Isn't human progress amazing!
One such illustration is that in just over 100 years Mankind went from struggling to dispose of its excrement in a friendly and ecological way to setting foot on the Moon.
The saying that necessity is the mother of invention applies nowhere more so than in the matter of household sewage.
Of course, through history sanitation was important and the great ancient civilisations will have devoted time and effort to some sort of system to prevent settlements from villages to towns and cities from becoming overwhelmed by the effluent from their populations.
As well as serious health implications from poor sanitation there was an increasing perception that for a race or dynasty to be regarded as truly enlightened there had to be some separation of bodily functions from other aspects of daily life and culture.
Toilets with water were used in the Indus Valley.The cities of that civilisation had a flush toilet in almost every house, attached to a sophisticated sewage system. They also appear in the ancient Minoan times from the 2nd millennium BC.
The saying that necessity is the mother of invention applies nowhere more so than in the matter of household sewage.
Of course, through history sanitation was important and the great ancient civilisations will have devoted time and effort to some sort of system to prevent settlements from villages to towns and cities from becoming overwhelmed by the effluent from their populations.
As well as serious health implications from poor sanitation there was an increasing perception that for a race or dynasty to be regarded as truly enlightened there had to be some separation of bodily functions from other aspects of daily life and culture.
Toilets with water were used in the Indus Valley.The cities of that civilisation had a flush toilet in almost every house, attached to a sophisticated sewage system. They also appear in the ancient Minoan times from the 2nd millennium BC.
Primitive forms of flush toilets have been found to exist since Neolithic times circa 31st century BC, in North West Scotland which used a form of hydraulic technology for sanitation.
Similar toilets were in use by the Romans from the 1st through 5th centuries AD. A very well-preserved example are the latrines at one of the largest forts on Hadrians Wall in Britain. Such toilets did not flush in the modern sense, but had a continuous stream of running water to wash away waste.
Other options available in subsequent millenia included the cess pool, a man with a cart to collect night soil and just squatting when and where the function demanded.
Flushing toilets were, by the Industrial Revolution and 19th Century, the must have domestic appliance but the infrastructure to remove and treat the effluent was still non existent or at best primitive and inconsistent across the country. There were signs of dissent amongst those whose saw the water borne systems for sewage to be unsatisfactory and unsustainable in a rapidly growing and increasingly urban population.
Other options available in subsequent millenia included the cess pool, a man with a cart to collect night soil and just squatting when and where the function demanded.
Flushing toilets were, by the Industrial Revolution and 19th Century, the must have domestic appliance but the infrastructure to remove and treat the effluent was still non existent or at best primitive and inconsistent across the country. There were signs of dissent amongst those whose saw the water borne systems for sewage to be unsatisfactory and unsustainable in a rapidly growing and increasingly urban population.
It is therefore a bit of a shock that serious thought was only given to Public Health aspects of foul waste in the latter part of the 19th Century.
One pioneer in this emerging science was the Reverend Henry Moule of Fordington in
Dorset in the South of England who is credited as having invented the first composting toilet.
His reasons were part spiritual and part practical, the former as he disapproved of the Water Closet in that he felt it polluted God's rivers and seas and was a waste of God's nutrients that were contained in excrement and that it should be returned to the soil and the latter because he was frustrated and stressed by the regular problems experienced with the family cesspit.
Other influences on his thoughts was the witnessing of cholera epidemics and most notably what is graphically described as "The Great Stink" that enveloped the country in 1858.
Moule discovered that dry earth, mixed with human waste, produced clean compost in just a few weeks.
It was an early eco- process even if stumbled upon by accident.
He patented his first eco-earth closet in 1860 with his registration under the description of "improvements in the nature and construction of closets and commodes for the reception and removal of excrementitious and other offensive matter, and in the manufacture of manure from thence."
This led to the development of his mechanical earth closet in the 1870's which allowed human manure to be saved for return to the soil, without the owner having to endure the stink of the average privy.Dry earth or peat was put into the hopper at the back of the seat and a removable bucket placed below.
When the handle was pulled, a small quantity of earth was spread on top of the human waste to reduce the smell and help it to decay. When the bucket was full the contents were dug into the garden.
One pioneer in this emerging science was the Reverend Henry Moule of Fordington in
Dorset in the South of England who is credited as having invented the first composting toilet.
His reasons were part spiritual and part practical, the former as he disapproved of the Water Closet in that he felt it polluted God's rivers and seas and was a waste of God's nutrients that were contained in excrement and that it should be returned to the soil and the latter because he was frustrated and stressed by the regular problems experienced with the family cesspit.
Other influences on his thoughts was the witnessing of cholera epidemics and most notably what is graphically described as "The Great Stink" that enveloped the country in 1858.
Moule discovered that dry earth, mixed with human waste, produced clean compost in just a few weeks.
It was an early eco- process even if stumbled upon by accident.
He patented his first eco-earth closet in 1860 with his registration under the description of "improvements in the nature and construction of closets and commodes for the reception and removal of excrementitious and other offensive matter, and in the manufacture of manure from thence."
This led to the development of his mechanical earth closet in the 1870's which allowed human manure to be saved for return to the soil, without the owner having to endure the stink of the average privy.Dry earth or peat was put into the hopper at the back of the seat and a removable bucket placed below.
When the handle was pulled, a small quantity of earth was spread on top of the human waste to reduce the smell and help it to decay. When the bucket was full the contents were dug into the garden.
The race was on to make progress in earth closets and the Patent Offices in the UK and USA were inundated with the presentations by inventors from all walks of life. They cannot be accused of sitting down on the job.
Written after coming across a earth closet in the outhouse of an old cottage south of York, UK, the first seen for some considerable time on my travels
Written after coming across a earth closet in the outhouse of an old cottage south of York, UK, the first seen for some considerable time on my travels
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