diff options
Diffstat (limited to 'unused')
| -rw-r--r-- | unused/mountains-descriptions.txt | 9 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | unused/toilet.txt | 32 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | unused/toiletresearch.txt | 169 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | unused/vienna walk.txt | 4 |
4 files changed, 214 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/unused/mountains-descriptions.txt b/unused/mountains-descriptions.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..fffeaf4 --- /dev/null +++ b/unused/mountains-descriptions.txt @@ -0,0 +1,9 @@ +Sitting on the front porch, a deer downt he driveway looks up from grassing on the clumps of grassing growing up from the gravel driveway. Our eyes meet and its body tenses, furry muscles rippling, it watches me. occasionally it dips its head back down as if to graze again, but instead its head pops back up as if testing. We spend five minutes staring at each other before it decides to move on a few delicate steps off the driveway and then bounding over the azalea bush down the forested hill toward the river. + +The pollen drifts off pines and oaks, floating down in eddies of breeze catching the sunlight. + +spider webs float out like fishing line glittering silver in the sunlight. + +the shadows of butterflies bounce across the gravel driveway as their owners flutter through the branches above the porch. + +a pileated woodpecker lands on the tree in front of me its black and white striped head with its tuff of red mohack it hops about the trunk of hollowed, half rotted tree, using itts bill to chip off great flecks of bark as it pokes around for gubs and insects
\ No newline at end of file diff --git a/unused/toilet.txt b/unused/toilet.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..db74ad3 --- /dev/null +++ b/unused/toilet.txt @@ -0,0 +1,32 @@ +Henry Miller was fond of saying that his writing was after the mundane, the animalistic in man. Naturally he was wrong. What he probably meant was that he wrote frankly about sex. But even that was harly a novelty. D.H. Lawrence, Chaucer, Sappho, Catulus. Yet very few have written of the other animal aspect of our lives. The vast majority of us on a regular basis squat down or sit on some porcelin or wodden frame and empty the unused contents of our intestines into the bucket or bowl or pot or whole in the ground. Yet this rarely makes it in the books. Which is fine I suppose. Perhaps it is too common, to low as it were to be included. But to my mind, if Miller were really after the animalistic side of life should have spent some time on crap. Shit, poop, scat, turd, log, booboo, bowel movement, deficate, laying cable, dropping the kids off at the pool. We have probably hundreds of words and phrases to describe the act. And yet very little writing on the subject (and yes that Outkast song about roses smelling like booboo... that's a southern expression for shit). + +I was fascinated at a young age by this mysterious thing which we all did but never talked about. I used to pester my mother as to why the lone ranger and tonto never stopped to use the bathroom. She claimed that they went during the commercial breaks. I'm not so sure. They were simply unaccounted for during commercial breaks. They could have done a lot of things during commercial breaks. Zorro too seemed to be extremely constipated by my reckoning. It turned out that he too used the toilet during commercial breaks. This answer satisfied me for a while, but then I started to wonder what it was about using the bathroom that it had to be done during commercial breaks. I was allowed to get up in the middle of class and use the restroom if I had to, what was with the Lone Ranger that he had to hold it until commercial? That leads to colon cancer in the long run you know. + +Later on I found out that Elvis had a heart attack on the toilet. For three days I refused to go to the bathroom. And when i finally did, Jesus did it hurt. I've heard a lot of men say that they understand the pain of women giving birth because they've "laid a log the size of the child." After watching my friend give birth at home with the midwife, I find this statement to be highly unlikely. To the best of my knowledge I have never seen a truck driver come waddling out of a gas station toilet with dislocated hips. Possibly Elvis came as close as a man ever will to feeling what birth is like, and the experience killed him. + +The first indoor toilet was invented by akdjfkj in London at the close of the Victorian Era, which seems like an act of rebellion to me, surely the Victorians would have been to delicate for such a thing in the house? But it turns out the prior to Mr alkdjf lovely invention the common method of relieving one's bowels was to use a chamber pot. Chamber pots pop up in literature from time to time and I never could quite make out exactly what they were used for, that is, it was hard to tell if one actually crapped in them or if they were simply something for those middle-of-the-night pees that seem to grow more frequent the older you get. But after doing abit of research and getting some very strange looks from the Brooklyn Librarian who was attempting to help me, I discovered the in fact the chamber pot was used for crapping. There was no mention of toilet paper in the literature of the day. + +But I've traveled a bit in Asia and I already knew that even today toilet paper was not a worldwide occurence. In most of Laos and Cambodia for instance the common method of cleaning up ones ass is water. Generally the water is conveyed via a hose with a presurized spray nozzle, but even that's relatively modern. It used to be that the left hand was the most common form of toilet paper, which is why even today upperclass resident of Bombay who have clearly never used their bare hand to clean up still insist on eating with only the right. This is also why we in the west shake hands with a our right hands. In fact, the deeper i looked into the subject the more I discovered that many seemingly innocent or arbitrary cultural customs stem either directly or indirectly from the toilet habits and edicate of the day. + +The chamber pot for instance was often heaved out the window into the street. Now I when I first heard this story I was told that dishwater often came out the wondow which is why a