IN THE QUIRKS continued
- tryway – suggesting people waiting had time to carve or write their communications before taking their turn. Additionally, heading to social gatherings or drinking sessions,
Romans brought their own chamber pots. These were emptied into large public urine pots at Rome’s street corners, which were also available for outdoor usage. Slaves called “fullers” collected the urine. The stale urine, known as wash, was a rudimentary type of bleach. It was so valuable in the fulling business that the wash was taxed. Regrettably, Roman toilet technology was lost in the Middle Ages, and families resorted to using ceramic or metal chamber pots. Once the chamber pot was full, families simply threw the contents outside their homes into the gutter. Obviously, this practise led to foul odours and the spread of sickness amidst cities. By the 1500s, cesspools and cesspits were the new technology. Dug and set next to European buildings, they were cleaned out by tradesmen, called gong farmers. Working at night, the gong farmers pumped out the liquid and shovelled out the human waste. This product, known decorously as nightsoil, was sold as fertilizer for ag- ricultural use. In fact, cesspools were used in some neighbourhoods of Paris into the 20th Century. -
derobes. Garderobes were built on castles’ exteriors, and were small rooms featuring a stone seat above a bottomless toilet shaft. Human waste then fell into the river or moat next to the castle – building up in stagnant pools – ideal conditions to cultivate illness. As facility managers know, the smell of pooled solid and liquid human waste is an unrelenting issue. It was reported that even the odours emanating from below. Despite these odours, reportedly a number of French kings, including Louis XIV, used the commode while holding court. -
exander Cummings, a British watchmaker. It was not until 1852 that appeared.
Americans, both in cities and farms, used a chamber pot, outhouse,
In wealthy British households during the Victorian era, morning housemaids collected all the chamber pots. Carrying them to the housemaid’s cupboard, a “slop sink” was available to wash the “bed- room ware” or “chamber utensils.” “Slopping out” – the act of emp- tying your own chamber pot – was practiced in British prisons until 2014.
In London’s public areas, options were limited. Some pubs had
primitive outdoor “urinals” — simply a vertical rock — but men typ- ically resorted to the closest alley. Residents living near popular spots regularly composed letters of complaint to local authorities. Signs were erected, declaring the words “Commit No Nuisance.” -
fouled walls. Barricados were angled strips of grooved steel, designed - sive problem. Even the fountains of newly built Trafalgar Square were not spared and were “polluted by brutes in human shape” within days of their grand opening. Throughout the Victorian era, women’s bathrooms still were not
normalized, since society had not accepted women using bathrooms in public situations. Women were still tied to their homes by the “uri- nary leash.” Women would shop quickly, waiting to use the facilities at home. If a woman was out too long, she might simply position herself even carried a device called a “urinette,” that could be used under skirts and then poured out. American sociologist, reports that many women in India still have to avoid eating or drinking too much if they have to be out in public, because there is no place for them to go. It was not until the 1930s when toilets, and the sewage systems to support them, were established in most American cities, and it was and commonplace. So, next time a guest asks you the customary question, “Where is the
nearest bathroom?”, take genuine joy in giving them directions. Our industry is beholden to the technological advancements in toilets. They literally are priceless tools in making our venues serve the needs of hu- manity, and in making large scale healthy public gatherings
possible.FM
Did You Know? appeared, and it was a luxury item. Toilet paper rolls appeared in the U.S. in 1890, and in Europe in 1928. Soft toilet paper is a - ed: communal rags – washed and then reused. The Greeks are believed to have used small shards of broken ceramics. (The Greeks they were still used in outhouses after toilet paper became commonplace. And not surprisingly, dirt and plants were, and continue to be, common tools around the world.
IAVM 19
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