The History of #2

What did people do before modern toilets were invented? In my neck of the woods, they used outhouses. That was the case in most places, but it became a problem when people started living close to each other in cities. Various systems for sewage disposal were installed by the Greeks, the Romans, and then the Europeans, but it was slow and only came about when the city's waste disposal problems became intolerable. 

It was the same in the history of toilet design. There were great leaps that didn't spread and were even sometimes forgotten, possibly because no one really wanted to talk about the problem. Besides, having a flush toilet is kind of useless when you don't have a water delivery system or a sewage system, and that kind of infrastructure was a major undertaking. Once we had running water, not only could we use real flush toilets, but also sinks, bathtubs, and showers! This brief history will make you thankful you have those things. (via Laughing Squid)