WEBVTT - How Porta-Potties Work 0:00:00.680 --> 0:00:08.080 San Francisco, the s by s K Tree, Yes, San Francisco, Oakland, 0:00:08.360 --> 0:00:11.360 the entire Bay area and dare I say, all of 0:00:11.400 --> 0:00:14.760 Silicon Valley. Yeah, we love you. And we're coming back 0:00:14.800 --> 0:00:17.680 to Sketch Fest this year in January. Yeah, we're gonna 0:00:17.720 --> 0:00:20.800 be there on Sunday, January fift at one pm, a 0:00:21.000 --> 0:00:25.440 very rare afternoon show. Uh, and we will be ready 0:00:25.480 --> 0:00:27.680 to go. So you guys better be drunk from the 0:00:27.760 --> 0:00:30.600 night before or getting drunk for that evening. Yeah, however 0:00:30.640 --> 0:00:33.320 it crosses over, I think it'll be proof positive that 0:00:33.560 --> 0:00:38.920 uh we endorse afternoon drinking, you know, yeah, you know, 0:00:39.000 --> 0:00:42.120 a couple of drinks, maybe i'd be bloody Mary. What 0:00:42.240 --> 0:00:45.120 were we talking about. Oh, yeah, we're promoting our show. Oh, 0:00:45.120 --> 0:00:48.080 that's right, So we're doing that show on January. Uh. 0:00:48.120 --> 0:00:50.559 You can go to the s F Sketch Fest website 0:00:50.560 --> 0:00:54.280 to get tickets and it's awesome. It's a great, great 0:00:54.760 --> 0:00:58.080 comedy festival. Lots of awesome shows that weekend and for 0:00:58.120 --> 0:01:02.360 the following weeks. So I encourage you, like to buy 0:01:02.400 --> 0:01:05.280 lots of tickets just by arts first. Yeah, and hurry, hurry, 0:01:05.280 --> 0:01:07.960 because they're selling out fast, no joke. That's not a ploy. 0:01:08.080 --> 0:01:11.600 It's not as a marketing ploy. No, they're really selling fast. 0:01:11.640 --> 0:01:14.399 We get emails every time. Guys, you told me to hurry, 0:01:14.440 --> 0:01:18.440 I didn't hurry. I'm shut out. And since this promos 0:01:18.480 --> 0:01:23.200 petered out, it ends right now. Welcome to Stuff you 0:01:23.240 --> 0:01:32.280 Should Know from house Stuff Works dot com. Hey, and 0:01:32.319 --> 0:01:35.200 welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. There's Charles W 0:01:35.520 --> 0:01:43.400 Chuck Bryant, Jerry Master, Ace Roland. Uh, and this is 0:01:43.440 --> 0:01:47.600 stuff you should Know. Yeah. Poopy addition, this one's gonna 0:01:47.640 --> 0:01:52.080 get disgusting. Yeah, I mean, I don't think you need 0:01:52.120 --> 0:01:55.520 trigger warnings when the title of the episode is got 0:01:55.520 --> 0:01:58.040 porta potty in it. But um, we'll just throw it 0:01:58.080 --> 0:02:01.120 out there. We're gonna be talking about poop and pea 0:02:01.280 --> 0:02:06.400 and so if you're having lunch, maybe just put that 0:02:07.360 --> 0:02:15.520 chili dog down gag easily, Yeah, you know, sure, Yeah, Okay, 0:02:15.560 --> 0:02:18.320 we'll check. I don't think we can put it off 0:02:18.360 --> 0:02:22.480 any longer, you know that kind of beat it out. Um. 0:02:22.520 --> 0:02:25.960 I kind of like how this article actually starts though, 0:02:26.919 --> 0:02:29.840 by Dave Ruse. He talks about the taste of Chicago. 0:02:30.240 --> 0:02:33.520 Was this a rug jam? Yes? It is good. So 0:02:33.600 --> 0:02:35.560 he talks about how if you go to the Taste 0:02:35.560 --> 0:02:38.799 of Chicago. Right every every July they hold it at 0:02:38.840 --> 0:02:42.720 the Grant Park alongside the Lake. When was our show there, 0:02:42.720 --> 0:02:46.359 by the way, was that July? No, it was chillier 0:02:46.360 --> 0:02:49.040 than that. I think it was October. Okay, they had 0:02:49.080 --> 0:02:52.320 something had happened in Grant Park because I remember seeing 0:02:53.560 --> 0:02:56.000 hundreds and hundreds of porta potties on the drive in. 0:02:56.720 --> 0:02:59.480 Oh really, yeah, so something they just always have them there, 0:03:00.000 --> 0:03:05.480 don't think so. Okay, Well, for the Taste of Chicago, 0:03:05.520 --> 0:03:08.000 they definitely have Porter potties, in fact for two thousand 0:03:07.960 --> 0:03:10.720 and fourteen, and we should say there's like a million 