Will the toilet soon be a thing of the past?: This is how our ancestors did their job

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Those who love the supposedly quiet place after a soothing noise may be a little frightened by the news that our traditional toilet seat from yesterday may soon be wasted. To console you: The way we comfort ourselves has always been in flux, so to speak.

For example, the Romans didn’t care about a “quiet place”. Rather, they made going to the bathroom a social event: in public restrooms, on bench-like seating with regularly spaced holes, you lifted your tunic and sat side-by-side like chickens on the handle—80 seats in a bathroom in big cities. Beneath it flowed an artificial conduit that took everything away, on which not only business was carried out, but also business matters were discussed, jokes were made, and by chance someone fell ill with this or that tapeworm or cholera. Because it was wiped with a common sponge.

Louis XIV wasn’t a fan of the quiet place either.

While in Rome, King of France XIV. With not even a single toilet in the Palace of Versailles for the king’s 30,000 WG-Gspänli, the Sun King was not as embarrassing as the Roman museum curators today. He always took all his ministers with him to the royal bowel movement. According to the documents recovered, it was an honor for them to caress and kiss the king’s buttocks.

anything for pigs

Things were a little more special in Swiss cities in the Middle Ages. There, in the apartments of better citizens, there were bay windows. A wooden board is mounted inside, on which you can sit and work directly outside. Whoever is under it is unlucky. But these were usually pigs waiting for their “meal”. That’s why there was a law in Zurich that houses could only be built close enough for a pig to pass through an alley.

As far as we know, there were already 1596 toilets. Then the Englishman John Harington invented the first toilet bowl. He was ahead of his time, no one was really interested in his invention. It wasn’t until 1775 that another Briton, Alexander Cummings, patented a model, and today’s sewer system began its triumphant march.

After the closet comes the dry closet.

The latest invention is now called the separation toilet. In it, urine and feces are separated. After fermentation and filtration, which removes pesticide residues, the urine turns into phosphorus-rich manure, and the feces finally become soil. And now that we know more about hygiene and microbiological processes than in the past, it’s also safe: hot composting kills almost all pathogens.

Source : Blick