1
What are the four most important things for a person?
Eat and drink Lazar.
Talking about eating and drinking too much, today we talk about the last two.
The abundant supply of materials in modern civilization has greatly increased the nutritional input of human beings.
But at the same time, the output has increased.
More food will inevitably bring more grain reincarnation, just like Teacher Niu's family has to have a special fecal suction truck to clean up every day.
Not him more.
It was his family that had many rich old men.
Although human excrement is increasing, why doesn't this garbage filth turn our lives into cesspools?
Because, sewer system.
This system, and the people who maintain and build them, are the real, analists.
2
In primitive times, human beings drank blood and slept in the wind, and compared with survival, excretion (feces belong to excretion, and urine and feces are collectively referred to as "excrement" for convenience) is a problem that does not need much thought.
The grass, the river, a pull.
No one will say that you are not environmentally friendly, at most there are wolves who praise you for your good taste.
However, when humans formed tribes, "excretion" became a problem.
Fixing accommodation and limiting the scope of activity;
Living in groups leads to an increase in excrement.
The result of defecating on the ground is that the feces and urine are surrounded and the smell is foul.
So with the emergence of civilization, human beings gradually sprouted a sense of hygiene and shame, learned to excrete in a fixed place, and gave birth to the most primitive toilet - the pit.
Around 3000 BC, different civilizations such as Greece, Rome, ancient Egypt, and China built their own sanitation systems based on earth pits.
In the Ruins of the Banpo Clan in Xi'an 5,000 years ago, a pit toilet was found independently built outside the house, and it can be said that at least 5,000 years ago, the prototype of the toilet had appeared on the mainland.
This is the beginning of concentrated excretion.
India even had the prototype of a toilet that was introduced into the river to wash away the filth, but unfortunately it was not used.
What's even more regrettable is that the toilet is not left, but this habit of excreting into the river is left behind.
After drying this bowl of Ganges water, I will be An Indian in the next life.
3
With the further development of civilization, villages became cities, cities formed countries, and different countries began to derive various toilets in different eras.
In China during the Zhou Dynasty, there were "leaky wells" with wooden planks on cesspools for easy squatting, which was quite similar to the dry toilets in rural areas in the past.
At this time, the toilet is still dominated by "pits".
For convenience, many people will dig the pit large and deep so that it can be used for a longer time.
When a pit is piled up, it is buried or composted.
Then dig a new pit on the ground.
We all know that humans are creatures that are very afraid of trouble, and in order to take one less trip, humans can often create miracles to transport a large number of things at once.
So in order to be afraid of trouble, the pit is also dug very large.
But when the pit becomes larger and deeper, it brings not only convenience, but also danger.
Swimming is not a skill that everyone has.
The pit swims naked, which is even more superorganized.
The Jinjing Gong Ji Yue fell into the dung pit while going to the toilet, becoming the first monarch in history to be physically left behind for ten thousand years.
By the time of the Qin and Han dynasties, pigs had been trained and the pig pen began to be popularized.
So the ancients built toilets on the pigsty, forming a new type of toilet on the second floor of the pigsty on the first floor, known as "圂藩" and "圂圂厕所".
People pull on the top, pigs eat below, and some manure can be used as fertilizer for secondary use after being trampled and fermented by pigs.
It is green, healthy and organic, if you don't consider the feelings of pigs.
I'm sorry, but I also didn't consider how you guys felt after reading this article.
Yue, I'm a little overwhelmed too.
At the same time, Rome developed a unique "public toilet culture".
In ancient Roman culture, the bathing place was an important place of communication.
Ancient Roman public toilets were built in the style of ancient Greece, with rows of empty rooms with built-in stone slabs or wooden benches, the top of which is a hole in the bench, and below the bench is a waterway from the river.
People sit on benches to start the cycle of grain, and the fallen excrement is directly washed away by the waterway.
Going to the toilet was not a short-term job, there was no mobile phone at that time, and verbal communication was the only pastime.
Public toilets have thus become a social place.
This is normal, after all, bare-buttock fencing may enhance feelings more than bare-chested fencing.
You know, in ancient times, there was no such thing as a "compartment".
Moreover, thanks to the advanced sewage system of ancient Rome, its toilets are not as foul-smelling as the public imagines, and many public toilets also have incense to cover up odors.
