What people used before toilets and toilet-paper?

Question

What The Pilgrims, Benjamin Franklin and even Abraham Lincoln sitting in the White House used? What If you were born into royalty, like Louis XIV? And how about toilets? My guess, it was an unbelievable mess back then.

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Answer 1

Th Royalty of England had many castles with numerous rooms.

When they occupied a castle, with gatherings etc, some rooms, (floors), were used for toilets. After a short stay, (maybe very short in some cases), they moved on to another castle, and the scenario was repeated.

Cleanup was left to their servants.

I learned this from several visits to England and tour guides.

If one were to visit a castle today, one will find a small room with a camode, linked to modern sewage. I don't know when those first came about. The ones that I have seen are located in the Courtyards.

I don't know when cesspools were first dug and used in America, but at some point outhouses were buit with a bench built above them. These often were built with two oval shaped holes in the bench. Many had only one. They contained water.

This is where the term, a "one holer" or a "two holer" originated. I've seen both.

All homes eventually had an outhouse, usually several yards from the house, in the back yard, a one holer. Before toilet paper, newspapers and catalogs were the norm.

At night, all homes had a granite container about 20" high with a flared top and lid. They were often called "thunder mugs" or "slop jars". These were in every bedroom and had to be emptied into the outhouse cesspool each morning. These were used primarily for urinating. Other wise, one had to make a trip outside, in any kind of weather. It wasn't very pleasant in cold and snow, in the dark. There certainly were older people and young children who did not make the trip.
Fun, when two or more slept in the same room.
Ahhh! For the good old days. YUCK!

Now, cesspools were not very deep, and so, they often had to be emptied. Back in the 20s and earlier, there were men who did this. They had a horse and wagon with a large container and a big dipper with which they dipped the crap into the container on the wagon, and disposed of it, I know not where. Often into rivers.

They were called "honey dippers".

Answer 2

Romans used sponges. (punishment detail was washing the sponges)
they had communal toiletseats over flowing water.
Several other earlier city civilisations also used flowing water channels.

Elizibeathan town houses with overhanging upstairs had holes over the street.
but most used composting toilets in the outhouses. Night soil was/is a valuable comodity for sustainable agricultural systems, and urine is an important chemical especially for cloth making.

Water closets and sewage systems really became necessary with the growth of large conurbations

Answer 3

There were WAY fewer people then but yeah, in cities they often went in a bucket and threw it into the street. Or on a compost pile, or used out houses I think. People probably used leaves, old rags, bark, anything they could find, water often too. I think in France they had toilets then.

I think I read that Mr. Crapper invented the toilet. Really

Answer 4

By making holes and covering them, ditches, creeks. The Romans made drainage ditch canals under there cities. Or slop pots that the contents were thrown into the streets every day. And then they just found a nice bush to squat behind too. We have come a long way baby.

Answer 5

The idea of toilets and abolution went down the drain until the mid-1700s. The first valve-type flush toilet was introduced in 1738 by a man named J.F. Brondel, not before 150 years earlier, John Harrington invented the "water closet".

Before that, early evidence of Big hole and where did all those thingees go:
India - toilets took the form of clay fired brick holes in which defacting was directed into the said hole. (Ref 1.)
Egypt (2100 BC) - similarly resolved the question of big hole.
Rome - public bath-***-toilets were featured with floor traps whose running water would function as transport system.

More commonly known as night soil not too long ago (40 to 100 years), when in the absence of toilet facilities, people had to defecate and urinate wherever they could. Easing themselves in the river was very common.

Social reformers advised people where to defecate, how to defecate in privacy and the need to control themselves when in company. Children were taught not to touch human waste. At the same time, there was no hesitation in letting loose pigs to eat human excreta.

Number of enactments, proved contrary. A delegation led by a master weaver protested in front of the French Municipal Building," our fathers have defecated at the place where you prevent us to do. We have defecated here and now our children will defecate there".

The rich used wool or hemp for ablution while the poor used grass, stone or sand or water depending upon the country and weather conditions or social customs. Use of newspaper was also common. In Russia, the subordinates even stamped the toilet paper with imperial arms for use of the Czar, termed as sacrilege. The final solution to the problem of ablution was found when in 1857, Joseph Cayetty invented the toilet paper in USA.

In South India, people use the right hand for eating food; it is considered disgusting to use the same hand for ablution with water. So left hand is used for sanitary purposes.

Up to World War 2 and the 1960s, household dry latrines used buckets stored under holes that was known as Night soil, that were cleaned and removed by workers, known as Bucket Brigades.

Hence, it was not till later that we, did so enjoy the benefits of plumbing to all parts of the states as did countries whose sanitation systems were destroyed during the two great wars.

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Plumbing - Latin word for lead, which is plumbum. By definition, a utility that we use in our buildings consisting of: the pipes and fixtures for the distribution of water or gas, and for the disposal of sewage. The word sewer comes from the French word essouier, meaning "to drain.

Answer 6

Chamber pots and your pinky to wipe. That is why you hold your pinky out when havng tea. The chamber pot is just a pot that sits in your bedroom that you use like a toilet. Some cultures still use a bowl of water to cleanse with, rather than toilet paper.

Before that - a hole in the ground.

Answer 7

They used wanna-be Charmin and they made it from goat guts.
They still smelled real bad but at least they felt better about themselves.
To get it right they had to dry it in the sun (the guts I mean) ,but a lot of them were in a hurry.
It was all messy!!!
I think they had to jump in a creek after that,to wash it all off.

Answer 8

Outhouses were common before the invention of the toilet bowl.

Answer 9

iam talking way before in time ! there then nothing mattered man nothing just any where in river side on forest bushes on grass land etc where u feel it its will be done there ok !

now u dont give a **** about it !
just do it in ur toilet ok !

Answer 10

the royal had a comode. it is not like yours today but it was inside. others used outhouses along with a sears catalog