Celebrating the Crapper
public toilet, 2005, Rivard via flickr /Artwork: designslinger]
Yesterday was World Toilet Day, and in recognition of the individuals who took the time
to design and engineer human waste removal contraptions, we thought we'd take a quick look at some of the designs created throughout history.
Most people assume that the Romans were the first great toilet designers but there is
evidence that the Minoans may have created the first flush toilet on Crete around 1700 B.C. Roman latrines have survived the ravages of time and indicate that the average citizen had no problem sharing their daily constitutional with their neighbors. The center photo in the panel is of the King's Privy in Finland's 15th century Turku Castle. It looks like the King desired a little privacy and the castle architects provided him with a corner closet. The Chinese are moving quickly into the 21st century, but the outdoor public toilet, designed for very utilitarian and practical use, is still in operation as seen in the far right photo.
of the Plumbing and Sanitary Department of J.L. Mott Iron Works, NYPL Digital Gallery; (Insert) Krapp toilet paper rolls, christophe mallet via flickr /Artwork: designslinger]
The beginning of modern toilet design starts with Sir John Harington who created a device
for his godmother Queen Elizabeth I. Elizabeth sat on a "throne" with a valve at the bottom of the water tank that included a wash-down system. By the mid-1800s, the British were at the forefront of toilet design. At London's Crystal Palace Exhibition in 1852, J.G. Jennings exhibited a flush toilet to the general public and 827,000 people paid a penny to use it. And, in 1857 Joseph Cayetti invented toilet paper. In 1862, Thomas Crapper began his plumbing business, and along with a few other enterprising Victorians, produced flush toilets by the thousands. G.I's returning to the U.S. from fighting in WWI, brought the "Crapper" euphemism back to our shores after seeing Crapper's name stamped in the bottom of the porcelain bowls.
the Universal Toilet, ethendesign via flickr /Artwork: designslinger]
The look of the toilet has become pretty standard in this day and age, though companies
like Kohler are pushing the envelope a bit, as you can see in the center photo. The folks at the Universal Toilet project have come up with a design that can be used by people with disabilities as well as the general population. Ecologically sensitive toilets are at the forefront of lavatory design, and NASA has come up with a system that distills, filters, ionizes and oxidizes waste water - including urine - into fresh drinking water. If scientists figure out a new way to get rid of the solid waste we produce, we may be saying bye-bye to the "crapper" as we know it.
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