From the first beginnings of human civilization until today, man has constantly discovered, researched and found something.
About a million years ago, it was fire, not as an invention of man, but as a discovery of what he could use it for.
Some discoveries brought mankind progress and improvement of living conditions:
the invention of the Wheel 5000BC, Clock 3500BC, Soap 2800BC, Ice cream 2000BC, Steel 1800BC, Compass 200BC, Paper 105 AD, Telescope 1607, Microscope 1624, Camera 1826...
Some of these inventions are cited as the start of industrial revolutions:
Invention Steam engines and the first locomotives in 1804 (First Industrial Revolution), the invention of Electricity and the first Electric motor in 1834, the Telephone in 1861 and the Car in 1885 (II Industrial Revolution), then the invention of Radio in 1895, Airplanes in 1903, Television in 1931, Computers in 1941 and the Internet in 1983 (III Industrial Revolution)
Until today, the IV industrial revolution, when Smart phones were created in 1992, Cryptocurrencies 2009, Autopilot (IoT) 2017 and ChatGPT 2022.
Some of the discoveries did not bring humanity anything good, like Alcohol discovered in 7000BC, Gunpowder in 900 (although galenkp would not agree with me 😀), and I am not sure how much good the discovery of Cloning in 1996 or Artificial Intelligence will bring us.
But one of the inventions, Toilet with cistern from 1596, is in my opinion one of the inventions with the most universal design.
Right on topic:
What do you think is brilliant in design, form or function?
What we learned as young scouts, when we find ourselves in the wilderness, we first fix the shelter, after that we find drinking water and some food, and immediately after that, a little further from the place where we sleep, we dig a deeper hole, over which we place two boards, on which we can stand when defecating.
That's how it is in the wild.
When you are in some rural areas, the toilet was most often a wooden object with a hole in the floor or, as in ancient times, in a shared public toilet, a stone slab or board with a round hole on which one could sit and perform the necessary action in the company of other men or women.
We have a saying for toilets. It is the place where "The Emperor goes on foot".
Either on two boards, on a squat or on a board or stone with a hole. Or the toilet bowl as we know it today (like in these pictures).
When we moved toilets into our homes, the invention of the toilet as we know it today was necessary.
Today, toilet bowls are found in a large number of households, in public buildings, hotels... Wherever you go, if you feel like going to the toilet, you can enter a toilet and look for a free bowl.
And why do I mention the toilet bowl as brilliant in design, form or function?
Because there are 8 billion people (ie, asses) in this world today, and all of them could fit comfortably on a single toilet bowl.
A universal design that fits every ass, in any shape, whether with an external or built-in cistern, floor or wall, the toilet bowl has a unique functionality, taking the natural product of our body out of the space in which we live.
As such, the toilet bowl is also used in sayings, so you can hear when talking about a couple of two people who match each other in everything that they are: "Like an ass and a toilet bowl" 🙂
