 0:11:22.880 --> 0:11:25.120 They weren't just bathrooms, they were closets you would hang 0:11:26.000 --> 0:11:30.320 your clothing. Why because the ammonia from your urine would 0:11:30.400 --> 0:11:35.440 kill fleas. Oh wow, that is very surprisingly clever. Yeah, 0:11:35.520 --> 0:11:40.000 it's not scar break clever, but it's up there. So 0:11:40.160 --> 0:11:42.640 if you're wondering when the first flush toilet comes along, 0:11:42.679 --> 0:11:46.560 it's actually a lot earlier than I had anticipated. It's weird. 0:11:46.640 --> 0:11:49.400 I don't know how I never came across this fact before. 0:11:49.440 --> 0:11:51.440 And it's one that, by the way, a lot of 0:11:51.440 --> 0:11:55.880 people in our office know. It comes from fift nineties 0:11:55.960 --> 0:12:00.760 six John Harrington, Yes, who was a cousin I think 0:12:00.960 --> 0:12:05.120 of um Elizabeth the first Yeah, he was her godson. Okay, 0:12:05.160 --> 0:12:09.040 that's what it was. And he designed this flushing toilet 0:12:09.120 --> 0:12:12.520 or prototype of a flushing toilet for her. Yeah, and 0:12:12.800 --> 0:12:15.360 she probably didn't use it very much. She didn't admit 0:12:15.400 --> 0:12:18.480 to it. She was a queen, and technically, when you're queen, 0:12:18.559 --> 0:12:21.120 you can pretty much poop wherever you like, someone's going 0:12:21.160 --> 0:12:24.800 to take care of it. But he called it the ajax. No, 0:12:25.040 --> 0:12:29.280 here's the thing. John Harrington was a rake. Oh yeah, 0:12:29.320 --> 0:12:33.880 he was like Greg can Rake, you know, kind of like. 0:12:33.960 --> 0:12:37.320 He was known for passing around lewd poetry to the 0:12:37.360 --> 0:12:41.400 ladies of the court. He loved too. He was very 0:12:41.400 --> 0:12:45.079 clever and he loved being clever and so lewd poetry. 0:12:45.600 --> 0:12:51.080 Flushing toilets. Well, he called it the ajax as a pun. 0:12:51.760 --> 0:12:55.679 It's a pun on the term Jake's, which is a 0:12:56.400 --> 0:13:02.840 euphemism for toilet. It's like the John Jake's. So ajax 0:13:03.000 --> 0:13:05.720 is a pun on Jake's. And it had a pan 0:13:06.000 --> 0:13:09.640 into which one would do one's business and assister turn 0:13:09.800 --> 0:13:12.800 that you could pump water up into, and then a 0:13:12.840 --> 0:13:14.720 handle and when you pulled the handle, it opened up 0:13:14.720 --> 0:13:17.240 a valve that allowed the water from the cistern to 0:13:17.320 --> 0:13:20.000 come down and wash away what was in the pan 0:13:20.640 --> 0:13:24.240 down through a channel that would go out to assess 0:13:24.280 --> 0:13:28.000 pool onto an invading army or onto an invading army, 0:13:28.120 --> 0:13:29.600 as the case may be. As far as I know, 0:13:29.679 --> 0:13:31.760 he only built two. I think he built one for 0:13:31.800 --> 0:13:35.480 the queen and one for himself. Uh So it was 0:13:35.520 --> 0:13:38.079 an interesting idea did not catch on at the time. 0:13:38.720 --> 0:13:42.480 Uh really just showed his inventiveness to to look at 0:13:42.520 --> 0:13:46.600 the next approach to the flushing toilet. You have to 0:13:46.640 --> 0:13:54.320 go ahead by almost two years Alexander Cummings exactly, and 0:13:54.360 --> 0:13:58.800 he he invented something that ended up being very important 0:13:58.840 --> 0:14:01.840 for the flushing toilet, the S trap. Yeah, so much 0:14:01.880 --> 0:14:06.240 so that it's still basically the design of toilets today. Yeah. Now, 0:14:06.320 --> 0:14:09.240 this is the pipes that you see that lead out 0:14:09.280 --> 0:14:11.480 from your toilet, and it's called an S trap because 0:14:11.480 --> 0:14:14.080 it's in that S shape, right, Yeah, or some people 0:14:14.080 --> 0:14:17.000 will consider it an upside down youthing like that. It 0:14:17.000 --> 0:14:19.080 all depends on one how much of it you can 0:14:19.120 --> 0:14:22.280 see and to exactly what implementation it is. But yeah, 0:14:22.320 --> 0:14:24.520 the you trap is another way of looking at an 0:14:24.560 --> 0:14:28.280 upside on you. Uh So. The important thing about this 0:14:28.600 --> 0:14:32.440 was that it would allow uh it would well trap 0:14:33.040 --> 0:14:36.080 water once it had gone down the pipe from coming 0:14:36.080 --> 0:14:40.320 back up, and it would also thus trap the smell, Yes, 0:14:40.360 --> 0:14:43.560 which is very important with sewers because if you're taking 0:14:43.600 --> 0:14:48.880 a piece of technology and connecting it to an open sewer, yeah, 0:14:49.280 --> 0:14:52.040 the smell is gonna be something. Yeah, it's gonna be 0:14:52.360 --> 0:14:54.200 how to take care of that, and he did with 0:14:54.240 --> 0:14:57.480 the s trap. Yeah, and it it was really a 0:14:57.520 --> 0:15:01.960 brilliant idea. Also so much strickland that like three two 0:15:02.080 --> 0:15:06.520 hundred years later, two fifty years later, Um, we're still 0:15:06.680 --> 0:15:10.880 using this guy's design. It is not been improved upon 0:15:11.360 --> 0:15:14.200 in two hundred and fifty years right there. There are 0:15:14.680 --> 0:15:18.240 a couple of other variations on it, but it has 0:15:18.280 --> 0:15:21.120 the basic design is still what we rely upon because 0:15:21.560 --> 0:15:24.920 it works as no moving parts for just that that pipe, 0:15:25.400 --> 0:15:28.560 so it can't break down in that sense. I could 0:15:28.560 --> 0:15:31.560 still get clogged. Maybe we'll talk a bit about clogs later. Yeah, well, 0:15:31.600 --> 0:15:34.240 you know you gotta talk about it. I didn't. I 0:15:34.320 --> 0:15:36.320 did not know we were going to talk about clogs. Well, 0:15:36.360 --> 0:15:39.040 I apologize. If you want, you can check out for 0:15:39.120 --> 0:15:41.520 that part of the we'll go to my happy place. 0:15:41.600 --> 0:15:43.800 That's good. Yeah, we'll just watch you kind of stare 0:15:43.800 --> 0:15:48.680 at space. Um. But it also he also invented a 0:15:48.800 --> 0:15:51.360 sliding valve between the bowl and the trap, which allowed 0:15:51.440 --> 0:15:54.240 some water to stay in the bowl after you flushed, 0:15:55.240 --> 0:15:58.320 so that it could hold on to the waist for 0:15:58.400 --> 0:16:01.240 the next time, and so you didn't just have just 0:16:01.640 --> 0:16:05.880 an empty bowl of waste and then put water into it. 0:16:05.960 --> 0:16:09.240 It was you know, it actually improved the performance quite 0:16:09.240 --> 0:16:11.520 a bit. And you had a lot of other inventors 0:16:11.520 --> 0:16:15.920 who followed, like Samuel Prosser, Joseph Brama, Thomas Tweeford. They 0:16:15.920 --> 0:16:18.400 all made improvements to the basic design of the toilet, 0:16:18.560 --> 0:16:22.120 but not a Mr. Crapper. You know, I was gonna 0:16:22.160 --> 0:16:24.560 save that. But yeah, let's talk about Thomas Crapper here 0:16:24.640 --> 0:16:26.960 for a second. But before we get into that, let's 0:16:27.000 --> 0:16:37.000 take a quick break to thank our sponsor. Okay, so 0:16:37.320 --> 0:16:42.840 you may have heard the somewhat apocryphal tale that the 0:16:42.880 --> 0:16:48.000 toilet was invented by a man named Thomas Crapper. Enough, yeah, 0:16:48.080 --> 0:16:51.560 one of those ha ha, Isn't it ironic? Don't you think? 