Ubiquity is dedicated to helping professionals (computer scientists) and informed laymen better imagine and understand the future of computing. “Extraordinary Ordinary Things” is dedicated to bringing to mind truly world-transforming things that have become so embedded in daily life that we scarcely even notice them. These two ideas may seem to be rather far apart, if not incongruous. In reality, they are quite close together, almost like conjoined twins. Computers today underly virtually everything that makes up the modern world, either directly, but most often indirectly, by how they permit commercial, cultural, and scientific ideas to be converted into life-altering products and services.
Extraordinary!
One of my fondest memories of childhood (I was born in 1942) was taking a bath. I loved snuggling down in the bathtub, being completely covered with water and imagining swimming in the Pacific Ocean just a few blocks away from where I lived in Los Angeles. However, as I grew, this pleasure became denied to me because the bathtub was too small for me as an 11- or 12-year-old child to fully immerse myself. The bathtub had become too short for me to comfortably stretch out and the sides were too low to fully immerse myself without water overflowing the side.
I lived in three different houses while growing up in Los Angeles and found the bathtubs all had the same flaws. And, when we traveled, the bathtubs in the hotels and motels where we stayed presented the same difficulties.
In 1965 after graduating from UCLA, I joined the U.S. Peace Corps, then a new government agency providing development assistance to developing countries around the globe. I was assigned to be a teacher in Tanzania. My group’s first stop was a three-day training session in Nairobi, capital of Kenya.
As you might imagine, everyone was eager for a night on the town in order to get the feel of truly being somewhere else in the world. Everyone but me. I stayed in the hotel. Why? I had discovered that the hotel had bathtubs that seemed to be about the size of small swimming pools. I just couldn’t resist. I filled the tub and then snuggled down to enjoy the incomparable pleasure of luxuriating in the warm, caressing water without having to scrunch my legs up to my chin or having to hang them over the side.
The second and third nights, I of course did go out with my friends to get a feeling of what East Africa was all about.
We then moved on to Dar es Salaam, then the capital of Tanzania. Again, the bathtub in the hotel was spacious and comfortable, and again I luxuriated. Three days later, I was sent to my post, an elementary boarding school in the bush of the country’s Central Plains. There was no electricity (we used kerosene lanterns), no running water (we pulled it in buckets out of wells (which then had to be filtered and boiled to remove mud and other contaminants). And certainly, no bathtubs. Maintaining personal hygiene meant heating up water in a 20-liter jerrycan over an open wood fire, lathering up, then pouting the contents of the can over one’s head to wash off.
I don’t know whether the size of bathtubs is a reflection of a country’s culture. What I do know is that some years later I worked in London and discovered that all the bathtubs I encountered there were also like small swimming pools, ideal for luxuriating in the warm, soapy water. I now live in Brussels, where all the bathtubs I have encountered are small and cramped. I can’t remember the last time I had a truly satisfying bath.
Aside from my very personal predilection (which I imagine must be shared by numerous other persons), the bathtub merits our attention because of its long history (back to prehistoric times), its historical influence on human history, and the new developments that are just over the horizon. I therefore believe the bathtub very much deserves to take a place of honor on the list of what I like to call “extraordinary ordinary things.”
A Brief History of the Bathtub
Some people are fond of saying that the history of the bathtub accurately mirrors the development of civilization over the centuries and even millennia. But just what is a bathtub?
Of course, we all know—or think we do. However, like virtually every other modern mass-produced product, the people who design, manufacture, distribute, and sell bathtubs have very specific definitions. We won’t go into this. Suffice it to say one widely consulted source, Wikipedia, describes a bathtub as description is “a container for holding water in which a person or animals may bathe.” Animals? Yes, in the broadest sense of the term, animals also take baths.
Bathing, i.e. the practice of immersing oneself in water, probably dates back to prehistoric times when early man discovered it just felt better to be clean than to be encrusted with dirt. However, it took millennia before this revelation became translated into practical application.
Early plumbing systems can be traced back 6,000 years, whereas early bathtubs can be traced back only about 3,000 years. The progression goes something like this.
From 27 BCE to 476 AD
The Roman Empire was a period of substantial cultural advancement and enlightenment, as anyone familiar with the sardonically funny “What did the Romans ever do for us?” sketch in the iconic 1979 Monty Python film “The Life of Brian” surely already knows.
Principal among these benefits were sanitation and personal health. Public baths were very common. They frequently included rooms. The public baths themselves resembled large swimming pools. Baths were taken in three stages in three different “tubs”— warm, hot, and finally cold to cool off before getting dressed to leave.
Public baths were of course for the hoi polloi (common people), the elites used private baths the size of a small pool with adjacent smaller rooms for further washing.
Europe and the Plague
The fall of the Roman Empire also led to the fall of previous important notions of public sanitation and personal hygiene. Public baths disappeared, along with a weakening of the idea of personal hygiene. People still bathed themselves, but in local estuaries and streams, However, with the decline of public pathways, access to these water sources became more and more difficult. Likewise, streams and estuaries become filled with increasing amounts of refuse and waste, thus contaminating water used for washing and cooking.