0:03:10.760 --> 0:03:12.840 people that come through this thing over the course of 0:03:12.880 --> 0:03:16.160 the weeks. It really is. Have you ever been to 0:03:16.200 --> 0:03:20.880 Atlanta's Taste of Anything? Uh? No, I haven't either. I 0:03:20.880 --> 0:03:23.519 don't think it's I don't think a million people show 0:03:23.600 --> 0:03:25.799 up for it. It makes me want to go try 0:03:25.880 --> 0:03:30.560 Chicago's um But so you've got a million people. UM 0:03:30.840 --> 0:03:34.200 and Service Sanitation, Inc. Which is the company that landed 0:03:34.240 --> 0:03:37.520 the Porter potty contract crunch the numbers. Looked at the 0:03:37.560 --> 0:03:42.360 food that was gonna be there, uh said, you're gonna 0:03:42.360 --> 0:03:46.280 have some beer? Yeah? Okay? They carried the one and 0:03:46.320 --> 0:03:49.480 they came up with three hundred and eighty regular porta potties, 0:03:50.280 --> 0:03:55.360 twenty eight wheelchair accessible porta potties, and eighty hand washing stations. 0:03:55.400 --> 0:03:59.240 They have soap and fresh running water. Not bad, right, 0:04:00.000 --> 0:04:03.040 So here's the thing, Like, that's great, they delivered all 0:04:03.080 --> 0:04:06.720 those things. But had they just walked away and said, 0:04:06.760 --> 0:04:10.040 see at the end of taste of Chicago, it would 0:04:10.040 --> 0:04:14.280 have been a living nightmare for everyone involved. That would 0:04:14.320 --> 0:04:18.960 be it would be more than the taste of Chicago, 0:04:19.080 --> 0:04:24.040 be the sickening smell of Chicago. Yeah, that would have 0:04:24.080 --> 0:04:28.000 been bad. Because well, we'll get into it. But porta 0:04:28.040 --> 0:04:31.160 potty sometimes you can leave them, come back a week 0:04:31.279 --> 0:04:34.160 later and just take them away if it's a temporary 0:04:34.160 --> 0:04:37.560 work side or something. But sometimes when you're selling beer 0:04:37.560 --> 0:04:39.680 and chili, you need to come at the end of 0:04:39.720 --> 0:04:44.920 every day and clean those suckers out. Yes, and that's 0:04:44.960 --> 0:04:47.760 what they did. They came at night when everyone was 0:04:47.800 --> 0:04:50.680 sleeping from well, I guess if you went to bed 0:04:50.720 --> 0:04:54.719 at nine pm, that's when I'm sleeping. But they would 0:04:54.800 --> 0:04:57.320 come every night from nine and i pm to three am, 0:04:57.360 --> 0:05:01.360 and they would work. And here's the thing, Like, porta potties. 0:05:01.600 --> 0:05:04.440 It turns out I was overthinking them. I thought there 0:05:04.480 --> 0:05:07.800 was maybe a little more going on. No, they are, 0:05:08.480 --> 0:05:12.120 they are self, I don't. I really don't know what 0:05:12.160 --> 0:05:14.680 I thought. It escaped me as as the reality of 0:05:14.720 --> 0:05:18.960 porter potties sunk in my my delusions about my illusions 0:05:18.960 --> 0:05:22.040 about them kind of um escaped me to trickle away. 0:05:22.040 --> 0:05:25.599 And now I can't remember what they were, right, sure 0:05:25.680 --> 0:05:28.719 I have, but I was like holding my breath and 0:05:28.800 --> 0:05:32.120 like like just barely had my eyes open because I 0:05:32.160 --> 0:05:35.320 didn't want any germs to get on my eyeballs. Um, 0:05:35.360 --> 0:05:37.359 So I wasn't paying that much attention. It's an in 0:05:37.440 --> 0:05:40.960 and out kind of thing. Um. It turns out that, 0:05:41.040 --> 0:05:43.919 like when you serve as support potty, what you're doing 0:05:44.400 --> 0:05:46.680 is you're showing up with a trunk or a truck 0:05:47.120 --> 0:05:51.200 as a tank with a vacuum on at a pressurized tank, um, 0:05:51.240 --> 0:05:54.839 and you are sucking the contents out of that porter potty, 0:05:56.000 --> 0:06:00.120 and then you put it in the truck, you drive off, 0:06:00.120 --> 0:06:03.400 you dump it off at the waste treatment plant of 0:06:03.440 --> 0:06:08.159 your local city or town. It's like a gigantic wet back. Yes, 0:06:08.200 --> 0:06:11.640 it is for poo poo and pep, Yes, and a 0:06:11.720 --> 0:06:14.920 