BACKGROUND
Subject
The toilet – historical, topical, whimsical
People tend not to waste any thought on the condition of toilets as long as they don’t find
themselves in an awkward situation. The fundamental necessity and the appropriate premises
are not a subject of any great significance to and for society.
2.6 billion people throughout the world have no access to hygienically suitable sanitary facilities
with clean toilets.
In the interests of drawing attention to this serious deficit, the World Toilet Organization (WTO)
declared 19 November “World Toilet Day” (WTD). The first WTD took place in 2001, since which
time it has become an annual occasion with the support of the United Nations, with a diversity of
events held in more than a dozen countries.
The fact is that access to basic sanitation ensures the well-being of people everywhere,
strengthens economic activity and helps social development as well as environmental protection.
Every dollar invested in the building and establishment of sanitary facilities makes for additional
income of between three and 34 dollars. And clean toilets can enable the number of lethal
diarrhoea diseases to be reduced by two thirds.
Table of contents
Chapter 1:
Basic sanitation worldwide …………………………………………………………
Chapter 2:
Toilet history ………………………………………………..
Chapter 3:
Toilets in Germany ………………………………………………..
Chapter 4:
Curious facts about toilets ………………………………………………..
Chapter 5:
Toilette, WC, loo – a lot of names for the “smallest room” …………………………………
Status: October 2012
BACKGROUND
Chapter 1
Basic sanitation worldwide
•
The UN’s Millennium Development Objective: 2.6 billion people throughout the world
lack access to reasonable, hygienic sanitary facilities. That equates to 40 percent of the
global population. With this in mind the United Nations in 2001 formulated, among other
things, the Millennium Development Objective of halving the proportion of people without
permanently ensured access to basic sanitation by 2015. Achieving this objective entails an
investment volume of 9.5 billion dollars – equivalent to a mere one percent of global military
spending, for example.
•
Newly ensured access: The period from 1990-2008 has seen 1.3 million people throughout
the world being enabled access to clean toilets for the first time.
•
Town and country: Just 39 percent of the rural and 80 percent of the urban population
worldwide have assured basic sanitation.
•
Increased life expectancy: Thanks to the use of toilets, the past 200 years have seen the
average life expectancy of people increase by 20 years.
•
Infective organisms: One gram of faeces can contain up to ten million viruses, one million
bacteria, one thousand parasites and one hundred worm eggs.
•
Occupied hospital beds: At any given time, 50 percent of all available hospital beds
throughout the world are occupied by patients who have fallen ill through not having access
to clean drinking water, adequate sanitary facilities or as result of insufficient hygiene.
•
More deadly than HIV: In all, more people die from illnesses and diseases caused by a lack
of sanitary facilities than from HIV, malaria and tuberculosis combined.
•
Children – mortally ill: Each and every day, up to 5,000 children die worldwide due to
lacking or inadequate sanitary facilities and the resultant illnesses and diseases. Every year,
2.2 million children under the age of five die from diarrhoea: that means one child every 14
seconds. Diarrhoea remains the second most frequent cause of child mortality to date. 88
percent of fatal cases of diarrhoea are the result of a poor hygiene situation and lack of
access to safe drinking water.
•
The toilet as lifesaver: The use of a basic toilet makes for 32 percent less cases of
diarrhoea. Improved sanitary facilities enable the number of fatal diarrhoea cases to be
reduced by two thirds.
•
The toilet as educational factor: At present, children worldwide miss a total of 272 million
days of school due to water-related illnesses. Schoolgirls in the menstruation phase without
access to toilets at their schools fail to attend lessons because they are ashamed.
•
The toilet as economic engine: Comprehensive provision of hygienically sound toilets and
washrooms reinforces social and economic development: global gross domestic product
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BACKGROUND
would increase by an estimated 225 billion dollars if every single person worldwide had
access to a toilet. Every dollar invested in ensuring basic sanitation makes for additional
income of between three and 34 dollars.
