h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I'd like to see a ventilated public toilet. I mean the toilet as a ceramic (or metal or wooden or any other material it may be made of) device itself, not the room as a whole. Would it not be great to have the odours removed before they could reach your nose? A well built bathroom has a functioning ventilation system attached to it. This is meant to lead off any annoying smells, surplus moisture and heat and provide fresh air. It usually works by removing air leading it through a duct and out of the building using a fan. Fresh air is provided through a crack under or over the door, through a damper in the wall etc and not by pressing air into the room using a fan as you would then have the danger of overpressure and loose control of where your contaminated air went. The problem is that for this to be effective enough you would have to suck such amounts of air out that you'd need to keep the door open to avoid a serious draught. Even with the door fully open you'd feel a strong wind and the whole business would turn quite unpleasant. And nobody wants to do that kind of business with the door open anyway.

To avoid these problems one could simply remove a small amount of air from within the toilet itself. A small volume obviously needs less air flow to maintain the same air change rate. As you would be seated on the toilet seat for the whole "contamination period" you yourself would act as a sort of lid making sure no air escaped the claws of the system. There might be a problem with drought in the openings that would naturally occur between your body and the toilet seat, but I dare say that this could in fact feel more like a tingling sensation than as an actually problem. One of the greatest benefits of such a system would perhaps be for the person next in line. It’s bad enough to deal with the smells you generate yourself. It is a totally different world when it comes to dealing with the ones your predecessor has left you. With the ventilated toilet you would no longer have to wait an hour after the last visitor to make your own visit a pleasant one.

Kjetil