It is natural, every living being produces waste and almost all of them feel the need
to clean themselves periodically. The only thing that differentiates us humans from animals in the
field of cleanliness are concepts of our own, such as modesty... but it was not always like that.
The story of how our hygiene habits have evolved into bathrooms with technological circuits that
heat the seat or showers with integrated screens that we can enjoy today, if our pockets allow it,
is long... but at least now we all have a space dedicated to these intimate moments in our homes.
Today, we will talk about how humans went from defecating in bushes and bathing in rivers
to using porcelain toilets and pressure showers. Welcome to Copernicus' Galaxy.
Where did it all begin? Baths of the ancient world
By the year 3000 B.C., humans had invented indoor plumbing. And one of the first baths
was located in the Indus Valley, an ancient civilization that spread throughout Pakistan,
and was used for cleansing before entering sacred areas.
The Greeks did not know what baths were until the second millennium BC with their
luxurious and ornate bathtub located in the ancient palace of Knossos in Crete,
not to mention the excavated ones made of alabaster in the ruins of Akrotiri in the
now tourist destination of Santorini. It was here that the Greeks began to take a great liking to
the relaxing act of washing their bodies, later establishing public baths and showers where both
men and women could wash themselves with only cold water inside gymnasiums after their workout.
For the Romans, the bath was something more than just a place to wash. The so-called "Thermae" were
important public works with hot and cold water that also had rooms for instruction and debate,
not to mention the existence of libraries on some occasions. It was common to find people
showering while eating or playing one of many existing board games.
On the other hand, the Spanish conquerors were surprised by the importance of bathing
for the Mesoamerican civilizations, who used to bathe daily in rivers or pools of water.
According to the chronicler Tomás López Mendel, bathing was as daily for these peoples as eating,
highlighting the well-known "Temazcal", a ritual room where bathers enjoyed the steam produced by
the water poured over hot volcanic rocks, which is still practiced today for medicinal purposes.
The marvelous design of the Roman baths
As was to be expected from a civilization having architecture
as one of its most outstanding skills, the Roman baths were a display of ingenuity and luxury
that only these people knew how to build. Taking ideas from other cultures such as the Greeks
and improving them for maximum efficiency, they managed to create monumental bathing
rooms dedicated not only to the hygiene of the inhabitants of their great cities,
but also a place for entertainment, socialization and recreation, which they called "Thermae".
These facilities, with multiple rooms, were present even in the smallest settlements of
the Roman Empire. They were for public use, so that any social stratum had access to
them for a small fee of two "denarii", the smallest denomination of bronze coinage.
They were open from lunchtime until dusk and had locker rooms,
exercise rooms, outdoor pools, dry and wet sweat rooms, a hot room and
both heated and warm pools, cold baths and rooms for massages and health treatments.
From the 1st century onwards, the baths became symmetrical and harmonious structures with a
complex underfloor heating system powered by wood-fired furnaces, which sent hot air
under the raised floor paved with square tiles and covered with decorative mosaics
that stood on either narrow pillars of solid stone, hollow cylinders or polygonal bricks.
Thanks to their extensive trade routes, the Romans had access to different imported products for
their baths such as ointments, incense, combs and mirrors that complemented their comfort and
experience. Many wealthy citizens even built their own private baths within their estates.
Among the most outstanding baths is that of Caracalla in the southern part of Rome. Its
6.9 million bricks, 252 columns and 30 meters of height incorporated an Olympic swimming pool,
a pair of 6 meter long fountains, promenade terrace and 50 furnaces that burned 10 tons of
wood a day to keep the baths warm. At its maximum capacity it could accommodate 8,000 visitors.
Welcome to the Dirty Age, a stinking walk through castles.
Against all logic, despite talking about an era several centuries ahead of the
ancient Romans or Greeks, the advances in matters
of personal hygiene and infrastructure of their bathrooms only went backwards.
The fall of the Roman Empire was followed by the disuse of those beautiful works of architectural
art called "Baths" and all that they represented. The powerful families began to take everything
leaving the vast majority in poverty while they strolled through the gigantic castles they built.
Within their great corridors and numerous rooms was the aberration in which the baths had become,
a small room with a hole carved in stone built into one of the walls of the building.
As you can imagine, this hole in the castle was not just for decoration,
the nobles threw their feces in a free fall of several meters into cesspools
or in the best of cases, into a body of water such as rivers and oceans.
These "bathrooms" were called "garderobes" and did not only serve as toilets...
Their genius architects also designed them as a method of protection against sieges
as the tons of human waste that were deposited around the castle would keep
enemies at bay thanks to the stench they gave off.
However, at some point they would have to clean those cesspools,
which gave rise to the unenviable position of Gong farmers,
in short, human excrement collectors who used to work at night to avoid the discomfort that their
labor could cause to others in exchange for a good pay per ton of feces removed.
On the flipside of the coin were the commoners, who had no choice but to
defecate in pots that were then emptied in the streets, into a hole dug in the
ground or even relieving themselves the old-fashioned way... you can imagine.
Not to mention showering, because while some rungs of the social pyramid could
wash themselves daily, others had the habit of doing so a few times a year.