man traditionally walked on the left side of a lady, but it seems that often there were far worse things than dishwater coming out the window or door as you walked past. + +It has always somewhat roubled me that the sight of a woman's ass turns me since from a strictly biological point of view the ass is merely a portal of disposal. And yet, and I feel I am not alone on this one, men find a woman's ass very appealing. J Lo has made a talentless carrer out of this fact. And women too find a man's butt quite appealing. And yet. Yes. It is. + +I know men who define the seriousness of their relationships by how many bodily functions they can reveal to their girlfriends. For instance in the beginning they will painfully repress even the slightest of farts for fear of offending (which reminds me of James joyce in on of his letters to Nora asking her to fart on a pair of panties so he could smell her sweet bum). My friend Sam claims that for him it is a moment of complete extasy when that time arrives that he feels comfortable enough with a girl to let one go. He added that the first one is best if its noisy and not very smelly, he typically test fires one when she's far enough away that she can't smell it if it does turn out to be less moisy and more of an olfactoory experience. "Its that feeling of being complete relaxed with someone you know, where you've progressed beyond that painfull dating phase where you still space out the phone calls and whatnot. If you fart and she laughs, you're home free, you can call whenever you want." + +The next stage my friend Andy informs me is when she is willing to fart around you. Typically this does not occur without cohabitation. Curiously either women actually do fart less than men or perhaps more unhealthily they simply hold it in longer. Whatever the case, women it seems are generally unwilling to fart in the presence of a man until that man has already commited to living under the same roof. + +My friend Alex claims that the beginning of the end is when she stops closing the bathroom door to pee, or even worse to poop. Yes it turns out that women do not crap, lay cable, drop the kids off at the pool or any other such colorful phrases, in fact they poop. I've never lived with a woman who didn't close the door to poop and it seems that no one else has either, but everyone seems to have a friend that has. "I mean come on you want to hear a girl say, 'shit, I got to go take a big dump'?" + +I actually have no opinion on that, having never heard it and being completely incapable of imagining a woman I was with saying it. And yet. And yet. That is what they do isn't it. I don't care what women pretend their poops are like, the fact is shit comes out their ass, deal with it. "Okay sure, but why do you have to dwell on it?" my friend Andy complains. "I mean come on there's that scene in Gravity's Rainbow when the general eats the poop and everybody says that's why the Nobel people didn't give it the prize that year. Nobody want to think about it." True, but they didn't give the prize to anyone I remind him and what's better than getting the Nodel Prize in literature? Having the whole thing stop for a year because what you wrote is so shocking the commitee deadlock and decides not to decide. "I guess" Andy mumbles on afternoon over a beer. "But I probably would have deleted the scene for amillion dollars. Hey who are you writing this article for again? And why? You're gonna change my name right? I mean people that know you that know me that read this might think I'm a freak or something." "What are they going to think of me?" "Oh you'll spend a couple years as 'the poop guy.'" + +Which reminds me of a thread I lost a while ago, why do we step into private rooms to do the most common thing we do? We do not eat alone in a room. In fact we make a public spectical of the entry side of the equation, but the exit side we do on our own. Well in the west we do. I remember the first time I took a train in India, pulling out of the Bangalore station at about ten in the morning and watching in amazment as literally hundreds of men squated around on the tracks, chatting reading papers and yes, taking dumps. + +"It's like those one way mirror toilets they put in NEw York or Paris or wherever, I don't think I could do that." What Andy is refering to of course are the toilets in New York that are completely mirrored from the outside, but when you step in its as if you are in fact about to take a totally public shit. The interesting thing is everyone knows what you're doing so it is more or less a public shit, without the visual. After having my expense projects roundly rejected I funded my own trip to experience the public crap. Several people waved as they walked by which I will admit was unnerving because even though I knew they couldn't see me, the looked straight at me. One kid came up and pressed his face against the glass, hands cupped around his eyes trying the peer in, perhaps wondering if this was the sort of thing the Lone Ranger did during commercials. + +The strange thing was I didn't have to go. I just put the toilet see down and sat there for a while watching the commuters walk by. After a while I moticed a distinct clss difference between those that simply walked by and those that waved or commented. + +[All of the attributed quotes in this essay are fake. Andy for instace is actually named Steve and never as eloquent as I've made him out to be. Alex is really my friend Bob and unfortunately did actually once date a woman who didn't close the door and I know this because he shoed up at my doorstep two days later. Everything else is entirely fictional. Except for the parts that are true.] + + + diff --git a/unused/toiletresearch.txt b/unused/toiletresearch.