Covering the history of lavatories from Ancient Rome to the present day, Adam Hart-Davies also includes the latest developments in toilet technology, from the traditional to the wacky. Peppered with bizarre toilet facts this book should be a fun read for all.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
By A. Wild
Format:Hardcover
If you, like me, are a collector of (mostly useless but little known) facts, then you will love this book. It is written, as the previous poster quite rightly says, in an encyclopaedic style. That said, it is a very easy book to read and I thoroughly enjoyed whizzing through it from cover to cover. Friends have mocked me for owning this but they always wind up fascinated by it!
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
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2.0 out of 5 stars
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3 of 5 people found the following review helpful
2.0 out of 5 stars
Going places and doing things
18 Jan 2006
By Marvin D. Pipher
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Hardcover
This little book deals with subjects with which we are all too familiar but about which most of us know very little. I refer, of course, to defecating and urinating -- euphemistically termed "going to the bathroom," "powdering one's nose," or more aptly "the pause that refreshes" -- how earlier peoples did so, some of the more unusual facilities for accomplishing such feats, how bathrooms got the way they are today, and who some of the principal inventors and players were down through the years. The book, then, not only lets us know how lucky we are today but also gives us a whiff of how things used to be and to some extent still are.
Unfortunately, the author seems to have confined his sense of humor to the book's title and cover, since most of the material is presented in a rather tedious, encyclopedic, technically detailed manner. There is, however, much to be learned. I.e.:
* Who took out the first patent for a siphonic flush (Joseph Adamson, not Thomas Crapper);
* Where in Montana there is a double-decker privy in which those using the first floor must be careful not to lean to the right;
* Whether a higher percentage of men or women adorn their public facilities with graffiti;
* What the term "Gardy-loo" meant in the middle ages;
* Where the privy having the longest drop, 2000 feet, is located;
* Why the number "100" often appears on lavatory doors in Turkey, Italy, & France;
* Why toilet facilities on navy ships are called "heads," and finally;
* That men start peeing faster when sheltered or spaced farther apart at public urinals
So, if these subjects strike your fancy and you have time to just sit and ponder, this book might be an excellent addition to your WC (Water Closet) library.
Unfortunately, the author seems to have confined his sense of humor to the book's title and cover, since most of the material is presented in a rather tedious, encyclopedic, technically detailed manner. There is, however, much to be learned. I.e.:
* Who took out the first patent for a siphonic flush (Joseph Adamson, not Thomas Crapper);
* Where in Montana there is a double-decker privy in which those using the first floor must be careful not to lean to the right;
* Whether a higher percentage of men or women adorn their public facilities with graffiti;
* What the term "Gardy-loo" meant in the middle ages;
* Where the privy having the longest drop, 2000 feet, is located;
* Why the number "100" often appears on lavatory doors in Turkey, Italy, & France;
* Why toilet facilities on navy ships are called "heads," and finally;
* That men start peeing faster when sheltered or spaced farther apart at public urinals
So, if these subjects strike your fancy and you have time to just sit and ponder, this book might be an excellent addition to your WC (Water Closet) library.
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