0:16:51.600 --> 0:16:56.160 Alanis morrisse at moments, you know, I think it might be. 0:16:56.480 --> 0:16:58.480 It's like, it's like rain on your wedding day. It's 0:16:58.520 --> 0:17:00.800 like Thomas Crapper making a toilet it. But I'm pretty 0:17:00.800 --> 0:17:06.000 sure that's the way it goes. Um, Thomas Crapper, as 0:17:06.040 --> 0:17:08.880 far as we can tell, was actually a person. There 0:17:08.880 --> 0:17:11.760 are records of a Thomas Crapper who who held patents 0:17:11.800 --> 0:17:15.119 in the nineteenth century, and they're plumbing patents, and some 0:17:15.200 --> 0:17:18.240 of them in fact involve improvements to the water closet 0:17:18.359 --> 0:17:23.240 or toilet. But he didn't invent it, um, and he 0:17:23.320 --> 0:17:27.400 may not have had that big of an impact overall 0:17:27.560 --> 0:17:31.119 on the toilet evolution. It's just one of those facts 0:17:31.160 --> 0:17:33.520 that kind of got passed around, as you know, or 0:17:33.560 --> 0:17:36.600 one of those those tidbits against passed around the total truth. 0:17:37.760 --> 0:17:44.280 Plus he pronounced his name Creper. It's Creper beard, say, um, 0:17:44.359 --> 0:17:47.399 yeah it was. It's one of those things where I 0:17:47.440 --> 0:17:49.359 actually looked into it too, because I was like, well, 0:17:49.480 --> 0:17:51.560 I've always heard that as well, and I'm I'm curious 0:17:51.560 --> 0:17:53.880 where that came. Yeah, it is, it's got it has 0:17:54.000 --> 0:17:59.640 traction because it's just so delightful. Yeah. Yeah, going back 0:17:59.680 --> 0:18:03.760 to mid in the UK, that's when they passed the 0:18:03.760 --> 0:18:06.480 Public Health Act which stated that all new houses in 0:18:06.480 --> 0:18:10.560 the UK had to be built with a toilet. Very smart. Yeah, 0:18:10.880 --> 0:18:15.240 it's a great way of preserving your your various towns 0:18:15.240 --> 0:18:18.959 and cities from becoming overrun with filth. Right. But then, 0:18:19.200 --> 0:18:22.600 and this is still um in play today. There's a 0:18:22.600 --> 0:18:29.639 certain psychology around defecation, urination, expelling waste, right, and it 0:18:29.680 --> 0:18:34.720 can swing wildly from era to era. But at that time, 0:18:34.760 --> 0:18:38.760 in the mid nineteenth century, forcing the public to install 0:18:38.880 --> 0:18:43.240 indoor plumbing wasn't like the public was saying, yes, thank 0:18:43.320 --> 0:18:47.040 you government, we've been waiting to have to do this. 0:18:47.560 --> 0:18:50.320 It was more like, um, wait, you want us to 0:18:50.320 --> 0:18:53.480 put a toilet where next to the kitchen? What is 0:18:53.520 --> 0:18:56.400 wrong with you know? That's disgusting. We want to put 0:18:56.400 --> 0:18:59.600 this over in the back garden where you know, you know, 0:18:59.680 --> 0:19:02.440 and savor pot. It's mobile that we can put wherever 0:19:02.560 --> 0:19:05.000 and get rid of immediately, Like this is gross, Like 0:19:05.080 --> 0:19:06.800 you want us to hook it up to the sewer? 0:19:06.920 --> 0:19:09.040 What's wrong with you? Right? So there was like a 0:19:09.119 --> 0:19:15.440 certain amount of resistance to adopting this, whereas now, um, 0:19:15.520 --> 0:19:18.680 you know that's yeah, you want that, you want intoor plumbing, 0:19:19.359 --> 0:19:24.199 And it's based on the cultural attitudes toward expelling waste 0:19:24.240 --> 0:19:27.000 that that vary from time to time. Yeah, it's it's 0:19:27.040 --> 0:19:28.960 it's hard. I mean, it's very easy for us to 0:19:29.000 --> 0:19:32.120 start looking at everything from our current perspective, right, It's 0:19:32.200 --> 0:19:34.480 very difficult to take ourselves out of that. But you 0:19:34.480 --> 0:19:36.240 do have to do that when you start talking about 0:19:36.240 --> 0:19:40.080 subjects like this, because it was a different world. I 0:19:40.080 --> 0:19:43.960 mean that people thought differently, and for for reasons that 0:19:44.040 --> 0:19:46.040 you can kind of understand when you think about it. 0:19:46.520 --> 0:19:49.080 And you know, if you think, well, now I've got 0:19:49.119 --> 0:19:53.119 a thing that dumps waste into a sewer, but I 0:19:53.160 --> 0:19:56.000 don't want any of that smell or nastiness or anything 0:19:56.040 --> 0:19:58.760 to get into my home. When before I had a 0:19:58.800 --> 0:20:01.119 portable thing I could actu they take it outside and 0:20:01.200 --> 0:20:04.280 dump it in a cesspool or whatever. It wasn't there 0:20:04.320 --> 0:20:08.679 wasn't a big change. Plus plus, it's like that's mine poop. 0:20:09.480 --> 0:20:11.520 Yeah it's poop, but it's I know where that poop 0:20:11.560 --> 0:20:14.679 came from, Whereas with the sewer, everybody else's poop has 0:20:14.720 --> 0:20:17.399 the opportunity to come into your house, yeah, which you 0:20:17.440 --> 0:20:21.800 don't know, you didn't want, don't want that. Another interesting 0:20:21.840 --> 0:20:27.280 point is I've been talking exclusively about people inventors and 0:20:27.359 --> 0:20:31.639 engineers in the UK. Now, when settlers came over to America, 0:20:31.720 --> 0:20:34.840 they did not come over with plans for toilets, and 0:20:34.960 --> 0:20:38.840 so the toilet actually had a parallel evolution in the 0:20:38.920 --> 0:20:42.680 UK and in the United States evolved in isolation basically 0:20:42.720 --> 0:20:44.880 a little bit, yes, with a little bit. I mean 0:20:45.040 --> 0:20:48.480 they obviously had some common history there, but it was 0:20:48.960 --> 0:20:54.440 largely engineers in the US who created very similar style toilets. 0:20:54.480 --> 0:20:56.879 In some cases, they were toilets that were lagging behind 0:20:57.359 --> 0:21:01.320 the technology by about twenty years compared to the UK. 0:21:01.880 --> 0:21:04.080 But you had folks like James T. Henry and William 0:21:04.119 --> 0:21:06.119 Campbell who were awarded a U S patent for a 0:21:06.160 --> 0:21:10.560 water closet toilet. Um. And that's where we really see 0:21:10.600 --> 0:21:14.119 it moving forward from that point on and to the 0:21:14.160 --> 0:21:17.240 point where they essentially merged like the the You know 0:21:17.280 --> 0:21:20.639 that we saw the United States adopt things like the 0:21:20.800 --> 0:21:25.199 s trap uh, making the toilets more useful. Um, do 0:21:25.240 --> 0:21:28.679 you know when toilet paper was invented? Toilet paper was 0:21:28.760 --> 0:21:37.440 invented in ninety eight, I predate nine, and I distinctly 0:21:37.480 --> 0:21:42.560 remember toilet paper. You were off by almost a hundred 0:21:42.720 --> 0:21:46.480 years when toilet paper was invented, didn't They used to 0:21:46.520 --> 0:21:52.439 use the series Robot catalogus corn Cob. There's actually some 0:21:52.560 --> 0:21:57.040 poetry that I've read where there's a discussion a giant. 0:21:57.119 --> 0:21:59.040 I forget what poem it is, but there's a giant 0:21:59.160 --> 0:22:03.199 talking about all the different things he has used to 0:22:04.040 --> 0:22:10.320 clean himself after after evacuation, including I think he determined 0:22:10.320 --> 0:22:13.919 that the most comfortable was the neck of a goose? 