Like its powerful civilization, the toilet culture of ancient Rome was first-class in the world at that time.
Even when other civilizations were still wiping their butts with leaves, dirt, and fingers, the ancient Romans used cleaning cotton swabs early and were equipped with salt water for disinfection.
(Cleaning swab)
Aside from the fact that cotton swabs are common, they are completely at the forefront of the world.
When it comes to wiping your ass, the Greeks have something to say.
Although ancient Greece did not have the luxurious toilets of ancient Rome, as one of the pioneers of Western civilization with water, the Greeks were unique in wiping their butts.
Ancient Greek toilets were often stacked with pebbles, which were used to clean the buttocks.
Smooth pebbles are a better choice than sticky sand and easily cut stones.
However, pebbles also can't solve all the problems, because they soon find out that pebbles are not enough.
That's when they think about waste utilization.
What waste?
Remember what was the first lesson in middle school about ancient Greece?
Pottery piece banishment method.
Yes, they put written pottery tablets into the toilet for human use.
Not only is it environmentally friendly, but if the pottery film has the name of your enemy, it can also provide you with additional psychological pleasure.
It's really "physically and mentally comfortable".
Of course, the pottery pieces are rough, and if you are not careful, it is not impossible to open your eyes.
It is rumored that hemorrhoids in ancient Greece were unusually popular, and it is not known whether it is related to this.
Medieval Europeans derived the corresponding toilet etiquette, "Wait for me to pick a flower" The phrase "wait for me to pick a flower" originated in medieval Europe.
At that time, there were a large number of gorgeous palaces and castles in Europe, but these palaces did not properly deal with the toilet problem at the beginning of their establishment, typical of versailles.
Due to the small number of public toilets and the lack of a perfect sewage system in the Palace of Versailles, excrement often penetrates into the walls and floors, and the toilets are foul-smelling and very poorly private.
Many people have no choice but to defecate on the ground.
The palace was a place where the children of the nobles met, and it was naturally impossible for the noble maidens to say such words as.
So the phrase "I'm going to pick a flower" was born.
You can imagine that one noble girl after another, after attending the party, walked arm in arm with the noble young master, and then the girl touched her stomach and said affectionately to the male companion next to her: I will pick a flower.
Turning around and pulling up her skirt, she ran into the garden and squatted into the grass, chatting with another noble sister in the grass next to her about which young master was more graceful at the ball.
Is it quite graphic?
Legend has it that in the gardens of the Palace of Versailles, no one fertilized all year round, but the flowers and plants were unusually dense.
Now it seems that the case has been solved.
4
In this way, ancient Greece and Rome had unique toilet facilities, and also developed a toilet culture, and even India has appeared flushing toilets early.
Are we a little bit off?
No, not bad at all.
Ancient Chinese toilet technology was quite developed.
In addition to the two-in-one "pigsty toilet", the Han Dynasty also appeared in the world's earliest flushing toilet.
In the tomb of Queen Xiao of Liang, a complete set of stone toilets was unearthed.
(Stone toilet)
Underneath the toilet is a bevel, which is convenient for pouring water to wash away, and the filth will enter the cesspool along the slope.
Considering the comfort, there are special armrests next to it, which can be said to be very professional.
In addition to toilets, the Han Dynasty also had the so-called "metropolitan toilets", that is, public toilets.
During the Tang and Song dynasties, urban culture prevailed, and public toilets became a common facility, and there were even special sanitation institutions.
The Tang Xuanzong Period's "Edict on Repairing the Streets and Qufang City" required relevant departments to rectify urban sanitation.
The Song Dynasty set up a special "Street Division" to manage sanitation workers.
In the continuous development of urban culture, toilet culture has not fallen.
During the Warring States period, a mobile toilet with a handle appeared in The country, called "Tiger Zi" (night pot).
(Eastern Han glazed pottery tiger)
Why is it called "Tiger"?
According to the "Xijing Miscellaneous Records, Volume 5, Jinshi Sense Deviation",
After the Western Han Fei general Li Guang shot crouching tiger, he ordered people to make a toilet modeled on the form of crouching tiger to show contempt for the tiger.
To kill a tiger is to be cursed.
Since then, "tiger" has become synonymous with night pots.
In the Tang Dynasty, Tang Gaozu's grandfather Li Yuan's grandfather was named "Li Hu", and in order to avoid his dignity, he renamed "Tiger Zi" to "Beast Zi" and "Horse Zi".