•
Untreated wastewater: 90 per cent of wastewater in the developing countries is fed into
the waters though not or inadequately treated, and 70 percent of industrial waste is disposed
of without having been treated at all.
Sources:
•
World Toilet Organization (WTO), 27.09.2012
•
Facebook page of the World Toilet Organization, 27.09.2012
•
German Toilet Organization (GTO), 27.09.2012
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BACKGROUND
Chapter 2
Toilet history
•
The first WC: Sir John Harington invented the water closet in 1596. His invention fell into
oblivion, however. In 1775, almost three centuries later, Englishman Alexander Cummings
was awarded the patent for his version of the WC featuring the S-curved water piping to trap
odours – a system which has remained in use right up to the present.
•
The first ceramic WC: 1870 saw English potter Thomas William Twyford of Hanley develop
the very first ceramic WC.
•
The first public toilet: The English claim to have opened the world’s first public toilet in
1852 in London. However, as long ago as 2400 BC in the North Palace of Eshnunna in
Mesopotamia there was a row of seven holes carved into stone which are said to have served
as places for answering nature’s call. 144 public, in some cases splendidly furnished latrines
for up to 50 to 60 people, 254 more basic facilities and various urinals were to be found in
Rome in around 400 AD. Eight public toilets were erected in Paris in 1820, and in the same
year there is also said to have been a public toilet facility in the vicinity of the Nikolai church
in Berlin.
•
Royal: Louis XIV’s palace in Versailles had 2,000 rooms but just one stationary toilet. What
were used instead were stools containing chamber pots, and the many guests also relieved
themselves in the palace gardens.
•
Instead of toilet paper: Having relieved themselves, the Germanic peoples cleaned
themselves with straw and leaves, but sponges, flat stones, coconut bark, snow and silk were
also used for the purpose. Oriental nomads still use sand today.
•
The first toilet paper: The first toilet paper was produced in China in the late 14th century;
1391 saw this manufactured for the Chinese emperor, with a single sheet measuring around
half a square metre. The Imperial Bureau of Supplies then ordered an annual production
volume of 720,000 sheets.
•
Toilet paper industry: 1857 in America saw Joseph Gayetty develop the first industrially
produced toilet paper in the form of individual sheets soaked in aloe vera and sold in boxes.
The American firm Scott Paper Company marketed the first toilet rolls in 1890.
•
Toilet paper in Germany: The first toilet paper in Germany was marketed in 1928 under
the name “Hakle” by Hans Klenk. A roll was comprised of 1000 sheets of crepe paper, all
perforated to make it easy to tear them off.
•
Patron saint: Pope Julius 1, who died in April 352, is the patron saint of toilet cleaners.
Sources:
•
Kasza, Peter: “Das grosse Latrinum”, Der Tagesspiegel online, 22.06.2007
•
(Author not named): “Knüllen oder falten Sie Ihr Klopapier?”, Bild online, undated
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BACKGROUND
•
(Author not named): “10 Fakten zum Welttoilettentag”, rosenheim24.de, 19.11.2009
•
Wikipedia, 27.09.2012
•
museum für scheisse, 27.09.2012
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BACKGROUND
Chapter 3
Toilets in Germany
•
Three years of our life on the toilet: Statistically speaking, people in the west European
cultural environment nowadays use the toilet six times a day. This means that, overall, we
spend around three years – in other words 26,280 hours or 1,576,800 minutes – of our lives
in the “smallest room”.
•
The toilet as water guzzler: Households in Germany use an average 31 percent of their
overall water consumption for flushing the toilet. Each person in Germany uses 39 litres of
water every day for flushing, equating to 14.4 cubic metres of water per year. In comparison,
four litres of water are used daily per person for cooking and drinking, making a total of 1.4
cubic metres per year.
•
Germans use a lot of paper: In 2010 the per capita consumption of toilet paper in
Germany stood at 15 kilograms – and thus two kilograms above the European average.
