WEBVTT - TechStuff Classic: TechStuff Gets Flushed 0:00:04.400 --> 0:00:07.800 Welcome to tech Stuff, a production from I Heart Radio. 0:00:12.000 --> 0:00:14.680 Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, 0:00:14.760 --> 0:00:17.440 Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with I Heart Radio 0:00:17.480 --> 0:00:20.040 and how the tech are you? It is time for 0:00:20.120 --> 0:00:25.240 a tech Stuff classic episode. This episode originally published March eighteenth. 0:00:26.360 --> 0:00:29.720 It is titled tech Stuff Gets Flushed Back when I 0:00:29.760 --> 0:00:32.560 was really clever with my titles and I hope you enjoy. 0:00:33.680 --> 0:00:39.160 So we are talking a mount toilets today. Yeah, it's 0:00:39.159 --> 0:00:41.479 gonna be h This episode is going to be flush 0:00:41.560 --> 0:00:44.440 with puns. Man, I can't take this all right, and 0:00:44.440 --> 0:00:47.040 I know it's bad already, right, So before I really 0:00:47.040 --> 0:00:50.040 get into that, you know, there will obviously be some 0:00:50.159 --> 0:00:53.199 levity in this, but this is actually a very serious topic. 0:00:53.479 --> 0:00:56.840 And to kind of illustrate that, I wanted to mention 0:00:57.320 --> 0:00:59.840 something else. Now this is this is half a year 0:00:59.840 --> 0:01:04.240 away from us. But November nineteenth is World Toilet Day, 0:01:04.319 --> 0:01:07.280 which at first sounds kind of comedic, right, I think 0:01:07.280 --> 0:01:10.520 it's hilarious. It sounds funny. It's it's an event hosted 0:01:10.560 --> 0:01:14.520 by the World Toilet Organization. Still sounds at first when 0:01:14.520 --> 0:01:17.319 you think about it, because the mean toilet humor has 0:01:17.360 --> 0:01:20.479 become like a real it's a real industry into itself. 0:01:20.520 --> 0:01:24.120 But this is not about humor. It's actually the purpose 0:01:24.160 --> 0:01:26.200 of the day and the purpose of the organization is 0:01:26.240 --> 0:01:29.560 to help provide support for getting proper sanitation to the 0:01:29.600 --> 0:01:36.360 world's population. According to that organization, of the world's population 0:01:36.480 --> 0:01:41.720 still practices open defecation. That's a billion people. I mean, 0:01:41.760 --> 0:01:43.880 I knew a lot of people, did I didn't realize 0:01:43.880 --> 0:01:46.480 it was that high a percentage. Now I saw a 0:01:46.520 --> 0:01:49.160 figure back in I think two thousand nine that was 0:01:49.240 --> 0:01:53.040 two point five billion people. So clearly we've made some 0:01:53.080 --> 0:01:58.280 great strides in in raising sanitation levels, but there's still 0:01:58.320 --> 0:02:00.040 so much work to be done. And I mean, this 0:02:00.240 --> 0:02:03.400 is obviously something that we have to be concerned with 0:02:03.480 --> 0:02:07.360 because it can lead to you know, pandemics or at 0:02:07.400 --> 0:02:11.400 least a really bad outbreak of disease, not to mention 0:02:11.520 --> 0:02:15.040 just unpleasant living conditions. Well, you know what's funny is UM. 0:02:15.080 --> 0:02:17.400 I think part of it also is not just that 0:02:17.520 --> 0:02:20.320 people practice open defecation, but that the a lot of 0:02:20.360 --> 0:02:24.359 them don't have access to sanitary drinking water as a 0:02:24.440 --> 0:02:28.480 result of their of their waste disposal. UM. But I 0:02:28.560 --> 0:02:32.440 have there are places, especially in um parts of rural 0:02:32.480 --> 0:02:36.600 India where open defecation is practiced, where the people are like, 0:02:36.840 --> 0:02:39.079 you can put toilets in here all day long, we're 0:02:39.080 --> 0:02:43.079 not going to use them because we find open defecation 0:02:43.440 --> 0:02:46.119 as part of like wholesome country living. Is the way 0:02:46.120 --> 0:02:48.840 that I've seen it put like it's just part and 0:02:48.880 --> 0:02:52.240 parcel with being outside and you know, watching a squirrel 0:02:52.320 --> 0:02:54.440 run past you while you're pooping, that kind of thing, 0:02:54.480 --> 0:02:56.840 and like really taken in the whole scene. It's a 0:02:56.880 --> 0:02:59.720 cultural thing at that point. Yeah, where it goes beyond, 0:03:00.040 --> 0:03:02.919 it goes beyond, like it's it's not necessarily just the 0:03:03.280 --> 0:03:07.960 lack of facilities, it's this has become a way of life. 0:03:08.280 --> 0:03:10.640 I could understand that. I mean, I know there was 0:03:10.720 --> 0:03:16.200 even some reluctance in Japan to go from the UH 0:03:16.240 --> 0:03:19.880 the more trough light toilets that they used to. Yeah, 0:03:19.919 --> 0:03:23.320 there's there's much smaller percentage of the toilets in Japan 0:03:23.360 --> 0:03:26.480 are those, but they still do exist. But there was 0:03:26.720 --> 0:03:31.720 a large UH hesitate to use the word, movement trend 0:03:31.760 --> 0:03:34.519 to going toward more western style toilets over the last 0:03:34.520 --> 0:03:37.520 couple of years. I know, I'm sorry, it's gonna happen. 0:03:37.640 --> 0:03:41.080 Chris Palette is only here in spirit, but he is here. 0:03:41.560 --> 0:03:44.520 You're channeling him pretty hard. Yeah, so let's go with 0:03:44.600 --> 0:03:48.440 a little history lesson before we get into how toilets 0:03:48.440 --> 0:03:52.080 actually work. Now, if you're looking for the earliest evidence 0:03:52.120 --> 0:03:57.440 of organized waste management systems, you look at Mesopotamia, which 0:03:57.480 --> 0:04:00.920 makes sense because that's where the original civilizations. Yeah, it's 0:04:00.920 --> 0:04:04.400 also a great bift two songs, But this would be 0:04:04.440 --> 0:04:08.600 back at the b c E. Around approximately around that 0:04:08.680 --> 0:04:12.320 era when you would see these organized systems for waste management. 0:04:12.720 --> 0:04:15.560 One thing I thought was really interesting was I watched 0:04:16.000 --> 0:04:22.200 a documentary about a Neolithic village that was on the 0:04:22.320 --> 0:04:27.520 Orkney Islands, uh in Scotland. Um, we call it scare Bray. 0:04:27.839 --> 0:04:31.240 That's the name we've given it. Because any actual records 0:04:31.279 --> 0:04:34.880 of this village haven't existed for more than a couple 0:04:34.880 --> 0:04:39.479 of thousand years. This village was forgotten. No one knew 0:04:39.480 --> 0:04:41.520 it was even there until there was a major storm 0:04:41.600 --> 0:04:44.200 that washed away some of the land that had grown 0:04:44.279 --> 0:04:48.839 up built up around on top of the village. Is amazing. 0:04:48.920 --> 0:04:54.240 Right when it was discovered, you immediately had a and uh, 0:04:54.600 --> 0:04:58.719 there was an expedition, let's say to uncover the village, 0:04:58.760 --> 0:05:01.280 but it was not led by anyone who's ever been 0:05:01.320 --> 0:05:05.320 actually identified. In other words, was treasure hunters didn't probably 0:05:05.360 --> 0:05:07.920 didn't find anything really of value there. There was certainly 0:05:07.960 --> 0:05:12.200 no you know, hordes of gold and diamonds and jewels there. Uh. 0:05:12.200 --> 0:05:15.279 And it wouldn't be until the nineteen thirties that a 0:05:15.320 --> 0:05:20.440 more organized archaeological dig would take place. And after that 0:05:20.480 --> 0:05:22.960 there was another storm and they had to actually shore 0:05:23.080 --> 0:05:25.760 up the area to protect it as an archaeological site. 0:05:25.760 --> 0:05:29.080 And what they found was that this tiny village, which 0:05:29.160 --> 0:05:33.479 dates to around three thousand BC in Scotland, had these 0:05:33.520 --> 0:05:36.960 homes that were very sophisticated. You would walk in, there'd 0:05:37.000 --> 0:05:39.359 be a large bed on the right hand side, a 0:05:39.440 --> 0:05:43.960 smaller bed on the left, which mirrors regular practices of 0:05:44.000 --> 0:05:47.200 the time where the husband and wife. The husband would 0:05:47.240 --> 0:05:51.120 have the larger of two beds. They had a fire pit, 0:05:51.360 --> 0:05:56.680 a hearth, but they also had a essentially a toilet. 0:05:56.960 --> 0:06:01.840 They had a stone cabinet with a hole cut so 0:06:01.880 --> 0:06:04.839 that you could sit down on it, with channels that 0:06:05.200 --> 0:06:07.760 lead out to the ocean, and ocean water with the 0:06:07.800 --> 0:06:12.480 tides would actually flush this, so these were flushing toilets. 0:06:12.480 --> 0:06:16.200 They weren't manual flush. You title flushed, so you had 0:06:16.240 --> 0:06:19.680 to wait, hey it's still flushed. Yeah, it's the important 0:06:19.680 --> 0:06:23.000 point in this took the waste away, right Yeah. Yeah, 0:06:23.080 --> 0:06:26.200 So all the way back to three thousand BC. Uh, 0:06:26.279 --> 0:06:30.760 the actual the whole area of scare breaks fascinating. So 0:06:31.040 --> 0:06:33.120 definitely look into that a get a chance. I mean, 0:06:33.160 --> 0:06:37.120 I've seen it before. I've seen just the settlement pictures 0:06:37.120 --> 0:06:40.400 of the settlement. It is pretty advanced. You don't think 0:06:40.440 --> 0:06:43.080 of the Orkney Islands and three thousand b C. Is 0:06:43.120 --> 0:06:47.920 you know, the seed of civilization technology. But yeah, they 0:06:47.960 --> 0:06:50.640 had something going on. It's pretty surprising, yeah, because I mean, 0:06:50.760 --> 0:06:56.240 you know, when I think of of society civilization in 0:06:56.400 --> 0:07:01.640 the British Islands, I'm thinking closer to you, the Roman times. 