60% of the world’s population have access to proper sanitation thanks to the invention and use of modern toilets.
But very few people understand the history of toilets, and even those who have access to modern plumbing rarely think about their toilets.
As environmentalists and other interested parties devise creative ways to dispose of human defecation and improve sanitation, taking a peek into the brief history of toilets may go a long way.
Toilets in the Earlier Ages
People in different parts of the world had their own ways of building toilets and disposing human excretion.
People in the ancient world were mostly Stone Age farmers who lived in stone huts.
Although their ways were considered a bit primitive, they had the ability to design sophisticated inside toilets with their houses being built with cubicles over the drains extending from recesses in the walls.
In ancient Egypt, the poor had their toilets made in the form of wooden stools with holes poked in the middle.
The stools had containers filled with sand attached underneath and would be emptied manually by hand. The rich on the other hand, built toilet seats out of limestone and had proper bathrooms inside their homes.
In other parts of the world such as the island of Crete the Minoan, as civilization thrived, people began to build drainage systems and networks of sewers took the sewage as water flushed through the toilets.
Before that, there was the use of enormous, earthenware pans that were connected to a constant water supply that ran through terra-cotta pipes popularly known to most people as latrines.
The same applied in other areas such as the Indus valley which built its streets on a grid pattern and dug sewer networks underneath.
In Rome, public lavatories were constructed for the commoners and there was no privacy since there were no partitions as the stone seats were built next to each other.
The people often wiped their behinds on a stick or sponge after conducting their business on the streets despite the availability of public lavatories.
On the other hand, the wealthy had their own toilets and sewers were built to collect rainwater and sewage.
In the Middle Ages
The mid-centuries saw the digging of pits in the ground covered with wooden seats over them to serve as toilets.
In the same period, monks turned to building wooden and stone outhouses over rivers. In some cases, they built stone chutes channeled to the sea such that sewage would flush away into the waters when the tide went in and out.
England’s medieval castles built toilets called garderobes that had vertical shafts and had stone seats at the top for the royals to do their business.
These features emptied into the dikes. The Royals chose to hide their toilets behind curtains while keeping the bathrooms scented with herbs to keep off any unpleasant stench.
There were privies built at the end of certain streets for commoners and peasants to relieve themselves.
Those living along the London Bridge helped themselves right into the Thames River.
During this age, ordinary people made do with a plant referred to as wooly mullein or the common mullein to wipe their behinds. The wealthy were privileged to use rags after visiting the toilet.
Modern World Toilets
The garderobes were eventually improved and replaced with a flushing lavatory that had a storage tank invented in 1596 by Sir John Harrington.
The structures which saw a leap into modern sanitation were slightly more comparable to the modern-day defecator and came with a box and a lid.
It had a raised water container with a small pipe through which water would flush down upon release by a valve.
Despite his invention, Sir John’s idea didn’t immediately catch on as people continued to use cesspits and chamber pots that were cleaned manually by gong farmers.
However, Queen Elizabeth 1 opted to install Sir John’s invention of modern sanitation in her Richmond palace.
200 years after Sir John Harrington’s flushing lavatory with a cistern, Alexander Cummings improved on the invention by developing an S-shaped pipe beneath the basin to keep out foul smell.
In 1778, Joseph Brahmah further improved on Cumming’s idea and came up with a better design.
A good number of people embraced the flushable toilet in the 18th century. However, they became common in the late 19th center as initially flushing toilets were considered a luxury.
It has been erroneously believed over time that Thomas Crapper invented the modern toilet yet he was just a prominent London plumber hired by the then Prince Edward to construct privies in a number of royal palaces.
He patented several bathroom inventions but he did not invent the flushing toilet as is often misconstrued.
His name was popular among customers who needed toilet fixtures since he was the first person to ever display his lavatory wares in a showroom.
In the 19th-century earth closets which were boxes of granulated clay built over pans were also commonplace in the rural areas.
The toilet pans comprised decorated and embossed porcelain structures with wooden seats and chains to pull and empty the cisterns.
Most households had to share a toilet having to queue to use it in some cases.
Finally, in the early 20th century the flushing lavatories began replacing the earth closets common in the rural areas.
Most people used newspaper to wipe themselves after visiting the outhouses.
Toilets Today
Bathroom technology became mainstream in the 20th century and saw the widespread use of toilet-paper rolls which were previously considered luxuries and not necessities.
Previously storage tanks rested above the bowl. Today, water closets with cisterns that rest on top of the toilet bowl and flushable valves are more popular.
And so are the waterless toilets. Toilets no longer have to use copious amounts of water to dispose human wastes. Today’s world has seen the use of technology to eliminate water usage in waste disposal and to find new ways of utilizing excreta in other important ways such as biogas harvesting, solar-powered hydrogen generation and so on.
Despite the presence of toilets in most rich countries, millions of poor people still do not have access to hygienic toilets or adequate sanitation for that matter.
The World Toilet Organization seeks to raise awareness about hygienic toilets to 2.5 billion people around the world who live in conditions with poor sanitation. The goal is to improve toilets in the developing world.