very dangerous one. I saw at least one story um 0:06:14.920 --> 0:06:19.000 in a porta potty trade magazine that of somebody who 0:06:19.080 --> 0:06:20.719 I've read a bunch of those, in what was a 0:06:20.760 --> 0:06:25.960 magazine called It's called Portable Restroom Operator. It's a it's 0:06:25.960 --> 0:06:30.520 a good mag man. They I actually found, um uh 0:06:30.640 --> 0:06:33.120 this one issue online going all the way back to 0:06:33.200 --> 0:06:35.080 two thousand nine that I was looking for. So they 0:06:35.160 --> 0:06:37.200 they're legit. Yeah, but they could have been a little 0:06:37.240 --> 0:06:39.440 more fun with the name and bro well, I think 0:06:39.480 --> 0:06:43.119 they're they're saying like, hey man, the fun you want, 0:06:43.160 --> 0:06:48.000 but we're saving your behind. Hey see. Though that sounds 0:06:48.000 --> 0:06:51.279 like a slogan, I'm sure it is. Well. They do 0:06:51.360 --> 0:06:53.320 point out a couple of the slogans because porta Potty 0:06:53.360 --> 0:06:58.520 Companies or Porta John's, Jiffy John's, port Deloo if you're 0:06:58.560 --> 0:07:03.239 in England, Toy Toy if you're in Malaysia. Yeah. Uh, 0:07:03.279 --> 0:07:08.440 they're very famous for having pretty fun peny um slogans 0:07:08.480 --> 0:07:12.960 like we're number one in the number two business. Not bad, No, 0:07:13.080 --> 0:07:15.720 it's not bad. There's no one takes care of our 0:07:15.760 --> 0:07:20.040 business like Mr John. Sure I saw that too. Yeah. Um. 0:07:20.080 --> 0:07:23.280 There's also one called got to Go but it's spelled 0:07:23.400 --> 0:07:28.640 really impressively. Um, it's g It's all of one word, 0:07:28.680 --> 0:07:32.120 and it's lower case, so it's super mod g O 0:07:32.640 --> 0:07:37.520 T you with an oom l out g O. I 0:07:37.680 --> 0:07:41.360 love it. M. Do you like that one? Yeah? I 0:07:41.440 --> 0:07:42.920 just I thought you were going in a different direction. 0:07:42.960 --> 0:07:44.240 I thought it was going to be a little more 0:07:44.280 --> 0:07:47.640 like G E A U X. No, that's like if 0:07:47.680 --> 0:07:50.680 they were in Louisiana. Maybe, Yeah, that's what I thought. Sure, No, 0:07:50.800 --> 0:07:52.960 this is this is an um out. That's what got me. 0:07:53.920 --> 0:07:57.040 And that's why you love Motley Crue so much. Sure 0:07:57.080 --> 0:08:02.160 it is alright, So um, should we talk a little 0:08:02.200 --> 0:08:06.280 bit about the history? I think so? Al right, Well 0:08:06.520 --> 0:08:08.120 we need to go back to World War Two in 0:08:08.160 --> 0:08:14.040 this case, and um, because World War Two was going on, 0:08:14.120 --> 0:08:17.400 there was there was there was a need for more 0:08:17.400 --> 0:08:24.160 poopers essentially because they had like manufacturing plants popping up, 0:08:24.200 --> 0:08:27.840 they had temporary manufacturing plants going up, They had places 0:08:27.880 --> 0:08:32.000 where they didn't want to build full service permanent bathrooms 0:08:33.320 --> 0:08:35.240 all over the place. All of a sudden, these people 0:08:35.320 --> 0:08:39.480 needed to go potty. Um what I saw I saw 0:08:39.640 --> 0:08:41.560 a few different origin stories, but the one I saw 0:08:41.600 --> 0:08:46.160 the most frequently was that the um shipbuilding docks at 0:08:46.160 --> 0:08:50.120 Long Beach during World War Two. They're building warships for 0:08:50.160 --> 0:08:54.439 the US. The guys working the docks would have to 0:08:55.240 --> 0:08:57.920 working building the ships would have to get on a 0:08:58.080 --> 0:09:00.880 rowboat and go back to the dock to use the bathroom. 