With the passage of time, the number of users increased, and people had a demand for feces, so its shape gradually increased and widened into a barrel shape, and people also changed its title to "toilet".
5
The toilet is really a good thing.
Compared to traditional pits, the toilet has a smaller footprint, a lighter odor, and is easy to clean.
As a result, the toilet, with its strong advantages, entered the major urban families and managed half of the human eating and drinking.
Which half depends on the diversity of human beings.
With the development of time, the toilet has also had more styles.
Wood, clay, porcelain, everything; Engraving, drawing, panel painting, a wide variety of styles.
At the same time, people began to place petals, incense wood, etc. around the toilet to remove odors, and add cushions made of silk or cotton to the rough edges of the toilet.
However, the toilet is convenient and the capacity is limited, and it needs to be poured regularly.
However, during the Tang and Song dynasties, the law strictly forbade the dumping of filth at will.
"Have to pierce the walls of the caves, to produce filth in the streets and alleys, the staff sixty."
Where there is demand, there is a market.
Professional dung workers known as "tiptoes" and "tippers" appeared.
They regularly collect toilets from their employers' homes to dump, brush and wash them, and then return them to their employers.
6
When it comes to dealing with fecal water, it must be a job that individuals can't avoid, right?
Indeed it is.
Typically represented, England and France.
In the 14th century, the English city of London had a population of about 100,000, and these 100,000 people produced up to 50 tons of garbage and excrement every day.
Moreover, medieval London did not have a developed "health system" like China at the same time.
The large amount of excrement is neither handled by a dedicated person nor responded to by the health system.
People dump feces and urine at will, and the streets of London are full of feces and urine.
At the same time, the United Kingdom is an island country with a pronounced marine climate and a thriving seafood industry.
London, as the capital of a country, is still quite wealthy.
The combination of the three has led to London's environmental problems worse on the.
The seafood market leads to a variety of fishy odors, and the rich economy promotes the development of leather, printing and dyeing, meat and other industries, bringing a large number of "industrial residues".
For example, the leather industry is full of all kinds of animal hair, grease, rotten meat, feces and urine;
The leather-making process produces a lot of pungent odors in addition to nausea.
(Leather making process)
The meat business is indispensable to street slaughter, and most British people do not eat offal.
All kinds of animal offal, hair, and bones are randomly thrown on the side of the road, mixed with sediment, dead fish, and dung piles.
All kinds of disgusting stench lingered and lingered in the streets of London like clams.
This smell is not only a magical attack, but also comes with physical effects.
Due to the humid and rainy climate in the United Kingdom, it rained continuously all day long, and the roads at that time were dirt roads.
As a result, London's roads are muddy and soft all year round, mixed with dead fish, feces and urine, and all kinds of filth.
One foot down will give you the most memorable foot massage experience.
The kind that makes you want to chop your feet off.
To this end, the British compatriots specially invented a wooden "high heel" of about twenty centimeters thick and shaped like Japanese wooden sandals, which was used to put on the outside of the shoes to prevent contamination of dirt.
The same thing happened in Paris.
Is Paris the capital of romance?
At least not then.
If you think feces and pee are romantic.
At that time in Paris, people dumped fecal water at will, and it was forbidden to throw dung from high altitudes, and the developed leather industry brought a lot of pollution.
You have to say "romantic", and the people of Paris themselves will not agree.
The poor sanitary environment led to the crazy development of various bacteria and viruses, and the Black Death quietly struck.
At that time, people did not know the principle of disease, only that the "disease factors" in the air invaded the body through the pores.
As a result, some people think that not bathing can make oil stains clogg pores and prevent diseases.
The nonsense of "not bathing to prevent the Black Death" was widely spread in Europe.
The result is simply worsening the sanitary environment.
Because no one wants to deal with these dirty things.
Fecal and urine problems have always plagued the whole West.
7
However, it is limited to the West.
Why?
Because in the East, dung is a good business.
In the summer of 1724, two Japanese villages had a dispute over the cleaning up of excrement from Osaka.
To put it simply, it is to grab the dung and fight.
But contrary to popular belief, the crux of the debate is not who is responsible for cleaning the filth, but who has the right to collect and dispose of excrement from different parts of Osaka.
