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Erfurt Latrine Disaster

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Re: Erfurt Latrine Disaster

#5
Meta: I find it weird how many HN posts have no connection to either hacking or news, and yet are so tonally perfect for the audience here, and for me personally. I’m thinking specifically of obscure/weird Wikipedia pages and pop history/science articles. This is the stuff that keeps me coming back. Great share.

Re: Erfurt Latrine Disaster

#6

Meta: I find it weird how many HN posts have no connection to either hacking or news, and yet are so tonally perfect for the audience here, and for me personally. I’m thinking specifically of obscure/weird Wikipedia pages and pop history/science articles. This is the stuff that keeps me coming back. Great share.

We are just a bunch of nerds who like to learn about interesting things. I am more interested in this kind of stuff bs a lot of posts about tech stuff which I often find not well written and not interesting.

Re: Erfurt Latrine Disaster

#8

Interesting to think about the horrible ambient smell that must have existed even in these noble-class locations at the time. A wooden floor built over a giant open sewage pit.

I think a wooden raised platform was built above the ground floor. This gave way and they broke through the ground floor which may have been made of some other material like tiles or something. I doubt they would have gathered in a place like that if not isolated from the smell.

Re: Erfurt Latrine Disaster

#9
"about 60 of them drowned in liquid excrement"

I am so sorry to do this, but: What a shitty way to go.

Seriously, though, the though of drowning is terrifying to me when it's clear, fresh water, but drowning in a literal cesspool sounds much worse. I don't know if the poor souls who died in this incident noticed the difference. But it sounds really terrifying. Also, the poor people who had to recover the bodies for a proper burial.

With 900+ years of distance it's easy to chuckle at it, but if you try to put yourself into these people's shoes, it's not funny. OTOH, there were so many awful things going on back then, I wonder if this one really stuck out to anyone but the victims' relatives.

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