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2de0bfd --- /dev/null +++ b/unused/toiletresearch.txt @@ -0,0 +1,169 @@ +Background +A system for dealing with excrement is necessary in every human community, and the need becomes more pressing the more densely populated the area. Though simple pit latrines are still common in many rural areas today, more complex lavatory designs date back thousands of years. The Old Testament contains several references to toilets, from laws about how to cover waste out of doors to mention of King Eglon of Moab's indoor privy chamber. Some kind of lavatory flushed with water is believed to have been used by residents of the Indus Valley by around 2000 B.C. Even earlier, in about 2750 B.C., the ancient Indian city of Mohendro Daro was equipped with toilets connected to a drain. Dating back to approximately 4000 B.C., the neolithic stone huts of the Scara Brae settlement in the Orkney Islands seem to have had indoor lavatory provisions. Apparently used as toilets, stone chairs have also been unearthed from the site of the Sumerian city of Ashnunnack, dating to around 4000 B.C. The palace of King Minos of Crete, from about 2000 B.C., had elaborate indoor plumbing, including marble toilets that were flushed with water dumped from a vase in an adjoining room. +The remains of Roman lavatories are still extant in many places. Some private Roman houses had their own toilets, which were in most cases a seat located over a drain or a cesspit. Roman public lavatories were more impressive. They were often built next to or as part of public baths. Rows of stone or marble seats in pairs, divided by armrests, stood over a trench. Excess water from the baths flowed into the trench, and washed the waste into a main sewer. A smaller trench filled with fresh water flowed past the base of the stone toilets. This water was used for rinsing. Roman forts, which housed hundreds of soldiers, also boasted impressive toilet facilities. The builders of Housesteads, a Roman fort in northern England dating to 122 A.D., diverted a river to flow underneath the latrine and carry waste out of the fort. The latrine itself was a large room with benches built around three walls. The benches had about 20 holes with no dividers for privacy. Roman cities also took care of the needs of travelers by erecting huge vases along the roadways for people to urinate into, thus keeping waste off the public streets. +During the Middle Ages, lavatories drained with running water were common in British abbeys, which housed large groups of monks. Similar to the Roman forts, abbey latrines were usually meant for many people to use at once, and drained over a river or stone drain. Stone castles were often designed with vertical shafts for the emptying of waste. The waste flowed into a trench leading in most cases to the moat. Indoor toilets consisted of wooden closets or cupboards, which concealed a seat over a chamber pot. Servants emptied the pot into the moat. +In Medieval European cities, common practice was to empty indoor chamber pots directly into the streets, a foul practice that bred disease. Something akin to the modern flushing toilet first came into use in England at the end of the sixteenth century. A water-operated "water closet" was invented in 1596 by Sir John Harrington. Queen Elizabeth I had Harrington's device installed in her palace, setting the vogue among the nobility. However, flushing toilets did not catch on with the bulk of the population until much later. The first British patent for a water closet was awarded to Alexander Cumming in 1775. His device used a pan with a sliding door. The pan contained a few inches of water. When finished, the user would pull a lever that opened the pan, letting the contents slide out into a drain, and at the same time opening a valve that let fresh water into the pan. The Bramah water closet, patented by Joseph Bramah in 1778, used a similar but more complex flushing device that kept the water running for about 15 seconds. By about 1815, water closets of this type had become common in London households. A modern sewer system was completed in London in 1853, and a large-scale toilet manufacturing industry dates to around this time. +Raw Materials +Toilet bowls and tanks are made from a special clay called vitreous china. Vitreous china is a mix of several kinds of clay, called ball clay and china clay, silica, and a fluxing agent. Clays are hardened by first drying in air, then being fired (baked) in a very hot oven called a kiln. Usually a shiny, waterproof coating called a glaze is applied only after a first firing, and the clay is fired a second time. Vitreous china is an exception, in that clay and glaze can be fired together. The whole clay body vitrifies, or turns glassy, so the toilet is actually waterproof and stainproof through its entire thickness. +Toilet seats are generally made from one of two materials. Plastic toilet seats are made from a type of thermoplastic called polystyrene. The less expensive and more common type of toilet seat is made from a blend of wood and plastic. The wood is hardwood, usually maple or birch, which has been ground up into the consistency of flour. This wood flour is blended with a powdered plastic resin called melamine. Zinc stearate is a third ingredient in wooden toilet seats. This prevents the wood-resin mix from sticking to the mold in the manufacturing process. The metal tank fixtures are made of stainless steel or copper, and the joints that hold the seat to the bowl are usually a rubber-like plastic. + + +A chamber pot. + +Some Victorians couldn't abide the thought of indoor toilets because they reviled at the notion of odor and unclean gases associated with them. Today, it is difficult to imagine life without indoor plumbing. How awful to have to scurry to the outhouse in cold weather or to stumble to the privy late at night when duty called. +One did not always have to walk to the privy on these occasions, however. Instead, one could use a ceramic chamber pot. It functioned like an indoor toilet that did not flushÑone perched upon it for defecation or used it as a urinal and then the "slop jar" was emptied into the outhouse. Some chamber pots were decorated with lacy covers along the edge of the bowl called silencers and presumably muffled the noise of clanking of the top upon the bowl at night so that others weren't awakened by its use. +The chamber pot in the photo is part of a large set of ceramics used for personal hygiene in the days before indoor plumbing. Many bedrooms had a pitcher for fresh water, a basin to hold the water for cleansing, a soap dish and a chamber pot. These ceramics were always fashionably decorated, so that the bedroom could be attractively appointed even for these disagreeable tasks. +The Manufacturing +Process +Plastic seat + ¥ 1 Plastic seats begin as pellets of polystyrene. A worker feeds the pellets into a hopper attached to an injection molding machine. From the