0:09:01.040 --> 0:09:02.800 And this is no good. And they were like, this 0:09:02.880 --> 0:09:05.360 is a terrible waste of time. Can we just get 0:09:05.400 --> 0:09:08.840 something down the ship? So they started building temporary what 0:09:08.960 --> 0:09:12.040 amounted to the first porta potties there on the ships 0:09:12.080 --> 0:09:15.400 for them to use. Yeah, and these first ones, Um, 0:09:15.440 --> 0:09:17.920 you can look up a picture of the Andy Gump. 0:09:18.160 --> 0:09:21.400 Is that what it's called? I didn't see. I gotta 0:09:21.480 --> 0:09:23.280 look that up. I think it's the Andy Gump, like 0:09:23.320 --> 0:09:26.640 one of the just type in like nineteen forties porta 0:09:26.679 --> 0:09:29.360 potty and there will be a picture and it's basically 0:09:29.400 --> 0:09:34.440 this big, heavy metal square. Sometimes they were would, but 0:09:34.520 --> 0:09:39.560 they were super heavy and they weren't easily transported. Um 0:09:39.679 --> 0:09:44.160 they you know this is pre uh using like chemicals 0:09:44.240 --> 0:09:47.360 which we'll get into to help break these the poop 0:09:47.360 --> 0:09:50.000 poo down and stuff. So it was just a disgusting 0:09:50.080 --> 0:09:55.400 affair having trouble. Right now, I see the Andy Gump? 0:09:55.640 --> 0:09:58.840 You see it? Wow? It looks like, um, it looks 0:09:58.840 --> 0:10:00.800 safe to be in you know what it looks like. 0:10:00.840 --> 0:10:03.800 It looks like what they used on mash Yeah, like 0:10:03.840 --> 0:10:09.200 the latrine. Yeah, same idea. Basically, Yeah, it's just a latrine. 0:10:09.200 --> 0:10:13.400 You could take places. But I came across this really 0:10:13.440 --> 0:10:16.640 cool little thing on a website about World War two 0:10:17.040 --> 0:10:21.840 fighter pilots, and um, with World War Two came along 0:10:22.000 --> 0:10:25.160 planes that could stay in. These bombers, I could stay 0:10:25.160 --> 0:10:28.640 in the air for a lot longer, and they started 0:10:28.679 --> 0:10:31.160 to think like, Hey, these these dudes are up there 0:10:31.160 --> 0:10:34.280 for like, you know, ten to fourteen hours, we have 0:10:34.400 --> 0:10:36.640 to come up with ways for them to go to 0:10:36.679 --> 0:10:40.880 the bathroom, right, Yeah, I mean like you don't think 0:10:40.920 --> 0:10:43.120 about that. Like when we put the frost bite episode. 0:10:43.120 --> 0:10:45.120 I certainly didn't think that they were up there getting 0:10:45.120 --> 0:10:48.360 frostbite because it was so you know cold. I also 0:10:48.440 --> 0:10:50.360 didn't think that they were up there so long that 0:10:50.400 --> 0:10:53.760 they couldn't use the bathroom. They had to hold it, right, 0:10:53.800 --> 0:10:57.760 So yeah, And the earliest ones were, well, here's the 0:10:57.800 --> 0:11:00.880 funnel and it's attached to two tube and it leads 0:11:00.920 --> 0:11:03.440 out of the plane, so go ahead and p Yeah, 0:11:03.440 --> 0:11:06.040 and that's basically just for like the pilot and co 0:11:06.240 --> 0:11:10.800 pilot this relief tube. Um. After that, they're like, well, 0:11:10.800 --> 0:11:13.959 what do we have to poop? Yeah, they said, can 0:11:14.000 --> 0:11:17.719 you get your hands on a produced crate? And the 0:11:18.360 --> 0:11:21.160 crew would say like, well, yeah, sure, we have produced 0:11:21.200 --> 0:11:24.440 creative course, what are we commies and the people in 0:11:24.480 --> 0:11:26.240 charge to say, we'll poop in that? Take that up 0:11:26.240 --> 0:11:28.760 in the plane and just pooping that, buddy, and maybe 0:11:28.760 --> 0:11:31.240 wash it out when you get down here and put 0:11:31.280 --> 0:11:34.040 it back in for later use. Yeah, or maybe just 0:11:34.080 --> 0:11:38.800 get a new crate. I guess if you're not thrifty. 0:11:40.200 --> 0:11:43.000 Eventually they came up with something called the Elson E 0:11:42.720 --> 0:11:45.920 E L S A N. It's a chemical toilet and 0:11:45.960 --> 0:11:48.480 it was really kind of one of the first little 0:11:48.520 --> 0:11:52.000 porta potties. But if you look up Elson and on 0:11:52.080 --> 0:11:55.520 the images on Google, you will find that it's it 0:11:55.559 --> 0:12:01.280 looks like nothing more than a metal oil in that 0:12:01.400 --> 0:12:05.920 you sit on. It's basically what it was pretty much. Um, 0:12:05.960 --> 0:12:08.040 and you're all they're exposed. I mean, there's no room 0:12:08.080 --> 0:12:09.800 that this is in. You're just doing this in front 