0:07:01.680 --> 0:07:05.240 But it's pretty amazing how sophisticated was even back then. Uh. 0:07:05.760 --> 0:07:10.400 Ancient Greeks also they used sewage systems to channel waste 0:07:10.400 --> 0:07:14.560 away from living quarters. The Romans went even further. They 0:07:14.600 --> 0:07:17.520 would have these, especially if you were a very wealthy 0:07:17.600 --> 0:07:22.000 or powerful Roman. You might have a pretty styling, you know, bathroom, 0:07:23.520 --> 0:07:29.360 heated seats. He did marble seats, um and it maybe 0:07:29.400 --> 0:07:32.040 private from what I understood, but for the most part, 0:07:32.200 --> 0:07:38.280 public bathrooms really took the public thing to the nth degree, 0:07:38.560 --> 0:07:42.000 where it was just like basically a long bench with 0:07:42.120 --> 0:07:47.120 different cutouts, you know, space not very far apart. Frankly, um, 0:07:47.160 --> 0:07:50.800 and you'd have maybe eight or ten maybe fifteen. Yeah. 0:07:50.960 --> 0:07:54.600 I saw there was a public restroom in Syria. UM. 0:07:55.120 --> 0:07:59.360 I think was contemporaneous to to Greece. Um that sat 0:07:59.440 --> 0:08:02.480 like eighty right, and there's no partitions, there's no nothing, 0:08:02.560 --> 0:08:05.360 And it seemed to be um kind of a social 0:08:05.480 --> 0:08:07.840 endeavor where like you just sit there and chat with 0:08:07.880 --> 0:08:11.080 somebody while you're pooping. Yeah, it's kind of funny to 0:08:11.120 --> 0:08:16.760 think about how it was this communal social activity, or 0:08:16.840 --> 0:08:19.240 at least it wasn't separated from any of the communal 0:08:19.240 --> 0:08:22.800 and social activities, whereas today we have all these unspoken 0:08:22.880 --> 0:08:26.520 rules of of you know, no talking in the bathroom, 0:08:26.560 --> 0:08:29.880 you keep your dirty behavior to yourself. Yeah, I don't 0:08:29.920 --> 0:08:31.960 know if you've ever seen it. There's actually if I'm 0:08:31.960 --> 0:08:36.360 a Shinima cartoon using them, I think it's the sims 0:08:37.280 --> 0:08:41.000 where it's to illustrate the rules in the men's restroom, 0:08:41.280 --> 0:08:43.760 and rule number one is if there's a line of urinals. 0:08:43.800 --> 0:08:46.720 You take one on either end. It doesn't matter which end, 0:08:46.800 --> 0:08:49.040 just it has to be on the end. The next 0:08:49.040 --> 0:08:51.719 person and has to take the one on the furthest end. 0:08:52.400 --> 0:08:55.079 And then as long as there's at least one empty 0:08:55.120 --> 0:08:58.000 one separating you and the next person, you can take one. 0:08:58.040 --> 0:09:01.080 But if there isn't, you gotta leave, like like there's 0:09:01.160 --> 0:09:02.960 it was this crazy series of but it was a 0:09:03.000 --> 0:09:05.040 series of rules where and then the comedy came from 0:09:05.040 --> 0:09:06.959 the fact that you're like, this is kind of how 0:09:07.000 --> 0:09:11.600 guys behave in the bathroom. For me, it's the cardinal 0:09:11.679 --> 0:09:16.480 rule is if there's two two stalls, um, and the 0:09:16.520 --> 0:09:20.920 doors shut on one, then both are occupied by by default. 0:09:21.120 --> 0:09:24.199 That must make it difficult here in this office because 0:09:24.240 --> 0:09:27.840 the bathrooms go uh floor to ceiling with the doors 0:09:27.920 --> 0:09:30.200 and they're shut all the time. So that's that's different 0:09:30.320 --> 0:09:34.200 like that these bathrooms are prime real estate in my opinion. 0:09:34.559 --> 0:09:37.160 But if you remember in the last place where aust 0:09:37.040 --> 0:09:39.120 the First was headquartered, it was, you know, just a 0:09:39.120 --> 0:09:41.960 partition and you can see feet and everything, and it's 0:09:42.000 --> 0:09:46.760 that's just to me, like we we really have advanced 0:09:46.800 --> 0:09:49.400 to the point where you know it is a private 0:09:49.640 --> 0:09:53.880 act and um, it's not to be shared. It's not public. 0:09:53.880 --> 0:09:57.200 We're not in ancient grease any longer. Um. And so 0:09:57.240 --> 0:09:59.840 if somebody's in a stall, you don't sit down next 0:09:59.840 --> 0:10:04.200 to I just I really feel strongly about that. I 0:10:04.240 --> 0:10:07.080 can understand. And it's interesting because when we get into 0:10:07.720 --> 0:10:11.560 advanced toilets like the Japanese toilets, they take that to 0:10:11.840 --> 0:10:17.319 the next level to create another another level of privacy 0:10:17.480 --> 0:10:19.920 for that. Yeah, it's pretty neat, Like you swipe your 0:10:19.920 --> 0:10:21.959 hand in front of a sensor and it takes you 0:10:22.000 --> 0:10:27.800 to the seventh dimension, completely out of reach of anybody here. 0:10:28.080 --> 0:10:32.000 It's you and and that's it. He's in the ninth, 0:10:32.040 --> 0:10:33.679 isn't it. Yeah, I think he is, or the tenth. 0:10:33.679 --> 0:10:37.400 That's one of those. Yeah. So one of the other 0:10:37.440 --> 0:10:39.640 things we can talk about before we move into the 0:10:39.720 --> 0:10:43.440 earliest flush toilet is that when you're looking at say 0:10:43.520 --> 0:10:45.840 Europe in the Middle Ages all the way up into 0:10:45.840 --> 0:10:49.800 the Renaissance. Uh, you're talking about especially like, you know, 0:10:49.800 --> 0:10:55.040 I think about castles I frequently. I do, I really 0:10:55.080 --> 0:11:00.000 do frequently think about castles. Um. Their facilities were pretty primitive. 0:11:00.080 --> 0:11:04.640 It was essentially a hole cut into the you know, 0:11:04.720 --> 0:11:08.000 like a like a stone seat, sometimes with a wooden 0:11:08.040 --> 0:11:10.840 panel on top of it. Uh that then had a 0:11:10.920 --> 0:11:15.520 channel that that slanted away from the wall, and your 0:11:15.640 --> 0:11:20.120 your waist would drop down either into a cesspit, a moat, moat, 0:11:20.480 --> 0:11:24.280 sometimes just the ground. On the invading armies, that is 0:11:24.320 --> 0:11:27.560 also a possibility. And these were called garter robes, and 0:11:27.720 --> 0:11:31.320 they were also closets. They weren't just bathrooms. They were 0:11:31.320 --> 0:11:36.680 closets you would hang your clothing because the ammonia from 0:11:36.720 --> 0:11:40.959 your urine would kill fleas. Oh wow, that is very 0:11:41.000 --> 0:11:46.520 surprisingly clever. It's not scar break clever, but it's up there. 0:11:47.080 --> 0:11:49.840 So if you're wondering when the first flush toilet comes along, 0:11:49.880 --> 0:11:53.720 it's actually a lot earlier than I had anticipated. It's weird. 0:11:53.800 --> 0:11:56.600 I don't know how I never came across this back before. 0:11:56.640 --> 0:11:58.600 And it's one that, by the way, a lot of 0:11:58.640 --> 0:12:03.559 people in our office. It comes from fift nineties six 0:12:04.559 --> 0:12:08.320 John Harrington. Yes, he was a cousin I think of 0:12:08.559 --> 0:12:12.360 um Elizabeth the first Yeah, he was her godson. Okay, 0:12:12.360 --> 0:12:16.240 that's what it was. And he designed this flushing toilet 0:12:16.320 --> 0:12:19.719 or prototype of a flushing toilet for her. Yeah, and 0:12:20.000 --> 0:12:22.520 she probably didn't use it very much. She didn't admit 0:12:22.559 --> 0:12:25.360 to it. She was a queen, and technically, when you're 0:12:25.440 --> 0:12:28.199 queen you can pretty much poop wherever you like. Someone's 0:12:28.200 --> 0:12:30.840 going to take care of it. But he called it 0:12:30.880 --> 0:12:35.320 the ajax. No, here's the thing. John Harrington was a rake. 0:12:35.960 --> 0:12:39.120 Oh yeah, he was like Greg ken hear level rake, 0:12:39.880 --> 0:12:42.920 you know, kind of like. He was known for passing 0:12:43.000 --> 0:12:46.160 around lewd poetry to the ladies of the court. He 0:12:46.360 --> 0:12:50.400 loved too. He was very clever and he loved being 0:12:50.480 --> 0:12:56.640 clever and so lewd poetry flushing toilets well, he called 0:12:56.640 --> 0:12:59.679 it the ajax as a pun. It's a pun on 0:12:59.720 --> 0:13:05.959 the term jake's, which is a euphemism for toilet. It's 0:13:05.960 --> 0:13:10.240 like the john it's the jake's, So a jax is 0:13:10.320 --> 0:13:13.480 a pun on jake's. And it had a pan into 0:13:13.520 --> 0:13:17.080 which one would do one's business and assist turn that 0:13:17.160 --> 0:13:20.439 you could pump water up into, and then a handle 0:13:20.480 --> 0:13:21.960 and when you pulled the handle, it opened up a 0:13:22.000 --> 0:13:24.760 valve that allowed the water from the cistern to come 0:13:24.800 --> 0:13:28.199 down