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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?

#351

Post by aaron695 »

rileymat2 wrote: post #301
wheresmyusern wrote: post #299

we seriously need a better solution for toilets. toilets use huge amounts of water. if you want to have a toilet in a moving vehicle, or anywhere that is not directly connected to a sewage line and a giant water treatment plant, then you are just out of luck because all the mobile toilet solutions out there suck. it amazes me that a good solution has evaded us for so long. when considering how to travel where-ever i…

I would be curious if all this plastic in your plan actually saves resoures over water.

It could be a way of cheaply moving water from water rich spots to water deficient places.

Lots of water used at X to create a system to reduces water at Y.

Re: What Did Ancient Romans Do Without Toilet Paper?

#353

Post by 4ad »

onetimemanytime wrote: post #347
toastermoster wrote: post #309

It was funny to see this HN post tonight. This week I'm doing upgrades to the DCS (distributed control system) operator stations at one of the largest tissue manufacturing sites in the US. I was just telling my fiancé how funny the security is here. You would think they were enriching uranium. When I first got into the paper industry, which resulted from coming out of grad school during the Great Recession, I thought…

The way US homes are designed it's hard to add a bidet to an existing bathroom, but doing away with toilet paper must be a goal. Unless you wash, you cannot feel "good" down there. That's the truth.

Yep. However I think that you responded to the wrong comment.

Re: What Did Ancient Romans Do Without Toilet Paper?

#354

Post by krtkush »

toomanybeersies wrote: post #322
scribu wrote: post #199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A sewer pipe that could detect what’s passing through it would actually have all kinds of practical uses! I wonder how feasible it would be to embed chemical sensors into such an environment.

Governments sometimes analyse waste water for drugs and drug metabolites. You can't pinpoint specific houses' drug use, but you get get trends and general population data.

Relevant - http://www.dw.com/en/austrian-woman-poisons-local-water-trea...

Re: What Did Ancient Romans Do Without Toilet Paper?

#355

Post by hudibras »

irrational wrote: post #307

My grandfather grew up on a farm. He said they always had a bucket of corn husks in the outhouse and that was what you used. He was totally serious. If cheap toilet paper makes my bum feel raw, I can't even imagine what a corn husk would do to it.

I think you may have misheard him: farmers used to use corn cobs to wipe.

https://www.farmersalmanac.com/what-did-people-use-before-to...

Re: What Did Ancient Romans Do Without Toilet Paper?

#356

Post by 4ad »

lsc wrote: post #336
reolbox wrote: post #300

For 22 years I used toilet paper until I traveled to South East Asia where every toilet has a seperate sprinkler. After a few toilet visits I decided to give it a GO. Man, toilet paper feels strange and plain stupid now. Water is way cheaper, doesn't hurt your "behind" and I feel cleaner afterwards. Paper seems an invention to sell something we really don't need (by Mad Men :-)).

So, my current employers have the, uh, washlets you describe, real high grade ones with a heater and a dryer. And I use them for the wash cycle, but I've found that I still prefer to dry off using toilet paper; the air dry function, even though it's heated just takes to damn long.

Just like those stupid hand air driers at public facilities. God, how I hate those. Americans have it easy, in general paper towels are available even when the damn air thing is installed. But here in Europe, most often you only get the stupid air machine with no paper towels.

Re: What Did Ancient Romans Do Without Toilet Paper?

#357

Post by inapis »

darklajid wrote: post #329
reolbox wrote: post #300

For 22 years I used toilet paper until I traveled to South East Asia where every toilet has a seperate sprinkler. After a few toilet visits I decided to give it a GO. Man, toilet paper feels strange and plain stupid now. Water is way cheaper, doesn't hurt your "behind" and I feel cleaner afterwards. Paper seems an invention to sell something we really don't need (by Mad Men :-)).

There are lots of places here in SG that have these toilets. They ... freak me out, tbh. Mostly because I have not the faintest idea how you'd use them and "So, how do you do your business" is not among the list of conversations I want to have. This whole floor (hosting six companies I think?) in a prominent office tower has one shared male restroom. Two booths. One is usable for me, the other one the scary thing. Mo…

From Travel SE - https://travel.stackexchange.com/questions/3080/ok-were-all-...

Re: What Did Ancient Romans Do Without Toilet Paper?

#358

Post by 4ad »

travmatt wrote: post #294
freedomben wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Especially for septic systems. In related news, it is very expensive to have a plumber come fish "flushable" wipes from your septic system when they are blocking the tank and backing the "water" back up into the house.

I asked a plumber about those once and he laughed and said there’s no such thing as a flushable wipe - but they’re great for business.

What's the limitation? Why can't we make actually flushable wipes?

Re: What Did Ancient Romans Do Without Toilet Paper?

#359

Post by jm547ster »

akkat wrote: post #323
reolbox wrote: post #300

For 22 years I used toilet paper until I traveled to South East Asia where every toilet has a seperate sprinkler. After a few toilet visits I decided to give it a GO. Man, toilet paper feels strange and plain stupid now. Water is way cheaper, doesn't hurt your "behind" and I feel cleaner afterwards. Paper seems an invention to sell something we really don't need (by Mad Men :-)).

Do you dry yourself before putting your pants on? If so how?

The hand towel

Re: What Did Ancient Romans Do Without Toilet Paper?

#360

Post by inapis »

jessriedel wrote: post #201
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 w…

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

Water pressure. I live on the 5th floor of a 16 floor building with the water tank at the top. The pressure of the bidet is enough to clean everything off in seconds. The risk of splash is only when you use it incorrectly. Just sit for a minute or two extra to let gravity do it's work on the excess water present on your butt.

>Having a separate system and jet of water seems like a lot more complexity

I don't think so. In India, we just attach it to a normal water valve. The same one to which we attach taps, flush tanks, showers etc. It's a pretty standardized attachment.

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