Free Write Toilet

The toilet. Smooth and white. Doesn’t look like anything out of the ordinary. In some cases has a nice shine to it. Many come with a metallic silver handle on the side or a button on the top that you push down to start the swirling water to suck down the contents of the toilet bowl. It can be very loud of you drop the lid on the ceramic base. After use of it, the flush comes with a classic sound that is familiar to almost everyone. It is distinct and come with a swirling gurgling sound. After the flush. The tank hisses and fills with water. Inside the tank are stainless steel rings that keep the functionality of the toilet running smoothly. Toilet come in many color shapes and sizes including wooden seats, metal public restrooms, or the classic porcelain.

In order to operate a toilet, you must be able to sit and stand. Most people can operate it with ease. For some, it isn’t the easiest to operate. Younger children need to be taught how to use it correctly. Often potty trainers are introduced prior to the actual toilet. After that it is mostly user error. Often a problem for men, is aiming when standing up. Women sit down either way. Elderly often times sit down, and near the toilet may be a bar to help them stand up in the case they are too weak to do so themselves. For the disabled it is more difficult, although public bathrooms come with stalls that are large enough to get a wheelchair into and come with surround bars to help get one’s self on the toilet. For men balancing while using the toilet standing upright is a necessity. Often times now the user doesn’t even need to be able to flush due to new technology that flushes for you or urinals that don’t flush with water.

Toilets do play a large role in terms of gender. This is a very popular upcoming trend. We have a men’s room and a women’s room, identified by the little symbol for a woman or a man. Men’s rooms have open urinals that are often the most popular in terms of usage by men. There are also stalls to use if you need to use one. Women’s rooms are full of stall only for obvious reasons. Genderless bathrooms are becoming popular because some people don’t fall into one of these two very black and white categories. Today we are seeing more gender neutrality in having more all gender bathrooms. This helps eliminate the social pressures felt by some who are feeling like they need to go in or the other. Often times I think toilets are associated with men a little bit more. This is due to construction workers always having the port-a-potties on the construction site. It is a very universal icon that there is work going on.

The mix of china clay, ball clay, silica, and fluxing agent come together to create infamous Vitreous china. Used so much, often times is known to cause small floods with terrible odors. It has been rumored to in some rare cases cause explosions under the correct circumstances once an ignitor is dropped inside. Even snakes have been heard of using Vitreous china as a way to get around. It is a huge waste of water.

If the toilet were to disappear, it would be very interesting. You would no longer be able to just flush your business down the toilet. Convenient bathrooms would no longer be accessible. People would be defecating in the bushes. If people came together some sort of large hold could be dug in the ground with a seat over the top of it. The only issue would be the waste would just sit there and once it filled up, you would need to more the waste somewhere or dig another hole. The easy system of sending it down to the sewers would be over. It would now be in our sight and in our minds. Without toilets there would be a very advanced society kind of feel. Going back to pooping in holes would just be bizarre. Toilets make it so simple to dispose of public waste. Not having them would be strange.

Bathrooms have always been a more private kind of thing where they are tucked away in corners of restaurants, sort of isolated. Privacy would be sort of intruded if they were more intergraded into our society. You would see urinals in open areas and toilet stalls in very convenient locations, but privacy would most likely be thrown out the window. Toilets could also gain a more prevalent use for other things such as something like, they new way to throw trash out. Instead of large landfills we would flush trash that is taken to a holding container where they isolate the trash from the water and keep it out of our sight.

Had the standard toilet with the sewage system never have been invented, we all would most likely be going to the bathroom over a deep hole in the ground. Another alternative would be a crank toilet where you do your business and then throw a scoop of enzymes and scent down into the pit and then crank the bowl shut. Bathrooms may not even exist. Toilet units would take up so much more room than they do now. If they did they would smell much worse. It would be a less evolved society without being able to dispose of our waste much easier. More disease could spread due to bacteria in the air from disgusting pits of human waste. Some other way of waste management could have been created to maybe try and break down the waste faster.

People attitudes toward toilets seem to be humor. Toilets are more private business so there are lots of bathroom jokes made and such. Then there are the classic high school bullies who shove “nerds” heads in lockers and then give them swirlies by shoving their heads into the toilet bowls and then flushing it. It seems people’s attitudes toward toilets should be something more like disgust and wanting to keep it clean. Toilets are pretty gross if you think about it, however they are a norm in our everyday lives. We have sort of become numb to what really goes inside the toilet which is nasty.