The stench of the streets in the Middle Ages reached such a degree that some
people even carried bags with aromatic herbs to mitigate the smell in the air.
The decline of public restrooms
If there is something we can thank the highly contagious diseases that become epidemics for,
is for forcing us to be cleaner and more careful with our habits. Today the coronavirus still
causes the fear of contagion despite the multiple vaccinations created,
so we adopt the habit of wearing masks and continuously disinfecting our hands.
Just like today, the outbreaks of plague that occurred for 200 years in England caused a dent
in the customs of the inhabitants of that time. Personal hygiene began to stop being seen as a
luxury and became a necessity, in turn disfavoring public baths due to the belief that the disease
was transmitted through the "evil" miasma along with the steam from these establishments.
By 1546 in England, King Henry VIII closed all public showers in his territory
under the firm belief that they were the main source of infection,
replacing bathing with covering one’s body with white linen underwear to absorb toxins and odors.
This created the great importance of washing clothes to stay clean.
The toilet that laid the foundation for what we know today was invented in 1596.
Despite this, it did not see its heyday until 257 years later and it was not until 1767 that William
Feetham created the first modern shower. But even then, bathing was not a daily ritual for many
as only the wealthy could afford to install faucets in their homes, while the rest still
used basins that were held on a stand within the same bedroom, which left privacy aside.
The first prototypes of modern toilets
By the early years of the 19th century, houses finally began to be constructed with a special
space to satisfy these hygienic needs, at least for a certain sector of the population.
With the Industrial Revolution, indoor plumbing for the homes of those in the upper and middle
classes became increasingly common. Gas-fired heaters allowed for a relaxing hot shower, yet
the poorer people still used to share bathtubs and toilets in the old apartments in which they lived.
The first materials that bathtubs were made of were zinc,
which was not very comfortable to sit on, so they were covered with
cloth curtains. This changed at the end of the 19th century when baths became more luxurious,
replacing the previous material with copper thanks to its ability to keep the water warm.
The 20th century brought with it the first houses for workers with private bathrooms.
In these first bathrooms you would commonly find only a sink and a toilet,
if you were a wealthy family, you could also appreciate a separate bathtub or even a bidet.
As this indispensable new room evolved, the walls were filled with tile,
shiny floors and enameled bathtubs that were easier to clean, and these major changes led to an
increased demand for bathroom fixtures, resulting in a drop in prices thanks to mass production.
Thomas Crapper, the "inventor" of the modern toilet
This character, important in the long history of our intestinal waste, is a clear example of
the strange sense of humor that life itself has. A sanitary engineer and plumber whose last name
today is immediately related to the derogatory term "Crap" which is colloquially used today
to describe a person, thing or situation in a negative way, is a funny coincidence...
But, despite this, many things surrounding the story of his life are nothing more than
a simple myth, because neither he had the patent for toilets nor did his name gave rise to such
a derogatory term. All these lies have a common source called "Flushed with Pride: The Story of
Thomas Crapper", a book written by a satirical author by the name of Wallace Reyburn in 1969.
The expression "Crap" was possibly brought about by American soldiers during the First World War
who read this name on the cisterns and used it to say that they were going to defecate,
but the etymological origin of the word actually comes from the words "Krappen" which in Dutch
means to tear or separate and from the Old French "crappe" which refers to waste or rejected matter.
Crapper had nine patents, being recognized mainly for improving the S-bend plumbing trap in 1880
creating the U-bend and the first showroom of bathrooms, toilets and sinks in the world, noted
for the quality of its products, which earned him several royal orders that allowed him to promote
himself by saying that he supplied the royal family, increasing the status of his company. The
still existing manhole covers with the name of his company today are a tourist attraction in London.
Modern bathrooms and Japanese high technology.
Who would have thought that a simple toilet would have so much history behind it,
but at this point we will not talk about the toilets that we all know,
better look to the future and in Japan the future is today.
As expected from such a technological country, they took the concept of comfort and hygiene
to another level, the idea is quite simple: combine a toilet with a bidet.
This way they save space, and make sure to keep their darkest area clean, these are the standard
and are usually controlled with a button, but... Why settle for a stream of ice water straight
to your rear? What if they could regulate the temperature of the water? better yet,
why not the temperature of the seat too! Who wants to feel the cold touch of the toilet in
the morning on their butt?... what if we could also make the lid lift by itself when we stand
in front of it? All ready for you to just sit and do your business!... all that would be missing is
a relaxing melody and everything would be perfect... ironically they also have that.
The Toto Group has been responsible for including all this and more in the toilets they manufacture
and are working to give you medical data to analyze your urine or weigh your body,
even looking to make it a smart toilet that you can talk to and answer you, although all
this has not been generalized outside the Asian continent, the positive features increasingly make
more and more people interested in having one of these toilets of the future in their homes.
What other technological advances will come to make things easier for us
in our most intimate moments? Maybe in the future
toilets will disappear and our waste will be disposed of in another way,
it could be that showers in a can will be sold for quick cleaning wherever and whenever or who
knows... no matter what, we will be here to tell you about it, at Copernicus’s Galaxy.