•
Americans use even more: Each German uses around 20 sheets of toilet paper every day,
which makes for more than one kilometre of toilet paper every year. On average, each
American uses 57 sheets of toilet paper per day.
•
Packs per year: 458,298,000 packs of dry toilet paper and 75,148,000 packs of moist toilet
tissues were sold in Germany between May 2011 and May 2012.
•
Germans are “folders”: The majority of Germans tend to fold toilet paper, while virtually
every American crumples the flat, virtually unstructured paper.
•
Toilet sessions: 49 percent of German women and 37 percent of the men need two to five
minutes on the toilet. A further 29 percent of the women and 34 percent of the men leave
the loo after between five and ten minutes, while 16 percent of the men but just six percent
of the women spend between ten and fifteen minutes there.
•
Online on the toilet: 50 percent of German men but just 25 percent of the women read
while on the toilet. Men prefer daily newspapers, while women favour magazines. Eight
percent of Germans take their smartphone, iPad or other mobile devices with them to the
toilet.
•
Popular douche: In 2004 nine percent of German households had a bidet, while one percent
were planning to have one fitted within the following two years. A further four percent
intended to have one installed at a later time.
•
Toilet cleaning in Germany: In 2011, bath or WC cleaning agents were used daily by 8.02
million people in Germany, once per week by 22.79 million and not at all by 0.98 percent.
Sources:
•
Statista.com, 27.09.2012
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BACKGROUND
•
museum für scheisse, 27.09.2012
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BACKGROUND
Chapter 4
Curious facts about toilets
•
Low risk factor: Statistical calculations say that the risk of injury on toilets has a factor of
1:10,000.
•
Inseparably stuck: In Ness City, Kansas, a 35-year-old lady became stuck to the seat of
her toilet – having spent two uninterrupted years sitting there. During that time her skin had
grown around it.
•
Literary: Toilets are places of creativity and communication. Toilet graffiti in public WCs
have now become a cult art form – often to the annoyance of the toilet operators – and the
subject of research in the spheres of cultural and communication sciences, sexology and
psychology.
•
High-tech in space: The world’s most expensive toilet is to be found on the ISS
international space station. This unique WC was manufactured in Russia and cost almost 14
million euros; it is a high-tech facility with which, among other things, urine can be processed
into drinking water.
•
Hard headwork: German Thomas Teige holds the official world record in breaking toilet lids
on the head – successfully smashing 50 of them inside one minute.
•
Phobic: The fear of urinating in public toilets is referred to in the field of psychology as
“paruresis”.
•
First in the row: Studies have revealed that the first toilet in a public WC facility is the least
used and therefore the cleanest there.
•
Fear of contact: 85 percent of women in Germany prefer not to sit down on public toilets.
•
Flushed down: More than 850,000 mobile phones fall into toilets every year in the United
Kingdom.
•
Proverbially: The proverb that “Money has no smell” (Pecunia non olet) dates back to a
urine tax imposed on public latrines by Roman Emperor Vespasian. His son Titus was
disgusted at this, and when Vespasian attempted to justify this tax he held a coin from the
tax revenues under his son’s nose and asked him whether its smell disturbed him. Titus told
him it did not, whereupon his father replied “And yet it comes from urine!” (Atqui e lotio est).
•
Paper in bulk: 1973 saw what became known as a “toilet panic” triggered in Japan by the
rumour of an impending shortage of toilet paper. The result was a massive wave of panic
buying.
•
Place of honour: The English actress Kate Winslet keeps her Oscar in the toilet so that her
guests can secretly take the trophy in their hands and put it back again.
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BACKGROUND
•
Self-providers: As a rule, people visiting public toilets and WCs in restaurants in China are
expected to bring their own toilet paper with them.
•
More mobile phones than toilets: The census conducted in India in 2011 revealed that
53.2 percent of all Indian households own a mobile phone but just 46.9 percent have a toilet.