hopper, a precisely measured amount of pellets flows into a + ¥ + ¥ A plastic toilet seat is made by a process called injection molding, where plastic pellets are melted and injected into a mold. A wooden toilet seat is produced from a mixture of wood powder and melamine mixture that is heated to 300¡ F (149¡ C). Once both types of seats are molded, they are hung on an overhead conveyor rack that moves them along to the finishing area. + ¥ container that heats the material until it melts. Then the liquid polystyrene flows through a small hole in the center of a two-part mold. The mold is made of chrome-plated machined die steel. Its two halves are hollowed in the shape of the toilet seat and cover. When the mold is full, it is clamped together by a huge hydraulic press. This exerts 10,000 lb per sq in (4,540 kg per sq cm) of pressure on the mold, and heats the polystyrene to 400¡ F (204¡ C). + ¥ 2 The plastic in the mold begins to solidify. Then cool water is pumped through a channel system around the mold to bring the temperature down. A worker releases the hydraulic clamp and separates the two halves of the mold. The worker removes the seat and cover from the mold, breaking off the extra plastic that formed in the water channel. Then, the worker places the seat and cover into a water bath. + ¥ 3 After the seat and cover have cooled in the bath, a worker takes them to a finishing area for the final steps. Here holes are drilled for the hinges. Then, a worker smooths the rough edges at a sanding machine. The sander is a rotating wheel covered with an abrasive material. The worker passes the seat or cover along the wheel until any plastic fragments from the drilling or from the mold are sanded off. A similar machine with a softer surface may next be used to give a final polish. +Wooden seat + ¥ 4 For wooden toilet seats, the first step is to mix the wood flour and the plastic resin. Workers wearing protective masks slit open bags of wood flour and empty them into a mix box. Then, the worker adds the powdered plastic resin that makes up 15% of the formula. Last, a small amount of zinc stearate is added. The mixture is passed to an attrition mill, which grinds the particles down further. After milling, the powdered mixture may be measured into boxes for loading into the molding press. Or it may be set aside, and later measured and scooped by hand into the press. + ¥ 5 The processed wood and melamine mixture is next emptied into the bottom half of a mold. A worker makes sure the mix fills the mold evenly and smooths the surface. Then the worker lowers the top half of the mold and begins to heat the whole thing to 300¡ F (149¡ C). While it heats, the mold is clamped at 150 tons of force. After 6.5 minutes, the wood flour and melamine have fused together and hardened. Then, the worker opens the mold and hangs the seat and cover on an overhead conveyor rack, which moves it along to the finishing area. + ¥ 6 Wooden seats are finished in the same way as plastic seats. First, they are drilled, then sanded. Then, they are hung again on an overhead conveyor and taken to the painting area. The conveyor automatically lowers the seats into a tank of paint. Then the conveyor pulls them up and passes them into an enclosed room called a vapor chamber. A paint solvent is released as a vapor, and this carries off any excess paint without leaving drip marks. Next, the painted seats pass along the conveyor into a drying oven. The paint-vapor-drying process is repeated four times. The first two coats are a primer, and the second two are an enamel paint that produces a smooth, hard, plastic-like surface. + ¥ 7 Both plastic and wooden seats are assembled and packaged the same way. The seats and covers are screwed together and packed with the necessary mounting hardware. Then, they are boxed and moved to a warehouse or distribution center. +Bowl and tank + ¥ 8 The toilet bowl and tank are made at a type of factory known as a pottery. The pottery receives huge amounts of vitreous china in a liquid form called slurry slip. Workers at the pottery first thin the slurry slip to a watery consistency. Then, they feed it through very fine screens in order to sieve out any impurities. The purified slip is thickened again, and pumped into storage tanks in preparation for use in casting. + ¥ 9 Next, the slip is carried through hoses and pumps into the casting shop. Workers fill plaster of Paris molds with the slip. The molds are in the shape of the desired piece, except they are about 12% bigger, to allow for shrinkage. The workers fill the molds completely with the slip, and let it sit for about an hour. Then, the workers drain out any excess slip. This is recycled for later use. The clay sits in the mold for another few hours. The plaster of Paris absorbs water from the clay, and the clay dries to the point where the mold can be safely removed. At this point, the casting is semisolid, and is called greenware. Workers use hand tools and sponges to smooth the edges of the casting and to make holes for drains and fittings. + ¥ 10 The greenware castings are left to dry in the open air for several days. Then they are put into a dryer for 20 hours. The + ¥ + ¥ Toilet bases are cast from a slurry of vitreous china and molded into the base shape. Once molded, the greenware, as it is called, goes through a series of drying, glazing, and firing steps until it reaches final inspection. + ¥ dryer is set to 200¡ F (93¡ C). After the castings come out of the dryer, they have lost all but about 0.5% of their moisture. At this point workers spray the greenware castings with glaze. Now, the pieces are ready for the kiln. + ¥ 11 The kilns at a large industrial pottery are warehouse-sized tunnels, and the pieces move through the kiln on a conveyance called a car. Each car is loaded with a number of pieces, and then it moves automatically through the hot kiln at a very slow pace. Because rapid changes in temperature will cause the clay to crack, the cars move leisurely through graduated temperature zones: the first zone is about 400¡ F (204¡ C), and it increases in the middle of the kiln to over 2,200¡ F (1,204¡ C) degrees. The temperature gradually decreases from there, so that the final temperature is only about 200¡ F (93¡ C). The whole firing process takes approximately 40 hours. + ¥ 12 When the pieces are removed from the kiln and