Hasta La Gadget!

We all have to poop, but how we deal with it changes with age. For babies, it’s diapers. For the elderly, it’s, well, adult diapers. And, for most of the rest of us, it’s toilet paper.

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Everybody pees and everybody poops. It doesn’t matter who you are, where you are, or how much money you have; when you’ve got to go, you’ve got to go. But how did the contraption that we all know as the toilet come to be? Who proposed that toilets should be shaped a certain way, and who decided how much water is needed for every flush?

World Toilet Day was celebrated last November 19th, so we’re a little late to the party. But let’s take a look at the past, present, and future of toilets as we face an ever-growing sanitation problem (2.5 billion people currently don’t have access to clean and safe toilets) and water shortage (think of how much water is flushed down the toilet worldwide, every second of every day.)

Past

Our ancestors didn’t fuss much when they had to go to the loo. In fact, there probably wasn’t even an actual bathroom because any place with tall grass or enough foliage could serve as a toilet of sorts. Pits on the ground were basically dug for people to poop in. Other people’s “toilets” were simply pots that they squatted over and took a dump in as the need arose. There are still places in the world where people still do this though, so it’s not that far back into the past as most people would think.

As sewers were built, toilets became more like the toilets of today: they were built with vertical chutes that directed the waste into cesspits, while others used flowing water to move the waste down the drain.

Present

Our current toilet, the flush toilet, was designed by Sir John Harrington in 1596. In 1775, the first patent for the flushing toilet was issued to Alexander Cummings. The designs were modified and further developed over the years, which eventually led to the toilets of today.

As people continued to innovate, accessories and add-ons were designed to make the pooping process more comfortable and hygienic. For example, the adjustable toilet seat allows people with big bottoms to take a dump without tipping over or losing their balance. Meanwhile, add-ons like the Bio Bidet BB 2000 Bliss offer fancy upgrades like wireless control, hybrid water heating system, water pulse, and even massage cleaning features to take personal hygiene to the next level.

The modern bathroom experience is further enhanced by products like the automatic toilet paper dispenser (which is perfect for germophobes) and the glowing toilet night light (since we all go for that midnight pee every once in a while.)

Future

At this point, you might be thinking: toilets are fine as they are. Is there really a need to tweak its design or change it, when there are so many things that could benefit from that attention and those efforts instead?

Well, you’ve probably already heard about Bill Gates and how he’s pushing people to come up with alternative designs to the current toilet through the Gates Foundation. Unfortunately, while most of them are green, multi-purpose, and energy efficient, the designs have been dubbed as too high-tech and too expensive.

There’s the Fluid Wall, a concept design that tacks on all bathroom fixtures onto a single wall to save space. And then there’s the Wellbeing Toilet, pictured above, which won an award at a toilet design competition in the UK. First of all, it integrates ergonomics and encourages people to be in the right position when they poop to lessen muscle strain. Second, it’s smart: it has a built-in system that analyzes pee for conditions like diabetes, kidney disease, or even pregnancy.

While none of these seem like viable and practical designs for mass production, someone is bound to come up with a good enough alternative as more people continue to toil over the toilet’s redesign.

[via Gizmodo, About, & Wikipedia]

While you’re sitting on the pot, the last thing you want to see aimed at your butt is a camera. But in this case, I’ll make an exception. Yes, what you’re looking at here is a toilet paper roll holder made to look like an old Polaroid Land 1000 instant camera.

Just set the Pola Roll on your toilet tank or hang it on the wall, load it up with a roll of T.P., and get down to business. As an added bonus, Charmin is so much less expensive than that overpriced SX-70 instant film.

The Pola Roll is available from doiy. design for €19.95 (~$28 USD). Toilet paper sold separately.

I only suggest that you move quick if you want one, before Polaroid’s lawyers try and flush this thing down the toilet.

A lot of people I know hate having to go to the bathroom in public places or in homes that aren’t theirs. It’s an understandable preference, considering the fact that nobody likes to stink up someone else’s home.

But it’s a fact of life: whether you like it or not, poop is going to stink.

You can, however, contain the smell with Poo-pourri, and it doesn’t involve spraying perfumes and fresheners all over the place. The former option seems better, as the latter often results in a strange hybrid perfume-poop smell that probably will smell even worse.

Poo-pourri contains a blend of natural essential oils that its makers claim can “trap” the smell in the bowl.

Apparently, the oils in the spray create a film on the surface of the toilet water, making sure the smell stays in the bowl. Pou-pourri is offering a Best Smellers starter pack for $25(USD), which contains a 200-use Poo-Pourri Original spray and a handier 100-use Deja Poo spray.

[via Laughing Squid]

You know how it is. You get up in the middle of the night, shuffle into the dark bathroom, do your thing.(Forget the light. It’s too bright) Then you wake up in the morning to your wife slapping you and she makes you clean up your mess. That won’t happen with this awesome glow in the dark toilet seat.

Now you can always see where you are aiming. NightGlow has several versions available for $49.99(USD) each, and they light the way with either a blue or green glow. No matter how drunk you are, you will never have a problem in the wee hours of the morning again.

This is what it’s like to live in the world of TRON. Your toilet seat can finally match your lightcycle.

[via Thisiswhyimbroke]