Toilet seat
Encyclopedia
Flush toilet
A flush toilet is a toilet that disposes of human waste by using water to flush it through a drainpipe to another location. Flushing mechanisms are found more often on western toilets , but many squat toilets also are made for automated flushing...
. A toilet seat consists of the seat itself, which may be contoured for the user to sit on, and the lid, which covers the toilet when it is not in use.
If the toilet is located in a home bathroom, when the lid is down it can serve as a place to sit while one is cutting toenails, drying ones feet after a bath or shower, etc.
The seat is usually lifted during a male's standing urination
Urination
Urination, also known as micturition, voiding, peeing, weeing, pissing, and more rarely, emiction, is the ejection of urine from the urinary bladder through the urethra to the outside of the body. In healthy humans the process of urination is under voluntary control...
, or when cleaning the toilet.
Etiquette
While males are used to raising the seat, females are not. Females do not typically raise the seat for anything other than cleaning. A toilet seat tab can be used to alleviate this problem by reminding males to put it down for females and makes it cleaner and easier to lift/lower the seat.Another line of reasoning holds that the appearance of the toilet, and by extension the bathroom, is best when the toilet lid is down. In some cultures, this is the best rule of conduct because then both male and female must equally handle the lid and/or the seat in order to use the toilet for any reason; while it not only appears more aesthetic it also makes way for a level of equality between the sexes: the male is not alone in having to lift the seat and/or the lid before using the toilet because with the lid always down, both male and female will have to lift the lid in order to achieve access. Culturally, this more aesthetically pleasing to their users.
The toilet seat lid can be placed down prior to flushing to reduce the spread of bacteria through the air onto other items in the room. This reduces the chances of other articles in the room (e.g., toothbrushes) becoming contaminated by said bacteria.
Styles
They are manufactured in a range of different styles and colors and they may come matching the style of the toilet itself. They may be built to fit the shape of the toilet bowl; two examples of this being the elongated bowl and the regular bowl. The price of toilet seats varies quite considerably.Some metal toilets, such as those in many jail
Jail
A jail is a short-term detention facility in the United States and Canada.Jail may also refer to:In entertainment:*Jail , a 1966 Malayalam movie*Jail , a 2009 Bollywood movie...
s and prison
Prison
A prison is a place in which people are physically confined and, usually, deprived of a range of personal freedoms. Imprisonment or incarceration is a legal penalty that may be imposed by the state for the commission of a crime...
s, have built-in toilet seats that do not lift, so that the inmate cannot fashion it into a weapon or escape tool.
Some are made of various types of fancy wooden materials, like oak
Oak
An oak is a tree or shrub in the genus Quercus , of which about 600 species exist. "Oak" may also appear in the names of species in related genera, notably Lithocarpus...
or walnut
Walnut
Juglans is a plant genus of the family Juglandaceae, the seeds of which are known as walnuts. They are deciduous trees, 10–40 meters tall , with pinnate leaves 200–900 millimetres long , with 5–25 leaflets; the shoots have chambered pith, a character shared with the wingnuts , but not the hickories...
, and others are made soft for added comfort. At various times, printed seats, with multi-colored designs, such as floral or newsprint, have been fashionable.
Open front toilet seats
In the United States, Uniform Plumbing Code Section 409.2.2 requires an open front seat: "All water closet seats, except those within dwelling units or for private use, shall be of the open front type."One school of thought believes the gap in the open front reduces the amount of urine that lands on the seat if it is not lifted, as most of the urine will land in the gap. Another thought is that the gap exists so that the genitalia of one user cannot contact the seat and therefore possibly spread disease to a subsequent user if their genitals contact the same area. A third, and more progressive school of thought, concludes that the "U" Shape of public toilet seats can be attributed to ergonomical concerns of seated users.
Toilet seats found in homes and homelike settings generally have fully circular seats with no gap (closed front).
Commercial use
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, the toilet seats commonly seen in public washrooms
Washroom
A public toilet is a room or small building containing one or more toilets and possibly also urinals which is available for use by the general public, or in a broader meaning of "public", by customers of other...
are designed differently in order to ensure better sanitation
Sanitation
Sanitation is the hygienic means of promoting health through prevention of human contact with the hazards of wastes. Hazards can be either physical, microbiological, biological or chemical agents of disease. Wastes that can cause health problems are human and animal feces, solid wastes, domestic...
. They are usually made with a gap in the front-center and no cover, which reduces the amount of spatter and eases the job of cleaning for janitorial staff
Custodians
The Custodians is terminology in the Bahá'í Faith, which refers to nine Hands of the Cause assigned specifically to work at the Bahá'í World Centre in attendance to the Guardian of the Faith...
. They can be either white or black, with frequency of one color versus the other varying by region and sometimes regulated by the jurisdiction's laws.
Despite these safety features, the toilet may be contaminated with fecal particles
Feces
Feces, faeces, or fæces is a waste product from an animal's digestive tract expelled through the anus or cloaca during defecation.-Etymology:...
, urine
Urine
Urine is a typically sterile liquid by-product of the body that is secreted by the kidneys through a process called urination and excreted through the urethra. Cellular metabolism generates numerous by-products, many rich in nitrogen, that require elimination from the bloodstream...
