Bowl Movements

“Anybody have any idea what invention has saved more lives than any other in the history of humankind? The toilet,” Matt Damon, the Water.org co-founder tells “reporters” in the video. 

In the just released video, featuring a mock press conference, Damon announced: “Until this issue is resolved, until everybody has access to clean water and sanitation – I will not go to the bathroom.” And Damon wants everyone to help.

“Join me,” he says. “Say no to toilets. Say yes to clean water for all!”

According to The Toilet Paper Encyclopedia, the toilet is sort of like The Happy Face. The flushing toilet was invented in 1596. But most people believe it was invented by Thomas Crapper, a successful plumber, who earned nine patents for plumbing products in England. Unfortunately, none of those nine patents granted between 1861-1904 were for the flushing toilet.

The actual inventor was Sir John Harington. Harington, a British nobleman and godson of Queen Elizabeth I, who invented a valve that when pulled would release water from a water closet. Sir John recommended flushing the toilet once or twice a day, although with our modern technology, we know that is probably not sufficient. And now Matt Damon is asking us not to go at all.

According to bathroom historian Frank Muir, the toilet and/or the outhouse have at one time or another been called:

The House of Honor; the ancient Israelite
The House of the Morning; the ancient Egyptians
The Garderobe (literally, “cloakroom”)
The Necessarium, or the Necessary House,
The Reredorter (literally, “the room at the back of the dormitory”)
The Privy (that is, the private place)
The Jakes, the John, the Loo

The W.C. (for water closet),
The Throne Room 100 (in Europe)

The Euphemism (Dr. Seuss)

According to Wikipedia, Commercial toilet paper was invented by a Massachusetts inventor named Joseph C. Gayetty. He first marketed toilet paper on December 8, 1857, originally selling it for US$0.50 in packs of 500 bearing a watermark of his name. Other sources say the Chinese invented toilet paper in 50 B.C. Rumor has it that most of the toilet paper sold today is made in China. Maybe only single-ply.

St. Andrew’s Paper Mill in Walthamstow, London, is said to be responsible for giving the world the comfort of soft toilet paper in 1942. Before then, many brands were single-ply and not at all pliable.

 

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