Why do villagers scramble for excrement?
Because manure can be made into manure, it is used to enhance the fertility of the land and increase the output of the land.
Manure made from livestock and human manure has always been an important part of Eastern farming culture.
As early as the Warring States period, there were records of the use of manure on the mainland.
In the Western Han Dynasty Agricultural Book "Book of Victory", different manure techniques such as "base fertilizer", "topdressing" and "seed fertilizer" appeared, but there was no special name at that time.
In the Ming and Qing dynasties, manure was highly commercialized, and a representative of concentrated mixed fertilizers appeared- dung dan.
Dung Dan not only has a high fertilizer efficiency, but also has an insect-proof effect.
Shell Lang will cry when he sees it.
Many vendors sell dung dan, dung balls, and dung cakes with seeds.
Ecology is closed, family.
The efficient use of manure has greatly improved the efficiency of land output in mainland agriculture.
In the Ming Dynasty, Jiangnan's fields accounted for only 6% of the country's land, while taxes and grains accounted for more than 1/5 of the country--it was precisely because of the development of manure processing technology that Jiangnan's agricultural development was unique in the world. Source: Manure is heavier than Wanhuhou – a history of manure in ancient China
The huge role of manure in agriculture has led to manure becoming a precious resource.
Why were many public toilets in ancient times privately opened?
For convenience with people?
No, in order to get the resource.
Opening public toilets is essentially an act of white prostituting the resources of others.
Once the manure is collected, the toilet owner sells the manure to farmers in need for a profit.
In the imperial palace of the Ming and Qing dynasties, there were special clean rooms, and many palace women and eunuchs profited from it.
Because many people believe that the people in the palace eat delicious food every day, the feces are more fertile than the average person, and therefore can sell for a better price.
Fecal disposal has thus become a good business.
As fertilizer, farmers need someone to help collect manure;
As filth, residents need help cleaning up their excrement.
Both demands are concentrated on the excrement workers, and the feces are disposed of as a good job of collecting money at both ends.
Cities collect manure for cleaning, and villages sell manure to collect fertilizer money.
One life, two dollars, huge profits.
Dung collectors became a popular occupation for a while, and many people used it to make a fortune.
In the Tang Dynasty Zhang Que's "Chao Ye You Zai", it is written that there was a man named Luo Hui who became a local rich man by collecting dung.
"(Luo) will do his own thing, and his family will be rich."
Where there are huge profits, there is natural violence.
The profiteering nature of manure attracts the admission of violent organizations.
Dung collection became one of the gangsters' "franchise" industries.
The gangs are strictly divided into areas, and the feces of each household are strictly attributed.
A manure digger is rich?
No way.
Profits are always concentrated in the hands of a few.
The same is true of the dung.
The person who holds most of the profit is called "dung bully".
You read that right, it's called this.
The so-called "dung bully" is the ground snake among the dung diggers.
They occupy the right to dig up excrement in entire neighborhoods and even regions, hire excrement workers to distribute the work, and take most of the profits themselves, and the excrement collectors who work hard earn very little.
(The Dung Man in the City of Beijing in the past)
I can't protect you by picking up the toilet, and I can't feed you by putting down the toilet.
At the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the People's Republic, dung tyrants in many large cities often caused armed struggles because of the competition for territory.
Anecdotal rumors, during the Republic of China period, the number one dung bully in the capital, Yu Deshun, single-handedly dominated the dung digging power of the small half of the capital, with hundreds of real estate under his name, thousands of acres of good land, and countless dung thugs under his command, and he was the real "dung digging emperor".
Next door Japan also rolled up.
In the past, higher fertilizer prices in Japan led to a crime that now seems incomprehensible – stealing.
The word steal sounds ridiculous, but it's actually not funny.
Because those who are forced to steal are so poor that they can't even afford fertilizer.
And stealing was a felony at the time.
But even so, it still can't stop them from taking risks.
8
Why is it that the East is able to use manure efficiently, while the West abandons it?
In fact, the use of manure is also recorded in Western agriculture.
According to ancient Greek mythology, Hercules was the first to discover the role of using animal manure as fertilizer.
Many feudal lords in Europe also forced serfs to drive their livestock to their land for grazing, thereby usurping manure.
But it is basically limited to this, Western agriculture does not attach as much importance to the role of manure as its eastern counterparts, and has developed a variety of manure technologies and products.