and wash away what was in the pan down 0:13:28.240 --> 0:13:31.720 through a channel that would go out to assess pool 0:13:31.840 --> 0:13:35.480 onto an invading army, or onto an invading army as 0:13:35.480 --> 0:13:36.960 the case may be. As far as I know, he 0:13:36.960 --> 0:13:39.040 only built two. I think he built one for the 0:13:39.120 --> 0:13:42.839 queen and one for himself. Uh So it was an 0:13:42.840 --> 0:13:46.360 interesting idea, did not catch on at the time. Uh 0:13:46.600 --> 0:13:49.680 it really just showed his inventiveness. To to look at 0:13:49.720 --> 0:13:53.760 the next approach to the flushing toilet, you have to 0:13:53.840 --> 0:14:01.000 go ahead by almost two hundred years Alexander coming exactly, 0:14:01.400 --> 0:14:05.440 and he he invented something that ended up being very 0:14:05.520 --> 0:14:08.720 important for the flushing toilet, the S trap. Yeah, so 0:14:08.840 --> 0:14:13.480 much so that it's still basically the design of toilets today. Yeah. Now, 0:14:13.520 --> 0:14:16.440 this is the pipes that you see that lead out 0:14:16.480 --> 0:14:18.640 from your toilet, and it's called an S trap because 0:14:18.679 --> 0:14:21.240 it's in that S shape, right, Yeah, or some people 0:14:21.440 --> 0:14:23.960 consider it an upside down you or something like that. 0:14:24.080 --> 0:14:26.040 It all depends on one how much of it you 0:14:26.080 --> 0:14:29.440 can see and to exactly what implementation it is. But yeah, 0:14:29.480 --> 0:14:31.720 the U trap is another way of looking at an 0:14:31.760 --> 0:14:35.480 upside on you. Uh So. The important thing about this 0:14:35.800 --> 0:14:39.640 was that it would allow uh it would well trap 0:14:40.240 --> 0:14:43.280 water once it had gone down the pipe from coming 0:14:43.280 --> 0:14:47.480 back up, and it would also thus trap the smell, Yes, 0:14:47.560 --> 0:14:50.720 which is very important with sewers because if you're taking 0:14:50.760 --> 0:14:56.080 a piece of technology and connecting it to an open sewer. Yeah, 0:14:56.440 --> 0:14:59.240 the smell is gonna be something. Yeah, it's gonna be 0:14:59.520 --> 0:15:01.520 how to take care that? And he did with the 0:15:01.640 --> 0:15:05.720 s trap. Yeah, and it was really a brilliant idea 0:15:05.720 --> 0:15:09.160 and also so much so strickly that like three two 0:15:09.240 --> 0:15:13.720 hundred years later, two fifty years later, Um, we're still 0:15:13.880 --> 0:15:18.080 using this guy's design. It is not been improved upon 0:15:18.560 --> 0:15:21.360 in two hundred and fifty years. Right there. There are 0:15:21.880 --> 0:15:25.320 a couple of other variations on it, but it has 0:15:25.440 --> 0:15:28.320 the basic design is still what we rely upon because 0:15:28.760 --> 0:15:32.120 it works. Has no moving parts for just that that pipe, 0:15:32.600 --> 0:15:35.720 so it can't break down in that sense. I could 0:15:35.760 --> 0:15:38.760 still get clogged. Maybe we'll talk a bit about clogs later. Yeah, well, 0:15:38.760 --> 0:15:41.440 you know you gotta talk about it. I didn't. I 0:15:41.520 --> 0:15:43.520 did not know we were going to talk about clogs. Well, 0:15:43.520 --> 0:15:46.240 I apologize. If you want, you can check out for 0:15:46.320 --> 0:15:48.720 that part of the yet, I'll go to my happy place. 0:15:48.760 --> 0:15:53.600 That's good. Yeah, we'll just watch you kind of stare space. Um. 0:15:53.640 --> 0:15:57.120 But it also he also invented a sliding valve between 0:15:57.160 --> 0:15:59.280 the bowl and the trap, which allowed some water to 0:15:59.400 --> 0:16:03.480 stay in a bowl after you flushed, so that it 0:16:03.640 --> 0:16:06.320 could hold on to the waist for the next time, 0:16:06.360 --> 0:16:10.120 and so you didn't just have just an empty bowl 0:16:10.200 --> 0:16:13.440 of waste and then put water into it. It was 0:16:13.600 --> 0:16:16.720 you know, it actually improved the performance quite a bit. 0:16:17.480 --> 0:16:19.240 And you had a lot of other inventors who followed, 0:16:19.240 --> 0:16:23.480 like Samuel Prosser, Joseph Brama, Thomas Twyford. They all made 0:16:23.560 --> 0:16:26.560 improvements to the basic design of the toilet. We're gonna 0:16:26.560 --> 0:16:28.920 take a quick bathroom break, but we'll be right back 0:16:28.960 --> 0:16:39.840 with more tech. Stuff gets flushed. Okay, So you may 0:16:39.920 --> 0:16:45.720 have heard the somewhat apocryphal tale that the toilet was 0:16:45.760 --> 0:16:50.200 invented by a man named Thomas Crapper. Apply enough, Yeah, 0:16:50.240 --> 0:16:53.720 one of those ha ha. Isn't it ironic? Don't you think? 0:16:53.760 --> 0:16:58.320 Alanis Morris At moments, you know, I think it might be. 0:16:58.600 --> 0:17:00.640 It's like it's like rain on your wedding day, It's 0:17:00.640 --> 0:17:03.120 like Thomas Crapper making a toilet, But I'm pretty sure 0:17:03.120 --> 0:17:08.280 that's the way it goes. Um. Thomas Crapper, as far 0:17:08.320 --> 0:17:11.200 as we can tell, was actually a person. There are 0:17:11.280 --> 0:17:14.040 records of a Thomas Crapper who who held patents in 0:17:14.040 --> 0:17:17.439 the nineteenth century and their plumbing patents, and some of 0:17:17.440 --> 0:17:21.120 them in fact involve improvements to the water closet or toilet. 0:17:21.840 --> 0:17:25.760 But he didn't invent it um, and he may not 0:17:25.880 --> 0:17:30.360 have had that big of an impact overall on the 0:17:30.400 --> 0:17:33.640 toilet evolution. It's just one of those facts that kind 0:17:33.640 --> 0:17:35.919 of got passed around, as you know, or one of 0:17:35.920 --> 0:17:38.760 those those tidbits that gets passed around. The total truth. 0:17:39.920 --> 0:17:46.760 Plus he pronounced his name crep it's crepe Um. Yeah 0:17:46.880 --> 0:17:49.879 it was. It's one of those things where I actually 0:17:49.880 --> 0:17:51.800 looked into it too, because it was like, well I've 0:17:51.840 --> 0:17:54.000 always heard that as well, and I'm curious where that 0:17:54.000 --> 0:17:56.000 came out. Well, yeah it is. It's got it has 0:17:56.119 --> 0:18:01.560 traction because it's just so delightful. Yeah yeah, uh. Going 0:18:01.600 --> 0:18:05.120 back to mid forty eight in the UK, that's when 0:18:05.119 --> 0:18:07.800 they passed the Public Health Act which stated that all 0:18:07.880 --> 0:18:10.480 new houses in the UK had to be built with 0:18:10.520 --> 0:18:14.400 a toilet. Very smart. Yeah, it's a great way of 0:18:14.440 --> 0:18:19.040 preserving your your various towns and cities from becoming overrun 0:18:19.040 --> 0:18:23.480 with filth. Right. But then, and this is still um 0:18:23.520 --> 0:18:28.639 in play today. There's a certain psychology around defecation, urination, 0:18:29.160 --> 0:18:34.639 expelling waste, right, and it can swing wildly from era 0:18:34.800 --> 0:18:38.840 to era, but at that time, in the mid nineteenth century, 0:18:38.880 --> 0:18:43.159 forcing the public to install indoor plumbing wasn't like the 0:18:43.200 --> 0:18:48.119 public was saying, yes, thank you government, we've been waiting 0:18:48.160 --> 0:18:51.920 to have to do this. It was more like, um, wait, 0:18:51.960 --> 0:18:54.080 you want us to put a toilet where next to 0:18:54.119 --> 0:18:57.720 the kitchen? What is wrong with you? No, that's disgusting. 0:18:57.920 --> 0:18:59.840 We want to put this over in the back garden 0:19:00.000 --> 0:19:03.520 where you know, you know, achiever pot. It's mobile that 0:19:03.560 --> 0:19:06.119 we can put wherever and get rid of immediately, Like 0:19:06.160 --> 0:19:08.080 this is gross, Like you want us to hook it 0:19:08.160 --> 0:19:10.600 up to the sewer? What's wrong with you? So there 0:19:10.680 --> 0:19:15.159 was like a certain amount of resistance to adopting this, 0:19:16.040 --> 0:19:19.639 whereas now, um, you know, it's yeah, you want that, 0:19:19.680 --> 0:19:24.160 you want indoor plumbing, And it's based on the cultural 0:19:24.200 --> 0:19:28.680 attitudes toward expelling waste that that vary from time to time. Yeah, 0:19:28.720 --> 0:19:30.800 it's it's it's hard. I mean, it's very easy for 0:19:30.880 --> 0:19:34.119 us to start looking at everything from our current perspective, right, 0:19:34.119 --> 0:19:36.439 It's very difficult to take ourselves out of that. But 0:19:36.520 --> 0:19:38.120 you do have to do that when you start talking 0:19:38.119 --> 0:19:41.960 about subjects like this. Because it was a different world 0:19:42.160 --> 0:19:46.119 I mean people thought differently and for for reasons that 0:19:46.160 --> 0:19:48.159 you can kind of understand when you think about it. 0:19:48.680 --> 0:19:51.240 And you know, if you think, well, now I've got 0:19:51.240 --> 0:19:55.280 a thing that dumps waste into a sewer, but I 0:19:55.320 --> 0:19:58.160 don't want any of that smell or nastiness or anything 0:19:58.200 --> 0:20:00.879 to get into my home. When four I had a 0:20:00.960 --> 0:20:03.560 portable thing, I could actually take it outside and dump 0:20:03.640 --> 0:20:06.440 it in a cess pool or whatever. It wasn't there 0:20:06.480 --> 0:20:11.800 wasn't a big change. Plus plus, it's like that's my poop. Yeah, 0:20:11.840 --> 0:20:14.200 it's poop, but it's I know where that poop came from. 0:20:14.480 --> 0:20:17.440 Whereas with the sewer, everybody else's poop has the opportunity 0:20:17.480 --> 0:20:20.320 to come into your house, yeah, which you don't know, 0:20:20.440 --> 0:20:24.399 you didn't want, don't want that. Another interesting point is 0:20:24.400 --> 0:20:30.159 I've been talking exclusively about people inventors and engineers in 0:20:30.200 --> 0:20:34.040 the UK. Now, when settlers came over to America, they 0:20:34.040 --> 0:20:37.320 did not come over with plans for toilets, and so 0:20:37.480 --> 0:20:41.320 the toilet actually had a parallel evolution in the UK 0:20:41.600 --> 0:20:44.959 and in the United States evolved in isolation basically a 0:20:44.960 --> 0:20:47.000 little bit, yes with with a little bit. I mean 0:20:47.160 --> 0:20:50.639 they obviously had some common history there, but it was 0:20:51.119 --> 0:20:56.600 largely engineers in the US who created very similar style toilets. 