Water-Saving Shower Curtain

Here in Southern California we're facing water shortages, so Elisabeth Buecher's shower curtain could come in handy. It helps save water because it "slowly inflates around you while you shower. It leaves you only a few minutes to take your shower before trapping you."

She calls her overall philosophy of design the "design of threat and punishment." Sounds kinky.

I have to admit that the idea of installing her shower curtain in the guest bathroom of our house, and not warning guests about it beforehand, is very tempting.

(Warning: One of the images on her page may be slightly NSFW.)

Posted By: Alex - Thu Apr 23, 2009 - Comments (11)
Category: Bathrooms, Hygiene, Inventions

The Bicycle Shower

Combining your workout with a shower could save some time, I suppose. Though I'm not sure if that was the intended purpose of this invention. From the Chicago Tribune, Jan 18, 1903.

Posted By: Alex - Tue Apr 21, 2009 - Comments (14)
Category: Bathrooms, Exercise and Fitness, Hygiene, Inventions, 1900s

Wallypop Toilet Wipes

This must have been what people used back in the days before the invention of toilet paper. You just wipe and then throw the soiled cloth into a bag, ready to be taken out to the laundry. One benefit is that it allows you to wipe with a wet cloth, which gets you a lot cleaner. However, it would seem to me that it's going to substantially increase the amount of laundry you've got to do (since you want to keep the soiled wipes separate from the rest of your laundry). So would they really save you money, or be any better for the environment?

Thanks to Prof. Music for the contribution.

Posted By: Alex - Sat Feb 28, 2009 - Comments (5)
Category: Bathrooms, Hygiene, Excrement

Pit Stop On-Board Urinal

I have a friend who recently decided to become a trucker. She took a training course and got a job, but she said that unless you're willing to break the law and drive more hours than you're supposed to, you don't make any money trucking.

Which, I suppose, is why there's a market for this product: The Pit Stop On-Board Urinal (Warning: the site automatically plays an audio message). From their site:

Posted By: Alex - Thu Jan 15, 2009 - Comments (7)
Category: Bathrooms

Emergency Porta Potty

When disaster strikes, be prepared:


Or take one to the big game so you never have to miss a minute of play! Available for $37 from officezone.com.

Posted By: Alex - Tue Dec 02, 2008 - Comments (5)
Category: Bathrooms, Hygiene, Excrement

Advanced Mission Extender Device

For those times when you're flying a jet fighter and you just gotta go. Instructions:

Insert the male member through the white foam ring. Make sure the cup hose is facing front and to the right. When correctly worn, the foam ring will be snug against the pelvis and the bottom of the cup should not be folded or pinched.

Attach the Cup/Pad hose velcro end to the velcro patch on the front of the undergarment or keep the hose external to each suit except just under the first layer. Dispose of the male cup after your mission.

Related, possibly apocryphal fact: At least three F-16s have been lost due to pilots losing control of their planes while attempting to attach "piddle packs" in mid flight. Source: F-16.net

Posted By: Alex - Sat Nov 08, 2008 - Comments (7)
Category: Bathrooms

Color It Clean

So long as we've started a toilet thread, let's all watch "Color It Clean," so that we appreciate the men and women who maintain our public lavatories.



This film reminds me of Barney Gumble's autobiographical entry in the Springfield Film Festival. I could find the clip only in Italian, but that adds a certain frisson to the viewing experience, I think.

Posted By: Paul - Fri Oct 03, 2008 - Comments (3)
Category: Bathrooms, Buildings and Other Structures, Bums, Hobos, Tramps, Beggars, Panhandlers and Other Streetpeople, Hygiene, Body Fluids, Excrement, Inebriation and Intoxicants, Television, Documentaries, 1960s

Pig Farms

Still on the bacon thread!

Sure, we all love bacon! But who wants to live next to a pig farm? Not these folks in Massachusetts, who, according to today's Boston Globe (registration required), suffer smells like those "at the bottom of a dumpster." But this new Congressional report finds the EPA ready to relax their rules for such farms.

Here's an article about a manure lagoon spill in 2005 that released 3 million gallons of pig poop!

Posted By: Paul - Wed Sep 24, 2008 - Comments (12)
Category: Agriculture, Animals, Bathrooms, Disasters, Food, Scatology, Lawsuits, Excrement

Fuller’s Fog Gun

Buckminster Fuller was great at dreaming up inventions that, he hoped, would help humanity by making people's lives easier and less stressful. However, most of them never caught on. One of his ideas was the fog gun.

The basic concept was to combine the cleansing effects of wind and heavy fog. His system used compressed air, atomized water and liquid soap. Standing in the blast of this "fog gun" for approximately ten minutes would completely clean a person. From buckminster.info:


The best part was that you could leave the fog gun running for an hour, and it only used a pint of water. And, "If fog gun bathing were done in front of a heat lamp, all the sanitary & muscle-relaxing effects of other types of bathing could be effected without the use of any bathroom."

Fuller described the fog gun in his first book, Nine Chains to the Moon, published in 1938, the title of which referred to the idea that if all the people in the world stood on each other's shoulders, they would form nine chains to the moon. Back then the world's population was about 2 billion. Now we're at over 6.6 billion, so presumably we're looking at about thirty chains to the moon.

Posted By: Alex - Mon Jul 28, 2008 - Comments (1)
Category: Bathrooms, Inventions

The Uroclub

Florida has a lot of elderly golfers with weak bladders. To help these folks, Florida urologist Floyd Seskin created the UroClub. It is:

I've got to admit, it is practical. But a bit pricey at almost $50.

Posted By: Alex - Tue Jul 15, 2008 - Comments (1)
Category: Bathrooms, Inventions, Sports, Products