The reasons are manifold.
On the one hand, it is a matter of way of thinking, and Eastern culture emphasizes empiricism.
Manure is a typical product of empiricism.
The West, on the other hand, places more emphasis on quantitative and qualitative certainty.
Hence the invention of fertilizers.
Another reason is the difference between different agricultural civilizations.
The European agricultural model is mainly a Mediterranean agricultural model with equal emphasis on planting and animal husbandry, and the requirements for land yield are not so high.
Spending a lot of manpower to collect manure to make manure will lead to higher production costs.
Therefore, the common practice in Europe is to use livestock manure and field crop stems for natural fattening.
The planting agriculture such as rice and wheat represented by the mainland is a labor-intensive agricultural model, and it pursues intensive farming and pursues unit output.
Even the distribution of manure use on the mainland itself shows a clear difference between agrarian agriculture and mixed agriculture.
The use of manure was generally spread to the north after a large number of uses in the south, and flourished during the Southern Song Dynasty, Ming and Qing dynasties.
Why the South?
Because the southern region is mountainous and hilly, it is mainly based on planting, and it is not suitable for the development of animal husbandry.
In the north, it is mostly a combination of animal husbandry and farming, and the technical requirements for manure are not high.
Therefore, the south has higher requirements for manure.
Why, the Song-Ming and Qing dynasties?
Because the economic center shifted south during this period, a large number of people were concentrated in the south.
More people, with higher food needs, naturally higher demands on land output, also require stronger and more powerful fertilization techniques.
Everything is inseparable from the choice of environment.
9
But no matter how efficient it is, it can't withstand the population explosion.
During the Qing Dynasty, due to the promotion of high-yield crops such as sweet potatoes and the efficient use of manure, the population began to grow explosively.
In a hundred years or so, the total population of the Qing Dynasty grew rapidly from tens of millions to more than 100 million.
By the Xianfeng period (1851), the total registered population of the country reached 431 million.
As many mouths as there are, there are asses.
Ten times the population brings ten times as much feces.
But there are only so many fields, only so many toilets, and only so many dung men.
High-yield crops can relieve the pressure of population growth, but it also means that there is no significant increase in field area and no more manure is needed.
At the same time, the population is growing too fast, resulting in infrastructure not being able to keep up, especially in cities.
More people and fewer toilets are the norm, and it is also normal for toilets and toilets to be cleaned in a timely manner.
What if no one cleans the toilet?
Upside down the street.
This is true in major cities across the country.
Wang Xitong, a famous entrepreneur at the end of the Qing Dynasty, mentioned the road conditions in Tianjin in 1898 in his "Self-Description of Suppressing Zhai":
"The filth of the roads and the narrowness of the streets are extraordinary. Residents on both sides of the river drowned, and the extract could not be opened. ”
Even the capital is not much better, according to the "Beijing Hu Comrade" record:
"In 1911, there were only 3 official public toilets and 5 private public toilets in Beijing."
Moreover, public toilets at that time were charged.
If you can pull the floor for free, no one will pull money into the toilet.
As a result, people are more accustomed to defecating on the street, and women use a urinal pot at home to pull it and then pour it on the street.
"In the Jingshi Clan, those who enter the clan will be rewarded with a dollar, so in the middle of the road, people will defecate, and women will drown in Dangqu."
Many literary works at that time had similar descriptions?
10
Remember the London we talked about earlier?
The advent of the Industrial Revolution overwhelmed Europe.
London, which had a population of 100,000 in the 14th century, surged to 2.4 million in the 19th century.
At the same time, the appearance of flush toilets has also made the situation worse on the.
The flush toilet was invented by Sir Harrington of England in 1596 and given to the Queen for use.
However, due to the loud sound when pumping, the queen was embarrassed to use this product.
It is not flattering to the royal family, and it is not good to be on the commoners.
London in the 16th century had no sewage pipes and no running water.
Flush toilets To achieve flushing, you need to connect the toilet with the sewage pipe, and once connected, the smell of the pit will go straight to the house.
Various reasons have led to people becoming more accustomed to traditional bedpans and closed toilets, and flush toilets are difficult to promote.
It wasn't until 200 years later, when Scottish watchmaker Alexander Cumming improved it and designed S-shaped pipes to seal off the stench with the help of water, allowing it to reach millions of homes.