0:20:56.600 --> 0:20:59.040 In some cases, they were toilets that were lagging behind 0:20:59.480 --> 0:21:03.480 the tech anology by about twenty years compared to the UK. 0:21:04.040 --> 0:21:06.200 But you had folks like James T. Henry and William 0:21:06.240 --> 0:21:08.280 Campbell who were awarded a U. S. Patent for a 0:21:08.280 --> 0:21:12.720 water closet toilet um. And that's where we really see 0:21:12.760 --> 0:21:16.280 it moving forward from that point on and to the 0:21:16.320 --> 0:21:19.399 point where they essentially merged like the the You know 0:21:19.440 --> 0:21:22.760 that we saw the United States adopt things like the 0:21:22.960 --> 0:21:27.359 s trap, uh, making the toilets more useful. Um, do 0:21:27.359 --> 0:21:30.840 you know when toilet paper was invented? Toilet paper was 0:21:30.920 --> 0:21:38.840 invented in ninety eight. I predate ninety eight, and I 0:21:38.920 --> 0:21:44.159 distinctly remember toilet paper. You were off by almost a 0:21:44.320 --> 0:21:48.520 hundred years when toilet paper was invented, didn't They used 0:21:48.520 --> 0:21:54.479 to use the series robot catalogs Corn Cob. There's actually 0:21:54.520 --> 0:21:59.160 some poetry that I've read where there's a discussion a giant. 0:21:59.240 --> 0:22:01.199 I forget what whim it is, but there's a giant 0:22:01.320 --> 0:22:06.120 talking about all the different things he has used to 0:22:06.160 --> 0:22:12.440 clean himself after after evacuation, including I think he determined 0:22:12.480 --> 0:22:16.040 that the most comfortable was the neck of a goose. 0:22:16.600 --> 0:22:19.600 Oh that is nice. Yeah, not not for the goose, 0:22:19.680 --> 0:22:22.960 but yeah uh so. Yeah. The toilet paper was in 0:22:23.800 --> 0:22:27.120 but not marketed heavily until nineteen two, so for more 0:22:27.119 --> 0:22:30.159 than a decade. Yeah, it just kind of I was like, well, 0:22:30.280 --> 0:22:33.159 I mean, why we got the series robot catalog Cobs. 0:22:33.880 --> 0:22:37.520 How do you look around your house and say, oh, yeah, 0:22:37.560 --> 0:22:40.160 corn Cob, that's a that's a good idea, bad idea. Yeah, 0:22:40.240 --> 0:22:44.400 sure it's got traction, but pay a price for that track. Yeah, 0:22:44.560 --> 0:22:50.640 I I hesitate to hazard a guess, to be honest, 0:22:49.680 --> 0:22:55.200 idea to have some at home? All right, okay, well 0:22:55.280 --> 0:23:01.560 I'd like to apologize on behalf of Josh's gee. I'd 0:23:01.560 --> 0:23:04.080 like to extend to you my apologies for giving him 0:23:04.119 --> 0:23:08.520 the idea. Let's talk about how a toilet actually works. Okay, alright, 0:23:08.600 --> 0:23:11.160 So you got your basic parts of the toilet. You've 0:23:11.160 --> 0:23:14.720 got the tank, You've got the bowl in which you 0:23:14.760 --> 0:23:18.199 do your business, and then you have the siphon the 0:23:18.400 --> 0:23:22.240 s trap area that where the waist goes once you flush, 0:23:22.320 --> 0:23:25.480 which is technically part of the bowl. Yeah. Yeah, it's 0:23:25.480 --> 0:23:27.919 just it's easier to talk about it as separate parts. 0:23:27.960 --> 0:23:31.679 But yes, you aren't correct. So inside the tank you 0:23:31.760 --> 0:23:35.720 have the flush valve. This is the valve that allows 0:23:35.760 --> 0:23:38.560 water to flow out of the tank and into the bowl. Yes, 0:23:38.600 --> 0:23:41.360 so when you press down the handle, yeah, there's that 0:23:41.480 --> 0:23:44.680 handle is connected by chain to that flush valve. That's 0:23:44.720 --> 0:23:46.640 the thing that lifts up and lets the water from 0:23:46.680 --> 0:23:49.080 the tank into the bowl. Yeah. And once the water 0:23:49.200 --> 0:23:52.000 is flowing down, like for most toilets, you no longer 0:23:52.040 --> 0:23:55.760 have to hold the handle down because just the water itself. 0:23:55.840 --> 0:23:58.080 Once the valve is an open position, it will remain 0:23:58.119 --> 0:24:00.080 open until the water level is low enough for it 0:24:00.119 --> 0:24:02.600 to close again. Yeah, they make it so it's light 0:24:02.720 --> 0:24:07.400 enough to float. Yeah, right, because it's overcome suction thanks 0:24:07.440 --> 0:24:09.880 to the handle um and it's floating there, and then 0:24:09.880 --> 0:24:12.440 as the water drains out, its ability to float stop, 0:24:12.480 --> 0:24:16.240 so it falls back into place. Ideally. Ideally, Yeah, there 0:24:16.240 --> 0:24:19.000 are times obviously, if you have issues where maybe there's 0:24:19.000 --> 0:24:22.639 a hinge that's a little too tight, or there's something 0:24:22.680 --> 0:24:26.320 off with the sela of on the the valve, that 0:24:26.440 --> 0:24:28.640 you may have to have that replaced, because otherwise water 0:24:28.760 --> 0:24:32.920 just continuously flows into the bowl and it never accumulates 0:24:32.920 --> 0:24:35.160 in the tank. I found that most of the time 0:24:35.160 --> 0:24:38.240 it's because there's a little bit of extra chain that's 0:24:38.320 --> 0:24:44.640 keeping the flush valve from sitting in suction from from generating. Uh. 0:24:44.920 --> 0:24:47.520 You you also have a second valve inside the tank, 0:24:47.920 --> 0:24:51.240 the filler valve. The filler valve is what allows water 0:24:51.359 --> 0:24:54.159 to go into the tank as well as into the 0:24:54.160 --> 0:24:58.600 bowl after a flush, so uh it needs to it 0:24:58.920 --> 0:25:01.199 refills the tank after you flushed it. So you flushed 0:25:01.200 --> 0:25:04.920 the tank, the water from the filler valve will start 0:25:04.960 --> 0:25:07.560 to pour into the tank to refill it. Once that 0:25:07.560 --> 0:25:11.040 that flush valve has shut uh. Some of that water 0:25:11.160 --> 0:25:13.680 also will go into the bowl to bring the level 0:25:13.680 --> 0:25:17.840 back up to the proper height. And then you've got 0:25:17.880 --> 0:25:21.600 a filler float. This is a yeah, this is a 0:25:21.640 --> 0:25:24.920 brilliant idea. The idea is that the filler float will 0:25:25.040 --> 0:25:27.400 rise to a certain level within the tank, and once 0:25:27.440 --> 0:25:30.320 it's at the proper level, it will activate a switch 0:25:30.520 --> 0:25:34.080 then turns off the filler valve, so so that way 0:25:34.119 --> 0:25:36.520 you no longer have water running in your tank. If 0:25:36.560 --> 0:25:39.520 you ever hear water continuously running in your tank, it 0:25:39.600 --> 0:25:42.439 means that float is not activating the switch properly, and 0:25:42.480 --> 0:25:45.400 you may need to take the lid off and see 0:25:45.560 --> 0:25:48.680 what's going on with that float. Maybe it's stuck on something, 0:25:49.680 --> 0:25:52.560 or it's you know, it's it's the switch might be 0:25:52.600 --> 0:25:54.159 burnt out, in which case you would need to have 0:25:54.200 --> 0:25:58.560 that switch replaced. But that's what's causing that or this Again, 0:25:58.600 --> 0:26:00.600 the flush valve could be not seen and popular in 0:26:00.640 --> 0:26:04.080 water is just rushing out, So that's filler valve. Balloon 0:26:04.680 --> 0:26:07.320 isn't getting to that level where it's supposed to where 0:26:07.320 --> 0:26:10.159 it can trip the filler valve from turning off again, 0:26:10.320 --> 0:26:13.680 right exactly. Yeah, that could be another another cause for it. 0:26:13.760 --> 0:26:16.280 But you don't have to fear because even if the 0:26:16.280 --> 0:26:19.720 water is running, your toilet will very likely not overflow 0:26:19.760 --> 0:26:22.320 because it's been designed so that as the tank fills, 0:26:22.840 --> 0:26:25.880 even if it keeps filling and filling and filling, it's 0:26:25.880 --> 0:26:29.159 going to the overflow um tube, I guess, is going 0:26:29.200 --> 0:26:32.720 to direct that into the bowl. Right, So any