0:12:09.800 --> 0:12:11.760 of you know, your all your buddies on the plane, 0:12:12.320 --> 0:12:15.559 right like prison. Sure, and that I mean that that 0:12:15.640 --> 0:12:18.200 Elson toilet was still, I mean, as primitive as it was. 0:12:18.240 --> 0:12:22.400 It was an advancement, but it had certain problems, right 0:12:22.480 --> 0:12:26.480 like if you were flying through turbulence, that elson would 0:12:26.520 --> 0:12:33.040 spill its contents out into the plane. Yeah, there's a 0:12:33.040 --> 0:12:34.760 few quotes here. I'd like to read a couple of 0:12:34.760 --> 0:12:40.560 these from some of these fighter pilots. Um, here's one, 0:12:40.640 --> 0:12:43.400 and this is from a British pilot. While we were 0:12:43.440 --> 0:12:46.679 flying in rough air, this Devil's convenience often shared its 0:12:46.679 --> 0:12:49.559 contents with the floor of the aircraft, the walls and ceiling, 0:12:49.640 --> 0:12:53.560 and sometimes a bit remained in the container itself. It 0:12:53.640 --> 0:12:55.760 doesn't take much imagination to picture what it was like 0:12:55.760 --> 0:12:58.880 trying to combat fear and airsickness while struggling to remove 0:12:59.000 --> 0:13:01.600 enough gear and cramp quarters, and at the same time 0:13:01.600 --> 0:13:04.400 trying to use the bloody elson. If it wasn't an 0:13:04.400 --> 0:13:07.319 invention of the devil, it certainly might have been one 0:13:07.400 --> 0:13:10.439 foisted on us by the enemy. When seated in frigid cold, 0:13:10.440 --> 0:13:13.360 amid the cacophony of roaring engines and whistling air, away 0:13:13.360 --> 0:13:15.640 from what should have been one of life's peaceful moments, 0:13:16.200 --> 0:13:18.640 the occupant had a chance to fully ponder the miserable 0:13:18.640 --> 0:13:22.560 condition of his life. This lowsome creation, invariably overflowed on 0:13:22.600 --> 0:13:25.640 long trips and in turbulence, was always prone to bathe 0:13:25.920 --> 0:13:29.400 the nether regions of the user. It was one of 0:13:29.440 --> 0:13:33.280 the true reminders to me that war as hell, you 0:13:33.280 --> 0:13:35.079 don't think about this stuff. You hear about all the 0:13:35.120 --> 0:13:37.240 glory of being like a bomber pilot. You don't think 0:13:37.280 --> 0:13:41.280 about sitting on a can and having your your friends 0:13:41.280 --> 0:13:45.080 poop and pe slash up on your fannie. Sorry to 0:13:45.120 --> 0:13:48.640 those in the UK, doesn't even make sense in that context. 0:13:48.720 --> 0:13:53.320 That means something different here in the US. But right, so, 0:13:53.559 --> 0:13:58.240 uh yeah, that's the the first I guess chemical toilet, 0:13:58.320 --> 0:14:02.240 which is a designation of a porta potty, right, like 0:14:02.280 --> 0:14:04.280 a porta potty is a chemical toilet, but not all 0:14:04.360 --> 0:14:08.280 chemical toilets are porta parties. But a chemical toilet is 0:14:08.320 --> 0:14:12.600 any kind of toilet where you have um something in 0:14:12.640 --> 0:14:17.000 there that's intended to break down waste. And actually I 0:14:17.040 --> 0:14:19.480 don't know that an elson toilet, I guess it was 0:14:19.520 --> 0:14:22.480 a chemical toilet. I see now, but that's gross because 0:14:22.480 --> 0:14:25.400 in addition to getting the rest of the cruise poop 0:14:25.400 --> 0:14:29.800 and pe slopped up against your rear end, Um, so too, 0:14:29.800 --> 0:14:35.400 were you getting very very hazardous chemicals as well? Yeah, 0:14:35.560 --> 0:14:40.120 so that's a good man. That guy may have had 0:14:40.200 --> 0:14:44.040 his buttocks removed after the war. Uh. One of the 0:14:44.120 --> 0:14:46.520 uses of the toilet they said that this is supposedly 0:14:46.640 --> 0:14:49.120 very true, is that some members of the Royal Air 0:14:49.160 --> 0:14:54.560 Force um actually jettisoned the Elson toilets with their bomb 0:14:54.600 --> 0:14:58.680 payload onto German targets. So they would drop these toilets 0:14:58.680 --> 0:15:02.800 will apoo on the Germans. Mm hmm. And uh that 0:15:02.920 --> 