(S-type pipe toilet designed by Alexander Cumming)
But the popularity of flush toilets has brought disaster to the city.
Why?
Because by this time, septic tanks had already been invented.
But london at the same time did not have a well-developed sewer system, and most families dug a septic tank under their own cellar to connect directly to the toilet.
The excrement and household garbage of the whole family are piled directly in the septic tank.
Even the largest septic tank has a full day, what should I do when it is full?
Two approaches.
One is to ask the excrement workers to clean up regularly, and the dung extractors will transport the manure outside the city of London and sell it to farmers as fertilizer;
The second is to allow the septic tank to grow freely, pile up and overflow into the street.
When you give people two choices, they must have in mind the reasonable one, and the one that is actually executed must be the one that is effortless.
Without him, the cost.
In those days, cleaning septic tanks was dirty, tiring, and dangerous (prone to biogas explosions), and excrement miners were a respected profession.
Respect comes from having money.
Due to the rapid expansion of London (the increase in distance from inside and outside the city) and the increasing market demand (population growth), the excrement collectors paid a lot of money.
Citizens are generally reluctant to pay high prices to hire people to take out excrement, and basically let the fecal sewage overflow from the septic tank and flow to the street at will.
At the time, it was illegal to build latrines on any river waterway in London, or to dump feces and urine without permission.
The only official way to store people's daily excrement is the oldest sewage treatment system, digging pits.
11
The soaring population has led to a sharp increase in the pressure on the municipality of London, and the speed of digging pits has not kept pace with the rate of excretion.
London authorities had to acquiesce in allowing residents to access stormwater drains to drain sewage directly into the River Thames.
Due to the advent of the Industrial Revolution, water-powered manufacturing flourished, with populations and industrial industries clustered in large numbers on both sides of the River Thames.
Countless domestic and industrial wastewater are discharged directly into the Thames.
Sewage and urine from life, paper bags of food scraps thrown away by pedestrians, animal bone residue and internal organs left over from the slaughter of butchers, and the corpses of cats, dogs and mice are all gathered in Britain's most famous river.
The entire River Thames is like a huge dump on the water.
Now everyone laughs at the Ganges, but the Thames is not much better.
This may be the will of the Commonwealth passed down from generation to generation.
The soaring urban population and the dirty urban environment have become hotbeds of disease.
Every summer, as the temperature rises, the bacteria in the feces will dance with it, and they will fly to heaven with countless British gentlemen.
Cholera broke out in 1831, killing 30,000 people in Britain within a year.
London became the capital of dung, but in fact the whole of Europe was the same at this time, and Paris, another big city with the same name as London, was not much more.
The River Thames and the Seine Go hand in hand, becoming two rivers of and urine.
Flush toilets alone are not enough.
What they need is sewers.
12
Sewers appeared much earlier than the public perception.
As early as ancient Roman times, there was a "luxurious" sewer, the Maxim sewer.
Around the 6th century BC, the Idalarians living in northern Italy built sewers leading directly to the Tiber.
The Roman Empire rose and the Idalarians were included.
They expanded the sewers, with 7 branches flowing through the city's different streets and eventually merging into the main maxim sewers.
The advanced sewer system greatly facilitated the lives of the Roman people.
In daily life, the extensive sewers play a role in sewage discharge;
When the rainstorm came, the sewers became a tool for dredging and preventing floods.
It was the existence of the sewer system that made Rome's sewage discharge no longer a problem, and the sociable Romans had the conditions to develop public toilets into entertainment places.
Rome's "toilet culture" was able to cross the river of history and is still appreciated today.
(Maxim Sewers)
Even today, 2,500 years after its completion, the sewer is still in use in modern Rome.
Envious?
Don't be envious, because ancient China also had its own sewers.
As early as the Song Dynasty 900 years ago, a magnificent underground dragon had been built in the small city of Ganzhou in southern China.
This sewer, built 900 years ago, still performs the drainage function of the daily life of the people of Ganzhou.
(Ganzhou sewer Fushougou water window)
Ganzhou's sewers, like those in Rome, are used both for domestic sewage and flood control.
Because of the existence of the underground waterway, even if there are many people in the city, they are still not trapped by filth, and even if the flood peak crosses, they still live in an orderly and happy life.