water 0:26:32.840 --> 0:26:36.200 that comes above the height of the overflow tube will 0:26:36.320 --> 0:26:39.119 just flow down the tube. The tube leads to the 0:26:39.160 --> 0:26:41.800 bowl and water will flow into the bowl. And then 0:26:41.800 --> 0:26:44.360 you think, wait, wait, wait that cause it to flush. Yes, 0:26:44.520 --> 0:26:47.880 surely somewhere this thing's got to flood what's the deal. 0:26:48.000 --> 0:26:50.520 Why doesn't it all right? That's when we get into 0:26:50.600 --> 0:26:53.439 the siphon where my head pops. Yeah, this is the 0:26:53.440 --> 0:26:56.199 sciphen gets a little for those who those of us 0:26:56.240 --> 0:26:59.280 who are many years away from basic physics, the scipen 0:26:59.400 --> 0:27:03.879 gets confused. So the siphon is designed. So this is 0:27:03.920 --> 0:27:06.280 that that sort of upside down you or the s 0:27:06.280 --> 0:27:10.040 shaped pipe the top of that upside down you the 0:27:10.080 --> 0:27:13.639 peak there that's at the same level as what the 0:27:14.080 --> 0:27:16.600 toilet bowl, the level of water and your toilet bowl 0:27:16.640 --> 0:27:19.560 will be. Now, if you were to pour more water 0:27:20.040 --> 0:27:23.000 into the toilet bowl, because there's there's just this open 0:27:23.080 --> 0:27:27.520 area between the siphon and the bowl. You know, putting 0:27:27.520 --> 0:27:30.920 more water in makes the water level rise on both sides, right, 0:27:31.480 --> 0:27:33.879 But if you're only putting in a little bit of water, 0:27:34.280 --> 0:27:37.440 that water will just rise up above the level of 0:27:37.600 --> 0:27:41.440 the bend and flow down the other side of the bend. Yeah, 0:27:41.480 --> 0:27:44.400 And and I should I want to point out that, um, 0:27:44.520 --> 0:27:48.359 this is your explanation is spot on, but would be 0:27:48.440 --> 0:27:51.639 exponentially easier if somebody were looking at a cross section 0:27:51.680 --> 0:27:55.120 of a toilet flushing s valve right exactly. Yeah, Yeah, 0:27:55.400 --> 0:27:57.800 it would really drive at home, Yeah, because it's it's 0:27:57.840 --> 0:28:00.159 this is me trying to paint a picture of a 0:28:00.200 --> 0:28:04.520 toilet plush in words, yeah, with physics. Yeah, So you've 0:28:04.560 --> 0:28:06.800 got you've got this this level here, and as long 0:28:06.800 --> 0:28:09.520 as the water is just flowing gently so for in 0:28:09.520 --> 0:28:12.400 other words, like a steady stream from the overflow too, 0:28:12.760 --> 0:28:16.479 then it's just going to gradually rise up till it 0:28:16.560 --> 0:28:19.800 hits above that you bend and then flow down the 0:28:19.840 --> 0:28:22.280 other side. And that's all that happens, because it's not 0:28:22.440 --> 0:28:25.680 it's not creating the siphon effect yet. Yes, So the 0:28:26.160 --> 0:28:29.359 water is in that in that s trap and in 0:28:29.400 --> 0:28:32.840 your toilet bowl, and on the other side of the siphon, 0:28:33.040 --> 0:28:36.320 in the tube that leads down to the sewer, that 0:28:36.320 --> 0:28:39.520 that air is imbalanced with the air that's in the 0:28:39.520 --> 0:28:43.240 toilet bowl, right, So you basically have air pressure balancing 0:28:43.240 --> 0:28:46.240 your water and keeping it in place. Yep, yep. And 0:28:46.280 --> 0:28:49.400 it's only if you were to fill that siphon, that 0:28:49.480 --> 0:28:53.280 s trap with water completely that that then things get 0:28:53.320 --> 0:28:56.640 out of balance. And here's where the siphon affect comes 0:28:56.640 --> 0:29:00.320 into play. So how does a siphon work all? Right? 0:29:00.360 --> 0:29:02.520 First of all, siphons a bent tube used to move 0:29:02.520 --> 0:29:06.680 a liquid from a high evolution elevation rather over an 0:29:06.680 --> 0:29:11.520 obstruction and to a lower elevation. Done and done right. 0:29:12.000 --> 0:29:14.920 You could do this very easily by taking two cups, 0:29:15.000 --> 0:29:18.480 filling one cup with water, putting a couple of books 0:29:18.480 --> 0:29:21.160 down on a table. So you put the cup full 0:29:21.240 --> 0:29:23.200 of water on top of one of the set of books. 0:29:23.640 --> 0:29:26.040 Get a tube, like a flexible tube of some sort, 0:29:26.480 --> 0:29:28.920 submerge it in the water so that the tube fills 0:29:28.960 --> 0:29:30.800 with water. Put your thumb over one end of it. 0:29:31.600 --> 0:29:34.120 Move it over to the other cup, which is on 0:29:34.160 --> 0:29:37.720 the surface of the table. Yeah, make sure that the 0:29:37.920 --> 0:29:39.960 make sure that the end of the tube that you're 0:29:40.000 --> 0:29:42.480 holding ends up being lower than the level of water 0:29:42.720 --> 0:29:46.520 in the cup. Let go. Water will start to flow 0:29:46.760 --> 0:29:49.960 from the cup that's above to the cup that's blow 0:29:50.040 --> 0:29:53.240 even though the tube will arc so the water is 0:29:53.280 --> 0:29:56.680 technically flowing uphill. Yeah, which is pretty neat. Yeah. As 0:29:56.720 --> 0:29:59.440 long as the lower end of the tube going into 0:29:59.440 --> 0:30:04.200 the lower elevation glass um, as long as that is 0:30:04.280 --> 0:30:08.400 exposed to air, and as long as the end of 0:30:08.440 --> 0:30:11.240 the tube that's in the higher glass is under water, 0:30:11.880 --> 0:30:14.240 the air pressure in the tube is overcome and the 0:30:14.280 --> 0:30:17.760 suction effect takes place right well kind of, except that 0:30:17.840 --> 0:30:20.160 the other the tube in the lower elevation does not 0:30:20.280 --> 0:30:22.160 have to be above water. It can be. It can 0:30:22.200 --> 0:30:25.120 actually be completely submerged as well as long. What will 0:30:25.120 --> 0:30:28.800 happen is if the two water levels reach the same 0:30:28.840 --> 0:30:32.200 height uh and I mean same height relative to the table, 0:30:32.640 --> 0:30:36.640 then pressure is equalized and everything will everything is an 0:30:36.680 --> 0:30:40.360 equilibrium and water will stop to float. It's but as 0:30:40.400 --> 0:30:44.680 long as the elevated cup has a higher water level, 0:30:44.800 --> 0:30:46.840 water will continue to flow through that siphon. And the 0:30:46.880 --> 0:30:50.000 reason there are two reasons really. One is that water 0:30:50.240 --> 0:30:54.360 inside a chamber like that acts like a chain. It 0:30:54.640 --> 0:30:59.400 pulls itself along. The other reason is that you have 0:31:00.840 --> 0:31:05.040 think of the tube as an arc. Well, the tube 0:31:05.080 --> 0:31:08.000 that leads down to the lower elevation is longer. That 0:31:08.080 --> 0:31:11.120 side is longer than the side that's in the higher elevation. 0:31:11.920 --> 0:31:15.760 So the water that's in that part is heavier, and 0:31:15.840 --> 0:31:19.080 that weight is what's pulling water along inside the tube. 0:31:19.560 --> 0:31:22.360 And it's until until you hit equilibrium. So for a 0:31:22.440 --> 0:31:25.600 toilet to get it back to to the toilet example, 0:31:25.840 --> 0:31:29.760 and why it's important when you flush that water from 0:31:29.800 --> 0:31:32.360 the tank rushes into the bowl and it does so 0:31:32.440 --> 0:31:36.440 fast enough to completely fill the pipe that s trap. 0:31:37.320 --> 0:31:42.000 This activates the siphon effect, and the water pulls the 0:31:42.040 --> 0:31:44.400 waist and also all the rest of the water along 0:31:44.440 --> 0:31:47.640 with it through that s trap until it gets to 0:31:47.680 --> 0:31:50.840 a point where it has exhausted the amount of water 0:31:50.920 --> 0:31:53.480 that the tank has put into the bowl. And then 0:31:53.560 --> 0:31:55.960 air is introduced, and once air is introduced, the siphon 0:31:55.960 --> 0:31:59.440 effect stops. Right. So with a siphon, not only is 0:31:59.480 --> 0:32:02.640 the water flowing out of the bowl because there's so 0:32:02.720 --> 0:32:05.840 much water what about two or so gallons introduced to 0:32:05.960 --> 0:32:09.560 your toilet bowl in about three seconds that that siphon 0:32:09.960 --> 0:32:13.560 effect is produced in the s trap, right, Yeah, not 0:32:13.640 --> 0:32:16.680 only is that water flowing, it produces a type of suction, 0:32:16.760 --> 0:32:19.280 So the water in the bowl is sucked out and 0:32:19.320 --> 0:32:22.520 down the siphon. And then, yes, like you said, once 0:32:22.600 --> 0:32:25.160 the air is introduced, because the water and everything sucked 0:32:25.160 --> 0:32:27.960 out of the toilet bowl, the suction effect is cut 0:32:28.000 --> 0:32:30.440 off and everything goes back to the way it was 0:32:30.480 --> 0:32:32.920 before you flush the top. Right, that's when the filler 0:32:33.040 --> 0:32:35.440 valve can start to refill the bowl because now that 0:32:35.440 --> 0:32:39.040 there's no longer anymore suction going on the bowl, water 0:32:39.120 --> 0:32:41.400 level can return back to what it was as well. 0:32:41.480 --> 0:32:44.520 And keep in mind that part of the s trap 0:32:45.040 --> 0:32:48.080 that you know you can't see because it's a solid pipe, 0:32:48.400 --> 0:32:51.160 but that also ends up filling to that same height 0:32:51.240 --> 0:32:53.640 as the water that's in the bowl. And then you're 0:32:53.680 --> 0:32:55.920 ready to go again once the tanket's bowl anyway, Yeah, 0:32:56.040 --> 0:32:59.400 once you eat some kimchi. We talked about that before 0:32:59.440 --> 0:33:02.080 the podcast started. Um, but yeah, one other thing to 0:33:02.160 --> 0:33:04.080 keep in mind. You might say, well, why do we 0:33:04.080 --> 0:33:06.680 need a tank at all? Why not just have a 0:33:06.680 --> 0:33:10.600 water pipe going directly into the toilet and then when 0:33:10.640 --> 0:33:12.680 you flush, it just opens up a valve for a 0:33:12.760 --> 0:33:15.800 certain amount of time and then closes. And the reason 0:33:15.880 --> 0:33:19.080 is because unless you have insane water pressure in your house, 0:33:19.680 --> 0:33:22.600 you're not putting enough water in fast enough to fill 0:33:22.760 --> 0:33:27.280 that s trap completely to to activate the siphon effect. 