1 00:00:02,040 --> 00:00:07,000 Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff from How Stuff Works, Hey, brain Stuff, 2 00:00:07,040 --> 00:00:10,800 Speaker 1: Lauren Vogel Bomb Here, consider the flush toilet. It's a 3 00:00:10,840 --> 00:00:14,000 Speaker 1: fascinating device if you think about it. This giant porcelain 4 00:00:14,080 --> 00:00:17,200 Speaker 1: chair is installed into every modern American bathroom, using up 5 00:00:17,239 --> 00:00:20,000 Speaker 1: gallons of precious drinking water every day to whisk your 6 00:00:20,120 --> 00:00:23,520 Speaker 1: urinine feces into oblivion. Better known as the municipal wastewater 7 00:00:23,520 --> 00:00:27,479 Speaker 1: treatment plant nearest you every time you flush. But have 8 00:00:27,640 --> 00:00:30,120 Speaker 1: you ever considered what else we could be doing with 9 00:00:30,160 --> 00:00:33,280 Speaker 1: our poop and p You probably don't really want to 10 00:00:33,280 --> 00:00:35,720 Speaker 1: think about it, and neither does pretty much anybody else, 11 00:00:35,920 --> 00:00:38,400 Speaker 1: which is why the flush toilet we twenty first century 12 00:00:38,479 --> 00:00:41,279 Speaker 1: humans use hasn't changed much since it was first patented 13 00:00:41,320 --> 00:00:45,360 Speaker 1: in seventeen seventy five by Scottish watchmaker named Alexander Cumming. 14 00:00:45,880 --> 00:00:48,839 Speaker 1: Cummings toilet was a slightly altered version of the commode 15 00:00:49,000 --> 00:00:51,400 Speaker 1: designed for Queen Elizabeth the First by her godson, Sir 16 00:00:51,520 --> 00:00:55,600 Speaker 1: John Harrington's in two. Cummings had an S shaped pipe 17 00:00:55,600 --> 00:00:59,000 Speaker 1: to trap bad odors, while Harrington's had not, of course, 18 00:00:59,080 --> 00:01:02,200 Speaker 1: self flushing toilet, heated seats and those vacuum potties like 19 00:01:02,200 --> 00:01:04,520 Speaker 1: you see on airplanes and tour buses came later, but 20 00:01:04,640 --> 00:01:08,000 Speaker 1: our one and done attitude towards commode innovation probably comes 21 00:01:08,040 --> 00:01:10,119 Speaker 1: from the fact that we simply don't want to think 22 00:01:10,160 --> 00:01:14,640 Speaker 1: about poop that much. We spoke with Diana mcdonnaugh, a 23 00:01:14,640 --> 00:01:17,480 Speaker 1: professor of industrial design in the Beckman Institute of Advanced 24 00:01:17,480 --> 00:01:20,680 Speaker 1: Science and Technology at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign. 25 00:01:21,800 --> 00:01:24,360 Speaker 1: She said, within the American culture, there is still a 26 00:01:24,400 --> 00:01:27,720 Speaker 1: resistance and reluctance to discuss body waste. The toilet has 27 00:01:27,720 --> 00:01:31,240 Speaker 1: remained relatively unexplored. I think because we're failing to realize that, 28 00:01:31,280 --> 00:01:34,360 Speaker 1: to quote a British saying, where there is muck, there's brass. 29 00:01:34,880 --> 00:01:37,480 Speaker 1: We are failing to see the potential opportunity our modest 30 00:01:37,480 --> 00:01:40,440 Speaker 1: toilet is offering us because the notion of immersing yourself 31 00:01:40,440 --> 00:01:42,679 Speaker 1: in such a product makes us all feel so uncomfortable. 32 00:01:44,080 --> 00:01:46,800 Speaker 1: But going to the bathroom isn't something we've always been 33 00:01:46,840 --> 00:01:50,240 Speaker 1: squeamish about. Long ago, it was just another experience, an 34 00:01:50,240 --> 00:01:54,040 Speaker 1: opportunity for relaxation and hanging out. The ancient Romans used 35 00:01:54,080 --> 00:01:56,120 Speaker 1: toilet time as a time to catch up with their friends. 