This is human wisdom.
13
Although sewers appeared very early, in fact most ancient cities did not have sewers, and basically relied on natural channels flowing through the city, surface leakage, and open-air evaporation as a drainage method.
Why did most ancient cities not have sewers?
First, there is the question of natural conditions.
In ancient times, when engineering technology was not developed, the construction of sewers relied too much on the geographical environment, such as terrain, river channels and other factors.
At the same time, ancient cities mostly did not require sewers.
Ancient cities chose mostly near water sources, and most of the road houses were mud and wooden, with strong water permeability.
In particular, northern cities like Beijing are more worried about the main "drought" than "water" when it comes to "water" problems.
Then there's the issue of cost.
Sewage has never been the primary concern of city builders, water, food, agriculture, commercial trade, etc. are the first elements.
And compared with the construction of such a huge project as the construction of sewers, the cost of natural discharge and relying on manual cleaning is negligible.
So when will the sewers start?
When urbanization reaches a certain level, pollution becomes a problem to be paid attention to.
14
The sewers, as a symbol of modern cities, also started in England and France.
Remember the story I told earlier about the smell of in London paris?
The biggest problem with feces and urine is not stink, but disease.
Feces flow into the river, and people take water from the river.
The spread of bacteria thus begins, and the breeding of clams will breed the king of clams.
So cholera came.
Six of the seven pandemics of cholera in history have occurred in the 19th century, the biggest of which was due to the poor sanitation at the time.
In the cholera that claimed 30,000 lives in 1831, the British physician John Snow statistically calculated that the source of cholera pollution was a polluted water pump on the street.
The contaminated wells and pumps were then dismantled, and the authorities asked the public not to drink raw water.
But even without drinking well water, the meagre Thames is still hanging over the heads of the British like a time bomb.
(Death on the River Thames)
They desperately need a well-developed sewerage system to deal with London's overwhelmed sanitation environment.
At this time, the British side of not being human is clearly reflected.
Even though Dr. Snow's death map has been thrown to the freckled faces of lawmakers, the disguised government remains indifferent to the dirty River Thames.
The famous engineer, Joseph Bassej, proposed the sewer construction project five times in a row, but failed to pass the review.
The Times once published an article in this regard, saying:
"We would rather risk cholera than be coerced into hygiene... The great cleaning against our will, the forcible washing of the filth of our precious treasures, is the most hated thing for man..."
Compared with the British swing, the France next door looks so clear-eyed.
15
Sanitation in Paris is almost on par with london's, but the Parisian government pays more attention to the sewer system.
The sewers of Paris date back to the 14th century.
As early as 1370, Paris built the first sewer to improve the water environment.
But as the population of Paris increases, a single sewer is difficult to meet the real needs of a huge population.
In 1832, after cholera's connection to water was discovered, the Paris authorities restarted the construction of the sewer system that had been shelved for a hundred years.
By the mid-19th century, the Paris sewer water supply and sewerage system, led by the Governor of the Seine, Haussmann, and the engineer Bergrand was the designer, was activated.
By 1878, Bergrand and his workers had built 600 kilometers of sewers for Paris.
Since then, paris's sewers have continued to extend outwards, with a total length of 2,400 kilometers.
In the movie "Rush Hour 3", the villain once said to Jackie Chan in the sewers of Paris:
"The sewers of Paris were built more than a hundred years ago, heralding the birth of the modern city."
Paris's sewer system is the benchmark for modern urban sewage and water supply systems and the pride of Parisians.
What about Paris, but what about London?
London has its own harvest.
16
In 1858, a rare high temperature struck London, and the shade was above 30 degrees Celsius.
The dry weather causes the water level to drop, and the entire River Thames is like a pot of boiled "golden soup", and the stench is rolling.
It was queen Victoria's parade ceremony, and she had planned to make a tour of the River Thames, but before she could reach the river, she was smoked and returned home.
Because it was so smelly, some citizens joked:
"To be alive after smelling it is extremely lucky!"
The suffocating smell paralyzed almost the whole of London.
This is the famous "Great Stench Event" in history.
Because the stench was unbearable, the people began to protest and denounce the stench of the Thames.
Look at people looking at you, look at the little Paris next door.
Is protest useful?
Useless.
But the stink is useful.
Since the British Parliament building is on the banks of the River Thames, it is the noble parliamentarians who are most smoked.