While inconvenient to people living in the countryside, such conditions became disastrous for those living in increasingly crowded and increasingly unsanitary cities. With the coming of the Bubonic Plague (Black Death) in the mid-14th century, the ravages caused by lack of public sanitation and personal hygiene reached its acme. It’s estimated that in the period roughly from 1346–1353, almost one third of Europe’s population was wiped out, which led to attempts to improve public sanitation; however, widespread use of indoor plumbing did not become widespread until the 19th century, some 500 years later.
A Toilet for a Courtier
In 1599 Englishman Sir John Harrington invented the first fully functioning toilet, which he installed in his residence. Although highly rudimentary, Harrington’s toilet demonstrated that it was possible to dispose of waste properly. He subsequently made numerous improvements, even constructing one for Queen Elizabeth the First. Despite this royal endorsement, the book he later published on the subject got him banished from court. Nevertheless, over the next 200 years, his writings would help generate significant improvements on his basic design, resulting in the invention of the water closet that would become the foundation for the modern toilet.
Authors’s note: Water closet or WC are the commonly used terms for the toilet by Brits and other people across Europe. They are seldom used in the United States, where a toilet is just a toilet. (Or can, commode, head, john, little boys'/little girls' room, potty, oval office, privy, throne, etc.)
America Invents the Bathtub
It may seem contradictory to say the bathtub was invented in the United States after having pointed out that they have existed at least since the Roman Empire. But those were for public baths. What is generally considered to be a bathtub today, meaning a container for only one person (or perhaps two if you are lucky) to soak and clean oneself really hadn’t existed before.
In the 1800s, the U.S. began importing cast iron pipes from England that were used to significantly improve the quality of plumbing in individual American homes. Seeing an opportunity in the new material, in 1800 John Michael Kohler (Sheboygan, Wisconsin) created a cast iron horse trough with four decorative feet and covered in an enamel finish. The market responded, so the Kohler Company made the necessary investments to refine and market the invention. As a result, the bathtub rapidly became common in American households all across the country and Kohler became a global name in bath and kitchen fixture manufacturing.
Evolution of the Bathtub
Following the First World War, America saw a boom in urban construction, requiring innovation in bathtub design. One such innovation was the apron-front drop-in bathtub, which was ubiquitous in modern home from 1930 to 1950. Typically, crafted from acrylic and fiberglass, these bathtubs were easier to install, use, and maintain than previous bathtubs. But the choice was still quite limited. Today, you can find bathtubs in any shape or size one might wish, as well as free-standing or built into a wall, with classic or modern motifs, etc.
It is safe to say that as bathtubs continue to evolve with the integration of technology to address personal preferences and environmental concerns, what will the bathtub of the future look like?
Author's note: One of the criticisms of AI writing systems (ChatGPT, Bard; Threads, etc.) is that they draw their information from biased sources. In particular, sources with a Western cultural bias. I didn't use any of these amazing instruments in writing this blog. I gather information in the "old way", i.e. via the internet. To my chagrin, I found no matter what terms I put into a search engine, the results talked exclusively about the history of the bathtub in Europe and North America. Even when I looked for "history of bathtubs in non-Western cultures" or more explicitly "history of the bathtub + China", I came up empty-handed. At least for this particular subject, the criticism seems to be valid.
The Bathtub that Changed the World
How could a bathtub have changed the world? Well, actually it didn’t. But the man who was sitting in it did, with the bathtub (or at least the water in the bathtub) playing a crucial supporting role.
This, of course, is the world-famous story of Archimedes (287-212 BCE) leaping out of his bathtub in Ancient Greece, then running naked through the streets of Syracuse shouting “Eureka!” “Eureka!” because he had just discovered the principle of displacement of water. But did it ever really happen?
The local tyrant contracts the ancient Greek polymath Archimedes (287–212 BCE) to detect fraud in the manufacture of a golden crown. Said tyrant, by the name of Hiero, suspects his goldsmith of leaving out some measure of gold and replacing it with silver in a wreath dedicated to the gods.
Archimedes accepts the challenge and, during a subsequent trip to the public baths, realizes that the more his body sinks into the water, the more water is displaced— making the displaced water an exact measure of his volume. Because gold weighs more than silver, he reasons that a crown mixed with silver would have to be bulkier to reach the same weight as one composed only of gold; therefore it would displace more water than its pure gold counterpart.
Realizing he has hit upon a solution, the young Greek math whiz leaps out of the bath and rushes home naked crying “Eureka! Eureka!” Or, translated: ” I’ve found it! I’ve found it!” . . .
Too bad, then, that Archimedes probably never uttered the phrase in that way.
First and foremost, Archimedes himself never wrote about this episode, although he spent plenty of time detailing the laws of buoyancy and the lever (prompting him to reputedly pronounce: “Give me a place to stand and I will move the earth“), calculating the ratio of circles we know as pi, and starting along the path to the integral calculus that would not be invented for another 2,000 years, among other mathematical, engineering, and physical feats.
