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What Did Ancient Romans Do Without Toilet Paper?

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Re: What Did Ancient Romans Do Without Toilet Paper?

#51

Post by sytse »

SeeDave wrote: post #46
tlb wrote: post #2

My uncle was an engineer for a toilet paper manufacturing plant, that took logs in one end and put TP rolls out the other end. The path was over a mile long. He worked on variable speed electronic drives for the 1000 horsepower motors that turned the machinery. TP illustrates the triumph of civilization: 1000s of people all doing specialized jobs so billions of people can each avoid a daily unpleasantness.

Toilet Paper is one of my favorite "How it's Made" episodes. Feel free to check it out at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z74OfpUbeac . My favorite part is at 4:43 with the Circular Saw!

Deeplink to 4:43 https://youtu.be/Z74OfpUbeac?t=283

Re: What Did Ancient Romans Do Without Toilet Paper?

#53

Post by eveningcoffee »

tlb wrote: post #2

My uncle was an engineer for a toilet paper manufacturing plant, that took logs in one end and put TP rolls out the other end. The path was over a mile long. He worked on variable speed electronic drives for the 1000 horsepower motors that turned the machinery. TP illustrates the triumph of civilization: 1000s of people all doing specialized jobs so billions of people can each avoid a daily unpleasantness.

It is not just unpleasantness. It is an essential tool for the contamination risk management.

Re: What Did Ancient Romans Do Without Toilet Paper?

#54

Post by bambax »

> To ancient Romans, the practice of sitting on a shared toilet in an open room full of people was entirely ordinary.

That's a funny thing to say for an American, because, to Europeans, American toilets are much too public: doors don't go to the floor or ceiling, and even "walls" are thin sheets of wood/plastic loosely joined together with huge spaces between them.

It seems, Americans don't trust one another to sit alone in a toilet; I still don't know if it's for security purposes (to check if someone has a heart failure?) or puritanical reasons (make sure people aren't having sex?) but it sure feels strange, and very difficult to get used to when one comes from a different culture.

Re: What Did Ancient Romans Do Without Toilet Paper?

#56

Post by 52-6F-62 »

bambax wrote: post #54

> To ancient Romans, the practice of sitting on a shared toilet in an open room full of people was entirely ordinary. That's a funny thing to say for an American, because, to Europeans, American toilets are much too public: doors don't go to the floor or ceiling, and even "walls" are thin sheets of wood/plastic loosely joined together with huge spaces between them. It seems, Americans don't trust one another to sit a…

>It seems, Americans don't trust one another to sit alone in a toilet; I still don't know if it's for security purposes (to check if someone has a heart failure?) or puritanical reasons (make sure people aren't having sex?) but it sure feels strange, and very difficult to get used to when one comes from a different culture.

I've always thought it was far less interesting than that:

they're cheaper and faster to install. Minimal thought was probably given to the people using them.

Re: What Did Ancient Romans Do Without Toilet Paper?

#57

Post by monochromatic »

makotech222 wrote: post #20
skookumchuck wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the result of free markets. Centralized economic planning is simply unable to deal with the complexity.

Yeah, we certainly can't produce toilet paper unless 50% of the population is in poverty.

Yes, 14.8% = 50%

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poverty_in_the_United_States

Re: What Did Ancient Romans Do Without Toilet Paper?

#59

Post by brandonmenc »

bambax wrote: post #54

> To ancient Romans, the practice of sitting on a shared toilet in an open room full of people was entirely ordinary. That's a funny thing to say for an American, because, to Europeans, American toilets are much too public: doors don't go to the floor or ceiling, and even "walls" are thin sheets of wood/plastic loosely joined together with huge spaces between them. It seems, Americans don't trust one another to sit a…

> doors don't go to the floor

We had a guy try and propose this for Yankee Stadium, but it didn't take.

Re: What Did Ancient Romans Do Without Toilet Paper?

#60

Post by coderdude »

bambax wrote: post #54

> To ancient Romans, the practice of sitting on a shared toilet in an open room full of people was entirely ordinary. That's a funny thing to say for an American, because, to Europeans, American toilets are much too public: doors don't go to the floor or ceiling, and even "walls" are thin sheets of wood/plastic loosely joined together with huge spaces between them. It seems, Americans don't trust one another to sit a…

You just lack life experience and imagination if you think a puritan mindset is behind not wanting to provide mini private rooms to the batshit insane public.
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