Sear SilkMuse: There was indeed a Brit plumber named Crapper, but he did not invent the flush toilet. We had a source for that information. For the hell of it, I'll look for it and add it to this.

Here's the URL, and also a lot of stuff worth browsing. Six articles about plumbing in antiquity!

I learned something I did not know before, from the article on plumbing in Babylon. It is a very fine, very informative article. I had always thought that when straw was used for making unfired bricks, it was used as long stems. Instead, the article says it was finely chopped. I am not sure why this was the preferred method. Maybe it somehow kept bricks from developing cracks as they dried.

http://www.theplumber.com/crapper.html Thanks, SilkMuse!

we've had several threads devoted to funny names-- and there are always, more-- so no, i am not calling a YART!

last night, Jay Leno did a segment on "headlines" and some marriage announcements, like the same sex union, two women, headlined in the local paper as Titti-Graeber.

you can look up the tonightshow web page and find more..

Sparteye used to have a good eye for them..

i knew a Judy Flynn, who married a Bill Stewdy and became Judy Stewdy.. any wonder the marriage didn't last?

i don't think Mr Titsling existed.. but funny names do!
and there is even a word for someone who's hobby is collecting funny names!

In the very beginning of the history of plumbing in Egypt, I found something I did not know before'

"The name Egypt means "Two Lands," reflecting the two separate kingdoms of Upper and
Lower prehistoric Egypt - Delta region in the north and a long length of sandstone and
limestone in the south. "

A new word I don't remember seeing before:

"It is here in Egypt that the noria or Egyptian wheel became a common use. As in
Mesopotamia, it consisted of a chain pump comprising a number of earthen pots carried
round and round by a wheel. "

"When anyone reflects on ancient Egypt today, the Great Pyramid of Cheops and its
staggering dimensions invariably are brought to mind: It stands 481 ft. high and contains 2
million blocks of yellowish limestone. Each block weights 2.5 tons, was quarried miles away,
floated on barges, and dragged from the shores of the Nile to its present site."

A long time ago, I posted about a French chemist named Davidovitz, who specializes in chemistry of such things as cement, who wrote a book which entirely convinced me that the blocks of the Great Pyramid were not quarried and laboriously lifted up hundreds of feet from the river below, but made from a form of something similar to cement, and cast in molds in situ. Unfortunately, few archaeologists believe him.
But I could not find anything improbable in his arguments. If anyone is interested, PM me, and I will try to see if any of his stuff is still on Internet. Unfortunately Yahoo drops things after a few years.

"A Traveler's Treat: More ritual than hygienic, it was considered good manners for a host to offer his
guest the services of his bathroom after a dusty and arduous journey. Ah, the joys of being treated by a
winsome slave girl as she scraped his skin of perspiration and dirt with an iron utensil! Ah, the shock
when she completed her work with a good dousing of cold water from an urn setting on a stand nearby!
(As a rule, the Greeks much preferred sponges, oils, scrapers and rinses over the type of soap available at
that time. Perhaps it was no wonder, for Grecian soap was manufactured from a combination of goat fat
and ashes.) "

A long time ago, I posted the name of the scraper the Greeks used to remove sweat and dirt before bathin after exercise. It is called "strigil".

Edit, this is in responce to It is here in Egypt that the noria or Egyptian wheel became a common use.

the AMNH (natural history museum) has a sample one.. that is sealed inside an exhibit, but has a push button that powers it so you can see how it works.. (hall of African peoples)

they were designed to lift water 10 to 20 inches, (to life higher, they had series of them, lifting water up the terraced banks... for irriagation.. On the deep side (lower) the pots lips would be under water. as the came round, they hit an embankment, and were force to turn 90 degrees, and now spilled the water out, into a trough at a higher level. they were used before archimedites invented the water screw.

"A free citizen would bathe at three significant times in his life: at birth, marriage and after death. To assure
a long and happy life, for example, a bride would bathe in water taken from a fountain with nine pipes,
called Calirrhoe. In Athens, the Calirrhoe fountain was also the principal source of water supply, for the
most part conveyed by a conduit which brought the water in from the river Illisius.

The whole of the original is well worth reading.

"From the city's inception, its lifeline of water depended solely on hidden wells and
underground cisterns. Fed by underground streams, the Gihon Spring on Jerusalem's
eastern slope was the ancient city's only source of water at that end. Depending on die
season, die spring could supply water to the city once or of time. The Gihon also irrigated the
surrounding fields and gardens through several open canals along what is known as the
Kidron riverbed. "

"About the late 8th Century B.C., King Hezekiel of Judah authorized the excavation of a new
tunnel even further away to access water to the city, store the supply in an underground
pool, and hide the entrance of the spring. In his attempt to thwart a possible Assyrian siege
of the city, the tunnel would become one of the earliest examples of daring engineering
feats. "

re: for Grecian soap was manufactured from a combination of goat fat and ashes.

lots of soap is made this way.. cold water poured over cold wood ash will give you a mild lye, heated and mixed with melted fat, you have lye soap.. it the proportions are not right, not all the lye is neutralized.. Yawwsa!

Infants are stilled cleaned with oil, and wiping it off, and i was directed to groom my babies 'craddle cap' a dry dandruff like condition, by rubbing with well with oil and very, very gently srcapping with a wooden tongue depresser. it worked too!