0:22:14.440 --> 0:22:17.440 Oh that is nice. Yeah, not not for the goose, 0:22:17.560 --> 0:22:20.840 but yeah uh so yeah, a toilet paper was in 0:22:20.920 --> 0:22:24.560 an but not marketed heavily until nineteen o two, so 0:22:24.640 --> 0:22:27.239 for more than a decade. Yeah, it just kind of 0:22:27.280 --> 0:22:29.119 I was like, well, I mean, why we got the 0:22:29.160 --> 0:22:32.480 series robot catalog corn Cobs. How do you look around 0:22:32.520 --> 0:22:36.440 your house and say, oh, yeah, corn Cobs. That's a 0:22:36.480 --> 0:22:40.880 good idea idea. Yeah, sure it's got traction, but pay 0:22:40.920 --> 0:22:45.280 a price for that track. Yeah, I I hesitate to 0:22:45.560 --> 0:22:50.919 hazard a guess to be honest, idea, I'll try some 0:22:50.960 --> 0:22:54.800 geese at home. All right, okay, well I'd like to 0:22:54.840 --> 0:22:59.520 apologize on behalf of Josh's geese here, so I'd like 0:22:59.560 --> 0:23:02.399 to sent to you my apologies for giving him the idea. 0:23:02.560 --> 0:23:06.359 Let's talk about how a toilet actually works. Okay, alright, 0:23:06.440 --> 0:23:09.000 So you got your basic parts of the toilet. You've 0:23:09.040 --> 0:23:12.560 got the tank, You've got the bowl in which you 0:23:12.600 --> 0:23:16.040 do your business, and then you have the siphon the 0:23:16.280 --> 0:23:20.080 s trap area that where the waist goes once you flush, 0:23:20.160 --> 0:23:23.320 which is technically part of the bowl. Yeah, yeah, it's 0:23:23.359 --> 0:23:25.760 just it's easier to talk about it as separate parts. 0:23:25.800 --> 0:23:29.520 But yes, you aren't correct. So inside the tank you 0:23:29.640 --> 0:23:33.560 have the flush valve. This is the valve that allows 0:23:33.600 --> 0:23:36.040 water to flow out of the tank and into the bowl. 0:23:36.480 --> 0:23:39.199 So when you press down a handle, yeah, there's that 0:23:39.320 --> 0:23:42.520 handle is connected by chain to that flush valve. That's 0:23:42.560 --> 0:23:44.440 the thing that lifts up and lets the water from 0:23:44.520 --> 0:23:46.920 the tank into the bowl. Yeah. And once the water 0:23:47.040 --> 0:23:49.840 is flowing down, like for most toilets, you no longer 0:23:49.880 --> 0:23:53.600 have to hold the handle down because just the water itself. 0:23:53.680 --> 0:23:55.960 Once the valve is an open position, it will remain 0:23:56.000 --> 0:23:57.919 open until the water level is low enough for it 0:23:57.960 --> 0:24:00.760 to close again. Yeah, they make it. It's light enough 0:24:00.800 --> 0:24:05.359 to float, yeah, right, because it's overcome suction thanks to 0:24:05.480 --> 0:24:07.920 the handle um and it's floating there, and then as 0:24:07.920 --> 0:24:10.439 the water drains out, its ability to float stop, so 0:24:10.480 --> 0:24:14.240 it falls back into place. Ideally. Ideally, Yeah, there are 0:24:14.280 --> 0:24:16.920 times obviously, if you have issues where maybe there's a 0:24:17.000 --> 0:24:20.879 hinge that's all too tight, or there's something off with 0:24:20.920 --> 0:24:24.560 the sela of on the the valve, that you may 0:24:24.600 --> 0:24:27.400 have to have that replaced, because otherwise water just continuously 0:24:27.480 --> 0:24:31.280 flows into the bowl and it never accumulates in the tank. 0:24:31.480 --> 0:24:33.800 I found that most of the time it's because there's 0:24:33.800 --> 0:24:36.879 a little bit of extra chain that's keeping the flush 0:24:36.960 --> 0:24:43.000 valve from sitting in suction from from generating. Uh. You 0:24:43.000 --> 0:24:45.879 you also have a second valve inside the tank, the 0:24:45.880 --> 0:24:49.280 filler valve. The filler valve is what allows water to 0:24:49.359 --> 0:24:52.320 go into the tank as well as into the bowl 0:24:52.440 --> 0:24:57.240 after a flush, so uh it needs to it refills 0:24:57.240 --> 0:24:59.400 the tank after you flushed it. So you flushed the tank, 0:24:59.480 --> 0:25:03.280 the water from the filler valve will start to pour 0:25:03.320 --> 0:25:05.919 into the tank to refill it. Once that that flush 0:25:06.000 --> 0:25:09.520 valve has shut uh. Some of that water also will 0:25:09.520 --> 0:25:11.919 go into the bowl to bring the level back up 0:25:11.920 --> 0:25:16.840 to the proper height. And then you've got a filler float. 0:25:17.480 --> 0:25:20.560 This is a yeah, this is a brilliant idea. The 0:25:20.680 --> 0:25:23.399 idea is that the filler float will rise to a 0:25:23.440 --> 0:25:26.080 certain level within the tank, and once it's at the 0:25:26.119 --> 0:25:29.480 proper level, it will activate a switch then turns off 0:25:29.520 --> 0:25:32.480 the filler valve, so so that way you no longer 0:25:32.520 --> 0:25:35.040 have water running in your tank. If you ever hear 0:25:35.080 --> 0:25:38.359 water continuously running in your tank, it means that float 0:25:38.480 --> 0:25:40.760 is not activating the switch properly, and you may need 0:25:40.800 --> 0:25:44.239 to take the lid off, and see what's going on 0:25:44.280 --> 0:25:48.120 with that float. Maybe it's stuck on something, or it's 0:25:48.520 --> 0:25:50.880 you know, it's it's the switch might be burnt out, 0:25:50.920 --> 0:25:52.960 in which case you would need to have that switch replaced. 0:25:53.480 --> 0:25:56.840 But that's what's causing that or this again, the flush 0:25:56.880 --> 0:25:59.600 valve could be not seated, populion waters just rushing out, 0:25:59.640 --> 0:26:04.480 says filler valve. Balloon isn't getting to that level where 0:26:04.480 --> 0:26:07.120 it's supposed to. It can trip the filler valve from 0:26:07.119 --> 0:26:09.959 turning off again, right exactly. Yeah, that could be another 0:26:10.119 --> 0:26:12.920 another cause for it. But you don't have to fear 0:26:13.280 --> 0:26:16.040 because even if the water is running, your toilet will 0:26:16.200 --> 0:26:18.960 very likely not overflow because it's been designed so that 0:26:19.119 --> 0:26:22.199 as the tank fills, even if it keeps filling and 0:26:22.240 --> 0:26:26.040 filling and filling, it's going to the overflow um tube, 0:26:26.080 --> 0:26:29.600 I guess, is going to direct that into the bowl. Right, 0:26:29.680 --> 0:26:33.040 So any water that comes above the height of the 0:26:33.040 --> 0:26:36.440 overflow tube will just flow down the tube. The tube 0:26:36.520 --> 0:26:39.440 leads to the bowl and water will flow into the bowl. 0:26:39.480 --> 0:26:41.320 And then you think, wait, wait, wait that cause it 0:26:41.359 --> 0:26:44.800 to flush. Yes, surely somewhere this thing's got to flood. 