36 00:01:56,640 --> 00:02:00,120 Speaker 1: In the year threef B. C Rome had one and 37 00:02:00,160 --> 00:02:03,440 Speaker 1: forty four bustling public toilets lined with stone benches with 38 00:02:03,640 --> 00:02:06,760 Speaker 1: keyhole shaped cutouts situated all along them, where people would 39 00:02:06,760 --> 00:02:09,960 Speaker 1: sit together and do their business and maybe some gossiping too. 40 00:02:10,960 --> 00:02:13,280 Speaker 1: Later in medieval England, you could be walking down the 41 00:02:13,320 --> 00:02:15,560 Speaker 1: street and someone might throw the contents of their chamber 42 00:02:15,560 --> 00:02:18,720 Speaker 1: pot out the window onto you. Oops. They might say 43 00:02:18,880 --> 00:02:21,360 Speaker 1: sorry about it, but it would kind of be on 44 00:02:21,400 --> 00:02:24,480 Speaker 1: you for walking too close to their house. Fancier medieval 45 00:02:24,560 --> 00:02:27,160 Speaker 1: people used a guard robe, a little closet stuck onto 46 00:02:27,160 --> 00:02:28,760 Speaker 1: the side of a castle with a hole in the 47 00:02:28,760 --> 00:02:31,960 Speaker 1: floor that emptied into a moat or cesspit. Clothes were 48 00:02:32,000 --> 00:02:33,720 Speaker 1: also kept in the guard robe, but because it was 49 00:02:33,760 --> 00:02:35,840 Speaker 1: that stench of human waste would keep the fleas and 50 00:02:35,919 --> 00:02:38,840 Speaker 1: moths out of the garments. Public guarter robes in London 51 00:02:38,880 --> 00:02:42,360 Speaker 1: emptied directly into the Thames, which was an unbelievably poor 52 00:02:42,440 --> 00:02:45,639 Speaker 1: public health move. As the population of Europe grew over 53 00:02:45,680 --> 00:02:47,760 Speaker 1: the course of the eighteen hundreds, up to a hundred 54 00:02:47,760 --> 00:02:50,280 Speaker 1: people would share the same public guarter robe, and the 55 00:02:50,280 --> 00:02:53,520 Speaker 1: waist just washed into the rivers, tainting the drinking water supply, 56 00:02:53,760 --> 00:02:56,560 Speaker 1: which explains why so many outbreaks of cholera, typhoid, and 57 00:02:56,639 --> 00:03:00,720 Speaker 1: other water borne diseases bedeviled nineteenth century Europeans, resulting in 58 00:03:00,760 --> 00:03:03,280 Speaker 1: more than half the working class population dying before the 59 00:03:03,320 --> 00:03:07,480 Speaker 1: age of five. It was a mess as a result 60 00:03:07,520 --> 00:03:10,160 Speaker 1: of a particularly hot summer in London in eighteen fifty eight, 61 00:03:10,200 --> 00:03:12,360 Speaker 1: when the smell of rotting sewage made living in the 62 00:03:12,360 --> 00:03:16,480 Speaker 1: city completely unbearable. Parliament commissioned the construction of the London Sewer, 63 00:03:16,680 --> 00:03:20,200 Speaker 1: which was finished in eighteen sixty five. Deaths resulting from 64 00:03:20,240 --> 00:03:23,560 Speaker 1: waterborne diseases plummeted, and cities all over the world followed 65 00:03:23,560 --> 00:03:27,440 Speaker 1: suit and constructed their own sanitary sewers. The toilet patented 66 00:03:27,440 --> 00:03:30,320 Speaker 1: by Coming eventually became standard in houses in wealthy countries 67 00:03:30,360 --> 00:03:33,520 Speaker 1: all over the world, along with slight variations patented by 68 00:03:33,560 --> 00:03:37,240 Speaker 1: others like