Some interesting things I learned about the toilet is that overall the system of the standard toilet and sewer have improved but essentially haven’t changed much over history. Romans used similar looking seats that has running water below that washed waste into a larger chamber below. The look has changed but the functionality remains somewhat similar. Something else I found was how much more environmentally friendly they have become. It seems like right from the get go they wouldn’t have been using a bunch of water per flush. Today people are getting “greener” toilets for the environment but their old toilets just get added to the land fill where they never decompose.

The tone of my paper should be light. I am writing about toilets which has lots of humor used behind it and that is also just who I am. If I am able to right in a lighter tone I can bring in serious topics that will have more impact on the reader if I go from lighter talk to here are some serious issues about the environment.

I think the reader should realize how we grow as a civilization over time but essentially out roots are still with us in the way that the toilet hasn’t changed at ton. Also to see how wasteful are and how there are lots of environmental things that we can do to better off our world. We create an absolutely absurd amount of waste overall and it has major impact on the planet we live on.

The reader should realize how wasteful we are as a people. Toilets waste so much water when there are people in 3^rd world countries that don’t have access to somewhat clean water, were we are literally flushing it down the toilet. The reader will see why we need to improve on our wasteful habits for the good of ourselves and everyone on earth, as well as earth itself.

Part 2

The toilet has evolved in many ways from what its first crude forms, but overall the function of it has very much been the same. Mentions of pit latrines go back to the Old Testament. Victorians often used ceramic chamber pots for inside their homes. These were very similar to a pot with a lid. Often times soap was added to the bottom as you could imagine the smell. The first believed waste management systems using water date back to 2750 BC in Mohendro Daro, where there were toilets equipped with a drain system. With our toilets of today it can often be forgotten that the basic premise of the toilet hasn’t changed much. The Romans revolutionized it’s use. They had many impressive lavatories for the public. These included urinals and stone or marble seats that were placed over a trench. These public restrooms of the past were often placed in or near public baths. Using the excess water from the baths, they cleverly had created what many call the first sewage system. The water then pushed the waste into a main sewer system like holding. Although these toilets and sewers may look different today than ancient times, they are more similar than most think. Even today there are campsites in which there are wooden outhouses with a seat over a deep pit in the ground very much like the first basic toilets.

Toilet use many different resources but the main resource used is water supply. Toilets from the 1950s and 60s used up to 7 gallons of water per flush. Not only were they increasing the amount of water they were using and wasting but they were also increasing the amount of water they had to spend on water utilities. Toilets today take an average of 1.6 gallons of water per flush which is significantly lower amount than the older style of toilets. This saves the water supply as well as money for families. Replacing old toilets has a high advantage in aspect to water supply. It is encouraged to get new toilet with dual flushing if you are living in an older home. Space has changed in regards to having a toilet as well. Throughout history and throughout the 1900s outhouses were incredibly popular usually situated a few yards away from the home. This took up its own space due to its uncleanliness and it stench. Today toilets have been incorporated into their own room in a home, and therefore taken up more space in regards to the inside of the home. Not only does the toilet have a separate area, there are also pipes that run through the electrical work, that can create possible problems in the future. The toilets of today require very similar resources to the older ones. They basically need water in order to run. It seems even some of the older toilets used less resources if there was just a pit where they put a seat above. But in this case you need to look at the cost/benefit of hygiene.

In the journal of the calculator of costs for building the sewer found in MASC, the thing that stuck out was how expensive it was to install an entire sewer. The labor costs and costs of digging before we had more advanced technology were extremely high. The machine that moved dirt was much less effective and required a massive amount of fuel. The benefit of these costs though, were very fixed, rather than variable. Once the system was put in place and installed, it was mostly a one time cost. Eventually maintenance and such will have to occur but the majority of the cost comes from the initial project.

Part 1

In today’s day and age, technology is growing and evolving at an exponential rate. It is incredible to see how far we have come from old technologies to what is being created today. Take toilets for instance. From holes in the ground, to high tech toilets of today, that are capable of washing (and drying) your area with a press of a button. Toilets can help dispose of lots of waste but, what you may not realize is how much waste they themselves produce. Toilets and tanks can be made of different materials. Most commonly they are a mixture of clays which creates vitreous china. Among others are metal and wooden although the most common is this vitreous china, better known as porcelain. This vitreous china is made of multiple materials. It consists of china clay, ball clay, silica, and a fluxing agent. The clay is hardened by the air to where it is put inside a kiln to bake. Commonly there is a waterproof coating known as a glaze which gives it waterproof ability. This is only applied after the first time the toilet is fired in the kiln. It then is put in a second time. Through this process the whole body of the toilet turns glassy, or vitrifies.