fully cool, they are ready for inspection. After inspection, the flushing mechanism is installed. This is either manufactured at the plumbing fixture company or bought from a contractor. The seat too may be installed at this time, or the parts may be sold separately and assembled by a plumbing distributor. +Quality Control +As with any industrial process, quality checks are taken at several points in the manufacturing of toilets. The clay is sieved and purified before it is pumped into the factory's tanks. Workers doing the manual finishing of the castings check the pieces for cracks or deformities. After firing, each toilet is tested individually. Random sample checks are not a good enough gauge of quality: each piece must be inspected for cracks. There are several ways to do this. One test is to bounce a hard rubber ball against the piece. It should emit a clear, bell-like ringing sound. A cracked piece will give off a dull sound, indicating a crack that might not have been visually obvious. +Byproducts/Waste +The pottery is able to recycle much of its clay. As long as it has not been fired, all the clay is reusable. Even the air-dried greenware can be scrapped, softened and reprocessed into the watery slip of the first step of the process. +Where to Learn More +Books +Barlow, Ronald S. The Vanishing American Outhouse. El Cajon, California: Windmill Publishing Company, 1989. +Hart-Davis, Adam. Thunder, Flush and Thomas Crapper. North Pomfret, Vermont: Trafalgar Square Publishing, 1997. +Reyburn, Wallace. Flushed with Pride: The Story of Thomas Crapper. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1971. +ÑAngela Woodward + + + + + + + + +Ê +Toilet paper is thought to have been introduced at around 850 in China. +In 1913, the Russian airline became the first to feature a toilet on board. +The movie Psycho is said to be the first film to show a toilet being flushed. +Ê +The modern toilet was invented by a watchmaker +It is often incorrectly quoted that the toilet was invented by a Mr Thomas Crapper in the 18th century. Actually, simple toilets have been used since Babylonian times. In 1596, John Harrington invented an indoor water closet for Queen Elizabeth I. But Harrington then published a book with tasteless puns about his own invention. The toilet then dropped into obscurity for nearly 200 years. In 1775, London watchmaker Alexander Cummings patented the forerunner of today's toilet. +There was a Mr Crapper around at the time - he happened to be a successful plumber, appropriately. +The British word for toilet, "loo", derives from the French "garde a l'eau!" In medieval Europe people had liittle conception of hygene and threw the contents of their chamber pots out the window into the street below. In France the practice was preceded by "garde a l'eau!" ("watch out for the water!"). In England, this phrase was Anglicised, first to "gardy-loo!", then just "loo", and eventually came to mean the toilet/lavatory itself. The American word for toilet, "john", is called after the John Harington mentioned above. + + + + + +ÊÊ +Arts & Culture +Buildings in Maple Ridge +Community Directory +Community Profile +Freedom of the District +Garbage/Recycling/Composting +Hall of Fame +Health Services +History +Interesting Links +Library +Maps +School District +Social Services +SPCA + + + +ÊÊ + + +History The History of Bathing and Bathrooms +Bathing is a very old custom, practiced by the ancient Babylonians, Egyptians, and Romans. For a long + +time, bathing was a common and welcome part of every-day life. As these ancient empires fell and Europe entered the Middle Ages, bathing suffered a decline. Cities were now being built without sewers or a water-delivery system, which made bathing a very difficult task. Bathing was widely discouraged by the church, which regarded it as a sinful pleasure of the flesh, as well as a vehicle for the spread of diseases such as plague and syphilis. Throughout the Middle Ages and into the eighteenth century, few people bathed regularly, if at all. +By the nineteenth century, ideas about bathing began to change. From the Middle Ages through the + +renaissance, doctors warned against bathing, saying that it washed off a protective layer of filth. In the late 1700Õs, many doctors began to believe that regular baths would help cure the sick. In the mid 1800Õs, the discovery of germs demonstrated the benefits of cleanliness. Bathing gained popularity, and people began to take regular baths. +Taking a bath was not easy, however. Water had to be carried from rivers or public fountains to the house, heated on the stove, and poured into a large portable tub. For the wealthy, servants would carry out this difficult work, but the rest of the population had to do it for themselves. A bath was a major undertaking, and many families made a habit of bathing only once a week; usually on Saturday nights, so they could be clean on Sunday. +Tubs + +In the early days of the resurgence of bathing, tubs were no more than large wooden buckets. These tubs were not fixed in a specialized room, because most families had their baths in the kitchen, next to the source of warm water, the stove. Wealthier people may have kept their tub in a hidden compartment in their bedrooms, and had servants bring hot water up from the kitchen. As bathing became more widespread, bathtubs were made of tin or copper, with a small plug and hole at the bottom to let the water drain out. These were built in the familiar long and rounded shape. Some bathtubs were built like lounge chairs, and a few even had cushioned backrests. +Toilets +The ancestor of the modern toilet was the outhouse, a small wooden building situated behind the main home, which consisted of a wooden seat placed + +over a cesspit below. It could be a long walk to the outhouse, especially in the sub-zero temperatures of winter. The answer to this dilemma was the handy chamber pot; a round metal pot with handles which one kept hidden discretely beneath the bed until needed. The pot could be emptied into the cesspit of the outhouse in the morning. A few people had more elaborate versions of the chamber pot. Some would build a seat over the chamber pot, creating the closestool, which was often hidden away in a cupboard or water closet in the bedroom. People in these times were very private about cleanliness, and took great measures to keep toilet