•
Germ cell: Refrigerators are often bigger breeding grounds for bacteria than toilets;
American researchers have discovered 11.4 million germs per square centimetre in a fridge –
and just 100 in the toilet. And office desks are likely to harbour an average of 400 times
more bacteria than a WC.
Sources:
•
Biber, Stefanie: “Klo & Co.: Fakten und Kuriositäten rund um das stille Örtchen”, vestimmo.de , 01.11.2011
•
(Author not named): “10 Fakten zum Welttoilettentag”, rosenheim24.de, 19.11.2009
•
(Author not named): “Oscar auf dem Klo”, Frankfurter Rundschau online, 23.02.2010
•
(Author not named): “Indien hat mehr Handys als Toiletten”, Spiegel Online, 14.03.2012
•
(Author not named): “Kühlschrank ist 100 000-mal verkeimter als die Toilette”, Bild online, 24.01.2012
•
(Author not named): “Zahlen und Fakten rund um die Toilette”, Schweriner Volkszeitung online, 18.11.2011
•
(Author not named): “Welttoilettentag: Kurioses rund ums Klo”, Mainpost online, 16.11.2011
•
Interessante-Fakten.de, 27.09.2012
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BACKGROUND
Chapter 5
Toilette, WC, 00 – a lot of names for the “smallest room”
.
The Germans have a large variety of names for the toilet, in some cases of a regional nature, in
many cases humorous, with some obsolete designations as well. Most of these names are
euphemisms, derived from objects or actions relating to using the toilet but not originally
defining the facility in itself. This is particularly attributable to the great sense of shame felt in
society towards what is perhaps the most intimate issue among the people and the resultant
desire to be alone when going to the toilet.
An A to Z of toilet names in Germany
00:
Shared toilets on the floors of hotels in the 19th century were often
located near the lift or staircase. This made them the first room of a
floor, so they were given the room number “0” or “00”.
Abort:
Obsolete; probably derived from “af ort”, the Lower German expression
for “remote place”.
Aborterker:
Also “Haymlich Gemach” or “Haymlichkeit”; obsolete; toilet of a
medieval fort, castle or residential tower, mostly in the form of a bay
(Erker) on supports above the moat or a remote part of the castle wall.
Abtritt
Obsolete; as variant of “Austreten” (to exit).
Donnerbalken
(English:
thunderbox)
Squat toilet with a wooden beam as seat; originally just a wooden beam
over a hole dug in the ground for relieving oneself; mostly used in
military jargon.
Häusl (literally:
little house)
Name used in Bavaria and Austria.
Klo(sett):
Derived from the English “closet”.
Latrine:
Derived from the Latin word “lavare” (to take a bath, wash oneself).
Lokus:
Derived from the Latin term “locus necessitates” (place for relieving
oneself).
Privé:
Derived from the French word “privé” (confidential, private).
Retirade:
Derived from Latin-Italian-French (place of retreat).
Stilles Örtchen:
Literally: quiet little place.
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BACKGROUND
Toilette:
Derived from the French word “toile” (cloth) and “toilette” (little piece of
cloth); refers to the cloth used as privacy screen in days gone by.
“Toilette” originally referred to the process of putting on make-up,
hairdressing and getting dressed on the part of the ladies at court.
Dressing tables and washbasins were therefore known as “toilettes”.
The “toilette” process took place in special dressing rooms in which the
ladies of the court also relieved themselves by way of commodes.
WC:
Derived from the English “water closet”, of course; extension of the
term “closet”, came into use with the general introduction of flush
toilets from 1900 onwards.
Sources:
•
Wikipedia, 27.09.2012
•
museum für scheisse, 27.09.2012
•
Wiktionary.org, 27.09.2012
•
fremdwort.de, 27.09.2012
•
regionalgeschichte.net, 27.09.2012
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