0:15:06.200 was an American too, had a great quote about peeing 0:15:06.320 --> 0:15:09.280 through the little hose. He said, as the urine ran 0:15:09.320 --> 0:15:11.600 through the tube, it turned to ice and dropped like 0:15:11.640 --> 0:15:14.360 topaz colored hail to the ground. I like to imagine 0:15:14.360 --> 0:15:20.320 every time I urinated over Germany, my my acidulous projectile 0:15:20.800 --> 0:15:27.720 would plank on some Nazi Burger's aryan nose poetry. Yeah, 0:15:27.840 --> 0:15:30.520 there's some more good stories in here. You should, uh man. 0:15:30.560 --> 0:15:34.480 I don't remember which website it was. Yeah, I'll have to. 0:15:34.600 --> 0:15:37.640 I have to post that later on Facebook and I'll 0:15:37.640 --> 0:15:41.960 tweet it. All right. So that's the the war effort 0:15:42.000 --> 0:15:46.840 that eventually ultimately led to the creation of the porta potty, right, 0:15:47.320 --> 0:15:50.480 and and again like there were already latrines, there had 0:15:50.520 --> 0:15:54.160 already been out houses. And the difference between an out 0:15:54.200 --> 0:15:56.640 house and a porta potty is that and out houses 0:15:56.720 --> 0:16:01.920 basically some sort of rigid structure that's intended to be 0:16:02.040 --> 0:16:05.800 permanent or semipermanent, permanent that's dug over a hole in 0:16:05.840 --> 0:16:09.640 the ground. That's it. A porta potty is a self 0:16:09.680 --> 0:16:16.600 contained unit that has a place where the waste goes 0:16:17.120 --> 0:16:20.800 and is held inside that unit rather than like put 0:16:20.840 --> 0:16:24.800 into the ground, which is extremely dangerous that we learned 0:16:24.800 --> 0:16:27.320 a very long time ago. Pooping in holes in the 0:16:27.360 --> 0:16:29.080 ground is not a good way to go as far 0:16:29.120 --> 0:16:32.080 as public health is concerned. And that's one of the 0:16:32.200 --> 0:16:35.440 legitimate um marks in the favor of porta potts is 0:16:35.800 --> 0:16:38.440 gross as as most people who have ever used one 0:16:38.480 --> 0:16:44.120 thinks they are. They're actually, um, quite beneficial to public health. Yeah, 0:16:44.240 --> 0:16:46.800 and they're green too. Saves a lot of water. Yeah. 0:16:46.840 --> 0:16:51.160 I saw, um a hundred and seventy billion leaders a year, 0:16:52.200 --> 0:16:54.720 about a hundred and twenty five million gallons a day 0:16:54.800 --> 0:16:59.120 in the US alone. Yeah. So, um, you want to 0:16:59.160 --> 0:17:01.400 take a break for a second, Yeah, we'll break in. 0:17:01.440 --> 0:17:03.560 We'll talk a little bit more about the evolution of 0:17:03.600 --> 0:17:23.760 the porta John. Right after this should know y s 0:17:23.840 --> 0:17:34.680 a Dr Josh Clark. Alright, Chuckers, So we're talking about 0:17:34.720 --> 0:17:37.520 the evolution of the porta John. You've got the Andy Gump, 0:17:38.760 --> 0:17:42.760 You've got the Elson toilet, and then finally and actually 0:17:42.800 --> 0:17:48.359 the sixties, you have what is the what we think 0:17:48.400 --> 0:17:52.199 of as a porta potty. Um a patent was developed 0:17:52.200 --> 0:17:55.440 by a guy named George Harding Um and he called 0:17:55.480 --> 0:17:58.520 it for a portable toilet cabana and that was made 0:17:58.520 --> 0:18:02.439 from plastic and um. Although he had the patent for it, 0:18:02.680 --> 0:18:05.879 the guy who actually gets credit for actually creating the 0:18:05.920 --> 0:18:09.800 first real modern porta john reporta potty was a guy 0:18:09.880 --> 0:18:13.359 named Um Harvey Heather and he created what's called the 0:18:13.400 --> 0:18:16.600 Strong Box. It's a great name. Did you see Have 0:18:16.680 --> 0:18:20.040 you seen the Strong Box? Oh? You did? That's what 0:18:20.200 --> 0:18:23.880 I went and found the December two thousand nine UM 0:18:24.000 --> 0:18:28.080 issue of Pro magazine. Um to find because I saw 0:18:28.119 --> 0:18:31.280 a reference that they had published a picture of it, 0:18:31.359 --> 0:18:36.240 and I couldn't find it anywhere else. Those things are