0:26:45.119 --> 0:26:47.520 What's the deal. Why doesn't it all Right, that's when 0:26:47.520 --> 0:26:51.000 we get into the siphon where my head pops. Yeah, 0:26:51.040 --> 0:26:53.440 this is the sciphon gets a little for those who 0:26:53.640 --> 0:26:56.360 those of us who are many years away from basic physics, 0:26:56.680 --> 0:27:01.479 the scipen gets confusing. So the sciphon is designed so 0:27:01.520 --> 0:27:03.560 this is that that sort of upside down you or 0:27:03.600 --> 0:27:07.520 the s shaped pipe the top of that upside down 0:27:07.560 --> 0:27:11.000 you the peak there that's at the same level as 0:27:11.119 --> 0:27:13.960 what the toilet bowl, the level of water and your 0:27:13.960 --> 0:27:16.440 toilet bowl will be. Now if you were to pour 0:27:16.680 --> 0:27:20.280 more water into the toilet bowl, because there's there's just 0:27:20.320 --> 0:27:24.840 this open area between the siphon and the bowl. You know, 0:27:25.040 --> 0:27:27.760 putting more water in makes the water level rise on 0:27:27.800 --> 0:27:30.960 both sides, right, But if you're only putting in a 0:27:31.000 --> 0:27:33.720 little bit of water, that water will just rise up 0:27:33.760 --> 0:27:37.639 above the level of the bend and flow down the 0:27:37.680 --> 0:27:40.280 other side of the bend. Yeah, And and I should 0:27:40.359 --> 0:27:43.360 I want to point out that, um, this is your 0:27:43.400 --> 0:27:47.560 explanation is spot on, but would be exponentially easier if 0:27:47.600 --> 0:27:50.240 somebody were looking at a cross section of a toilet 0:27:50.320 --> 0:27:54.080 flushing s valve exactly. Yeah. Yeah, it would really drive 0:27:54.119 --> 0:27:56.520 at home. Yeah, because it's it's this is me trying 0:27:56.520 --> 0:27:59.439 to paint a picture of a toilet flush in words, 0:27:59.720 --> 0:28:03.359 yeah with physics. Yeah, so you've got you've got this 0:28:03.359 --> 0:28:05.359 this level here, and as long as the water is 0:28:05.400 --> 0:28:08.119 just flowing gently so for in other words, like a 0:28:08.160 --> 0:28:11.560 steady stream from the overflow too, then it's just going 0:28:11.640 --> 0:28:15.720 to gradually rise up til it hits above that you 0:28:15.800 --> 0:28:18.560 bend and then flow down the other side. And that's 0:28:18.600 --> 0:28:21.439 all that happens, because it's not it's not creating the 0:28:21.560 --> 0:28:25.320 siphon effect yet. Yes, So the water is in that 0:28:25.600 --> 0:28:28.520 in that s trap and in your toilet bowl, and 0:28:28.600 --> 0:28:31.480 on the other side of the siphon, in the tube 0:28:31.480 --> 0:28:35.439 that leads down to the sewer, that that air is 0:28:35.480 --> 0:28:38.600 imbalanced with the air that's in the toilet bowl, right, 0:28:38.680 --> 0:28:42.160 So you basically have air pressure balancing your water and 0:28:42.280 --> 0:28:44.920 keeping it in place. Yep, yep. And it's only if 0:28:44.960 --> 0:28:48.000 you were to fill that siphon, that s trap with 0:28:48.080 --> 0:28:51.800 water completely that that then things get out of balance. 0:28:51.840 --> 0:28:55.360 And here's where the siphon effect comes into play. So 0:28:56.080 --> 0:28:58.600 how does a siphon work all? Right? First of all, 0:28:58.640 --> 0:29:01.320 siphon's a bent tube you to move a liquid from 0:29:01.320 --> 0:29:05.960 a high evolution elevation rather over an obstruction and to 0:29:06.040 --> 0:29:10.320 a lower elevation. Done and done right. You could do 0:29:10.400 --> 0:29:13.720 this very easily by taking two cups, filling one cup 0:29:13.760 --> 0:29:17.200 with water, putting a couple of books down on a table. 0:29:17.640 --> 0:29:19.840 So you put the cup full of water on top 0:29:19.880 --> 0:29:22.200 of one of the set of books. Get a tube 0:29:22.520 --> 0:29:25.200 like flexible tube of some sort, submerge it in the 0:29:25.200 --> 0:29:27.479 water so that the tube fills with water. Put your 0:29:27.480 --> 0:29:30.239 thumb over one end of it, move it over to 0:29:30.600 --> 0:29:34.880 the other cup, which is on the source of the table. Yeah, 0:29:34.920 --> 0:29:36.960 make sure that the make sure that the end of 0:29:37.000 --> 0:29:39.479 the tube that you're holding ends up being lower than 0:29:39.520 --> 0:29:43.600 the level of water in the cup. Let go. Water 0:29:43.640 --> 0:29:46.920 will start to flow from the cup that's above to 0:29:47.040 --> 0:29:50.000 the cup that's blow even though the tube will arc 0:29:50.120 --> 0:29:53.000 so the water is technically flowing uphill. Yeah. It's a 0:29:53.080 --> 0:29:56.200 pretty neat Yeah. As long as the lower end of 0:29:56.200 --> 0:30:01.080 the tube going into the lower elevation glass um, as 0:30:01.120 --> 0:30:04.640 long as that is exposed to air, and as long 0:30:04.800 --> 0:30:07.640 as the end of the tube that's in the higher 0:30:07.680 --> 0:30:11.120 glass is under water, the air pressure in the tube 0:30:11.200 --> 0:30:14.640 is overcome and the suction effect takes place right. Well, 0:30:14.760 --> 0:30:17.080 kind of, except that the other. The tube in the 0:30:17.080 --> 0:30:19.280 lower elevation does not have to be above water. It 0:30:19.360 --> 0:30:21.600 can be. It can actually be completely submerged as well 0:30:21.640 --> 0:30:24.920 as long. What will happen is if the two water 0:30:25.040 --> 0:30:28.800 levels reach the same height uh and I mean same 0:30:28.840 --> 0:30:33.360 height relative to the table, then pressure is equalized and 0:30:33.400 --> 0:30:35.840 everything will everything is an equilibrium and water will stop 0:30:35.920 --> 0:30:40.840 to float. It's but as long as the elevated cup 0:30:41.120 --> 0:30:43.840 has a higher water level, water will continue to flow 0:30:43.920 --> 0:30:46.920 through that siphon. And the reason there are two reasons really. 0:30:47.000 --> 0:30:50.600 One is that water inside a chamber like that acts 0:30:50.640 --> 0:30:55.840 like a chain. It pulls itself along. The other reason 0:30:56.360 --> 0:31:00.480 is that you have I think of the the tube 0:31:00.480 --> 0:31:03.960 as an arc. Well, the tube that leads down to 0:31:04.040 --> 0:31:07.200 the lower elevation is longer. That side is longer than 0:31:07.240 --> 0:31:10.600 the side that's in the higher elevation. So the water 0:31:10.720 --> 0:31:14.440 that's in that part is heavier, and that weight is 0:31:14.480 --> 0:31:18.320 what's pulling water along inside the tube. And it's until 0:31:18.440 --> 0:31:21.680 until you hit equilibrium. So for a toilet to get 0:31:21.680 --> 0:31:24.360 it back to to the toilet example, and why it's 0:31:24.360 --> 0:31:28.560 important when you flush that water from the tank rushes 0:31:28.600 --> 0:31:31.080 into the bowl and it does so fast enough to 0:31:31.360 --> 0:31:35.960 completely fill the pipe that s trap. This activates the 0:31:36.000 --> 0:31:40.880 siphon effect, and the water pulls the waist and also 0:31:40.920 --> 0:31:43.320 all the rest of the water along with it through 0:31:43.400 --> 0:31:46.760 that s trap until it gets to a point where 0:31:46.960 --> 0:31:49.320 it has exhausted the amount of water that the tank 0:31:49.360 --> 0:31:52.360 has put into the bowl. And then air is introduced. 0:31:52.360 --> 0:31:54.920 And once air is introduced, the siphon effect stops. Right. 0:31:54.960 --> 0:31:58.400 So with a siphon, not only is the water flowing 0:31:58.400 --> 0:32:01.240 out of the bowl because there's so much water what 0:32:01.320 --> 0:32:04.840 about two or so gallons introduced to your toilet bowl 0:32:04.880 --> 0:32:09.000 in about three seconds that that siphon effect is produced 0:32:09.040 --> 0:32:11.960 in the s trap, right, Yeah, not only is that 0:32:12.000 --> 0:32:14.880 water flowing, it produces a type of suction, So the 0:32:14.880 --> 0:32:18.080 water in the bowl is sucked out and down the siphon. 