0:33:27.360 --> 0:33:29.480 It's just going to trickle out like if your tank 0:33:29.720 --> 0:33:34.040 was overflowing exactly. So there's some buildings that I mean 0:33:34.080 --> 0:33:37.760 a lot of buildings that don't have UH tanks on 0:33:37.880 --> 0:33:40.560 their on their toilets, but that's because again they are 0:33:40.640 --> 0:33:45.320 directly connected to a very powerful water system, and thus 0:33:45.400 --> 0:33:48.320 you don't need a tank because the water pressure that's 0:33:48.360 --> 0:33:50.760 coming in is great enough to start that effect all 0:33:50.760 --> 0:33:55.040 by itself. Yeah, or sometimes it's even more terrifying noise 0:33:55.040 --> 0:33:58.640 than that. So that's your basic toilet, how your basic 0:33:58.680 --> 0:34:02.640 toilet works. But so glad we're past the Siphon effect. Yeah, 0:34:02.680 --> 0:34:04.800 that's I feel like we just made it through the 0:34:04.840 --> 0:34:07.440 woods together. Now now we're going to go into the bright, 0:34:07.920 --> 0:34:13.479 gorgeous future of weird toilets. This is great. So let's 0:34:13.480 --> 0:34:16.080 talk Japanese toilets for a second. And I'm not talking 0:34:16.080 --> 0:34:19.600 about the ones, the trough ones, which we established there 0:34:19.600 --> 0:34:23.319 are still some in Japan, and trough is one way 0:34:23.320 --> 0:34:28.279 to put it. More like uh oolyptical hole in the 0:34:28.320 --> 0:34:30.720 ground is another way you could describe it as well. 0:34:31.239 --> 0:34:35.239 On the floor yeah yeah, so yeah, you straddle and 0:34:35.239 --> 0:34:41.759 then squat and then evacuate and then and then evacuate, 0:34:42.440 --> 0:34:44.880 evacuate the area. Like I would just be like, I 0:34:44.880 --> 0:34:46.480 don't know if I did it right, and run one 0:34:46.560 --> 0:34:50.319 down the street. I mean, um, like I can't read 0:34:50.360 --> 0:34:55.120 your language, and I'm so sorry. Just yeah, that's kind 0:34:55.120 --> 0:34:57.520 of how I probably react. I mean, I am, I'm 0:34:57.560 --> 0:35:00.640 being honest here, But no, the Japanese toilets, the more 0:35:00.680 --> 0:35:05.640 Western style ones have features. Many of them have features 0:35:05.640 --> 0:35:09.200 on them that put our Western toilets to shame, like 0:35:09.320 --> 0:35:12.560 just phenomenal. Alright, we got a little bit more to 0:35:12.560 --> 0:35:14.799 say on this topic. Before we get to that, though, 0:35:14.880 --> 0:35:24.520 Let's take another quick break, so let's talk about some 0:35:24.600 --> 0:35:28.160 of the features. That's good, fine, sorry, do you want? 0:35:28.200 --> 0:35:31.279 Do you have a favorite out of all of them? 0:35:31.320 --> 0:35:35.160 The air dry air dry, that's pretty amazing. I'm big 0:35:35.200 --> 0:35:40.560 on the sound masking. Yeah, they they they offer. Most 0:35:40.719 --> 0:35:43.640 Japanese toilets that have all the bells and whistles offer 0:35:44.440 --> 0:35:48.759 a sound masking feature that's a flushing toilet. Yeah. Some 0:35:48.880 --> 0:35:51.919 of them now have also classical music, but which makes 0:35:51.960 --> 0:35:56.560 with some white noise. Um. I actually did a brain 0:35:56.640 --> 0:35:59.160 Stuff episode about what white noises and how it works. 0:35:59.160 --> 0:36:02.200 So you should check for superiors. But yeah, it's the 0:36:02.760 --> 0:36:05.040 that those are so two of the very simple ones. 0:36:05.080 --> 0:36:07.320 But it also tends to have a couple of different 0:36:08.040 --> 0:36:12.359 options for washing your nether regions once you are finished. Yes, 0:36:12.400 --> 0:36:15.960 and depending on your gender, Um, you should, I should say, 0:36:15.960 --> 0:36:19.239 depending on your sex, you should be very careful what 0:36:19.320 --> 0:36:22.000 option you choose when you're in Japan. Yeah, but day 0:36:22.160 --> 0:36:29.600 would be aimed for you know, ladies, and then you 0:36:29.640 --> 0:36:32.240 have rear washing, which is for you know, everyone, depending 0:36:32.320 --> 0:36:35.520 upon what activities you got up to on that bathroom. 0:36:36.080 --> 0:36:40.040 Um and uh, yeah, so there's usually there's a picture 0:36:40.200 --> 0:36:42.880 of like a icon that looks kind of like a 0:36:42.920 --> 0:36:47.040 butt with some sort of stream of something directed at it. 0:36:47.080 --> 0:36:50.280 That would be for washing your rear. The day usually 0:36:50.280 --> 0:36:54.040 has a icon of a lady somewhere on it, like 0:36:54.080 --> 0:36:57.200 there's a ponytail involved, Yeah, something like that to indicate 0:36:57.200 --> 0:37:01.160 what that was for. And uh, if you're wondering, like, well, 0:37:01.160 --> 0:37:03.400 wait a minute, I'm this sounds like this could be 0:37:03.480 --> 0:37:08.880 really unhygienic. The Japanese are very concerned with clean ling 0:37:10.000 --> 0:37:14.960 and so these are nozzles that are usually hitten away 0:37:15.120 --> 0:37:17.120 from the inside of the toilet bowlts only when you 0:37:17.160 --> 0:37:19.160 press the button that they get there's like essentially a 0:37:19.160 --> 0:37:21.560 door that opens and the nozzle can come out, and 0:37:21.640 --> 0:37:26.200 they have nozzle sterilization technology to clean them between uses. 0:37:27.120 --> 0:37:29.959 And so yeah, they usually have buttons where you also 0:37:30.000 --> 0:37:32.080 have to like a stop button, so if you press 0:37:32.120 --> 0:37:34.719 one of these, it essentially goes until you tell it 0:37:34.760 --> 0:37:37.480 to stop. Yeah, and the person who wrote this, um 0:37:37.719 --> 0:37:41.839 this how to use a Japanese toilet post points out 0:37:41.880 --> 0:37:45.640 that before you choose either of these options, you want 0:37:45.760 --> 0:37:50.560 to press the stream power down as as low as 0:37:50.560 --> 0:37:52.640 it will go to start, and then you can adjust 0:37:52.680 --> 0:37:56.560 it upwards. Um. Here, she says that at the normal 0:37:56.600 --> 0:38:00.239 setting is equivalent to about a water pick. Yeah, which 0:38:00.360 --> 0:38:03.960 on your on your on your junk. That's not good. 0:38:04.960 --> 0:38:07.879 That's really, that's terrible. It might come as a big 0:38:07.880 --> 0:38:13.680 surprise for that to to hit certain sense to variation. Yeah, so, yeah, 0:38:13.880 --> 0:38:15.600 it's setting it low and does Some of them also 0:38:15.680 --> 0:38:18.840 have controls for the temperature of the water, not to 0:38:18.840 --> 0:38:22.400 mention the temperature of the seat. Uh. Some also, like 0:38:22.440 --> 0:38:24.879 you mentioned, have the air drying so that after you 0:38:24.920 --> 0:38:29.560 have had your rear washed, air dry it, which I mean, like, yes, 0:38:29.600 --> 0:38:32.279 that's cool, there's like the days and rear washing all 0:38:32.320 --> 0:38:34.799 that stuff, but you're not gonna stand up right afterwards 0:38:35.200 --> 0:38:37.120 to be what you have to have the air dryer. 0:38:37.200 --> 0:38:39.760 That's why, I mean, that's the best part. I agree. 