In this latest installment of our summer series dedicated to everyday objects, zoom in on the flush. Prized by some collectors, the invention has revolutionized the use of conveniences, but it is called into question for its consumption of drinking water.
On the walls of the bathroom as on those of the toilets, dozens and dozens of flush handles. Reds, whites, greens, in enamel or nylon. Robert Le Gresley is a retired architect who lives in Montreal. He owns 1,306.” They are found in all possible materials! The models testify to an era, a style, a fashion, social classes and sometimes have a double function: hollow to contain lavender or equipped with a piston which projects eau de Cologne by pulling the hunt “says the Canadian collector. He got the bug for this strange collection by chance, when he came across handles in a flea market 40 years ago.
Accumulate toilet flush handles, do you find that weird? It is, in fact, uncommon. And for proof, if the toilet paper collector is called the latrinapapirophile, the one who collects toilet flush handles has no name. Let’s invent one, the “pomulatrinaphile”, for “pommeau” and “latrines”. Robert is well aware of his originality: “ It made more than one laugh, and I know it’s strange! The handles are surprisingly varied, in wood for the poorest, in ceramic, even in gold for the richest… Some are superb, chiseled, encrusted with mother-of-pearl, it’s fascinating. »
In recent years, “pomulatrinaphiles” like Robert have seen toilet flush handles increase in value on the internet, with some people even trying to sell them for hundreds of euros. They are increasingly rare, replaced by push-button flushes. A recent innovation, for an invention that has not stopped adapting in more than four centuries of existence.
Story of (pl)phew
Even before the invention strictly speaking of the toilet, the water was already used to evacuate our excrement. In the Roman Empire, some cities were equipped with an underground network of water, which came to certain rooms of the house where the inhabitants could then relieve themselves and pour their stools directly into it, through holes. Even older civilizations, dating even from -3000 BC, such as the ancient city of Uruk, would have had similar systems.
In the 16th century, the first toilet flush was invented. John Harrington, English writer, is one of the 102 godchildren of Queen Elisabeth, the first of her name. Also an inventor, he developed at home, in the 1590s, an evacuation system for his primary needs. An upper basin releases water into a basin, before being evacuated through a large pipe. His royal godmother requested that this system be installed in the Richmond Palace, which no longer exists today. Alas, these toilets will not remain in the annals: the rising odors were too strong for the noble noses of the court.
It was a century and a half later that water drainage systems really developed, against the backdrop of the British industrial revolution. In 1775, Alexander Cumming, a Scottish inventor, solved the problem of odors by devising an S-shaped waste pipe, which is still used today. The inventions are linked, a valve is installed at the bottom of the bowl in 1778. Leaving the United Kingdom, the toilets invade the continent at the end of the XIXth century, always with a flush based on the idea of John Harrington.
One idea chases another
At that time, the connection of certain middle-class dwellings to city water accelerated the development of toilets and their flushing, which took the form of a tray located high up with a chain to activate it, hence the expression “flush”. And the whirlpool, which cleans the bowl, where does it come from, you are probably wondering, in your thirst for curiosity? It is the specific shape of bowl developed in Canada, in 1907, nearly 330 years after the creation of John Harrington, which makes it possible to form it.
How does a toilet flush work?
At the heart of flushing, there is above all gravity: a large quantity of water, between two and twelve liters depending on the model, is released into the bowl. Under pressure, the valve at the bottom opens and allows the evacuation of stool.
A float in the tank then activates the filling valve, until the water reaches its original level: there, having regained its position, the float blocks the water inlet.
But, faced with ecological issues, flushing will have to reinvent itself, at the risk of disappearing in the future. Already, thanks to an Australian company, the appearance of a double push button in 1980 made it possible to halve the water used in the event of a small commission. However, using water to relieve oneself is becoming increasingly difficult to justify: this represents 20% of drinking water consumption in France. Dry toilets, without water, are coming back into favor in certain environmental circles and at festivals.
Florida Atlantic University has studied the emission of aerosols from toilets and urinals.
3 hours of tests, 100 flushes.Result: aerosols are still at face height 20s after flushing.
Closing the lid does nothing.https://t.co/IuYCcyWlId pic.twitter.com/5fbUrqyTWz— Astrostone (@astrostone) April 11, 2022
Latest blow to date for the flush: the coronavirus. Of the american studies, Chinese and Japanese have demonstrated that flushing causes a diffusion of micro-droplets (aerosols) up to one meter above the ground, contaminating the ambient air. Yet another questioning which could, in the long term, play on an abandonment of the flush.
► To read also: The fabulous story…