Welcome! Here are the website rules, as well as some tips for using this forum.
Need to contact us? Visit https://heatinghelp.com/contact-us/.
Click here to Find a Contractor in your area.

The history of the toilet

Steve_175
Steve_175 Member Posts: 238
There is more to this story than I realized.



<a href="http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/turrets-toilets-partial-history-throne-room-180951788/?no-ist">http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/turrets-toilets-partial-history-throne-room-180951788/?no-ist</a>

Comments

  • Harvey Ramer
    Harvey Ramer Member Posts: 2,239
    Pretty cool!

    Off to replace a water closet of the current century. I used to think about baseball while I was replacing one, now I can think about medieval castles!



    Thanks for sharing.



    Harvey 
  • icesailor
    icesailor Member Posts: 7,265
    edited June 2014
    History of where toilet contents went to:

    Over the years, I've had a lot of related articles on these subjects. Getting new computers and closed links sort of eliminate the best ones.

    Here's one on London Sewers. Not the one I wish I still had. It was one by a woman engineer for her PHD dissertation.

    http://www.johnhearfield.com/Drains/Sewer1.htm



    Consider this. Most cities, especially in Europe were built along rivers. The cities moved UP river because the water was so fouled  by waste. Butchered animal remains were thrown into rivers to get rid of them. The butcher buildings were always located DOWN stream from the city. The wealthy lived downstream of the city. The wealthy moved and built new homes UPRIVER for the clean water.

    The first proven case of water born epidemiology was in London where they showed that leaking sewers leached contaminated water through the ground and into the Thames River. Where the less fortunate got their "fresh water". They mapped the cases in London for some serious water borne disease like Cholera, and the cases were all around the river.



    https://www.mtholyoke.edu/courses/rschwart/hist255-s01/mapping-paris/Paris_Sewers_Page.html
  • ChrisJ
    ChrisJ Member Posts: 15,588
    Ew

    Isn't unsafe water one of the reasons drinking alcohol became so popular?
    Single pipe quasi-vapor system. Typical operating pressure 0.14 - 0.43 oz. EcoSteam ES-20 Advanced Control for Residential Steam boilers. Rectorseal Steamaster water treatment
  • KC_Jones
    KC_Jones Member Posts: 5,722
    Beer

    They say that is one reason beer became so popular.  It was a way to make safe liquid for drinking and it also had preservatives in it (hops) so it would keep for a while without refrigeration which they didn't have anyway.
    2014 Weil Mclain EG-40
    EcoSteam ES-20 Advanced Boiler Control
    Boiler pictures updated 2/21/15
  • SWEI
    SWEI Member Posts: 7,356
    Fermentation

    is quite sensitive to foreign critters.  The neat thing about beer and wine is that almost anything undesirable that grows alters both smell and taste in an obvious way.  So if it smells OK and tastes OK, it usually is OK.
  • icesailor
    icesailor Member Posts: 7,265
    History:

    Fermentation of grains grains and fruit was a way to keep and store crops and keeping them from spoiling. Beer goes back thousands of years, WIne as far back also. Beer used to be drunk warm and quickly before it spoiled. The Inca's made (and still do) make a beer with spit. I'll pass.
  • KC_Jones
    KC_Jones Member Posts: 5,722
    All I know is....

    Water tastes a whole lot better when fermented with some barley and hops....enjoying some fermented water right now.  Cheers!
    2014 Weil Mclain EG-40
    EcoSteam ES-20 Advanced Boiler Control
    Boiler pictures updated 2/21/15
  • icesailor
    icesailor Member Posts: 7,265
    Spoilage:

    I can't honestly say that I've ever cracked a bad bottle of beer. I'm still trying. I've sampled some that I didn't like as much. Too "Hoppy". But all in all, I'm still looking.
  • Harvey Ramer
    Harvey Ramer Member Posts: 2,239
    Beer

    I'm a sucker for the darker beers. I like them right around 55°F



    Harvey
  • BobC
    BobC Member Posts: 5,476
    Skunky

    When I was fresh out of the army and a little short in the cash department we used to buy Haffenreffer Private Stock (Green death), it was a cheap malt liquor that had a tendency to skunk up if improperly stored. That didn't stop us, we drank it anyway.



    After buying a house I made my own beer for over a decade and got a lot of complements on it's taste. I learned that cleanliness is critical when dealing with yeast, you can get all kinds of strange tastes and odors if you don't keep everything clean.



    These days i buy the mixed twelve packs of Otter Creek or something similar; I enjoy a little variety.



    Bob
    Smith G8-3 with EZ Gas @ 90,000 BTU, Single pipe steam
    Vaporstat with a 12oz cut-out and 4oz cut-in
    3PSI gauge