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Other Useful (?) Toilet Links
Toilet Museums, On-line Exhibits, and How-To Pages
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The Sulabh International Museum of Toilets
in New Delhi, India is run by Dr Bindeshwar Pathak,
the founder of a non-profit sanitation organization.
The web page includes the "elaborate drill for defecation" as
prescribed in the scripture Manusmriti Vishnupuran:
http://www.sulabhtoiletmuseum.org/
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What about
the latrines in Titan I ICBM complexes?
The
Toilets of Doom
were shock-mounted like everything else
in the facility — pipes, conduits, fixtures, etc.,
were required to have 6 to 12 inches of space to move and
anything mounted to the floor or any other surface
had to have its own suspension system.
This was to help the system withstand near hits from inbound
Soviet counter-battery ICBMs.
See these recent pictures of now-vandalized intercontinental ballistic toilets:
http://www.chromehooves.net/Control%20Center2.htm
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Christine Powell's
A Matter of Convenience
explains the historical background of
sanitation in the 17th century.
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An interactive privy excavation news source —
Toiletological archaeology.
Or archaeological toiletology.
http://www.privymaster.org/
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Perhaps your question is
"I want to know how to use a squat toilet,
and I would prefer the explaination to be
in the form of cartoon figures."
See this page,
which I would guess is from a hostel in India:
http://humorsafari.blogbugs.org/1811037/How-to-use-Indian-Toilet.html
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What if you want to ask "Where is the toilet?" in some
other language?
Ask these people:
http://www.travlang.com/wordofday/122.html.
I have received complaints that they don't list enough languages (!!)
or that the precise semantics for the Farsi is a bit off (!!!),
but complain to them and not to me.
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The
Himeji City Science Museum
(in Himeji, Japan)
created the exhibit
Za Unchi-ten
(or The Poop Exhibit)
showcasing the dung of 100 animals and exploring the relationship
between feces and health.
The museum:
http://www.city.himeji.hyogo.jp/atom/kikakuten/06the_unti/
An English description:
http://www.pinktentacle.com/2006/06/exhibit-puts-poop-on-display/
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A paper on the history of public toilets
by Dr. Bindeswar Pathak, Ph.D., D.Litt.,
presented
at the International Symposium on Public Toilets in Hong Kong:
http://www.plumbingworld.com/toilethistoryindia.html
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Jochen Zeh is working on
an art project
that will
"draw a line made of sparkling white toilets into a green,
hilly field of upcoming wheat"
in Tuscany.
All he needs is:
"Somebody who will lend me 200 toilets for one or two weeks.
A photographer specialized in landscape and architectural photos.
A magazine who will publish the photos."
See the project at:
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Someone is trying to
"collect the largest collection of weird and wonderful toilets
and may even publish the pics",
so if you want to help, email them:
bogpics-owner@yahoogroups.co.uk or
bogpics@yahoogroups.co.uk
Plumbers and Plumbing Directories
Buying and Repairing Toilet Hardware and Related Items
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http://www.neocast.net/2147415262.html —
Answering the question, "But what if my existing toilet provides
inadequate radiological contrast when the patient eliminates waste
in a normal position?"
Buy a radiological commode!
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On the other hand, if your question is more like
"But what if I am so grotesquely obese that I need
a specially designed toilet to support my quivering bulk?",
then check out the
Great John Toilet Company, http://www.greatjohn.com/.
It's tested to support a 2000-pound load!
And by "2000-pound load" they mean a ton of flesh upon its
extra-wide seat, and not, ah, you know what I mean.
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John M. Tootabeanie,
operator of
letterfromjohn.com,
prints restroom graffiti on t-shirts.
Buy shirts!
Contribute designs!
Buy shirts!
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Exeloo -
Manufacturer of automated self-cleaning public toilets
with automatic toilet paper dispensers.
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The Envirolet company,
maker of
a composting toilet that looks disturbingly like a wood stove,
encourages owners to send in photos of theirs.
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http://www.toiletology.com/ —
A web site dedicated to toilet repair.
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http://www.toilettanklids.com/
hosts the toilet tank lid replacement service,
selling used and salvaged toilet tank lids from 1929 through today
in a variety of colors.
Really.
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http://www.tsutech.com/ —
High technology toilet seats,
computer-controlled misting units etc.
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http://www.aquatron.se/ —
A composting toilet system:
"two medium-sized Aquatron models were at the end of 1999
installed in a cabin on a mountain top in the Swedish mountains.
The cabin belongs to the Swedish Tourist Association, the
national organization for Tourism in Sweden.
It was reported that several skiing tourists during
the Easter Holidays were astonished when finding
modern WC facilities at this altitude.
Especially these cabins have been renown for
primitive latrines."
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http://www.lipadogtoilet.com/ —
A toilet for dogs.
Really!
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http://www.bumperdumper.com/bumper2.htm —
A low-tech trailer-hitch-mounted portable toilet.
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http://www.choicemall.com/stadiumpal/ —
An external catheter and leg-mounted collection bag
for use while watching sporting events.
Toilet News and Stories
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Time magazine had
a story in March 2009
about a toilet-themed restaurant in Taiwan.
