Toilets of the World

Welcome to the Toilets of the World

Are you wondering why people hoard toilet paper? Wondering how to use a bidet, or even what a bidet is? Curious about what the toilets are like in other countries? Toilets from ancient history? Do you wonder who invented the flush toilet? (It wasn't Thomas Crapper!) You've come to the right place!

Toilets around the world:
Belgium Bulgaria China France Greek Islands Japan Morocco Trinidad Russia and many others
Toilets from throughout history:
The Stone Age Ancient Greece Ancient Rome Bible era King Arthur's England Invention of the flush toilet To the toilets of the future

212 days until Thomas Crapper's birthday

271 days until World Toilet Day

Answers for your important questions: Why do people hoard toilet paper? Did Thomas Crapper invent the flush toilet? Should I squat or sit? Should I wipe or wash? Where do I put used paper, in the bowl or in the bin? When did public toilets become segregated by sex? What is a bidet? What is a toilet snorkel? Should I incinerate my sewage in the basement?

Toilets of world leaders, artists, and authors: The Ottoman Sultan Woodrow Wilson Leon Trotsky Winston Churchill Adolf Hitler Dwight Eisenhower Robert Kennedy William Shakespeare Edgar Allan Poe Vincent Van Gogh Jim Morrison Lady Gaga

Seatless Toilets

Toilet in Akti Hotel, Korinthos, Greece.

Who Took The Seat? Sometimes you will find that a toilet is missing its seat. I don't mean a squat toilet, but a raised porcelain commode that has holes for mounting a seat and lid but has neither. It seems to need a seat, but the seat is missing. Why does the owner do this? It's for hygiene. Toilets can be much cleaner without seats.

How are you going to use a raised porcelain commode style toilet with no seat?

Toilet seats are made of relatively soft and somewhat porous plastic or painted wood. That soft, porous surface provides plenty of opportunity for dirt and microorganisms to take hold, and it is nearly impossible to get it completely clean.

The bowl itself, however, is vitreous. That is, glass-like. A toilet bowl is extremely hard and non-porous. The outer surface of the bowl is a ceramic glaze that has been fired or baked to convert it to a material similar to glass.

You can be about as harsh or aggressive as you want, mechanically or chemically, in cleaning a toilet bowl.

Meanwhile the entirely non-porous glass-like surface provides no place for microorganisms to hide. So where do you sit? On the rim of the bowl, of course!

Read more about seatless toilets »

Leon Trotsky was a leading Communist theorist, but he fell from favor and was expelled from the Soviet Union. He ended up in Mexico in the 1930s, where he lived at the home of the painter Diego Rivera. Trotsky's affair with Rivera's wife Frida Kahlo led to Trotsky finding a home of his own.

Trotsky's home in Mexico City is an interesting time capsule of an upper-class Mexican home from the 1930s. You can tour it and see several plumbing details including Trotsky's toilet with its very high wall-mounted tank, his tub, his water heater, his kitchen sink, and more.

Check back tomorrow for another featured toilet!

Who is the Toilet Guru?