0:38:39.800 --> 0:38:41.719 I agree. I mean, if if you're going to have 0:38:42.400 --> 0:38:44.480 these other features, you really knew do need the air 0:38:44.560 --> 0:38:46.200 dryer or else you're just like, well, I guess I'll 0:38:46.200 --> 0:38:48.960 be sitting here for a couple more minutes before I 0:38:49.080 --> 0:38:52.920 dare move. Another interesting thing to me about the Japanese 0:38:52.920 --> 0:38:56.399 culture um and it makes perfect sense. I totally understand it. 0:38:56.800 --> 0:39:00.200 But you know, in Japan, shoes are really considered to 0:39:00.239 --> 0:39:03.640 be quite dirty. That's one of the dirtiest pieces of 0:39:03.719 --> 0:39:06.920 clothing that people have. So it's customary, of course to 0:39:06.960 --> 0:39:09.319 take your shoes off and slip into house slippers before 0:39:09.320 --> 0:39:12.520 moving going into a house. Absolutely, bathrooms have their own 0:39:12.560 --> 0:39:15.640 sets of slippers, and it is quite a faux pod 0:39:15.680 --> 0:39:17.799 to mix the two together. Oh yeah, if you were 0:39:17.840 --> 0:39:20.560 to step out of the bathroom wearing bathroom slippers, you 0:39:20.600 --> 0:39:23.480 would shock people, especially if you did like a little 0:39:23.560 --> 0:39:27.920 dance like I'm American. Oh yeah, I don't, and you can. 0:39:28.040 --> 0:39:31.799 You can usually tell the bathroom slippers um from They 0:39:32.200 --> 0:39:35.080 have almost like a bit of a waterproof look to them. 0:39:35.160 --> 0:39:38.080 Usually they're a little shinier, they're made of they're not 0:39:38.200 --> 0:39:43.600 like um cloth. Usually they you could tell just using 0:39:43.680 --> 0:39:47.360 your your noodle compared to house slippers. You'd be like, 0:39:47.400 --> 0:39:52.759 these are probably the bathroom slipping toilet slippers. Or they 0:39:52.840 --> 0:39:55.120 might be brightly colored and you think no one would 0:39:55.120 --> 0:39:57.719 ever wear these anywhere else, or maybe they have a 0:39:57.719 --> 0:40:00.720 poop emogy on them. It could be those are popular. 0:40:01.560 --> 0:40:03.520 Another feature you might find on the toilets is a 0:40:03.560 --> 0:40:07.040 deodorizer button. Yeah. Also kind of interesting. So I found 0:40:07.080 --> 0:40:09.359 a toilet if I may give a plug, Even though 0:40:09.400 --> 0:40:12.160 I should say I have no financial interest whatsoever in 0:40:12.200 --> 0:40:15.080 the Cohler company, but I have become a fan of 0:40:15.120 --> 0:40:20.520 their new me uh toilet. Oh yeah, I can't even 0:40:20.560 --> 0:40:23.120 begin to describe it. It's just so neat as far 0:40:23.160 --> 0:40:26.520 as the design goes. Um. Just go to just look 0:40:26.560 --> 0:40:29.640 for the new me toilet and U M I um. 0:40:29.680 --> 0:40:32.760 But one of the things they have is a deodorizer. 0:40:33.000 --> 0:40:37.600 It's like, um, basically a little vent where the the 0:40:37.600 --> 0:40:42.520 the odor is sucked in and run through a charcoal filter. Nice. Yeah, yeah, 0:40:42.560 --> 0:40:46.800 I mean I when I read about the Japanese toilets, 0:40:46.800 --> 0:40:49.160 obviously there's some some humor that comes in that just 0:40:49.200 --> 0:40:52.799 from the cultural differences things like that, which can seem 0:40:52.920 --> 0:40:55.560 very funny. But at the same time, I am incredibly envious. 0:40:56.320 --> 0:40:58.200 I would love to have a lot of these features 0:40:58.200 --> 0:41:02.680 building two American toilets. Uh. There. There are some moves 0:41:02.719 --> 0:41:05.640 to improve toilet technology in various ways. Some of it 0:41:05.760 --> 0:41:09.400 is a conservation trying to find low flush toilets that'll 0:41:09.719 --> 0:41:14.400 still activate the siphoning UH technique, but not use as 0:41:14.480 --> 0:41:17.439 much water and a go very important. Did you see 0:41:17.440 --> 0:41:21.719 the no mixed toilet? I did? Yeah, the the one 0:41:21.760 --> 0:41:24.080 that has met It has kind of like a ledge 0:41:24.760 --> 0:41:29.200 and and filter for U urine and then behind that 0:41:29.400 --> 0:41:33.600 would be where go. Yeah, it's it's meant so that 0:41:34.040 --> 0:41:36.600 when you when you just have to urinate, you don't 0:41:36.600 --> 0:41:39.200 have to flush the toilet. Yeah, it doesn't flush at all, 0:41:39.239 --> 0:41:42.799 and as a matter of fact, it collects the urine UM. 0:41:42.920 --> 0:41:45.640 And one of the reasons why the company that originally 0:41:45.680 --> 0:41:49.520 started making no mixed toilet stop making them is because well, 0:41:49.600 --> 0:41:51.680 number one, they didn't catch on very well, there's a 0:41:51.719 --> 0:41:57.000 lot of hesitancy UM. But the another reason is they 0:41:57.280 --> 0:42:01.279 they didn't quite have the infrastructure to collect the urine 0:42:01.320 --> 0:42:05.960 separately and send it off. Although environmentally speaking, it makes 0:42:06.000 --> 0:42:10.320 a lot of sense to separate urine from feces, especially 0:42:10.920 --> 0:42:14.200 UH and not flush urine because when you flush urine, 0:42:14.200 --> 0:42:17.600 you're introducing a lot of other stuff besides just the urine, 0:42:17.960 --> 0:42:22.759 Like if you are on UM pharmaceuticals, those a lot 0:42:22.800 --> 0:42:26.360 of that stuff is expelled and metabolized and expelled in 0:42:26.440 --> 0:42:30.040 your urine, and it gets introduced into wetland areas and 0:42:30.080 --> 0:42:31.799 things like that, and all of a sudden you have 0:42:31.840 --> 0:42:35.680 frogs they're like have roid rage or something, uh, you know, 0:42:36.280 --> 0:42:39.680 or that like a rubbing themselves against walls because you 0:42:39.840 --> 0:42:43.560 took too much ecstasy the night before. Yeah, I mean, well, yeah, 0:42:43.600 --> 0:42:46.919 anything you're taking into yours, anything you're gonna excrete spin 0:42:47.000 --> 0:42:49.440 filtered through your kidneys, you're going to have some some 0:42:49.520 --> 0:42:54.040 other elements in there too, consumed. But so the the 0:42:54.560 --> 0:42:57.279 no mixed toilet collects this urine and sends it off 0:42:57.280 --> 0:43:00.440 for separate recycling. And then if you're really hard core, 0:43:00.920 --> 0:43:04.680 you know Granola or your city is, then maybe it 0:43:04.719 --> 0:43:07.560 gets recycled into water and you drink that and pee 0:43:07.600 --> 0:43:11.040 it out again and again it becomes a closed loop. Yeah, 0:43:11.120 --> 0:43:14.120 and we've talked about that on Forward Thinking. We talked 0:43:14.120 --> 0:43:17.840 about that with systems aboard UM, the International Space Station 0:43:18.120 --> 0:43:21.520 ways of water reclamation. So that I mean, obviously, if 0:43:21.520 --> 0:43:23.400 you are in an area where you get very little 0:43:23.400 --> 0:43:26.480 water or it's very difficult to ship water to you, 0:43:26.480 --> 0:43:28.359 you have to make the best use of all the 0:43:28.480 --> 0:43:31.719 resources you have. Uh. There's some other things we can 0:43:31.719 --> 0:43:36.919 talk about as far as toilet advances, smart toilets. So 0:43:37.920 --> 0:43:40.640 sensor technology has gotten to the point now where it's 0:43:40.719 --> 0:43:46.720 it's very inexpensive, it's it's versatile, water waterproof. It's entirely 0:43:46.800 --> 0:43:52.920 possible to design sensors that could uh measure your waste 0:43:53.080 --> 0:43:58.200 and and come up with actual information that could be 0:43:58.520 --> 0:44:02.480 relevant to your health. So I saw some interesting examples, 0:44:02.520 --> 0:44:04.440 like the idea of a sensor that could be an 0:44:04.440 --> 0:44:09.960 early pregnancy detection by detecting changing hormone level. Um. It 0:44:10.040 --> 0:44:13.400 might analyze your waste detect the bacterial infection, so it 0:44:13.480 --> 0:44:15.960 might tell you. It might even send you an indication 0:44:16.000 --> 0:44:17.560 saying you know, you need to take it easy for 0:44:17.560 --> 0:44:19.160 a little while, or maybe even you need to go 0:44:19.200 --> 0:44:24.160 see a doctor. With the right kind of software, you 0:44:24.400 --> 0:44:26.440 and this is not hard to do at all. You 0:44:26.440 --> 0:44:29.200 could even have one that could send a notification to 0:44:29.239 --> 0:44:34.280 your doctor, or even go further, have one that's linked 0:44:34.280 --> 0:44:38.000 to your doctor's calendar and your calendar and even create 0:44:38.080 --> 0:44:41.360 an appointment for you, so your toilet does all that 0:44:41.440 --> 0:44:44.080 for you. It's it's possible. It's not something that we're 0:44:44.160 --> 0:44:47.520 necessarily seeing everywhere, but it's possible. I could see some 0:44:47.560 --> 0:44:51.319 problems with this though, well yeah, I mean, like, first 0:44:51.360 --> 0:44:55.759 of all, there's a real hesitancy by people to especially 0:44:55.800 --> 0:44:59.719 put their medical records out there, their health data UM 0:44:59.760 --> 0:45:03.719 at feel like those as as the advantages or the 0:45:03.760 --> 0:45:08.359 benefits of allowing the Internet of things or that that 0:45:08.480 --> 0:45:12.200 level of tech into our lives, especially with health um 0:45:12.360 --> 0:45:16.120 become obvious to more people, the more just relaxed everybody's 0:45:16.120 --> 0:45:18.799 going to become. I mean, think about it, five ten 0:45:18.920 --> 0:45:24.480 years ago, say five, the putting your credit card into 0:45:24.520 --> 0:45:28.040 a website to order something was still like really sketch 0:45:28.080 --> 0:45:31.120 you to a lot of people, And now enough people 0:45:31.160 --> 0:45:34.879 have done it that it's just it's just whatever, that's 0:45:34.920 --> 0:45:38.640 the norm. Yeah, right, And I think health our health 0:45:38.719 --> 0:45:41.319 information is going to go that same way. I can 0:45:41.360 --> 0:45:45.360 see that. The only thing I see as uh possible, 0:45:45.440 --> 0:45:47.359 well not the only thing, but one of the things 0:45:47.360 --> 0:45:51.640 I see is an impediment to this is how do 0:45:51.680 --> 0:45:55.000 you identify the person who is using the toilet at 0:45:55.000 --> 0:45:57.799 any given situations? So, for example, Josh, let's say I 0:45:57.840 --> 0:46:01.040 have you over and you need to use my restroom, 0:46:01.680 --> 0:46:05.400 and unbeknownst to me, you are carrying around a really 0:46:05.480 --> 0:46:10.600 awful bacterial infection that's poised to wreak havoc in your system. 