Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

What Did Ancient Romans Do Without Toilet Paper?

sapiens.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

441–450 of 557 posts

Re: What Did Ancient Romans Do Without Toilet Paper?

#441

Post by chimeracoder »

user5454 wrote: post #417
bhnmmhmd wrote: post #337

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed. They use water in Iran, too. Other than religious considerations (that only water will really clean mess), it actually feels better and cleaner. Plus, their toilets have a different shape, something like this: https://behsakala.com/image/cache/data/products/-پارمیس-گلسا... As far as I've heard, this form of toilet is better and easier for colons.

But worse for your knees...

A proper squat puts zero pressure on the knees. That's why people with ACL injuries are still able to do squats.

Grab a copy of a basic barbell weightlifting book, and you'll see - it'll say the same thing.

Re: What Did Ancient Romans Do Without Toilet Paper?

#442

Post by Chris2048 »

tikkabhuna wrote: post #401
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 :-)).

After our trip to Cambodia we wanted to bring the "Bum Gun" to the UK. For those who haven't tried it, it's the weirdest thing and sounds disgusting. To quote a crazy Canadian we met, "if you had poo on your arm and you wiped it off with toilet paper, would you say its clean?" That said, SE Asia really lends itself to the Bum Gun. Its warm and can be humid, so you're not really worried about being a bit damp afterwar…

I'd say most people (in west) have shitty arses.

Sometimes, while in a toilet cubicle, I hear other people wipe once or twice, then leave - their arses are definitely shitty.

Me - I bring in a cup of water, and wet the paper to give my arse a proper shine.

Re: What Did Ancient Romans Do Without Toilet Paper?

#443

Post by Chris2048 »

afroboy wrote: post #340
bhnmmhmd wrote: post #337

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed. They use water in Iran, too. Other than religious considerations (that only water will really clean mess), it actually feels better and cleaner. Plus, their toilets have a different shape, something like this: https://behsakala.com/image/cache/data/products/-پارمیس-گلسا... As far as I've heard, this form of toilet is better and easier for colons.

All Arabs and Muslim countries use water to clean too, and that toilet too is used by 90% in Arabs homes and in public toilet is considered must have since it's easy to clean.

A good spray helps clean the toilet bowl of poop too, which is ten times harder once it dries to the porcelain..

Re: What Did Ancient Romans Do Without Toilet Paper?

#444

Post by noefingway »

BuildTheRobots wrote: post #385
globuous wrote: post #221

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Going off of that, when I realized that an ice cube was proof of incredible engineerning and that in terms of mankind, it's brand new tech !! I "couldn't believe it". I got that the concept of freezing water was some complex thermodynamics, but never realized it implied I couldn't make an ice cube without it when it's hot outside ! I thought the French had been drinking cold champagne all these years ! (turns out the…

Ice Houses were really popular; especially in the UK: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_house_(building)

Harvesting ice in the winter was a common and wide spread activity in North America (and most of Europe). Short article on Hudson River ice harvesting http://www.genealogy.clifflamere.com/Aid/History/IceHarvesti...

Re: What Did Ancient Romans Do Without Toilet Paper?

#445

Post by peletiah »

JustSomeNobody wrote: post #439
tikkabhuna wrote: post #401

Earlier quoted context omitted.

After our trip to Cambodia we wanted to bring the "Bum Gun" to the UK. For those who haven't tried it, it's the weirdest thing and sounds disgusting. To quote a crazy Canadian we met, "if you had poo on your arm and you wiped it off with toilet paper, would you say its clean?" That said, SE Asia really lends itself to the Bum Gun. Its warm and can be humid, so you're not really worried about being a bit damp afterwar…

Do those sprays have the pressure and duration to really spray everything down? I can poor water from a bottle of water onto the poo on my arm and I'd still think it'd be unclean. I'd need some positive pressure to think otherwise. Oh, and some soap.

Combine it with your hand and you get clean, even better when there's soap. Then wash your hands properly.

On our bicycle-journey through Asia we had a dedicated squeezable poo-bottle and poo-soap ("Kackflasche" and "Kackseife" in German).

Re: What Did Ancient Romans Do Without Toilet Paper?

#446

Post by dancek »

PeterisP wrote: post #338
dancek wrote: post #331

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a common argument, and a flawed one at that IMHO. If a bird pooped on a table, would you rub it off with your bare finger with some soap water, or would you use paper? (Granted, even this might give you the hint that dry paper isn't always the best idea.)

Well no, the whole point is that there's shit on you in the first place already, not touching it is not an option. You clean your arse with water so that it's clean and not just wiped with paper, just as you afterwards will wash your hands instead of just wiping them on a paper towel.

Well, that comes down to cultural or personal preference. Some cultures consider feet unclean. Some people consider the anus unclean. How clean you try to make a body part depends on how clean you consider or expect it to be.

Re: What Did Ancient Romans Do Without Toilet Paper?

#448

Post by Al-Khwarizmi »

Freak_NL wrote: post #369
lbenes wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Toilets seats with built in bidets have already been perfected in Japan and South Korea since the nineties. Anyone who suggests the need for computer vision aided complexity has never used one of these. They just work, and you learn to use them properly really fast.

I only used one in Korea once, and to be honest, it worked so well without doing anything special that I assumed they were already using some kind of recognition.

Re: What Did Ancient Romans Do Without Toilet Paper?

#449

Post by kragen »

eadmund wrote: post #280
news_to_me wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well said. Whenever I bring this up to friends, they seem weirded out by bidets, sometimes even grossed out. How can it be grosser than trying to smear poop off with a paper towel!?

> How can it be grosser than trying to smear poop off with a paper towel!? I understand that with a bidet one must use one's naked fingers to clean the area. That seems substantially grosser than using toilet paper. Then there's the risk of spray going the wrong direction, and of getting one's trousers wet. A bidet sounds awesome, but terribly impractical. I wonder how people are able to use one so often.

You have a couple of options:

· Just spray your anus with high-pressure water, let it drain, then put your pants back on, dampening them with the few drops remaining. This leaves you cleaner than toilet paper, while keeping your fingers away from your anus and any poop that might be hanging around.

· Spray your anus with high-pressure water, then use your naked fingers and soap to wash. This does indeed potentially contaminate your hands with the film of fecal bacteria left behind, but then you wash your naked fingers with soap and hot water, which is usually considered adequate.

Re: What Did Ancient Romans Do Without Toilet Paper?

#450

Post by kragen »

ropeadopepope wrote: post #135
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…

Do bidets shoot soap up there? Should they? :D

They do not. Since sometimes the pressure is high enough for water to go into your anus, it would be dangerous for them to shoot soap.
Post reply on HN