"Modern Toilet" it's called, and it's now a chain with seven outlets
in Taiwan, one each in Hong Kong and Shenzhen, and plans for others
elsewhere in China and in Macau and Kuala Lumpur:
http://www.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,1882569,00.html
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In the build-up to the Olympic games in Beijing,
according to the BBC in March, 2008:
"China is rushing to install sit-down loos for its 500,000
foreign Olympics visitors, after complaints that venues had
only Asian-style squat toilets.
A lack of Western-style facilities was a common complaint after
some 30 test events at Games venues, officials said.
'A lot of parties have raised the question of toilets... We have
told the venues to improve on this,' said Yao Hui, deputy head
of venue management."
Yikes, a lack of raised porcelain commodes!
Much worse than China's awful human rights record, no?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7304246.stm
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No, Thomas Crapper did not invent the flush toilet,
although he was quite the plumber and businessman. See
http://www2.exnet.com/1995/11/01/science/science.html
for debunking of this urban legend.
The verb "to crap", meaning "to defecate", has been in use since
1846, when Thomas Crapper was only nine years old.
However, his company is on the net today:
http://www.thomascrapper.co.uk/
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The Internet holds umpteen copies of a story about a USN air mission
against Vietnam.
They were running short of ordnance but at the same time commemorating
the 6-millionth pound of ordnance dropped (well, if you're dropping it
by the millions of pounds, you're going to run out before long).
A toilet had been damaged on board the USS Midway, and was going to
be thrown overboard.
The ordnance crew made a rack, tailfins, and nose fuse for it,
and it was mounted on an A-1 Skyraider of VA-25.
It was then dropped in the Delta area of South Vietnam.
Ask Google to search
for the standard title of the account:
"what the hell was on 572's right wing"
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A woman in western Kansas (USA) sat on her boyfriend's toilet for
two years until she became stuck to it and had to be
removed by medical personnel:
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/03/12/america/NA-ODD-US-Woman-In-Bathroom.php
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While
I have been to the summit of Ben Nevis, the highest point in Britain
(and thus the highest point in Scotland, and the highest
point in the UK), it was just after the Highest Toilet in Britain
(and Scotland, and the UK...) was demolished.
See the John Muir Trust's pictures and story at
http://www.jmt.org/news/2002/toilet.html
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Las Vegas Weekly had a story
in July, 2009, about casino urinals.
http://www.lasvegasweekly.com/news/2009/jul/23/hustle-and-flow/
Toilet Maps and Locators,
and iTunes and iPhone apps
Unless you make unusually detailed preparations for trips,
or you travel only where you can maintain constant
wireless Internet connectivity,
some of these seem to be of limited use.
But....
Other collections of pictures, and stories, and other odds and ends
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The Toilet Paper Blog
is a somewhat travel-themed and entirely toilet-focused blog,
soliciting your contributions along the same lines:
http://thetoiletpaperblog.blogspot.com
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WC International
is a toiletological blog:
http://wcinternational.blogspot.com/ —
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The Toilet Nation
web site shows toilets, toilet seats, toilet info, and news:
http://www.worldtoilet.com/ —
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The World Toilet
web site covers many countries with detailed analysis:
http://worldtoilet.info/ —
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And in the specialized world of French toilets:
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Yet another toilet collection:
http://www.hrdvsion.com/toilets.html
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http://www.theplumber.com/ —
Links to many other toiletological sites.
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http://www.lexicon.net.au/~nomad/toilet/ —
Another toiletological page.
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http://www.crappersquarterly.com/ —
Only quarterly for now, but perhaps bimonthly in the near future!
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http://gallery.hd.org/toilets/ —
A collection of images "from our lavatorial heritage."
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http://www.pcug.org.au/~andrewb/toilets/index.html —
Specializing in toilets of Canberra, Australia.
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http://www.barganews.com/information/toilets —
Specializing in toilets of Barga, Tuscany, Italy.
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Harry Baulzach's page,
specializing in the toilets of the southeastern U.S.A.
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http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~AD8Y-HYS/kitanai_e.htm —
Specializing in dirty toilets in Tokyo, Japan.
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http://www.besttoilets.com/ —
kind of the complete opposite end
of the toilet spectrum from what I've got here, but still interesting
and useful.
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http://www.geewhiz.net/ —
A strange collection of toilet icons, and loads of toiletological links.
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http://toilet.isgreat.org/ —
Claims to be
"the only and the biggest website dedicated just
for the toilet world",
but it clearly isn't either of those.
"Slowest loading", maybe.
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And more:
Rose George's
The Big Necessity: The Unmentionable World
of Human Waste and Why It Matters
is a fascinating description of sanitation conditions
around the world.
"2.6 billion people don't have sanitation. [....]
Four in ten people have no access to any latrine, toilet, bucket, or box."
In September 2009, Morna Gregory and Sian James published a book titled
Toilets of the World.
It's pretty much the same theme that you find here — photographs
and commentary on other people's plumbing.
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A Sani-Flush blue border indicates a toilet that I've used.
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How long have my Toilets of the World pages been around?
I'm not exactly sure, although I'm pretty sure they started in the
mid 1990s as a single page on a Purdue University server.
The Internet Archive Wayback Machine lets you see
what that looked like as far back as January 17, 1999.
My cromwell-intl.com domain appeared in September, 2001,
although the Wayback Machine didn't notice the one enormous
toilet page until
January 17, 2002.
Some time soon after that it was split into categories, and they
have grown ever since.
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If you're not bored yet, you might be interested in
(or at least tolerate):
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