facilities hidden in elaborate and beautiful furniture disguises. +Sinks +The original sink was a pitcher and a bowl, which would be kept on a table in a bedroom. Many people built elaborate cupboards and panels to hide these items from view, a common practice when it came to bathroom facilities. +Indoor Plumbing +The tub, toilet, and sink were rarely found in one room together before indoor plumbing became available. Hot and + +cold water could now be delivered to the home without heating on the stove or hauling up from a fountain. It was soon realized that tubs, toilets, and sinks could be linked to these water pipes to make life much easier. And if one had to install water pipes leading to only one room, then all the better. Thus the bathroom was born, a room with a ready supply of hot and cold water. The sink, tub, and toilet were pulled out of the shadows and thrust into public view. People became less shy about cleanliness, and toilet facilities lost their clever disguises. +In the early days of the bathroom, the facilities were made of tin or aluminum, while porcelain was favored by the wealthy. Later on, most tubs and sinks were made of the newly developed enameled cast iron, which became widely popular as a cheap substitute for porcelain. +The entire family shared the bathroom. In old houses, families would convert a small bedroom into a bathroom, as they did in Haney House. Newly built houses would have a room specially designated and designed as the bathroom. +Medicine Cabinet: The medicine cabinet is a common feature of most modern bathrooms. It probably appeared once the widespread use of patented medicines became common. Not all of these medicines actually helped cure anything, and many of them contained liberal quantities of alcohol and even various poisons as special ingredients. +Soap: Romans and Greeks used mixtures of oil and ash to remove dirt and sweat. The Gauls used a mix of fat and potash to make their hair shiny. Around 1250 AD people began to make and sell soap in blocks. After cleanliness became an important part of daily life, soap could soon be found in most homes. Many people in more isolated communities made their own soap using animal fat and lye. +Toothbrush: Different teeth-cleaning tools have been used by many cultures throughout history. Ancient peoples such as the Sumerians used toothpicks to clean their teeth. In sixteenth century China, an actual bristle toothbrush appeared. The toothbrush as we know it is said to have been invented by William Addis, who was a prisoner in the Newgate prison in London. He thought up the idea while he was in prison, and founded a toothbrush company upon his release. + +Toilet Paper: When outhouses were in common use, most people used pieces of newspaper for toilet paper, and some even used dried corn leaves or corncobs. In the late 1800Õs the first commercially prepared toilet tissue became available for purchase, though it was some time before this became widely sold. + + +University of Wisconsin Madison: +"The Chamber Pot: Culture Contained." +November 15 - December 31, 2004 +Kohler Art Library, Elvehjem Art Museum +Is there a cultural story in your toilet? What about in a chamber pot? Chamber pots have largely been neglected by the academic community and polite circles due to their less than savory connotations. This exhibit of chamber pots from 1450 to 1940 looks at the field of material culture as an approach to studying objects, analyzing the shifting cultural values embodied in the use of and production of chamber pots. + +Curated by Matthew Baumann, Meghan Doherty, Matthew Harris, Ellen Hickman, Andrea Hoffman, Anna Huntley, Margaret Lee, Philip Lyons, Cory Pillen, and Sooyun Sohn (graduate students in Art History 800, "Ceramics in America," taught by Professor Ann Smart Martin). + + +Julie I. Horan opens her recently published look at the history of the toilet by saying, "Toilet-philes argue that civilization began not with the advent of written language but with the first toilet." The Porcelain God: A Social History of the Toilet explores the history of the toilet and the customs and manners that surround it. Starting at the third millennium B.C. Horan escorts the reader down through time to the modern day challenges of disposing of solid waste aboard a shuttle in space at a cost of 23.4 million dollars. + + +"Clean & Decent" +the Fascinating History of the Bathroom and the Water-Closet by Lawrence Wright +Who would have thought there was so much to learn about toilets and bathroom culture? This is a great primer for those who wonder just how people did bathe and perform 'ablutions' before the days of indoor plumbing and water-trapped toilets for all (or at least those of us in western countries). Written in 1960, it assumes a bit more familiarity than most of us have with English-style boilers and toilets, and more knowledge of history than the average high school graduate would have today. + + + + + + +gleaming tribute to human ingenuity stands silent and ready for use at a moments notice. This invention is now largely ignored, or taken for granted, but it has done as much to revolutionize the health of the world as any vaccine. This marvelous invention is the flush toilet. +We don't like to think about what our lives would be like without modern conveniences such as electricity, automobiles, and appliances. Could you imagine what your life would be like if you did not have modern plumbing? Most of us can not imagine life with out a toilet, but until the 1800's, disposal of human waste was a daily struggle, and a disgusting task. +The earliest written reference to the disposal of human waste is more than 3600 years old and is found in The Holy Bible. "And you shall have an implement among your equipment, and when you sit down outside, you shall dig with it and cover your refuse..."