Portable Toilet

Most people realize that hygienic sanitary conditions cannot be guaranteed when they are in an outside environment, such as going camping, hiking or being involved in a project work that needs to be moved between two, or more places. The neglect of providing hygienic sanitary conditions can lead to creating many health problems. Under this circumstance, we have to come up with a new idea to solve this problem, thus the Portable Toilet comes into the picture.

           

            The first portable toilet dates back to the mid-fourteenth century B.C. In Egypt, a wooden stool with a large slot in the middle for use with a pottery vessel beneath it was discovered in the tomb of Kha. Until the eighteenth century, the portable chamber pot, a slightly more modern variation of this first portable toilet, was the most commonly used lavatory facility. In 1886, Thomas Crapper created the first flushable toilet featuring a water tank placed high above the toilet bowl to actually flush out the contents of the bowl, rather than merely dilute them. The modern plastic portable toilet has been manufactured since the 1960s. Inventors have combined the portability of the more ancient lavatories with the sanitary benefits of the modern toilet to create a contained system that is also compact, lightweight, and transportable.

           

            The main component of the facility is light-weight sheet plastic, such as polyethylene, which forms the actual toilet unit as well as the cabana in which it is contained. The portable toilet is formed into a box-like structure and the top sheet contains an opening for placement of the toilet tank which with a pump form the portable sewage system  and are fastened with screws, nails, rivets, bolts, and hinges. A chemical supply container and inlet tube are also equipped in the facility.

           

            The  reason why we choose the portable toilet as an artifact in this exhibit because its appearance solves the sanitary problem when people have to be involved in  an outside project or a camp. By glancing over the evolution of the toilet, from the deep cesspits of the Saxons to potties of the medieval times, from Henry VIII’s portable toilet to Victorians' privy, the toilet was changed with the functional demand. Though, the portable toilets cannot give the identical comfort as inbuilt toilets in homes, they can replicate most of the functions of home based toilets. On the other hand, portable toilets also have commercial advantages. Take an outdoor industrial event for example; the portable toilet is preferred among supervisors of outdoor projects who must not only meet the demands of providing a toilet, but must also meet the workers demands to have a hygienic, sanitary, and efficient toilet, because it satisfies both requests. Furthermore, portable toilets are becoming more and more frequently used, and as a result, the services they provide meet many economical requirements and can be seen as quite beneficial in the industrial world.

           

            The portable toilet facilitates people's lives as well as improves the cleanliness, and it marks a foot print on the evolution of the toilets. This is mainly due to its’ convenience and hygienic characteristics that people benefit greatly from it, which to some extent, also promotes the development of economy.