Paying homage to Mr Thomas J Crapper
- Thread starter Jim Trebowski
- Start date
Daniel Rosenshine
Guest
As far as I thought chamber pots weren't used for number one or two either. I thought they were used for water, i.e. such as washing in the morning, hands, face, teeth ........ but I could be way off.
Daniel.
Daniel.
Tracy Smith
Member
You're thinking of a large pitcher usually set inside of a large bowl. A chamber pot is a different breed of "animal" altogether.
Jim Trebowski
Guest
LMAO!!!Yes indeed. Daniel, if your brushing you teeth in your chamber pot, I'll bet you've stopped now!! You might be thinking about the basins in second class, where they didnt have fresh running water per se, but the steward would fill up a tank located above the basin, then you could fill up the basin at your leisure, using a spigot. When finished, you tipped the basin , and the used water would be collected in a tank below.
Jim Kalafus
Member
Private facilities were limited to the special suites on B deck and, if my recall is correct, a number of the C deck suites as well. As for "chamber pot etiquette," it is seemingly a lost art and hard to research. I would assume that given the large number of public rest rooms in First Class it probably wasn't much of an issue there, or in Second. What the mechanics of the operation in Third Class consisted of is probably best left to the imagination.
Michael H. Standart
Member
Wow, this is the best laugh I've had all day! Using a chamber pot for brushing ones teeth. Lawd ha' mercy! This would bring a novel definition to the concept of talking s**t! It least one wouldn't have to worry about anybody crowding one's personal space.
Cordially,
Michael H. Standart
Cordially,
Michael H. Standart
Shelley Dziedzic
Member
Don't forget slop jars! Those are the bigger taller vessels with handles and chamber pots were emptied in those. When I was a kiddie, they were put out on the roof , open, to "bleach out" in the sun. I also remember outhouses my dears- way down South. Both species of pots were recovered from Titanic.
Jim Kalafus
Member
I hope that the cabin stewards were well tipped.
Katie Sharrocks
Guest
I've looked on the deck plans and there are quite a few "WC's throughout the ship. They are marked Ladies WC or Gentlemens WC Some of the suites would have had private bathrooms.
Emily Bisignano
Guest
I'm one of those people that also wonder about that weird stuff on the Titanic. There were actually only 2 baths for the 700 3rd class cabins. There were also cigar holders in the 1st class bathrooms-that's a new one
I don't know how you could share a bathroom with a complete stranger. But then again, people only bathed about twice a week. I can barely stand sharing my bathroom with my brothers as it is
Stacie Crowther
Guest
Steerage was not well endowed as far as the crapper/shower thing is concerned. There were only 2 tubs for how many passengers. PEEEYEW.Imagine how filthy and disgusting it must have been. I think that is unfair to do to humans.
Eric Sauder
Member
"I think that is unfair to do to humans."
What one should remember is the personal hygiene was not the same at the turn of the last century as it is now. Many people in steerage had never seen indoor plumbing, let alone a flush toilet or a bathtub with running water. For example, in her third-class lavatories, Lusitania had self-flushing toilets in case the steerage passengers didn't what to do when they were done....
I don't think most third-class passengers on Olympic/Titanic even noticed the lack of bathing facilities. Most only washed once a week, if that, and almost never in a bathtub. Remember the scene in "My Fair Lady" in which Eliza didn't want to undress and get in the bathtub because she would "catch her death"? That's because many people were conviced that getting into a bathtub and wetting oneself all over would lead to all sorts of deadly diseases. Of course, we look at that now and know it's ridiculous, but then it was a very serious matter, especially with the state of medical care at the time.
Eric Sauder
What one should remember is the personal hygiene was not the same at the turn of the last century as it is now. Many people in steerage had never seen indoor plumbing, let alone a flush toilet or a bathtub with running water. For example, in her third-class lavatories, Lusitania had self-flushing toilets in case the steerage passengers didn't what to do when they were done....
I don't think most third-class passengers on Olympic/Titanic even noticed the lack of bathing facilities. Most only washed once a week, if that, and almost never in a bathtub. Remember the scene in "My Fair Lady" in which Eliza didn't want to undress and get in the bathtub because she would "catch her death"? That's because many people were conviced that getting into a bathtub and wetting oneself all over would lead to all sorts of deadly diseases. Of course, we look at that now and know it's ridiculous, but then it was a very serious matter, especially with the state of medical care at the time.
Eric Sauder
Geoff Whitfield
Member
In case anyone didn't know, the Olympic's third class lavatories and cubicles are in the old Crown Paint factory in Northumberland.
So what's wrong in washing once per week? Cook doesn't do it that often and he's never come to any harm!
So what's wrong in washing once per week? Cook doesn't do it that often and he's never come to any harm!
Geoff Whitfield
Member
Shelly my dear, do you remember the old Yorkshire privies? I'm not suggesting you've used one but may have seen some abandoned ones over here.
For those "ablutionally un-informed" members out there, during the nineteenth century, way before and even the first couple of years of the twentieth century, many rural houses (especially tied cottages - these were owned by the estate and either leased to its workers or given as grace and favour property) Many of these cottages were built in rows of half a dozen or so and without indoor sanitation. At the bottom of the garden would be a small building containing the toilet, or in the case of linked cottages - toilets - which consisted of a long platform which had six or seven holes cut out, one for each cottage. It was common especially first thing in the morning, for each of these "perches" to be occupied with various people all sitting together on the one platform (getting to know the neighbours must have had a different meaning then!) very often there was not even a cistern and chain so everything went into the stream over which the toilets had been built!
I had a great great aunt who lived for a while in one of these cottages and she told us that it was a common occurrence for the women to monopolise the toilets for a gossip, some even taking their knitting with them!
For those "ablutionally un-informed" members out there, during the nineteenth century, way before and even the first couple of years of the twentieth century, many rural houses (especially tied cottages - these were owned by the estate and either leased to its workers or given as grace and favour property) Many of these cottages were built in rows of half a dozen or so and without indoor sanitation. At the bottom of the garden would be a small building containing the toilet, or in the case of linked cottages - toilets - which consisted of a long platform which had six or seven holes cut out, one for each cottage. It was common especially first thing in the morning, for each of these "perches" to be occupied with various people all sitting together on the one platform (getting to know the neighbours must have had a different meaning then!) very often there was not even a cistern and chain so everything went into the stream over which the toilets had been built!
I had a great great aunt who lived for a while in one of these cottages and she told us that it was a common occurrence for the women to monopolise the toilets for a gossip, some even taking their knitting with them!
Does anyone, other than me, think we may have skipped over a few priorities in our conversations to get here?
But while we're here, wasn't it either the English or the French who gave us the phrase, "performing one's toilette"? I know several times I read this in Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories; it means, as I have come to believe in these cases, shaving and general freshening up maintenance.
Also, one G. Whitfield has suggested that I don't bathe once a week and I wish to say this is simply not true. I DO bathe one a week...when I can.
As ever,
Cook
But while we're here, wasn't it either the English or the French who gave us the phrase, "performing one's toilette"? I know several times I read this in Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories; it means, as I have come to believe in these cases, shaving and general freshening up maintenance.
Also, one G. Whitfield has suggested that I don't bathe once a week and I wish to say this is simply not true. I DO bathe one a week...when I can.
As ever,
Cook
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