ugly, Yeah, 0:18:36.320 --> 0:18:38.880 it wasn't. It wasn't a great looking Uh, it's not 0:18:38.920 --> 0:18:42.320 like the fantastic port to John. Say, have today. Yeah, 0:18:42.520 --> 0:18:46.480 so gorgeous to look at right now. This thing was ugly. Yeah, 0:18:46.520 --> 0:18:49.160 it had no alibi. Uh. Yeah. And these were made 0:18:49.160 --> 0:18:53.879 of fiberglass, which, um, it was good. It was lightweight 0:18:54.119 --> 0:18:57.159 but um, and it was sturdy. It was as sturdy 0:18:57.160 --> 0:18:59.280 as metal or wood, and it was a lot easier 0:18:59.280 --> 0:19:02.280 to clean. But the problem with the strong box and 0:19:02.320 --> 0:19:05.320 the fiberglasses it was a big kind of one piece 0:19:05.400 --> 0:19:11.600 mold um. It was dark inside, which was not good. Uh. 0:19:11.800 --> 0:19:15.760 They weren't stackable as far as transporting them, and so 0:19:15.880 --> 0:19:19.800 that just made it really expensive to get them where 0:19:19.800 --> 0:19:22.359 they needed to go and back again. It did. And 0:19:22.440 --> 0:19:25.760 the fact that like it was completely opaque um and 0:19:25.880 --> 0:19:28.600 there was no light that could get in. That's that's 0:19:28.640 --> 0:19:31.560 an issue. Plus I also get the impression that the 0:19:31.800 --> 0:19:35.680 floors could get pretty slick and you could fall and 0:19:35.760 --> 0:19:41.959 die of physitional asphyxiation and important. Yeah. And they were 0:19:42.000 --> 0:19:45.680 also fiberglasses pretty fragile, so they would break a lot. Uh. 0:19:45.800 --> 0:19:50.239 Fiberglass absorbs odors, which was not good. Uh. And so 0:19:50.359 --> 0:19:53.320 shortly after the fiberglass came along, someone said, you know what, 0:19:53.440 --> 0:19:57.200 how about poly ethylene um. This is what we will use, 0:19:57.800 --> 0:20:00.840 and George Harding who you meant and co founded the 0:20:00.880 --> 0:20:05.000 Polly John Corporation, and he started building the polyethylene portable 0:20:05.040 --> 0:20:08.959 toilets that were much better because they lasted longer. They 0:20:08.960 --> 0:20:11.920 would last like a decade, although I would not want 0:20:11.960 --> 0:20:15.200 to use a nine year old port of John. Well, 0:20:15.240 --> 0:20:17.720 so the that picture of the strong box that was 0:20:17.800 --> 0:20:22.000 published in Pro magazine apparently had been out in service. 0:20:22.160 --> 0:20:24.080 It was still in service and it had been built 0:20:24.080 --> 0:20:27.560 like thirty years before. Well, yeah, you would know that 0:20:27.640 --> 0:20:31.119 your company could not have cared less about you if 0:20:31.119 --> 0:20:32.879 you show up to your job site and there's a 0:20:32.880 --> 0:20:35.919 strong box there. Yeah, and that's what you're expected to 0:20:36.080 --> 0:20:39.080 use with all of the with all of the possible 0:20:39.160 --> 0:20:42.719 choices that your company, uh could choose from, and they 0:20:42.720 --> 0:20:45.320 went with the strong box. They don't care about you 0:20:45.680 --> 0:20:49.840 or your happiness. The polyethylene and the other good thing 0:20:49.840 --> 0:20:53.040 about them where they were assembled into different parts and pieces. 0:20:53.440 --> 0:20:55.520 So it made him a lot easier to transport, a 0:20:55.560 --> 0:20:58.720 lot cheaper. Uh. And if apart broke, you might be 0:20:58.760 --> 0:21:02.200 able to replace it. Oh yeah, that that's kind of good. 0:21:03.480 --> 0:21:06.760 Makes sense. So hooray for poly ethylene toilets. But one 0:21:06.760 --> 0:21:09.800 of the things that George Harding um created in this 0:21:09.960 --> 0:21:13.000 patent that I noticed was a ventilation system. This is 0:21:13.040 --> 0:21:16.800 a big improvement, right, because when you're just piling human 0:21:16.840 --> 0:21:20.800 waste upon human waste into a hole, um that it's 0:21:20.840 --> 0:21:24.400 going to create gases, noxious gases, because bacteria is going 0:21:24.440 --> 0:21:27.520 to start decomposing that waste, and as a byproduct of 0:21:27.600 --> 0:21:30.560 