0:32:18.600 --> 0:32:21.440 And then, yes, like you said, once the air is introduced, 0:32:21.440 --> 0:32:23.920 because the water and everything sucked out of the toilet bowl, 0:32:24.360 --> 0:32:27.600 the suction effect is cut off and everything goes back 0:32:27.640 --> 0:32:29.680 to the way it was before you flush the top. Right, 0:32:29.760 --> 0:32:32.400 that's when the filler valve can start to refill the 0:32:32.400 --> 0:32:34.720 bowl because now that there's no longer any more suction 0:32:34.800 --> 0:32:38.200 going on, the bowl water level can return back to 0:32:38.240 --> 0:32:40.880 what it was as well, And keep in mind that 0:32:41.000 --> 0:32:44.000 part of the s trap that you know you can't 0:32:44.040 --> 0:32:47.320 see because it's a solid pipe, but that also ends 0:32:47.400 --> 0:32:49.880 up filling to that same height as the water that's 0:32:49.920 --> 0:32:52.200 in the bowl. And then you're ready to go again 0:32:52.280 --> 0:32:54.600 once the tank its bowl anyway, Yeah, once you eat 0:32:54.640 --> 0:32:58.840 some kimchi yea. We talked about that before the podcast started. Um, 0:32:58.840 --> 0:33:00.920 but yeah, what other thing to keep in mind. You 0:33:01.000 --> 0:33:02.880 might say, well, why do we need a tank at all? 0:33:03.120 --> 0:33:07.120 Why not just have a water pipe going directly into 0:33:07.120 --> 0:33:09.640 the toilet and then when you flush, it just opens 0:33:09.680 --> 0:33:11.560 up a valve for a certain amount of time and 0:33:11.600 --> 0:33:15.040 it closes. And the reason is because unless you have 0:33:15.080 --> 0:33:18.600 insane water pressure in your house, you're not putting enough 0:33:18.640 --> 0:33:22.600 water in fast enough to fill that s trap completely 0:33:22.960 --> 0:33:25.640 to to activate the siphon effect. It's just going to 0:33:25.760 --> 0:33:29.920 trickle out like if your tank was overflowing exactly. So 0:33:30.160 --> 0:33:32.840 there's some buildings that I mean a lot of buildings 0:33:32.840 --> 0:33:36.840 that don't have UH tanks on their on their toilets, 0:33:36.880 --> 0:33:39.520 but that's because again they are directly connected to a 0:33:39.640 --> 0:33:43.840 very powerful water system, and thus you don't need a 0:33:43.880 --> 0:33:47.120 tank because the water pressure that's coming in is great 0:33:47.240 --> 0:33:51.040 enough to start that effect all by itself. Yeah, or 0:33:51.200 --> 0:33:54.240 sometimes it's even more terrifying noise than that. So that's 0:33:54.280 --> 0:33:57.800 your basic toilet, how your basic toilet works. But so 0:33:57.800 --> 0:34:01.560 glad we're past the siphon effect. Yeah, that's I feel 0:34:01.600 --> 0:34:03.880 like we just made it through the woods together. Now 0:34:03.920 --> 0:34:07.000 now we're going to go into the bright, gorgeous future 0:34:07.080 --> 0:34:12.120 of weird toilets. This is great. So let's talk Japanese 0:34:12.120 --> 0:34:14.600 toilets for a second. And I'm not talking about the ones, 0:34:14.680 --> 0:34:18.080 the trough ones, which we established. There are still some 0:34:18.200 --> 0:34:21.600 in Japan, and trough is one way to put it. 0:34:21.719 --> 0:34:27.000 More like, uh olyptical hole in the ground is another 0:34:27.040 --> 0:34:29.800 way you can describe it as well. On the floor. 0:34:29.920 --> 0:34:34.040 Yeah yeah, so yeah, you straddle and then squat and 0:34:34.080 --> 0:34:41.240 then evacuate and then and then evacuate, evacuate the area. 0:34:41.800 --> 0:34:43.160 Like I would just be like, I don't know if 0:34:43.160 --> 0:34:47.440 I did it right, and run one down the street. Um, 0:34:47.480 --> 0:34:49.440 like I can't read your language, and I'm so sorry. 0:34:49.680 --> 0:34:55.000 Just yeah, that's kind of how I hobably react. I mean, 0:34:55.040 --> 0:34:57.880 I am, I'm being honest here, But no, the Japanese toilets, 0:34:57.920 --> 0:35:02.719 the the more western style ones have features many of 0:35:02.719 --> 0:35:06.400 them have features on them that put our Western toilets 0:35:06.440 --> 0:35:09.480 to shame. Hey, guys, hope you're enjoying this classic episode 0:35:09.480 --> 0:35:11.960 of tech stuff. Before we get into the final section, 0:35:12.040 --> 0:35:22.400 let's take another quick break to thank our sponsor. So 0:35:22.480 --> 0:35:26.320 let's talk about some of the features toilets. Sorry, do 0:35:26.640 --> 0:35:29.160 you want? Do you have a favorite out of all 0:35:29.160 --> 0:35:33.000 of them? The air dry air dry, that's pretty amazing. 0:35:33.120 --> 0:35:38.760 I'm big on the sound masking. Yeah, they they they offer. 0:35:39.000 --> 0:35:41.720 Most Japanese toilets that have all the bells and whistles 0:35:42.080 --> 0:35:47.279 offer a sound masking feature that's a flushing toilet. Yeah. 0:35:47.400 --> 0:35:50.359 Some of them now have also classical music, but which 0:35:50.440 --> 0:35:55.640 makes some white noise. I actually did a brain Stuff 0:35:55.640 --> 0:35:58.960 episode about what white noises and how it works. You 0:35:58.040 --> 0:36:02.200 should for superious. But yeah, it's the that those are 0:36:02.239 --> 0:36:04.360 so two of the very simple ones. But it also 0:36:04.520 --> 0:36:08.600 tends to have a couple of different options for washing 0:36:08.680 --> 0:36:11.840 your nether regions once you are finished. Yes, and depending 0:36:11.880 --> 0:36:15.040 on your gender, um, you should, I should say, depending 0:36:15.040 --> 0:36:18.400 on your sex, you should be very careful what option 0:36:18.520 --> 0:36:21.160 you choose when you're in Japan. Yeah, the day would 0:36:21.200 --> 0:36:28.480 be aimed for you know, ladies. And then you have 0:36:28.560 --> 0:36:31.239 rear washing, which is for you know, everyone, depending upon 0:36:31.280 --> 0:36:35.640 what activities you've got up to on that bathroom. Um, 0:36:35.719 --> 0:36:39.120 and uh, yeah, so there's usually there's a picture of 0:36:39.160 --> 0:36:41.920 like a icon that looks kind of like a butt 0:36:42.680 --> 0:36:45.759 with some sort of stream of something directed at it 0:36:45.800 --> 0:36:48.959 that would be for washing your rear. The day usually 0:36:49.040 --> 0:36:52.799 has a icon of a lady somewhere on it, like 0:36:52.840 --> 0:36:55.920 there's a ponytail involved, Yeah, something like that to indicate 0:36:55.960 --> 0:37:00.000 what that was for. And uh, if you're wondering, like, well, 0:37:00.000 --> 0:37:02.120 ait a minute, I'm this sounds like this could be 0:37:02.239 --> 0:37:07.640 really unhygienic. The Japanese are very concerned with clean ling 0:37:08.719 --> 0:37:13.719 and so these are nozzles that are usually hidden away 0:37:13.840 --> 0:37:15.880 from the inside of the toilet bolts. Only when you 0:37:15.920 --> 0:37:17.880 press the button that they get there's like essentially a 0:37:17.920 --> 0:37:20.279 door that opens and the novel can come out. And 0:37:20.360 --> 0:37:24.920 they have nozzle sterilization technology to clean them between uses. 0:37:25.840 --> 0:37:28.680 And so yeah, they usually have buttons where you also 0:37:28.719 --> 0:37:30.800 have to like a stop button, so if you press 0:37:30.840 --> 0:37:33.480 one of these, it essentially goes until you tell it 0:37:33.520 --> 0:37:36.200 to stop. Yeah. And the person who wrote this, um 0:37:36.480 --> 0:37:40.600 