History of the Toilet

ByKiara Robinson 2/18/14

Going inside

• The Harappan city dwellers built the earliest known indoor toilets.

• The toilets did not flush and emptied into a brick-lined sewer system

Royal Flush

• Plumbers on the Greek island Crete install the world's first flush toilet in the queen's bathroom

• Unfortunately an earthquake destroys the royal house around

Really Public Bathrooms

• Construction of Cloaca Maxima, a sewer system that uses public toilets, takes place

• 11,000 seats are lined up in rectangular rooms• There's one sponge on the end of a stick.

This Job is the Pits

• Europeans built outhouses tiny sheds with a seat built over a deep hole in the ground.

• An English outhouse-cleaner, Richard, falls through the rotted wood floor and drowns "monstrously in his own excrement."

Heads Up

• Dwellers relieve themselves indoors in chamber pots

• When the pot is full, they toss the contents out the window, shouting "Gardy-loo!” to warn anybody unlucky enough to be walking below

A Charmin’ Idea

• Joseph Gayetty of New York introduces toilet paper.

• Before this, people used whatever they could find, including dried corncobs and pages from catalogs

Bathroom Reading

• Devoted readers buy a fancy chamber pot disguised as a stack of books

• It’s one of the most popular models of chamber pots in France

Stop Making Scents

• An English watchmaker named Alexander Cummings patents a device known as the S-trap

• The S-trap is a valve that keeps the bowl filled with water

• it allows poop to go down without letting smells come up.

Sculptured Seats

• Englishman Thomas Twyford introduces the Unitas, the first one-Piece, all-ceramic toilet

• These ceramic toilets catch on quickly; many are covered with elaborate decorations or molded into the shapes of animals.

Minding Your Business

• The Matsushita Electronic Industrial Company of Japan previews a toilet that's smarter than you are.

• The high-tech bowl measures your weight and body-fat con¬tent, and chemical sensors inside analyze your output for information about your health.

Luxury Toilets in Manhattan

• A New York firm wants to charge people $8 a day to use “luxury” toilet complexes.

• Passes cost $24 for three days, $8 per day, along with a $15 annual sign-up fee. 10 days at $60.

• Kids under 18 are free with an adult

http://nypost.com/2014/02/19/luxury-toilets-planned-near-grand-central-for-8-a-day/