Heavenly path good reincarnation.
Taking advantage of this opportunity, Bassej proposed the sewers for the sixth time, and the officials who were smoked out did not set up any more checkpoints, and it took only 18 days to pass the draft law needed for the project to start construction.
In 1859, after Batherje started the construction of London's sewers, the citizens of London showed great enthusiasm and cooperation.
A large number of citizens put down their work and took the initiative to participate in voluntary labor, which greatly promoted the project process.
(Construction of london sewers)
After six years, the London sewers were officially commissioned in 1865.
Less than two years into the field, in July 1867, London received a rare heavy rain, and the torrential rain poured down.
In the face of severe tests, London's drainage system is at ease.
Problems such as sewage, flood control, and environmental sanitation were all solved on the day of its completion.
The presence of sewers has also cut off the link to epidemic transmission, leaving cholera a thing of the past.
Built 150 years ago, the sewer system has since become the main artery of London, known as "one of the seven engineering wonders of the world" and has been used ever since.
London became the first city in the world to have a well-developed sewer system.
Why not Paris?
Because London built sewers to complete faster.
This also shows that Britain is not a good person.
Obviously, the construction cost is lower, but the fire did not burn until he resolutely did not invest money.
17
After London and Paris have become models of modern cities with sewers, major cities around the world have followed suit, and sewers have become urban standards.
The popularization of urban integrated sewage system projects has finally ushered in its own era for flush toilets.
Since then, the toilet has become a symbol of public health, and sewers have become the cornerstone of modern civilization.
The manhole covers of the street, the sink in the kitchen, the floor drain in the bathroom, the toilet toilet, the gutter in the garden, all the scenes in the city are connected to each other by pipes.
The pipes that run through buildings and houses have become the veins of countless steel jungles, and the representative of modern civilization has been constructed - the city.
After that, what appears in the sewers is more than just feces.
Think about what you've thrown into your own toilet.
Urine, feces, overnight food, broken tissues, dead goldfish, used family planning supplies, and even live crocodiles have been found in sewers.
Human diversity blossoms in the dark and filthy sewers.
All the filth and secrecy, in the uncaring flow of water, is sucked into the sewage pipe with the siphon effect.
Follow the cement walls that cross into the sewers, where more filth converges and leads to the sewage treatment plant.
In sewage treatment plants, these filths are turned into solids through a series of steps such as sedimentation, filtration, dehydration, etc., or are landfilled, incinerated, or turned into fertilizer.
Although after the birth of chemical fertilizers, the role of manure is only to promote "organic".
But inefficient treatments such as fertilizer, landfill and incineration remain the ultimate attribution of most manure.
Like the classic question, even though the steam engine has been invented for hundreds of years, the way humans use energy is still "boiling water."
18
The evolution of the toilet reflects the changes in human social life from the side.
It is often thought that the ancients were stupid and blunt and did not know it, but the ancients of a thousand years ago had begun to use the geographical advantages to build sewers, and used flushing toilets and public toilets early;
Many people think that today's people are advanced and intelligent, but after a hundred years of sewer development, the way of disposing of feces still cannot escape the primitive way of landfilling and burning.
The so-called "civilization" is nothing more than a few pipes buried in the ground.
But don't underestimate these.
It is these few pipes that embody the wisdom of countless people to build our civilized society.
Contradictory?
This is human beings.
Civilized and barbaric, advanced and backward.
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【1】. Great Stink.Wikipedia.2017.11.03
【2】. John Snow.Wikipedia.2017.12.13.
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【13】. Manure is heavier than Wanhuhou: A History of Manure in Ancient China. NetEase News.
【14】. Functional Mixing and Partitioning of Medieval European Cities [J]. Shanxi Architecture 2007(35).Huang Yi.
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【16】. The secret of the Sewers of Paris: The idea of "oneness in oneness" originated in ancient Rome. People's Daily. WANG Jingtao.
【17】. Review: The 30-Year Story of China's "Toilet Revolution". Guangming Network.
【18】. Interview | Environmental Historian Donald Worcester: Historiography Should Not Marginalize the Non-Human World. The Paper.
【19】. Joseph Basserje.
【20】. The History of the Toilet: How The Pipeman Saved Civilization. [Beauty] Hotin Carter. Shanghai World Publishing Group.