this how to use a Japanese toilet post points out 0:37:40.640 --> 0:37:44.439 that before you choose either of these options, you want 0:37:44.480 --> 0:37:49.279 to press the stream power down as as low as 0:37:49.320 --> 0:37:51.360 it will go to start, and then you can adjust 0:37:51.400 --> 0:37:55.280 it upwards. Um. Here, she says that at the normal 0:37:55.320 --> 0:37:59.120 setting is equivalent to about a water pick, which on 0:37:59.320 --> 0:38:04.440 your you're done, you're junk. That's not good, that's really, 0:38:04.760 --> 0:38:08.080 that's terrible. It might come as a big surprise for 0:38:08.160 --> 0:38:12.479 that to to hit certain sensitive varia. Yeah, so yeah, 0:38:12.600 --> 0:38:14.319 it's setting it low and this. Some of them also 0:38:14.400 --> 0:38:17.560 have controls for the temperature of the water, not to 0:38:17.600 --> 0:38:21.160 mention the temperature of the seat. Uh. Some also, like 0:38:21.200 --> 0:38:23.640 you mentioned, have the air drying so that after you 0:38:23.680 --> 0:38:28.279 have had your rear washed, air dry it, which I mean, like, yes, 0:38:28.360 --> 0:38:31.040 that's cool, there's like the days and rear washing all 0:38:31.040 --> 0:38:33.560 that stuff, but you're not gonna stand up right afterwards. 0:38:33.960 --> 0:38:35.880 Just be what you have to have the air dryer. 0:38:35.920 --> 0:38:38.480 That's why, I mean, that's the best part. I agree, 0:38:38.560 --> 0:38:40.440 I agree. I mean, if if you're going to have 0:38:41.160 --> 0:38:43.239 these other features, you really knew do need the air 0:38:43.320 --> 0:38:44.920 dryer or else you're just like, well, I guess I'll 0:38:44.960 --> 0:38:47.719 be sitting here for a couple more minutes before I 0:38:47.800 --> 0:38:51.600 dare move. Another interesting thing to me about the Japanese 0:38:51.680 --> 0:38:55.080 culture um and it makes perfect sense. I totally understand it. 0:38:55.560 --> 0:38:58.920 But you know, in Japan, shoes are really considered to 0:38:58.960 --> 0:39:02.400 be quite dirty. That's one of the dirtiest pieces of 0:39:02.440 --> 0:39:05.680 clothing that people have. So it's customary, of course to 0:39:05.680 --> 0:39:08.080 take your shoes off and slip into house slippers before 0:39:08.080 --> 0:39:11.279 moving going into a house. Absolutely, bathrooms have their own 0:39:11.320 --> 0:39:14.319 sets of slippers, and it is quite a faux pod 0:39:14.440 --> 0:39:16.560 to mix the two together. Oh yeah, if you were 0:39:16.600 --> 0:39:19.319 to step out of a bathroom wearing bathroom slippers, you 0:39:19.320 --> 0:39:22.240 would shock people, especially if you did like a little 0:39:22.320 --> 0:39:26.400 dance like I'm American. Oh yeah, don't come on, and 0:39:26.440 --> 0:39:29.560 you can. You can usually tell the bathroom slippers um 0:39:29.600 --> 0:39:32.440 from they They have almost like a bit of a 0:39:32.480 --> 0:39:35.480 waterproof look to them. Usually they're a little shinier. They're 0:39:35.480 --> 0:39:39.360 made of they're not like um cloth. Usually they you 0:39:39.880 --> 0:39:45.320 could tell just using your your noodle compared to house slippers. 0:39:45.640 --> 0:39:51.160 You'd be like, these are probably the bathroom slipper toilet slippers. 0:39:51.280 --> 0:39:53.360 Or they might be brightly colored and you think no 0:39:53.400 --> 0:39:56.160 one would ever wear these anywhere else, or so maybe 0:39:56.160 --> 0:39:58.319 they have a poop emogy on them. It could be 0:39:58.600 --> 0:40:01.680 those are popular. Another feature you might find on the 0:40:01.680 --> 0:40:05.160 toilets is a deodorizer button. Yeah, also kind of interesting. 0:40:05.239 --> 0:40:07.560 So I found a toilet if I may give a plug, 0:40:07.600 --> 0:40:10.200 Even though I should say I have no financial interest 0:40:10.280 --> 0:40:13.239 whatsoever in the Cohler company, but I have become a 0:40:13.239 --> 0:40:17.400 fan of their new me uh toilet. Oh yeah, I 0:40:18.800 --> 0:40:21.520 can't even begin to describe it. It's just so neat 0:40:21.560 --> 0:40:24.440 as far as the design goes. Um. Just go to 0:40:24.840 --> 0:40:27.239 just look for the new me toilet and U M 0:40:27.280 --> 0:40:29.840 I um. But one of the things they have is 0:40:30.320 --> 0:40:35.040 a deodorizer. It's like, um, basically a little vent where 0:40:35.080 --> 0:40:38.640 the the the odor is sucked in and run through 0:40:38.640 --> 0:40:43.879 a charcoal filter. Nice. Yeah yeah, I mean I when 0:40:43.880 --> 0:40:46.560 I read about the Japanese toilets, obviously there's some some 0:40:46.760 --> 0:40:49.400 humor that comes in that just from the cultural differences 0:40:49.480 --> 0:40:52.239 things like that, and which can seem very funny. But 0:40:52.280 --> 0:40:55.399 at the same time, I am incredibly envious. I would 0:40:55.480 --> 0:40:57.520 love to have a lot of these features building two 0:40:57.520 --> 0:41:01.560 American toilets. Uh. There are there are some moves to 0:41:01.680 --> 0:41:04.560 improve toilet technology in various ways. Some of it is 0:41:04.719 --> 0:41:08.760 a conservation trying to find low flush toilets that'll still 0:41:08.800 --> 0:41:13.359 activate the siphoning UH technique, but not use as much 0:41:13.440 --> 0:41:16.279 water and a go very important. Did you see the 0:41:16.320 --> 0:41:20.640 no mixed toilet I did? Yeah, the the one that 0:41:20.719 --> 0:41:23.960 has met It has kind of like a ledge and 0:41:23.960 --> 0:41:28.359 and filter for UH urine and then behind that would 0:41:28.400 --> 0:41:33.279 be where Yeah, it's it's meant so that when you 0:41:33.680 --> 0:41:35.600 when you just have to urinate, you don't have to 0:41:35.640 --> 0:41:38.040 flush the toilet. Yeah, it doesn't flush at all, and 0:41:38.080 --> 0:41:41.520 as a matter of fact, it collects the urine UM. 0:41:41.640 --> 0:41:44.400 And one of the reasons why the company that originally 0:41:44.440 --> 0:41:48.239 started making no mixed toilet stop making them is because well, 0:41:48.320 --> 0:41:50.400 number one, they didn't catch on very well, there's a 0:41:50.440 --> 0:41:55.759 lot of hesitancy UM. But the another reason is they 0:41:56.000 --> 0:42:00.000 they didn't quite have the infrastructure to collect the urine 0:42:00.080 --> 0:42:04.719 separately and send it off. Although environmentally speaking, it makes 0:42:04.719 --> 0:42:09.080 a lot of sense to separate urine from feces, especially 0:42:09.680 --> 0:42:12.960 UH and not flush urine because when you flush urine, 0:42:12.960 --> 0:42:16.279 you're introducing a lot of other stuff besides just the urine, 0:42:16.719 --> 0:42:21.640 Like if you are on pharmaceuticals, those a lot of 0:42:21.640 --> 0:42:25.359 that stuff is expelled and metabolized and expelled in your 0:42:25.480 --> 0:42:28.759 urine and it gets introduced into wet land areas and 0:42:28.800 --> 0:42:30.520 things like that, and all of a sudden you have 0:42:30.560 --> 0:42:34.000 frogs that are like have roid rage or something, uh, 0:42:34.160 --> 0:42:37.680 you know, or that like a rubbing themselves against walls 0:42:37.800 --> 0:42:41.520 because you took too much ecstasy the night before. Yeah, 0:42:41.560 --> 0:42:44.600 I mean, well, yeah, anything you're taking into yours, anything 0:42:44.600 --> 0:42:47.200 you're gonna excrete spin filtered through your kidneys, you're going 0:42:47.239 --> 0:42:51.520 to have some some other elements in there too, consumed. 