Commonly, the seats are made from one of two materials. Polystyrene make up plastic seats. Others are made from a blend of wood and plastic, which is generally a cheaper option. The wood is ground up to a flour consistency where melamine is added to it. A final ingredient is added known as zinc stearate that helps it from sticking to the mold during the manufacting process. The fixtures in the tank are usually copper or stainless steel rings.

Unfortunately, all this doesn’t break down well in the environment, not at all. Quite literally when you throw your toilet in the land fill it just sits there. This is where an extreme amount of waste comes from. There are two major problems. First off if your toilet breaks you must repair it and so you create waste that sits in the land fill. Secondly, a much more popular issue of today, is if you are trying to save water! Toilets today can save you massive amounts of money due to using less water than before. The dark side of this “eco-friendly” situation is that while you are indeed saving water which is good, you are adding to the land fill. Thinking about this on a larger stage, if your whole neighborhood were to “go green” extensive amounts of waste would be placed in the landfills.

The sewage that comes from toilets is also gives off tons of waste. We can see this from one of the latest events in Puget Sound. 6 million to 10 million gallons of untreated effluent when into the water. Most of which was storm water, but around 10 was raw sewage was released.

The basic toilet system patents show the toilet with the water to drain the waste and take it down the pipes do a holding system. Are there very high tech toilets you could buy? Yes. However, the true design and function have remained quite similar for thousands of years and most likely won’t be changing radically in the near future. Some people just flush and don’t think about how the toilet has changed over the years or even how it works. There is more to it than just a push of a handle or button, but at the end of the day toilets really are just big drainage systems made of porcelain, and metal pipes, that suck down waste and water.

Concerns and Direction of Topic

My concerns are mainly about how I am going to focus in on the toilet. I feel like I may be going too broad if I do the toilet and the sewer/ sewage side of it. Should I try and focus on toilet with some sewer issues or is going broader to including the sewer and such fine? I think it will give me more to write about if I include the sewer. My main focus of the paper is going to be on environmental concerns. Toilets waste many more resources than people realize. On top of them wasting tons of water, they don’t decompose. Sewage also causes huge amounts of literal waste. This often times gets into our water sources contaminating our drinking water. Waste in drinking water is a missive issue that developing countries face. I think I would also like to include how the toilet fits into the house hold. People used to have outhouses and pots they used for toilets that didn’t take up a ton of space and were separate from the home. Today people have integrated the toilet as a big part of their homes having many times 2-3 toilets in the house. The bathroom has become a luxury in many homes with a big bath tub along with a shower.

Tech Modified in cultural practice

Click to access ws_het508.pdf

This is article shows the cultural change in using toilets today. The statistics on how much water is wasted due to things like leaks and flushing is astonishing. Older toilets are being replaced by newer technology due to people becoming more environmentally aware. These new toilets cut down the amount of water and are much less likely to leak. The big trade off is the fact that you can get a “greener” toilet, however, you will be putting your current toilets in the landfill where they will sit. Toilets are not good for the environment due to the fact that they can’t decompose due to being made of porcelain. This article really focuses in how at first when toilets were widely used people didn’t think much of the true cost of all the water they were using. The new greener toilets are much more refined and show the overall culture’s shift from major consumers, to this more eco friendly mind set after realizing how much water is wasted every year.

Toilet Urban Legends and Materials

Most of the pop culture that surrounds toilets, is what most would think. Toilets are prominent in movies for using the bathroom. A movie that stands out as one with an important toilet scene is Bridesmaids, when they all eat bad meat and are using the toilet extensively. Along with that, an iconic scene in Jurassic Park is the moment when someone is using the outhouse, in which a T-rex destroys and the only thing left is the man sitting on the toilet. He then gets eaten, but it still an iconic moment that the T-rex is able to knock down everything except the toilet. The major legend that I found when I was looking it up was the legend of the explosive toilet. This legend has a woman throwing a flammable substance into the toilet because that’s the only way she can think to dispose of it. And her unsuspecting husband is in the bathroom, lights a cigarette and the toilet explodes. He happened to be sitting on the toilet at this point and his trousers had been blown away and he suffered from burns on his buttocks. There are variations to this legend but the variations only highlight the different flammable substances that were put into the toilet.

