By Hottie Potty
Posted in The Porta Potty Blog, on May 24, 2016
Potty Girl offers clarification for the evolving word play on going to the potty or toilet. We offer many choices for rental, delivery, and servicing flushing portable toilets and restroom trailers, but there is more history behind this.
When would you be interested in the restroom, lavatory, toilet, loo, water closet, bathroom or washroom? With so many choices which is the right one?
The usage of public facilities predates privacy back to Egyptian times. Washing your body was done in a washroom or bath house and the toilet was separate. Latrines were invented to give a sanitary solution to the growing population back in 2500 B.C. Those public toilets had stone seats that were built above channels of water. The user could use a bucket of water to flush into the system of pipes. Voila!!
The first patent for the flushing water closet was actually issued to Alexander Cummings in 1775. It wasn’t a perfected solution and the loo continued to be refined to the marvel it is today. In fact, outhouses were used in the United States before World War I and the flush toilet did not gain popularity until after American troops came home from England. Now public toilets are configured in buildings, train stations, concert halls, parks and airports. Mandatory by law for public sanitation, public restrooms are an essential need for a building’s infrastructure.
North America is divided because if you need to use the restroom you would be directed to the toilet even through it sounds crass to an American to use the word toilet. Needing a place to wash up? In Canada the job would be in a washroom and in the United States we call it the bathroom. While in Asia, you can forget about using a porcelain throne, squat potties are the norm in most Asian countries.
If you were in the UK and asked directions to the restroom don’t be surprised if your response is “there is no place to rest in the toilet”. Toilet is the term used in England or if you are more informal, loo would be appropriate. If you needed facilities equipped with a bathtub or changing station for a baby, it’s a bathroom or a washroom.
Portable potties are a hygienic convenience when you're at outdoor events. Potty Girl’s portable toilets and restroom trailers take care of the job when you need to go.
