[HN Gopher] RIP WC
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RIP WC
Author : translocator
Score : 100 points
Date : 2023-02-19 07:56 UTC (15 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (thebeautyoftransport.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (thebeautyoftransport.com)
| einpoklum wrote:
| Cheap, generic, ultra-mass-produced and under-designed (or crap-
| designed) seems to be the order of business these days.
| needle0 wrote:
| Despite all the renovation, the newly installed 2023 toilets
| don't look that different from the ones it replaced.
|
| Electronic bidet toilets should really be the norm by now. Sad
| that the expectations haven't changed.
| chris_wot wrote:
| What this shows is just how important it is to get photos of as
| many local places as you can in your area and upload them to
| Wikimedia Commons. I've been doing this and have been making a
| solid attempt at documenting South West Sydney (focusing on the
| City of Liverpool currently).
|
| You can see the results via Wikishootme:
|
| https://wikishootme.toolforge.org/#lat=-33.918668614845444&l...
| m463 wrote:
| I remember using a rustic toilet in the french countryside. it
| was basically two porcelain footprints and a hole.
| userbinator wrote:
| You could go back in time 90 years and toilets and sinks would
| still have basically the same UX as today, although IMHO it feels
| like there's something indescribably more artistic about early
| plumbing fixtures.
| londons_explore wrote:
| Old stuff is cool, but we shouldn't keep old things around just
| for the sake of it.
|
| Old stuff tends to be harder to maintain, not meet modern
| expectations, be less energy efficient, be incompatible with
| newer things, potentially toxic or dangerous, etc.
|
| If you plan to actually _use_ the old stuff, then it will
| gradually wear out, and the expense of repairing a crack in a 100
| year old thing tends to be higher than repairing /replacing
| something modern.
| hnlmorg wrote:
| I appreciate you're making a generalisation rather than stating
| a fact, but a lot of your points could just as easily be untrue
| as they are correct. It really depend on the item.
|
| For example a lot of older stuff can be easier to maintain if
| the modern counterpart has some kind of electronic part that
| wasn't in the original. And plenty of modern things aren't made
| with the same longevity as older things.
|
| > not meet modern expectations
|
| I don't see that as reason not to use old stuff in itself. If
| you're changing something purely because of fashion then that's
| a terrible reason to get rid of something older. But if there
| is another measurable differentiator then I'd see _that_ as the
| reason rather than "expectations".
|
| I guess my point here isn't that I disagree with you per se,
| just that I'd be weary of citing "expectations" without
| breaking down what those expectations are (in any particular
| case).
|
| > be less energy efficient
|
| We also need to be careful here too because the impact of
| manufacturing and shipping new things, plus the impact of
| disposing old things might still work out greater than the
| impact of using that older thing for longer.
|
| > and the expense of repairing a crack in a 100 year old thing
| tends to be higher than repairing/replacing something modern.
|
| I've owned plenty of modern things that were impossible to
| repair once they developed a small crack. And things that
| should be easier to repair than they are because they
| manufactures have decided they don't want people fixing their
| own stuff.
| eps wrote:
| There is also the legendary "unofficial website of the paid
| public toilet on Grabin's street of the city of Korolev" that has
| been around since 2001.
|
| http://arch.ksys.ru/tualet.html
|
| Translated: https://arch-ksys-
| ru.translate.goog/tualet.html?_x_tr_sch=ht...
| ElfinTrousers wrote:
| I will note that down for the next time I'm in this part of
| Korolev and need a toilet. Once was enough.
| londons_explore wrote:
| I once visited a house nobody had lived in for 70 years. It had
| an occasional caretaker, but pretty much everything in the house
| was original and 70+ years old.
|
| Normally when you see old things, they are old and worn out,
| scratched, not-really-working, etc. However because this house
| was pretty much untouched for 70 years, everything was still in
| near-new condition, working well, looking smart, etc.
|
| There was even a record player, classic AM radio, gas powered
| lights (and some electric ones too), lots of kitchen gadgets for
| peeling every vegetable imaginable, etc.
|
| It felt like I was living in a 1940's film!
| smcl wrote:
| If you liked these there's also a cool set of Victorian era
| toilets in Rothesay on the Isle of Bute:
| https://www.britainexpress.com/scotland/Bute/rothesays-victo...
|
| As I was scanning the page to make sure it had a couple of nice
| photos I even learned something - the origin of the slang
| "steaming" for being drunk ("Davey was steamin' last night..."):
|
| Why were there originally only male toilets?
|
| The answer begins in 1853, when a law was passed banning the sale
| of alcohol in Scotland on Sundays. However, paddle steamers were
| exempt from this ban. The result ought to have been predictable;
| Scots intent on a drink took to 'steaming', which became popular
| slang for getting drunk.
| Dalewyn wrote:
| But why were there originally only male toilets?
|
| I can't imagine not a single lady didn't go a steamin'.
| smcl wrote:
| You'd think so eh, that would certainly be the case nowadays.
| distcs wrote:
| Pictures of urinals was not what I was expecting on HN on a
| bright Sunday morning but fantastic article!
| ben_w wrote:
| Even more surprising for me, as Havant was my home town until
| university -- that station was my main way of travelling to and
| from family right up until my mother's Alzheimer's (a few years
| after my father's death) meant she had to move out.
|
| Whenever Havant pops up like this, my reaction is surprise that
| it's relevant on more than a local stage.
| mynegation wrote:
| I get the nostalgia about mosaic and all, but these open-style
| urinals is literally stuff of my nightmares. I am from a
| backwater town in then second world country and those urinals and
| latrines in public toilets made them filthy and stinking to high
| heavens. Not the worst of childhood traumas but I still have a
| recurring night dream of going into a public toilet and not
| finding a single approachable spot.
| derbOac wrote:
| I think the question usually with these situations is can they
| be renovated in a way that retains the aesthetic or positive
| features of the original while addressing problems? In this
| case just hypothetically it might have meant keeping the urinal
| style but extending dividers downward, or spacing or something.
| But it would have necessitated custom work and some design
| problem solving.
| andyjohnson0 wrote:
| These recently reatored art deco toilets in Paris look very
| smart:
|
| https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/feb/18/restored-paris...
|
| And the toilets near the old Humber ferry pier in my home city of
| Hull are pretty impressive:
|
| https://www.hulldailymail.co.uk/whats-on/whats-on-news/lonel...
|
| Unlike the ones in Paris, I've had the pleasure of visiting
| these.
| _a_a_a_ wrote:
| Old urinals in the midlands (UK) had a bumble bee emblem you
| could aim at, but why a bee espcially, seemed odd. Later found
| out. In latin Bee = Apis. Hilarous innit.
|
| Edit - wikipedia's even got an article on these
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urinal_target
| memsom wrote:
| I live locally and have used those toilets a number of times. I
| can't say I'd be sad for improvement as they were pretty grim.
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(page generated 2023-02-19 23:02 UTC)