- The fact that we don't really have to think
about our poop is one of the greatest
most unexamined luxuries of modern life
in the developed world.
As Victor Hugo, once famously wrote,
"The history of men is reflected in the history of sewers."
So even though this video is titled "The History of Poop",
it's really about the swift removal of waste,
helping shape where and how we live our lives.
This is how Roman sh** sticks,
Queen Elizabeth's inappropriate godson and yes,
the notorious Thomas Crapper helped free
so many of us from chamber pots, cholera
and communal latrines.
Naturally, when nature called
early humans, they'd answer out in nature.
But even the vengeful Old Testament God
implored us to be careful
about where we drop our ancient deuces.
But in 3,200 BC, we upgrade.
Mesopotamians in the City of Uruk,
take their BMs indoors with one of the earliest pit toilets
which is basically a giant hole that everyone poops in.
Then in ancient Rome around 700 BC,
there are about 150 public toilets
that feed directly into the Cloaca Maxima,
an early version of a sewer system that drains
into a nearby river
which brings us to the first entry
in "The Crappiest Moments in Human History".
Unfortunately for everyone, including us,
who now have to think about this,
the public Roman poopers all share one sponge on a stick
to clean themselves off
which was not often replaced and is very, very gross.
That was "The Crappiest Moments in Human History".
Anyway, at home defecation isn't much better.
Some dwellings have toilets that aren't connected to sewers
as residents fear rats would crawl through the drains
and into their homes.
And most people just use chamber pots,
which they literally just toss into the streets.
At this point, some cultures utilize human waste
as fertilizer, commonly called night soil
and medieval architects design literal poop shoots
that protrude from castle walls
sometimes even hanging over cliffs.
For the most part, toilet tech remained relatively stagnant
until the late 1500s. Godson of Queen Elizabeth
and extremely unsuccessful poet, John Harrington,
coincidentally a direct relative of Kit Harrington,
is banished from court for telling too many risqué jokes.
Basically, he got canceled. But he was so bored in exile,
he develops the world's first flushing toilet,
which uses an overhead water basin to clear out waste.
Even though the queen loved John's idea,
and it's the reason we call the toilet "the John",
Harrington's idea doesn't fully catch on
until the 1700s when Scottish mechanic Alexander Cumming
developed the S-trap,
which keeps a small amount of water inside toilet bowls
and blocks smells, rats, and everything else
from seeping up poop pits into people's homes.
Essentially, we still use Cumming's concept
in modern toilets, but at this point
it's still just a high-tech chamber pot.
Fast forward to the 1800s,
the overpopulated city of London is facing
a major cholera epidemic
and sh** is literally flooding the streets.
By studying a map of outbreaks in relation
to public water pumps, local doctor John Snow discovers
that drinking stool-contaminated water
directly leads to the spread of disease
which informs the way we dispose of waste
and design the places we live.
Now, the concept of flush toilets
and sewers are combined
in holy scatological matrimony.
In 1857, the first commercially available toilet paper
was invented by the Scott brothers.
Before then people use corncobs or book pages.
The Farmers' Almanac even has a hole in it
to hang in your bathroom,
which must have made those writers feel very proud
of their work.
In the late 1870s, English inventor
and sanitation engineer, Thomas Crapper,
who is often falsely credited with inventing
the flush toilet, is the biggest name in feces.
He famously showcases his newfangled toilets in showrooms,
normalizing the idea for the masses.
By the 1930s, American lawmakers via advice
from medical professionals, create laws and plumbing codes
to ensure hygienic means of waste disposal
throughout the US. And indoor plumbing for the most part
is widespread and regulated.
In the 1940s, a dock supervisor
in Long Beach, California is sick of his workers
making the long trip to a nearby John.
So he develops the first porta-potty.
The portable toilet is then implemented
across construction sites, festivals, planes,
trains and buses, which actually brings us
to our second entry in "The Crappiest Moments
in Human History".
In 2004, a Dave Matthews Band tour bus accidentally
unloads 800 pounds of raw sewage
onto an architectural boat tour passing
on the Chicago River, which is only the second biggest piece
of sh** DMB has released.
You know, after all of their music. Just kidding!
Anyway, that was "The Crappiest Moments in Human History".
In 2021, aka now, after Green Day's seminal 1994
pop-punk masterpiece Dookie,
the biggest modern advance in caca culture unquestionably
comes from Japan, where high tech smart commodes
commonly feature built-in bidets, heaters, timers,
deodorizers, and sometimes even pleasant music
to help get those bowels moving.
It's clear we've come a long way
from shared fecal sponges and crapping over cliff sides.
But it's important to note that billions
of human beings still live
without sanitary bathroom conditions.
So we included links to a couple initiatives
that look to solve and aid this problem
throughout the world in our description.
In the end, we salute the Herculean efforts
human beings have made to make chamber pots obsolete,
an indoor plumbing and existential afterthought.
Let's hear a round of congratulatory flushes
for all the people who brought us here.
Now, if you'll excuse me,
I have to go find my Farmers' Almanac.