0:46:10.640 --> 0:46:13.400 And so as you use my restroom and you flushed 0:46:13.400 --> 0:46:16.000 the toilet, it analyzes it and suddenly thinks that Jonathan 0:46:16.040 --> 0:46:18.240 has gotten really sick. Next thing, I know, my doctor 0:46:18.320 --> 0:46:21.279 is calling me. Now I know about your health condition. Yeah, 0:46:21.320 --> 0:46:24.440 that's that's a very good point. Um. I would guess 0:46:24.520 --> 0:46:30.640 then if if toilets are analyzing us our health personally, 0:46:31.400 --> 0:46:35.120 then a toilet itself will become a much more personal thing. 0:46:35.840 --> 0:46:40.520 So maybe I have a dumb toilet as my guest toilet, 0:46:40.960 --> 0:46:43.120 and then my smart toilet is the only one that's 0:46:43.160 --> 0:46:48.040 in my master bathroom. Or here's another thing, Stop me 0:46:48.080 --> 0:46:54.200 if I sound crazy. Stop You've got a biometric authentication 0:46:54.920 --> 0:46:57.920 system for your toilet where you have to scan like 0:46:57.960 --> 0:47:01.560 a thumb print or in retinal scan to identify you 0:47:01.640 --> 0:47:06.960 before using it. Thus you can't possibly confuse too people 0:47:07.040 --> 0:47:10.600 and you cannot flush until you have identified yourself. That's 0:47:10.600 --> 0:47:13.520 a good one. No, that's a I mean, it makes sense. 0:47:13.600 --> 0:47:17.840 My my wife and I have um an aria uh scale. 0:47:18.440 --> 0:47:22.520 Oh yeah right, it's like fitbit um and it can 0:47:22.560 --> 0:47:25.600 easily tell us apart. But because I mean, it just 0:47:25.640 --> 0:47:28.719 determines like wait and all that stuff. Um, so it 0:47:28.760 --> 0:47:30.719 can it can easily tell us apart. But you know, 0:47:31.239 --> 0:47:34.040 maybe the seat does detect by weight, or there is 0:47:34.080 --> 0:47:36.640 some other detail about you that just by sitting on 0:47:36.680 --> 0:47:40.440 the toilet, uh, it says this is Jonathan or this 0:47:40.520 --> 0:47:43.440 is not This is someone who's broken into Jonathan's house 0:47:43.480 --> 0:47:45.719 to use this toilet. Right, well, that would be another 0:47:47.920 --> 0:47:50.120 using your bathroom. Should I lock the door? Yes, and 0:47:51.040 --> 0:47:53.680 turn on bathroom webcam? Right? Yeah, there you go. And 0:47:53.760 --> 0:47:56.600 also the you know, deodurize, let's just go ahead and 0:47:56.600 --> 0:48:02.120 be safe. So there are other potential dangers and one 0:48:02.160 --> 0:48:05.359 of those is hacking. So there's already a story about 0:48:05.360 --> 0:48:09.000 a smart toilet hacking situation which happened back in two 0:48:09.000 --> 0:48:13.160 thousand thirteen. Ours Technica reported that, according to security firm 0:48:13.239 --> 0:48:18.560 trust Wave, the Enacts Status automatic toilet had a Bluetooth 0:48:18.680 --> 0:48:22.360 security vulnerability and it was a doozy so to speak. 0:48:22.880 --> 0:48:27.400 So the you know, when you pair to bluetooth capable 0:48:27.920 --> 0:48:31.920 technologies together, you generally have some sort of code that 0:48:31.960 --> 0:48:34.359 you have to put in in order to pair them. 0:48:34.400 --> 0:48:36.960 Not always, but a lot of them do. And the 0:48:37.000 --> 0:48:41.719 problem was they had hardwired the same master code in 0:48:41.880 --> 0:48:44.440 all of these toilets, and it was just zero zero 0:48:44.680 --> 0:48:49.360 zero zero, right, So any app for this toilet compare 0:48:49.440 --> 0:48:52.719 with any toilet just from being in the same area. Right, 0:48:52.760 --> 0:48:57.120 So if you are within bluetooth distance, which is pretty decent, 0:48:57.280 --> 0:49:00.479 I mean, you don't it's not that far, but it's 0:49:00.520 --> 0:49:03.000 not you know, it's it's not like you could do 0:49:03.040 --> 0:49:06.839 it from two fifty feet away necessarily, But if you're 0:49:07.080 --> 0:49:09.759 close enough, like within the building or on the on 0:49:09.800 --> 0:49:12.000 the side of it or whatever, you can totally pair 0:49:12.320 --> 0:49:16.520 your phone with the toilet inside and essentially hijack someone's toilet, 0:49:16.760 --> 0:49:18.920 which you know you might think, well, why could you do? Well, 0:49:18.960 --> 0:49:22.839 this thing had the ability to open and close via 0:49:23.080 --> 0:49:24.680 a command on your phone, so that way you didn't 0:49:24.719 --> 0:49:27.520 have to touch the toilet seat. It also allows you 0:49:27.560 --> 0:49:30.240 to control things like the bidet or the rear washing 0:49:30.800 --> 0:49:34.560 uh nozzles, so you could you could turn it on 0:49:35.200 --> 0:49:37.600 like you could turn on one of those nozzles when 0:49:37.600 --> 0:49:40.040 no one's on the toilet and start flooding their bathroom, 0:49:40.800 --> 0:49:42.759 or you can do it when you realize someone's just 0:49:42.840 --> 0:49:45.440 got into the bathroom and they haven't even really started yet. 0:49:45.480 --> 0:49:47.279 You could do it then and just laugh at the 0:49:47.360 --> 0:49:52.120 hilarious or close the toilet seat while they're mid you 0:49:52.160 --> 0:49:55.800 know activity, you know, you know, it's ironic about using 0:49:55.800 --> 0:49:58.680 an app on your phone to open and close the 0:49:58.719 --> 0:50:01.560 toilet seat. Would it be that the phone surfaces the 0:50:01.560 --> 0:50:06.200 dirtiest service to come in contact with toilet? Yeah, I 0:50:06.239 --> 0:50:09.560 thought that might be where you were going with that. Yeah, guys, 0:50:09.560 --> 0:50:12.640 if you didn't know, if you have smartphones, got touchscreen, 0:50:12.960 --> 0:50:16.040 hits filthy. It's about the dirtiest thing you probably come 0:50:16.080 --> 0:50:19.279 into contact within any day, including the toilets. Yeah. Yeah. 0:50:19.640 --> 0:50:23.480 The one thing that might be uh, you know, a 0:50:23.560 --> 0:50:26.640 good competitor with that would be a keyboard. If you 0:50:26.760 --> 0:50:29.160 use a keyboard on a daily basis, that's probably pretty 0:50:29.160 --> 0:50:33.640 gross too. Yeah. So what's in the future for toilet's 0:50:33.680 --> 0:50:36.879 Probably we will see some more of these, uh these 0:50:36.920 --> 0:50:40.239 things that are common now in Japanese toilets kind of 0:50:40.239 --> 0:50:43.480 filter their way through to other ones. I imagine we'll 0:50:43.480 --> 0:50:46.839 see more moves to conserve water. It may even mean 0:50:46.920 --> 0:50:49.520 that we end up moving away from the siphon model 0:50:49.640 --> 0:50:53.600 and find a different model to deal with waste so 0:50:53.640 --> 0:50:57.040 that it does it's not reliant upon creating enough water 0:50:57.160 --> 0:51:01.920 to create this section. We'll have to wait and see um, 0:51:01.960 --> 0:51:06.319 but we have to thank the brilliant men and women 0:51:06.360 --> 0:51:11.640 who came before us forging the path to make incredibly 0:51:11.719 --> 0:51:15.600 useful piece of technology, and also hope that we can 0:51:15.680 --> 0:51:19.600 continue to strive to get it to more people so 0:51:19.640 --> 0:51:23.120 that we can improve the quality of life for folks 0:51:23.120 --> 0:51:28.720 who who otherwise are in pretty rough you know, circumstances 0:51:29.080 --> 0:51:34.920 when obviously when cultures are going to adopt it. So, Josh, 0:51:35.000 --> 0:51:36.640 thank you so much for joining me on the sand. 0:51:36.680 --> 0:51:39.080 Thank you for having me. This was a joy. It 0:51:39.160 --> 0:51:41.480 was fun. It was fun. I'm glad we were able 0:51:41.520 --> 0:51:44.200 to talk about this in a mature way with only 0:51:44.239 --> 0:51:47.400 a few terrible jokes on my end, relatively mature. We 0:51:47.440 --> 0:51:52.160 did pretty juvenile at times, but mostly I hope you 0:51:52.239 --> 0:51:55.120 enjoyed that classic episode of tech Stuff that published way 0:51:55.160 --> 0:52:01.680 back in the halcyon days of If you have suggestions 0:52:01.680 --> 0:52:04.240 for topics I should cover in future episodes of tech Stuff, 0:52:04.280 --> 0:52:06.320 please reach out to me on Twitter. The handle for 0:52:06.360 --> 0:52:09.520 the show is text Stuff h s W. I'll talk 0:52:09.560 --> 0:52:18.319 to you again really soon. Y tex Stuff is an 0:52:18.320 --> 0:52:22.000 I Heart Radio production. For more podcasts from my Heart Radio, 0:52:22.360 --> 0:52:25.520 visit the i Heart Radio app Apple Podcasts or wherever 0:52:25.600 --> 0:52:27.120 you listen to your favorite shows.