(Deuteronomy 23:12-13). For hundreds of thousands of years before the bible was written, human beings simply squatted when they had the urge to relieve themselves. + + +As the world became more populated, disposal of human wastes became a bit more difficult. In ancient Egypt, cities began to spring up from the desert. By 2500 B.C., the Egyptians had solved the waste disposal dilemma, and had constructed bathrooms with latrines which were flushed by hand with buckets of water. The latrines emptied into earthenware pipes, many of which are still functional today (Wright, Lawrence 10). Rome also had a public sewage system called cloxa maxima. It was constructed to prevent the streets from filling up with rain water and human waste. Public latrines were erected over channels of water. The latrines had stone seats with a hole in the center of them, much like the modern toilet seat that is in use today (Coleman Penny 26). Much of this forward- thinking technology had not spread to Europe, however, and the Europeans struggled with sanitation for centuries to come before they realized that something needed to be done. +By 1189, the city of London was an absolute mess. The population had grown rapidly, and many of it's inhabitants lived in squalor. London did have public and private facilities called garderobes. A garderobe was a toilet, or bank of toilets, either in a private castle or public hall. It was connected to a pipe through the side of the building that housed it. The waste emptied directly into a pit, moat, or river directly outside the building. A huge public garderobe emptied directly into the Thames river, causing stench and disease for the entire population of London. The Thames river was squalid and ripe with the smell of rotting sewage. A public law, stating that garderobes must be walled in, or at least 5 * feet from the nearest neighbor, was written in 1189 by the London Health Board, but the law did little to improve the sanitary conditions (Wright 50). + +The garderobe was no longer built by the year 1530, and the close stool was the newest modern convenience. The close stool was simply a chair with a porcelain or metal pot underneath, which needed to be removed and emptied. The stool had a seat which was padded with velvet, and was often equipped with handles for traveling (Wright 68-70). This was a great invention for Kings and Queens, Noblemen and Ladies. The poor, however, still relieved themselves in the street, or in a bucket or cistern inside their homes. +What did these people do with the waste? They threw it out into the street, of course. They would shout "gardez l'eau" (watch out for the water) before tossing the contents of their chamber pot out an open window or door, usually to the dismay of the passers by on the street. Londoners would rather live with the stench and filth than pay higher taxes to have underground sewer systems installed (Coleman 45). The public had not yet made the association with sewage and disease. +R.H Mottram, in 1830, stated in a public report regarding the streets of Leeds, England: "568 streets were taken in for examination...Whole streets were flooded with sewage... The death rate in the clean streets was 1 in 36; and in the dirty streets; 1 in 24." Children seemed to be dying at an amazing rate. Death rates for children were 480 per thousand in the city, while in the country, the death rate for children was 240 per thousand (Wright 144). The rulers, as well as the public, knew that something must be done. Cholera was rampant and the smell was unbearable. Louis Pastuer, a noted scientist, convinced Europe that if drinking water came from a well, it may be contaminated from any number of nearby cesspits, and if it came from a river, it was most certainly contaminated ( 148). The Cholera epidemic between 1844-1855 claimed 20,000 lives, and something had to be done, so London built a sewer system (149). With the new sewer system came the need for a toilet that flushed with water in order to prevent the future spread of disease, and the flush toilet was born. + + + +Leornardo da Vinci drew plans for a number of flushing water closets for the castle of Francis I at Ambrose, including flushing channels inside the walls, and a ventilating system which reached through the roof. Unfortunately, like DaVinci's plans for flying machines and military tanks, the project was scrapped and considered nonsense ( 54-55). For the actual invention of the flush toilet, the credit must go to Sir John Harrington. +Sir John Harrington, godson to Queen Elizabeth I, was a writer by trade. In 1596 he penned a tongue- in- cheek article named "Plan Plots of a Privy of Perfection." In the article, he described in detail his invention, the first flushing water closet. He erected one at Kelston, near Bath, England. The water closet, for the most part, worked, and the Queen had Sir John install a water closet in the Royal Palace. The Queen was so pleased with her new convenience, that she had his article bound, and hung it next to her water closet. One of the many problems with Sir John's water closet was that it was inadequately vented, and sewer gas constantly leaked into the Royal powder room. The Queen remedied this problem by placing bowls of herbs and fragrances around the room (71). The flush toilet, however, would not be deemed "popular" for several hundred years. + +The belief that Thomas Crapper invented the first patented flushing water closet is untrue (Kerr Daisy 63). The first patent for the flushing water closet was actually issued to Alexander Cummings in 1775. A watchmaker by trade, Cummings designed a toilet in which the water supply was brought low into the bowl, and some water remained after each flush. "The advantage of this water closet," he stated, "depends upon the shape of the bowl." The Cummings water closet was generally made of copper. It was a great improvement, but the seal at the bottom of the toilet leaked, continually emitting sewer gases into the home (Wright 107). No one was aware at that time, that sewer gases were highly explosive, as well as great bacteria carriers. Other inventors sought to change both of those problems. Joseph Bramah, a cabinetmaker who regularly "fitted-up" water closets, sought to improve Cummings original idea, and a patent was issued to him in 1778. Bramah discovered that by replacing Cumming's string valve closure with a crank-type mechanism, he would essentially get an air tight seal between the toilet and what ever offending odors may be lurking beneath it. There were some problems with this new toilet, however. The flushing action failed quite often, it was incredibly noisy, and the seal would dry up if the toilet was not used often enough. Although Bramah installed over 6,000 toilets by 1797, without a tight seal, the sewer gas problem remained (107). + +By 1860, people around Europe were tired of the odor from the sewer