that decomposition, they're going to produce what we see what 0:21:30.600 --> 0:21:35.760 we experience as rotting fecal material. Right, It's not just 0:21:35.800 --> 0:21:38.960 that it's stinky, it's dangerous. It is dangerous and as 0:21:39.000 --> 0:21:41.720 that gas tries to find a way to escape upward, 0:21:42.160 --> 0:21:45.440 if the only hole available to it is the toilet 0:21:45.480 --> 0:21:48.760 that you're pooping or peeing into, those gases are going 0:21:48.840 --> 0:21:51.040 to come out of it and you're going to vomit 0:21:51.080 --> 0:21:54.280 while you pooper p as well. So what George Harding 0:21:54.480 --> 0:21:56.760 had I told you this one is going to be cruts. 0:21:57.640 --> 0:22:00.600 But George Harding figured out was that if you could 0:22:00.680 --> 0:22:05.760 just basically create a pipe venting off that gas upward 0:22:05.880 --> 0:22:09.680 and out of the porter potty, people would be willing 0:22:09.720 --> 0:22:11.600 to use porter potties a lot more. And that was 0:22:11.640 --> 0:22:14.560 a huge improvement. Yeah, he also said, how about we 0:22:14.600 --> 0:22:19.480 make this rooftop translucent white, so we can let in 0:22:19.520 --> 0:22:22.879 some natural light. At least, why don't we improve the 0:22:22.880 --> 0:22:27.320 flooring so that it's not as slippy and um, Maybe 0:22:27.320 --> 0:22:29.840 even further down the line, we'll have porter potties that 0:22:29.880 --> 0:22:32.520 have a little urnal that's separate, so you don't even 0:22:32.560 --> 0:22:36.199 have to sit your butt down on that most horrid 0:22:36.280 --> 0:22:42.040 of places. Right, Yeah, what about the rollaround toilet? Did 0:22:42.080 --> 0:22:45.640 you see these? Yeah? Those? I mean that it makes sense. 0:22:45.640 --> 0:22:48.399 So basically, if you are on like a job site, 0:22:48.600 --> 0:22:55.639 right um, where there are like different multiple stories being 0:22:55.680 --> 0:22:58.000 built and you're up on one of the higher stories, 0:22:58.359 --> 0:23:00.520 it's the same thing as when you're working in the 0:23:00.520 --> 0:23:02.639 shipyards building a ship. You don't want to have to 0:23:02.680 --> 0:23:04.760 come all the way down to use the bathroom. So 0:23:04.800 --> 0:23:08.440 they created porta potties that were a lot more mobile, 0:23:08.720 --> 0:23:12.400 that could be um hoisted by cranes. Um. Just two 0:23:12.440 --> 0:23:16.679 different different levels. Yeah, if you look up roll around toilet, 0:23:16.760 --> 0:23:20.879 it basically looks like one of those um coolers that 0:23:20.960 --> 0:23:23.280 has the two wheels and the handle and you can 0:23:23.320 --> 0:23:28.200 pull the cooler around, except it's larger and um sitting 0:23:28.240 --> 0:23:32.040 above the wheels is a is a urinal, Right, I 0:23:32.080 --> 0:23:34.040 don't see how you go poopy in those, So maybe 0:23:34.720 --> 0:23:39.160 maybe that's when you go downstairs. Uh yeah, I don't 0:23:39.200 --> 0:23:41.680 know either because it's not enclosed or anything, and it's 0:23:41.680 --> 0:23:46.720 just wide open, just like prison. And there's actually a great, um, 0:23:46.760 --> 0:23:49.680 a great scene from I think the First Police Academy 0:23:49.960 --> 0:23:56.600 starring our friend and Twitter followers Steve Guttenberg and um, 0:23:56.640 --> 0:23:59.840 I think it's Mauser who uses a porta potty and 0:24:00.280 --> 0:24:04.480 Steve Guttenberg goes over and gets some some crane operator 0:24:04.520 --> 0:24:08.679 to lend him the crane. And now it's Mouser's um, 0:24:08.840 --> 0:24:11.200 his right hand man. I don't remember that guy's name, 0:24:11.359 --> 0:24:13.680 but they lift the porta potty up while he's inside 0:24:13.800 --> 0:24:18.960 using it. It's hilarious, wacky wacky stuff and sues. Uh. 0:24:18.960 --> 0:24:22.359 And then if you really are living the good life, 0:24:22.640 --> 0:24:26.240 or you have a maybe a really nice upscale wedding 0:24:26.400 --> 0:24:29.439 that's out in a remote area, you don't want to 0:24:29.440 --> 0:24:33.760