 

The first modern flushing toilet was created in 1596 by John Harington and in 1778. In 1852 George Jennings patented the flush-out toilet.  Toilets today are made of vitreous china, which is a mix of several kinds of clay. Toilet seats are generally made from a type of thermoplastic called polystyrene. According to the National Association of Home Builders, toilets have an unlimited lifespan because the toilet wont decompose, but the parts can be fixed. Although, if you had a toilet for a very long time, it would be outdated. Modern toilets today do not decompose. Toilets make a lot of waste in the world and they also use a lot of water, but those are the biggest environmental impacts.

 

 

 

http://www.vocativ.com/culture/fun/toilet-scenes-movies-world-toilet-day/

 

http://www.snopes.com/embarrass/accident/toilet.asp

 

http://www.madehow.com/Volume-5/Toilet.html

 

http://www.toiletology.com/preventi.shtml

 

 

Toilet Patents

Click to access US3733617.pdf

Click to access US3741890.pdf

Click to access US5698095.pdf

 

Topic: Toilet

I decided I will right my paper on the toilet. Overall, it seemed like one of the most universal things I could possibly do. Condoms are only used by some people, and not every single member in the house cooks with an oven. Although the toilet isn’t used universally by all, it is more commonly used and the most sanitary way to get rid of human waste. I found that this invention has had the greatest impact on society and the norms that surround it. People prefer for toilets to be clean and fresh, even though only decades ago, or even today, that many people still use “out houses” or a “squat toilet” into the ground. I went on a underground tour of Seattle and we learned about the early toilets used. We also learned about Thomas Crapper and it has stuck with me ever since. The flushing toilet was invented by John Harington in 1596. The toilet is definitely an invention that many people today take advantage of, as well as myself. There are nearly more than 50 disease that can be spread through human feces. The most well known and prevalent diseases, dysentery, cholera, and typhoid are all greatly reduced because of the toilet. Although there is a downside to toilets, the advantage of the toilet overcomes the bad parts. Toilets use about 3.5-7 galloons of water for every flush. As many know, water is scarce and in many countries, this water in unavailable to many, which is why flushing toilets are not available for everyone to use. Many people who use toilets often forget what a luxury it is to have and how different life may be if toilets were not readily available. I plan to pursue the functionality of the toilet and the technology behind how it works. Along with that, I plan to research the benefits and the issues that arise from having toilets. I want to research how these toilets connect and how it works with having a  sewage system. How has the invention of toilets changed the sewage systems and to get rid of waste? Why do some homes lack a flushing toilet, and what alternatives are available to get rid of waste? How does the flushing toilet work and what parts are needed for it to operate correctly? Where does the waste go after it goes into the sewage system?

Oven

Jordan Mott invented the first coal oven in 1833, and British inventor James Sharp patented the first gas oven in 1826. The gas oven changed the way that families cooked tremendously. In ancient times, ancient Egyptians and others used some sort of stone or brick oven in order to cook food or bread. This process was a lot more rigorous and took a lot more time in order to cook the food properly and thoroughly. Through history, there were many different techniques that different areas tried to use in order to cook food more efficiently, which brings us to the gas oven today, that allows the fire of the oven to stay enclosed while inside of a home. What you cook and eat hugely matters. The gas oven opened possibilities to cook many more types of food, which created an ability to eat healthier foods. This technology touches on health and the way and process of how modern day humans eat, and the nutrition that they get from it. The research that can be conducted is how the fas oven works and how all the different types of ovens led to the invented of the gas oven.

Toilet

Toilets came about and helped keep human waste out of the streets and homes of people in the city. The toilet was perfected when sewers carried the waste to the larger system or the septic tank. Subjects that intersect with toilets are disease control, sanitization, and waste management. Disease related to toilets because, before they were as functional as todays models, people would do their business and then throw it out the window into the alley. In earlier times, this led to many different diseases being spread through cities and towns by rodents. Toilets helped sanitize cities because they made it much easier to dispose of human waste without creating a bigger mess in the city. Waste management plays into the sanitization because, with the sewers, waste was much more easily moved. Waste management researches the toilet due to it’s extremely convenient system. Disease control also thinks about the toilet. There are many new diseases that originate from human waste. I would like to research the design and how the toilet functions. I have seen the inside of the toilet but don’t know the whole functionality of everything in it.