Thomas Crapper, yes that's his real name, whose 69 00:03:37,240 --> 00:03:39,720 Speaker 1: contributions to the overall design of the toilet were minimal, 70 00:03:39,840 --> 00:03:41,880 Speaker 1: but whose legacy in endoors because he made sure his 71 00:03:41,960 --> 00:03:45,160 Speaker 1: name was visible on all of his products. And hey, 72 00:03:45,240 --> 00:03:47,640 Speaker 1: it's great that fewer people are dying due to poor 73 00:03:47,680 --> 00:03:50,600 Speaker 1: sanitation in these places anymore, But the toilet is due 74 00:03:50,640 --> 00:03:53,720 Speaker 1: for an upgrade, so what do we need our new 75 00:03:53,760 --> 00:03:58,440 Speaker 1: toilets to do? McDonough said, toilets offer a relatively unexplored 76 00:03:58,560 --> 00:04:01,800 Speaker 1: territory that offers signific potential in respect to healthy living 77 00:04:01,920 --> 00:04:05,280 Speaker 1: and healthy aging. As individuals are taking more responsibility for 78 00:04:05,280 --> 00:04:08,280 Speaker 1: their health, eating habits, and well being, the bathroom offers 79 00:04:08,320 --> 00:04:11,680 Speaker 1: a somewhat blank canvas for us to integrate intuitive technology 80 00:04:11,720 --> 00:04:14,680 Speaker 1: to support the individual. Imagine a toilet that could tell 81 00:04:14,720 --> 00:04:17,279 Speaker 1: you how hydrated you were, whether you were deficient in 82 00:04:17,279 --> 00:04:20,039 Speaker 1: particular vitamins, warn you of blood in your stools, and 83 00:04:20,120 --> 00:04:23,320 Speaker 1: changes in your hormones. We literally flush all that information 84 00:04:23,360 --> 00:04:26,640 Speaker 1: away each day in the form of waste matter, so 85 00:04:26,920 --> 00:04:28,640 Speaker 1: we could find out a lot about our own health 86 00:04:28,680 --> 00:04:31,400 Speaker 1: from our toilets. But according to the Bill and Melinda 87 00:04:31,400 --> 00:04:35,680 Speaker 1: Gates Foundation, which launched their Reinvent the Toilet Challenge back in, 88 00:04:35,720 --> 00:04:37,760 Speaker 1: the next generation of toilets will also be able to 89 00:04:37,839 --> 00:04:40,919 Speaker 1: kill pathogens, compost human waste, and keep up with the 90 00:04:40,920 --> 00:04:43,920 Speaker 1: fast urbanization of the twenty first century. And all that 91 00:04:43,960 --> 00:04:48,080 Speaker 1: without sewer infrastructure, electricity, or a water source. They might 92 00:04:48,160 --> 00:04:50,440 Speaker 1: even be able to mine our waste for valuable elements 93 00:04:50,440 --> 00:04:53,680 Speaker 1: like phosphorus, nitrogen and potassium, and separate solid and liquid 94 00:04:53,680 --> 00:04:55,520 Speaker 1: waste in order to use them to make things like 95 00:04:55,640 --> 00:04:59,360 Speaker 1: building supplies. But will the new toilets look very much 96 00:04:59,400 --> 00:05:01,600 Speaker 1: different from the in your bathroom now or the one 97 00:05:01,640 --> 00:05:04,560 Speaker 1: Sir John Harrington made for Queen Elizabeth in the sixteenth century. 98 00:05:05,240 --> 00:05:13,880 Speaker 1: Probably not much, unless you've got any bright ideas. Today's 99 00:05:13,920 --> 00:05:16,200 Speaker 1: episode was written by Jessline Shields and produced by Tyler 100 00:05:16,279 --> 00:05:18,440 Speaker 1: Clang for I Heeart Media and How Stuff Works. For 101 00:05:18,480 --> 00:05:20,360 Speaker 1: more on this and lots of other topics, visit our 102 00:05:20,400 --> 00:05:33,440 Speaker 1: home planet, how Stuff Works dot com.