Ok, so for toastmasters in La today, I had to write to write a speech. We could write anything we wanted, so I decided to write about something very dear to me in my life right now; toilets. The speech went over well, and I was told that it's blog worthy, I thought why not, so here it is:Good afternoon *enter CEO’s name here* and fellow toastmasters. Well, lately in my life, actually all of my life, toilets has been very fond of me. Me? Fond of them? Not so much, but they just don’t seem to leave me alone. Almost every good story I have, has to do with them. So I decided that they deserve some consideration for their great duties in my life, in fact in everybody’s life.
In 1596 Sir John Harrington, godson to Queen Elizabeth I was the man who first invented what was to become the indoor plumbing toilet. He wanted to create something that would fit the needs of Queen Elizabeth I, his invention was to be called a “toilet”, it was the one and only one, and another was never built. Not for another two hundred years that is. In Europe many people tinkered around, and found many different ways to convenience the toilet, but in America they were still using chamber pots, or bed pans.
The first Americans to start the toilet phase were James T. Henry and William Campbell. In 1875 they created the water closet, a room or booth containing a toilet and often a washbowl, but they were shunned by many for their unsanitary tendencies. In between the years 1850 and the1890’s, modernizing toilets almost seemed to be a game or a race. Everyone was trying to improve the way of the toilet. It wasn’t until the early 1900’s that two men, Charles Neff and Robert Frame, came up with the flush down process that the toilets today still perform. But, all in all it is Fred Adee who should be getting all the attention, for he was the man who redesigned the toilet bowl, so that there wouldn’t be constant messy overflows. To him we should be forever grateful. Unfortunately, after Fred Adee, records were lost, and it is unknown who the inventors of the tank mounted on the back of the toilet as well as the handle, that we so often jiggle, were.
There are many different kinds of toilets, Gravity Tank toilets, Pressured Tank toilets, Flush Valve Operated toilets, Floor-Discharge Drain Line toilets, Wall-Discharge Line toilets, not to mention automatic flushing, Brandon Shopper’s Mall toilets rock!. Now just imagine these are only the different ways a toilet can flush! This is a lot more complex then it used to be, that’s not even getting into things like heated or padded seats, or didets, man you don’t even need to wipe yourself! The world of toilets is endless.
We all take toilets for granted, I mean how many hours do we spend on the toilet at a time? You don’t know? Well let me tell you. An average person spends:
-10 minutes on the toilet a day
- which is 70 minutes a week
- 280 minutes a month
- 3360 minutes a year
- and 268,800 a lifetime
For all of you who are minute inclined that’s:
- 1 hour and 10 minutes a week
- 5 hours a month
- 56 hours a year
- 4480 hours a lifetime
For those of us that “drink” it is approximately 1440 minutes or 24 hours extra a year on or by the toilet! That’s an entire day! Now don’t you think we could maybe clean them for just maybe a minute longer? And perhaps give it a new name, because I’m sure it’s tired of being called Ralph. Now, I hope you have a better love for your toilet; perhaps at least you’ve given it a different name. I couldn’t imagine being urinated on so many times by the ones I love, and still getting treated like crap! If anything just please don’t think of me when you’re on the toilet, but about the toilet and how much it would rather prefer the soft 3 ply toilet paper to the 1 ply paper towel. If you can’t do that, just promise me one thing, that you WILL use a plunger, hands are just too messy. Thank you and good day.
HAPPY ST. PATTY'S DAY!!!!