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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?

#201

Post by jessriedel »

kragen wrote: post #24

When I moved to Argentina, it took me a while to get used to bidets. But now that I'm used to them, I never use toilet paper voluntarily. It leaves your butt still dirty! As someone said, if you got poop on your arm, maybe while changing a diaper, would you wipe it off with a piece of paper and consider it clean? No, not if you're from the mainstream of any developed country. You would use water, soap, and maybe more…

Honest question: Can a bidet user explain why bidets are superior to just having a nearby faucet to dampen the toilet paper, like this?:

https://d193qi3ct19t6b.cloudfront.net/products/24229/regular...

Having a separate system and jet of water seems like a lot more complexity with increased risk of splash. And the cleaning properties of dampened paper seem strictly better than a stream of water. Just like I wouldn't wipe off poo from my arm with dry paper, I also wouldn't just run my arm under water without also mechanically scrubbing it.

Obviously, most toilets without bidets don't have faucets close enough to reach from the toilet, so a bidet might be an improvement over the status quo. But it seems way easier to install a small faucet than a stand-alone bidet, and way less maintenance to have a small faucet than one of those built-in water jets for toilets.

Re: What Did Ancient Romans Do Without Toilet Paper?

#202

Post by coolso »

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…

> or puritanical reasons (make sure people aren't having sex?)

I hardly think deterring people from having sex in a public restroom (if that's even actually the case) so that everyone - young and old - can go to the bathroom without having to be privy to people screwing around, and not wanting to risk exposure to yet another bodily fluid in addition to all the others that public restrooms have way too many of, is "puritanical".

Re: What Did Ancient Romans Do Without Toilet Paper?

#204

Post by mrnobody_67 »

Balgair wrote: post #138
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 all don't have 'trough' urinals either. The US and Australia both use them frequently in high traffic areas, but the Aussie floor-to-wall version is a lot 'easier' to use and clean.

Those things make me feel like an animal. Especially when the floor is a metal grate overtop of part of the trough.

Re: What Did Ancient Romans Do Without Toilet Paper?

#205

Post by jacquesm »

JohnDotAwesome wrote: post #128
kragen wrote: post #24

When I moved to Argentina, it took me a while to get used to bidets. But now that I'm used to them, I never use toilet paper voluntarily. It leaves your butt still dirty! As someone said, if you got poop on your arm, maybe while changing a diaper, would you wipe it off with a piece of paper and consider it clean? No, not if you're from the mainstream of any developed country. You would use water, soap, and maybe more…

Bidets are pretty weird, but I totally recognize their superiority to plain ol' toilet paper. +1 for wet wipes.

> +1 for wet wipes.

As long as you bin them.

https://arstechnica.com/science/2017/09/putrid-130-ton-mass-...

Re: What Did Ancient Romans Do Without Toilet Paper?

#206

Post by tlarkworthy »

lbenes wrote: post #66
tlarkworthy wrote: post #8

I think a machine vision directed spray is the future. I don't fancy collecting the training data though.

LOL, "a machine vision directed spray", missing a '/s'? My toilet has a built in bidet. When the spray comes on, I move my butt to positions the stream to dead center. There's really no need for any added complexity.

It's knowing when it's done

Re: What Did Ancient Romans Do Without Toilet Paper?

#207

Post by NicoJuicy »

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…

I don't exactly agree with you ( Europeans have public toilets too)

https://www.tripsavvy.com/how-to-use-toilets-in-france-15179...

And some other examples you didn't know about :) --> https://rickzullo.com/bathrooms-in-italy/

PS. The hole in the floor toilet is also in france.

Re: What Did Ancient Romans Do Without Toilet Paper?

#208

Post by dang »

skookumchuck wrote: post #19
gkya wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This made me recall immediately the "I, pencil" article. It's stunning to remember that almost anything one gets to touch or see throughout the day is a product of almost always global collaboration, if we include a things conception with its production, and also transportation, selling, etc.

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

Please don't take HN on generic ideological tangents. They lead to generic ideological flamewars, which are more or less all the same, and therefore off topic here.

Re: What Did Ancient Romans Do Without Toilet Paper?

#209

Post by Baeocystin »

DonHopkins wrote: post #130
Baeocystin wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

::shrug:: Can't say I disagree. People have surprisingly strong feelings about getting their butts splashed with water.

They're afraid they'll enjoy it, and it will undermine their fragile macho manhood.

Perhaps unexpectedly, it was the women who were most put off it, not the men. FWIW. I realize this was hardly a scientific sample.

Re: What Did Ancient Romans Do Without Toilet Paper?

#210

Post by BeeOnRope »

adventured wrote: post #179
Crisco wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I lived in the Dominican Republic for a few years, and it was a little weird to me at first, but after a while you get used to putting dirty paper in the trash. I never once had to deal with a clogged toilet. After moving back to the USA it was just as weird to put paper in the toilets (though drinking the same water you bathe in was the weirdest part). I think people exaggerate the weirdness and difficulty of adjust…

> though drinking the same water you bathe in was the weirdest part Surely you mean the water that enters the house via plumbing, is used for both bathing and drinking from via a faucet. As opposed to drinking bath water. Is the weirdness of that because they don't drink tap water in the Dominican?

> Is the weirdness of that because they don't drink tap water in the Dominican?

Yes, almost nowhere in Central America would you (or locals) drink water from the tap. Things like brushing your teeth are a grey area.

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