gases escaping into their homes. Along came the inventor Henry Moule, with his patented Earth Closet. This wonderful commode dispensed dirt or ashes on to the offensive materials, rendering them odorless. The problem with Moule's invention was that the contents had to be emptied by hand. People bought the earth closet in great numbers though, because they could hardly stand the stench in their own homes from their previous toilet experiences (208). +Thomas Crapper, an industrious plumber, opened his shop on Marlborough Street in London in 1861, and aptly named it The Marlboro' Works of Thomas Crapper & Company (Reyburn Wallace 11). Crapper continuously tested toilets at Marlboro Works, so much so that he had a 250 gallon water tank installed on the roof of his building (17). Crapper's claim to fame is the improvements that he made to the water closet. He invented a pull- chain system for powerful flushing, and an air tight seal between the toilet and the floor. He also patented several venting systems for venting the sewer gas by way of a pipe through the roof (50). +Crapper also teamed up with Thomas Twyford, the pottery maker. Twyford changed his pottery assembly lines from turning out tableware to turning out toilets, with Crapper supplying the inner-workings. Twyford also made toilets into art pieces, by molding them into many shapes including dolphins ( 40). The fine porcelain makers Wedgewood and Royal Doulton soon followed suit (Stein Rod). None of the porcelain manufacturers were opposed to the free advertising, as the names of their firms were emblazoned on the toilet, in a conspicuous place (Barlow Ronald 2). +Across the Atlantic, Americans were still using chamber pots, but only in the event of an emergency such as illness or bad weather. Other than that, people used the outhouse, a small building constructed over an open pit with a bench inside into which several holes were fashioned. The user would sit over the hole and relieve himself (Barlow 1). The flush toilet did not gain popularity in the United States until after World War I, when American troops came home from England full of talk about a "mighty slick invention called the crapper." The American slang term for the toilet, "the john," is said to be derived from the flushing water closets at Harvard university installed in 1735, and emblazoned with the manufacturer's name, Rev. Edward Johns (Reyburn 76). +The flush toilet is an invention of which humanity can be very proud. Without this marvelous contraption, disease would still be rampant and water supplies throughout the world would be undrinkable. The next time you see a toilet, standing at attention in a bathroom, remember the many inventors and plumbers that made it a clean, simple, easy to use device that makes our lives a little easier. +Maureen Francis +(Sylvan's Guest Writer this Week!) diff --git a/unused/vienna walk.txt b/unused/vienna walk.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..cb88f54 --- /dev/null +++ b/unused/vienna walk.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4 @@ +I mereged one evening from the U-3 Station at Westbanhof into the chill of an Austrian evening feeling lost, anxious, out of breathe and a bit like i imagine one might feel on sucking in the first breathe after a coma, as if I had just stepped off, not an ordinary underground but something with the full nightmarish portent of Alice Notley's The descent of Allette. But the feeling was not one of elation on having emerged out of, but rather a feeling of dispair which seized me, the feeling that i had merely stepped from one place to another without rectifying the terror of something I still, even now can not fully comprehend. I recall wandering the streets aimlessly for some time, crossing a large square just north of the Wetbanhof train station where I was due to depart early the next morning and up Maria Strubes, but without a conscious decicion to do so, I was merely propelled by a habit of one foot proceeding the other. I had been in Vienna for a few days, but immediately on my arrival, owing to piece of bad news from home, I had been throw into a kind of stupor from which I did not emerge for the length of my stay. There were moments when the feeling subsided in the face of a painting at the kunderhistries museum or in the case of this particular day I recal a certain clarity of mind as I wandered about Frued's former residence, now a museum of sorts, which no doubt would have made the good doctor smile. But as I wandered north that evening I moved a bit like a zombie and frequently found myself staring in the window displays of stores I normally would have passed without another thought simply to occupy my mind with stimulous. But I can recall littel of what I saw with only any clarity. I must have wandered thus for the better part of an hour only dimlly aware that it was bitter cold and windy. I remember when the cold sank in, I had stopped in fron of an electronics store, captivated by the animated reporting of what I took to be a weather man, standing beside a road in what looked to be mountains, an embankment behind him already dusted with snow. The man was speaking rapidly with an expression of surprise on his face. he kept his rather thick, bushy and slightly greyed eyebrows raised for the majority of the broadcast as if he could not believe that he was standing in a snow storm on the first day of June. He wore a light coat, the sort of coat that only reporters seem to wear with a plethora of pockets on the breast and more over the stomach with flaps snapped down, as well as the more traditional side paockets. I remember wondering what it was that reporters keep in these pockets. I could not hear a word he said through the thick windows of the store, nor would I have understood anything even if I could have heard. behind him was a small embankment partially covered already with snow interupted here and there by clumps of darkness which I could not clearly make out, but appeared to be bushes, already highlighted by a dusting of snow. The report ended without any text to day where the snow was falling, but as I turned away from the window I suddenly noticed the bite of the wind and wondered from where this unexpected cold had come + + +. I recall at one point stopping fron of the window dispay for a prefab kitchen company.
\ No newline at end of file |