0:42:51.880 --> 0:42:55.680 But so the nomaxed toilet collects this urine and sends 0:42:55.719 --> 0:42:59.160 it off for separate recycling. And then if you're really hardcore, 0:42:59.680 --> 0:43:03.400 you know Granola or your city is, then maybe it 0:43:03.480 --> 0:43:06.319 gets recycled into water and you drink that and pee 0:43:06.320 --> 0:43:09.800 it out again and again it becomes a closed loop. Yeah, 0:43:09.840 --> 0:43:12.839 and we've talked about that on Forward Thinking. We talked 0:43:12.880 --> 0:43:16.560 about that with systems aboard UM, the International Space Station 0:43:16.840 --> 0:43:20.239 ways of water reclamation, so that I mean, obviously, if 0:43:20.280 --> 0:43:22.160 you are in an area where you get very little 0:43:22.160 --> 0:43:25.239 water or it's very difficult to ship water to you, 0:43:25.239 --> 0:43:27.200 you have to make the best use of all the 0:43:27.239 --> 0:43:30.440 resources you have. Uh. There's some other things we can 0:43:30.480 --> 0:43:35.640 talk about as far as toilet advances, smart toilets, so 0:43:36.640 --> 0:43:39.399 sensor technology has gotten to the point now where it's 0:43:39.440 --> 0:43:46.200 it's very inexpensive, it's versatile, waterproof, It's entirely possible to 0:43:46.360 --> 0:43:52.400 design sensors that could uh measure your waste and and 0:43:52.760 --> 0:43:57.759 come up with actual information that could be relevant to 0:43:57.800 --> 0:44:01.840 your health. So I've also interesting examples like the idea 0:44:01.880 --> 0:44:04.680 of a sensor that could be an early pregnancy detection 0:44:05.120 --> 0:44:09.520 by detecting changing hormone levels. Um, it might analyze your 0:44:09.520 --> 0:44:13.000 wayte detect the bacterial infection, so it might tell you. 0:44:13.160 --> 0:44:15.200 It might even send you an indication saying you know, 0:44:15.280 --> 0:44:16.799 you need to take it easy for a little while, 0:44:16.880 --> 0:44:18.600 or maybe even you need to go see a doctor. 0:44:19.920 --> 0:44:23.680 With the right kind of software, you and this is 0:44:23.719 --> 0:44:25.799 not hard to do at all. You could even have 0:44:25.880 --> 0:44:28.840 one that could send a notification to your doctor, or 0:44:29.000 --> 0:44:34.080 even go further, have one that's linked to your doctor's 0:44:34.160 --> 0:44:38.040 calendar and your calendar and even create an appointment for you, 0:44:38.960 --> 0:44:41.440 so your toilet has all that for you. It's it's possible. 0:44:41.440 --> 0:44:45.520 It's not something that we're necessarily seeing everywhere, but it's possible. 0:44:45.520 --> 0:44:49.040 I could see some problems with this though, well, yeah, 0:44:49.120 --> 0:44:52.080 I mean, like, first of all, there's a real hesitancy 0:44:52.120 --> 0:44:56.160 by people to especially put their medical records out there, 0:44:56.239 --> 0:45:00.560 their health data. UM. I feel like those as as 0:45:00.680 --> 0:45:05.960 the advantages are the benefits of allowing the Internet of 0:45:06.040 --> 0:45:08.880 things or that that level of tech into our lives, 0:45:09.040 --> 0:45:13.120 especially with health um become obvious to more people, the 0:45:13.239 --> 0:45:16.279 more just relaxed everybody's going to become. I mean, think 0:45:16.280 --> 0:45:21.480 about it, five ten years ago, say five, the putting 0:45:21.520 --> 0:45:25.080 your credit card into a website to order something was 0:45:25.160 --> 0:45:27.760 still like really sketch you to a lot of people, 0:45:28.360 --> 0:45:31.400 And now enough people have done it that it's just 0:45:32.320 --> 0:45:35.560 it's just whatever. That's the norm. Yeah, right, And I 0:45:35.600 --> 0:45:39.080 think health our health information is going to go that 0:45:39.160 --> 0:45:41.359 same way. I can see that. The only thing I 0:45:41.400 --> 0:45:45.239 see as uh possible, well not the only thing, but 0:45:45.280 --> 0:45:47.200 one of the things I see is an impediment to 0:45:47.239 --> 0:45:52.560 this is how do you identify the person who is 0:45:52.719 --> 0:45:56.040 using the toilet at any given situations? So, for example, Josh, 0:45:56.120 --> 0:45:58.880 let's say I have you over and you need to 0:45:58.960 --> 0:46:02.880 use my restroom, and unbeknownst to me, you are carrying 0:46:02.920 --> 0:46:07.400 around a really awful bacterial infection that's poised to wreak 0:46:07.400 --> 0:46:10.960 havoc in your system. And so as you use my 0:46:11.040 --> 0:46:13.520 restroom and you flushed the toilet, it analyzes it and 0:46:13.560 --> 0:46:16.200 suddenly thinks that Jonathan has gotten really sick. Next thing 0:46:16.200 --> 0:46:18.040 I know, my doctor is calling me. Now I know 0:46:18.080 --> 0:46:22.200 about your health condition. Yeah, that's that's a very good point. Um. 0:46:22.239 --> 0:46:27.359 I would guess then if if toilets are analyzing us 0:46:28.080 --> 0:46:32.480 our health personally, then a toilet itself will become a 0:46:32.560 --> 0:46:36.280 much more personal thing. So maybe I have a dumb 0:46:36.360 --> 0:46:41.200 toilet as my guest toilet, and then my smart toilet 0:46:41.239 --> 0:46:44.440 is the only one that's in my master bathroom. Or 0:46:44.840 --> 0:46:48.920 here's another thing, Stop me if I sound crazy, stop 0:46:49.360 --> 0:46:55.319 You've got a biometric authentication system for your toilet where 0:46:55.360 --> 0:46:58.000 you have to scan like a thumb print or a 0:46:58.280 --> 0:47:03.200 retinal scant identify you before using it. Thus you can't 0:47:03.280 --> 0:47:07.799 possibly confuse to people, and you cannot flush until you 0:47:07.840 --> 0:47:11.080 have identified yourself. That's a good one. No, that's a 0:47:11.480 --> 0:47:13.239 I mean, it makes sense. My my wife and I 0:47:13.320 --> 0:47:18.919 have um an aria uh scale. Oh yeah right, it's 0:47:18.960 --> 0:47:22.520 like fitbit um and it can easily tell us apart. 