, semen
Semen
Semen is an organic fluid, also known as seminal fluid, that may contain spermatozoa. It is secreted by the gonads and other sexual organs of male or hermaphroditic animals and can fertilize female ova...
, and other related germs.
Outside the United States and Canada, most toilet seats in washrooms appear just like those found in private homes in the country.
Outhouses and portapotties
The toilet seats in the portapottiesChemical toilet
A chemical toilet is a toilet which uses chemicals to deodorize the waste instead of simply storing it in a hole, or piping it away to a sewage treatment plant. Common types include aircraft lavatory, some passenger train toilets and the portable toilets used on construction sites and at large...
tend to be black U-shaped-open-front with a cover. The toilet seats in outhouse
Pit toilet
A pit toilet is a dry toilet system which collects human excrement in a large container and range from a simple slit trench to more elaborate systems with ventilation. They are more often used in rural and wilderness areas as well as in much of the developing world...
s however tend to be white U-shaped-open-front with a cover.
Modern design, electronic integration and function
The 21st century has seen a new wave of toilet seats introduced, for both style and technology. High tech toilet seats sometimes include a large number of features, including a bidetBidet
A bidet is a low-mounted plumbing fixture or type of sink intended for washing the genitalia, inner buttocks, and anus. It was originally a French word.-History:...
, a blow drier, and a heated seat.
That particular technology is most common in Japan, where it is colloquially called the Washlet
Washlet
is a registered trademark of the Japanese toilet company Toto, referring to electric toilet seats with water spray feature for washing. While it is commonplace at toilets in Japan, the term washlet may be used colloquially to refer to non-Toto seats with comparable features. The washing feature...
.
Humor
The toilet seat functions as a comic staple for sight gags relating to toilet humor. The most common is someone staggering out of a bathroom after an explosion with a toilet seat around his neck. In the television show Dead Like MeDead Like Me
Dead Like Me was an American-Canadian comedy-drama television series starring Ellen Muth and Mandy Patinkin as grim reapers who reside and work in Seattle, Washington. Filmed in Vancouver, British Columbia, the show was created by Bryan Fuller for the Showtime network, where it ran for two seasons...
, George Lass, the main character, is killed when a zero-G toilet seat from space station Mir
Mir
Mir was a space station operated in low Earth orbit from 1986 to 2001, at first by the Soviet Union and then by Russia. Assembled in orbit from 1986 to 1996, Mir was the first modular space station and had a greater mass than that of any previous spacecraft, holding the record for the...
re-enters the atmosphere.
United States
- American StandardAmerican Standard BrandsAmerican Standard Brands is a closely held manufacturer of plumbing fixtures, sold under the American Standard, Crane, Fiat, Sanymetal, Showerite and Eljer brand names, based in Piscataway Township, New Jersey, United States. It is principally owned by Sun Capital Partners with Bain Capital...
- BemisBemis Manufacturing CompanyThe Bemis Manufacturing Company is based in Sheboygan Falls, Wisconsin and is best known for its toilet seat products. Bemis also manufactures suction canisters, sharps containers, gas caps, gauges, fluid management systems, and various contracted plastic parts from extrusion and injection molding...
- Beneke
- Centoco
- Church
- Eljer
- Gerber
- KohlerKohler Company'The Kohler Company is a manufacturing company in Kohler, Wisconsin best known for its plumbing products. Kohler also manufactures furniture, cabinetry, tile, engines, and generators.-History:...
- Mayfair
- Murray
- Olsonite
- Sperzel
- (StandardAmerican Standard BrandsAmerican Standard Brands is a closely held manufacturer of plumbing fixtures, sold under the American Standard, Crane, Fiat, Sanymetal, Showerite and Eljer brand names, based in Piscataway Township, New Jersey, United States. It is principally owned by Sun Capital Partners with Bain Capital...
) - Westport
U.S. Navy's "$600 Toilet Seat"
The P-3C Orion antisubmarine aircraft went into service in 1962. Twenty-five years later it was determined that the toilet shroud, the cover that fits over the toilet, needed replacement. Since the airplane was out of production this would require new tooling to produce. These on-board toilets required a uniquely shaped, molded fiberglass shroud that had to satisfy specifications for vibration resistance, weight, and durability. The molds had to be specially made, as it had been decades since their original production. The price reflected the design work and the cost of the equipment to manufacture them. Lockheed Corp. charged $34,560 for 54 toilet covers, or $640 each.President Reagan held a televised news conference in 1987, where he held up one of these shrouds and stated: "We didn't buy any $600 toilet seat. We bought a $600 molded plastic cover for the entire toilet system." A Pentagon spokesman, Glenn Flood stated, "The original price we were charged was $640, not just for a toilet seat, but for the large molded plastic assembly covering the entire seat, tank and full toilet assembly. The seat itself cost $9 and some cents.… The supplier charged too much, and we had the amount corrected." The president of Lockheed at the time, Lawrence Kitchen, adjusted to the price to $100 each and returned $29,165. "This action is intended to put to rest an artificial issue," Kitchen stated.