Posted by John Stevenson on 14/10/2012 10:36:08:
Most Victorian inventions.
If it wasn't for the Victorians we would be in the shìt – literally as they designed and build most of our sewerage systems in this country and some are of immense proportions.
John S.
Hi John
Again I agree as i said in my post above, flush toilets and the sewer drainage system are a huge machine which quietly benefitsd us all.
Here is a quote from the 1841 Crown Comission report into child labour in the Black Country which reported that there were few, if any, individual "privies" and described the toilet arrangements as below, for more see here:
"The working classes of Coseley, for the most part, as I am informed, and certainly the great majority in Lower Gornal, are in the habit of fixing a perch (about the size and length of a clothes prop) horizontally across one corner of their little strip of yard or dreary garden. Sometimes several families combine and carry a perch to the corner of a neighbouring field, which act of undue possession being sure to be very soon imitated by others, a disturbance is apt to ensue, if not a fight, the parties being so utterly ignorant and debased as not to be conscious in the slightest degree of the degradation implied in the whole proceeding."
There had been many deaths in the area from Cholera as well as severe outbreaks of Scarlet fever and God knows what else, not to mention the stench.
I vote for the humble lavatory (and drainage system)
Best regards
Terry
Edited By Terryd on 14/10/2012 11:46:16