0:47:23.160 --> 0:47:25.719 But because I mean, it just determines like wait and 0:47:25.760 --> 0:47:28.280 all that stuff. Um, so it can it can easily 0:47:28.280 --> 0:47:31.239 tell us apart. But you know, maybe the seat does 0:47:31.280 --> 0:47:34.200 detect by weight, or there is some other detail about 0:47:34.200 --> 0:47:36.880 you that just by sitting on the toilet, uh, it 0:47:37.000 --> 0:47:40.239 says this is Jonathan or this is not This is 0:47:40.320 --> 0:47:43.879 someone who's broken into Jonathan's house to use this toil. Right, well, 0:47:43.880 --> 0:47:47.719 that would be another thing using your bathroom. Should I 0:47:47.760 --> 0:47:51.799 lock the door? Yes, and turn on bathroom webcam? Right? Yeah, 0:47:51.800 --> 0:47:54.839 there you go. And also the you know, deodorized, let's 0:47:54.840 --> 0:47:58.680 just go ahead and be suffe. So there are other 0:47:59.360 --> 0:48:03.080 potential old dangers, and one of those hacking. So there's 0:48:03.080 --> 0:48:06.920 already a story about a smart toilet hacking uh situation 0:48:06.920 --> 0:48:10.400 which happened back in two thousand thirteen. Ours Technica reported that, 0:48:10.480 --> 0:48:15.799 according to security firm trust Wave, the Enacts Status automatic 0:48:15.880 --> 0:48:19.120 toilet had a Bluetooth security vulnerability and it was a 0:48:19.160 --> 0:48:23.360 doozy so to speak. So the you know, when you 0:48:23.440 --> 0:48:29.640 pair to bluetooth capable technologies together, you generally have some 0:48:29.680 --> 0:48:32.400 sort of code that jet to put in in order 0:48:32.440 --> 0:48:34.600 to pair them. Not always, but a lot of them do. 0:48:35.239 --> 0:48:39.640 And the problem was they had hardwired the same master 0:48:39.800 --> 0:48:42.200 code in all of these toilets, and it was just 0:48:42.440 --> 0:48:46.839 zero zero zero zero, right, So any app for this 0:48:46.920 --> 0:48:50.200 toilet compare with any toilet just from being in the 0:48:50.280 --> 0:48:53.880 same area. Right, So if you are within bluetooth distance, 0:48:53.920 --> 0:48:57.480 which is pretty decent, I mean, you don't it's not 0:48:57.640 --> 0:49:01.319 that far, but it's not know, it's it's not like 0:49:01.360 --> 0:49:04.640 you could do it from two fifty feet away necessarily, 0:49:05.040 --> 0:49:07.799 But if you're close enough, like within the building or 0:49:07.880 --> 0:49:10.000 on the on the side of it or whatever, you 0:49:10.000 --> 0:49:13.480 can totally pair your phone with the toilet inside and 0:49:13.600 --> 0:49:16.680 essentially hijack someone's toilet, which you know you might think, well, 0:49:16.719 --> 0:49:19.719 why could you do? Well, this thing had the ability 0:49:19.760 --> 0:49:22.839 to open and close via a command on your phone, 0:49:22.840 --> 0:49:24.520 so that way you didn't have to touch the toilet seat. 0:49:25.320 --> 0:49:27.560 It also allows you to control things like the bidet 0:49:27.800 --> 0:49:32.319 or the rear washing uh nozzles, so you could you 0:49:32.320 --> 0:49:34.879 could turn it on like you could turn on one 0:49:34.880 --> 0:49:37.480 of those nozzles when no one's on the toilet and 0:49:37.480 --> 0:49:40.399 start flooding their bathroom, or you can do it when 0:49:40.440 --> 0:49:42.879 you realize someone's just gone into the bathroom and they 0:49:42.920 --> 0:49:44.960 haven't even really started yet. You could do it then 0:49:45.000 --> 0:49:49.080 and just laugh at the hilarious or close the toilet 0:49:49.120 --> 0:49:53.160 seat while they're mid you know activity, you know, you know, 0:49:53.200 --> 0:49:56.040 it's ironic about using an app on your phone to 0:49:56.320 --> 0:49:58.960 open and close the toilet seat. Would it be that 0:49:59.040 --> 0:50:01.440 the phone surface, this is the dirtiest sertency come in 0:50:01.480 --> 0:50:06.120 contact with. Yeah, I thought that might be where you 0:50:06.160 --> 0:50:09.000 were going with that. Yeah, guys, if you didn't know, 0:50:09.440 --> 0:50:13.080 if you have smartphones, got touchscreen, hits filthy. It's about 0:50:13.160 --> 0:50:16.359 the dirtiest thing you probably come into contact within any day, 0:50:16.360 --> 0:50:19.680 including the toilets. Yeah. Yeah. The one thing that might 0:50:20.160 --> 0:50:24.279 be uh, you know, a good competitor with that would 0:50:24.320 --> 0:50:26.480 be a keyboard. If you use a keyboard on a 0:50:26.560 --> 0:50:31.279 daily basis, that's probably pretty gross too. Yeah. So what's 0:50:31.320 --> 0:50:33.719 in the future for toilet's Probably we will see some 0:50:33.800 --> 0:50:37.480 more of these, uh these things that are common now 0:50:37.520 --> 0:50:40.120 in Japanese toilets kind of filter their way through to 0:50:40.239 --> 0:50:44.480 other ones. I imagine we'll see more moves to conserve water. 0:50:44.800 --> 0:50:47.000 It may even mean that we end up moving away 0:50:47.000 --> 0:50:50.560 from the siphon model and find a different model to 0:50:51.200 --> 0:50:54.040 deal with waste so that it does it's not reliant 0:50:54.120 --> 0:50:58.200 upon creating enough water to create this section, we'll have 0:50:58.239 --> 0:51:02.720 to wait and see. Uh, but we have to thank 0:51:03.120 --> 0:51:07.680 the brilliant men and women who came before us forging 0:51:07.719 --> 0:51:12.719 the path to make incredibly useful piece of technology, and 0:51:12.800 --> 0:51:16.200 also hope that we can continue to strive to get 0:51:16.239 --> 0:51:19.920 it to more people so that we can improve the 0:51:20.000 --> 0:51:24.360 quality of life for folks who who otherwise are in 0:51:24.960 --> 0:51:29.640 pretty rough you know, circumstances when obviously when cultures are 0:51:29.680 --> 0:51:34.440 going to adopt it. So, Josh, thank you so much 0:51:34.440 --> 0:51:36.440 for joining me on the sand. Thank you for having me. 0:51:36.520 --> 0:51:38.799 This was a joy. It was fun. It was fun. 0:51:38.840 --> 0:51:41.680 I'm glad we were able to talk about this in 0:51:41.719 --> 0:51:44.080 a mature way with only a few terrible jokes on 0:51:44.120 --> 0:51:48.840 my end, relatively mature. We did pretty juvenile at times, 0:51:48.880 --> 0:51:54.040 but mostly maure uh. Of course, listeners, you can find 0:51:54.160 --> 0:51:57.920 Josh at the Stuff You Should Know podcast, which is 0:51:58.640 --> 0:52:02.600 the granddaddy of all the stuff podcast. Fantastic. I mean 0:52:02.640 --> 0:52:06.000 it's it's the oldest podcast that's still running from How 0:52:06.040 --> 0:52:10.719 Stuff Works and is uh fantastic. Guys, I gotta thank 0:52:10.840 --> 0:52:13.600 Josh Clark one more time for joining me on that 0:52:13.719 --> 0:52:18.759 classic episode. We talked a lot about all sorts of technologies, 0:52:18.800 --> 0:52:22.080 you know, since we recorded that, I actually got to 0:52:22.280 --> 0:52:25.440 travel to Scotland and I got to go to Scara 0:52:25.520 --> 0:52:30.320 Bray and I got to see the oldest flushing toilets 0:52:30.680 --> 0:52:34.320 in Europe. It was pretty amazing. I thought it was 0:52:34.400 --> 0:52:40.200 a great trip, not crappy at all. Anyway, if you 0:52:40.239 --> 0:52:43.080 guys enjoyed this episode, please let me know. Maybe there 0:52:43.080 --> 0:52:46.560 are other special classics that I should pull up. Because 0:52:46.920 --> 0:52:48.960 it's been hundreds of episodes and a lot of you 0:52:49.000 --> 0:52:51.440 may not have heard them. But if you have suggestions 0:52:51.440 --> 0:52:54.200 for future topics that I should tackle on this show, 0:52:54.520 --> 0:52:57.200 give me a shout, send me an email. The addresses 0:52:57.280 --> 0:53:00.399 tech Stuff at how stuff works dot com, or drop 0:53:00.480 --> 0:53:02.560 me a line on Facebook or Twitter. The handle for 0:53:02.640 --> 0:53:05.759 both of those is text stuff h s W. Don't 0:53:05.800 --> 0:53:07.960 forget we have an Instagram account and you can go 0:53:08.040 --> 0:53:10.839 follow that and you can watch me record shows live 0:53:10.920 --> 0:53:15.960 on Wednesdays and Friday's at twitch dot tv slash tech Stuff. 0:53:16.320 --> 0:53:17.840 I hope to see you there and I'll talk to 0:53:17.880 --> 0:53:26.680 you again really soon. For more on this and thousands 0:53:26.680 --> 0:53:38.800 of other topics. Is it how staff works dot com.