Biello goes on to cite other reasons for believing that this incident, so indelibly imprinted on scientific folklore, could not be true. He then concludes:
Much like Newton’s apple, the exclamation persists because of the enduring power of the story: a golden crown, a life in the balance, a naked mathematician. Archimedes was a font of both mathematical insight and smart quotes as well as the hero of some really great stories. (One credits him with the invention of the death ray—actually an array of mirrors to focus sunlight—to set fire to an invading Roman fleet.) The suspect foundations of the eureka moment take nothing away from the word’s ability to uniquely and concisely convey the flash of inspiration.
Why Is A Bathroom Called a Bathroom?
According to the famous Joni Mitchell pop song “Big Yellow Taxi” (1970),
“Don’t it always seem to go
That you don’t know what you got ’til it’s gone?”
In other words, many things are so much a part of our lives that we simply don’t ever notice them—until they aren’t.
Growing up in Los Angeles in the 1950s, to me the term “bathroom” meant a room containing a bathtub, a showerhead over the tub, and a toilet. I never imagined anything else; indeed, it never occurred to me that there could be anything else.
I now live in Brussels. Here, the bathroom fits its name, a room for taking a bath (or shower). The toilet is in a separate room, often referred to as “the smallest room in the house.” When I was first introduced to this arrangement, it just didn’t seem to be right. Worse, it just didn’t seem to be “normal.” Going into a bathroom could be for numerous purposes, e.g. wash one’s hands, comb one’s hair, put on make-up, brush one’s teeth, etc. Going into a toilet is generally for only one purpose, not to be mentioned in polite company.
There are legitimate pros and cons for including a toilet in a bathroom, or for separating them because of their two very different reasons for their existence. Indeed, by embarrassment, the purpose of a toilet is often hidden by resorting to euphemisms. For example, throughout much of Europe and elsewhere where British English holds sway, the toilet is generally referred to as the WC (water closet). In public locations, toilets are often referred to as “restrooms,” which in one case in my experience led to a rather amusing outcome. In a major hotel in Dar-es-Salaam, the former capital of Tanzania, the sign outside the facility showed the conventional term restroom in English along with the Swahili translation, which literally meant ” room for resting.” With very few exceptions, the vast majority of people do not go into a restroom to rest. Quite the contrary!
There are numerous other euphemisms for toilet, e.g. (?)(?) head, john, loo, potty, privy, throne, etc.
The Great Bathtub Hoax
H. L. (Henry Louis) Mencken was an iconic American journalist, essayist, satirist, and social critic of the early- to middle-20th century. He was such a persuasive writer that sometimes his satire got somewhat out of hand. Such was the case of what has come to be known as “The Great Bathtub Hoax.”
In an article published in 1917, Mencken claimed that when bathtubs were introduced into the United States nearly eight decades earlier, some people found them to be “undemocratic,” “decadent,” or even “unhealthy.”
Among the improbable “facts” Mencken recounted were:
- The cities of Boston and Philadelphia tried to ban bathing ostensibly based on health concerns. However, Mencken argued the real reason was about income. Since only the rich could afford bathtubs, the less well-off were inherently hostile to them.
- President Millard Fillmore (1850-53), a devotee of taking baths, installed a bathtub at the White House. This audacious, self-serving act rekindled the controversy over the bathtub’s social implications. Opponents, Mencken said, made much of the fact that there was no bathtub at Mount Vernon (home of Goerge Washington), or at Monticello (home of Thomas Jefferson), and that presidents and other “magnificoes” of the past never needed such “monarchical luxuries.”
Mencken didn’t fabricate his article just to be malicious (he wasn’t that kind of person).
In 2016 Libby Nelson, a journalist and editor with Inside Higher Ed, Politico, and Vox wrote an article analyzing the origin and purpose of Menchen’s hoax. The following text (highly abridged) is what she had to say:
Mencken had made the whole thing up, partly for entertainment during the bleak days of World War I, but also to make a point about how quickly a lie can become conventional wisdom.
That’s a lesson that still feels relevant 99 years later. And it shows that false “facts” went viral and news stories were aggregated and passed along long before Twitter, or chain emails, or the internet, or even the concept of a virus itself.
Long before the internet made aggregation commonplace, it was common practice for newspapers to repeat each other’s articles. Stories that proved to be popular continued to be reprinted because they were popular . . . so Mencken’s story started to spread, accepted as if it were true.
Eight years after the article was published, Mencken confessed. He’d made the whole thing up. “All I care to do today is to reiterate, in the most solemn and awful terms, that my history of the bathtub, printed on December 28, 1917, was pure buncombe,” he wrote. “If there were any facts in it they got there accidentally and against my design. But today the tale is in the encyclopedias. History, said a great American soothsayer (a reference to Henry Ford), is bunk.”
The lessons of the bathtub story are still true. Mencken claims he didn’t know this would happen, and that he found the bathtub story patently ridiculous when he wrote it. But just as people today get outraged about stories that are meant as satire, somebody always ends up falling for it.
That hasn’t changed. We’re just better at quantifying the phenomenon. A study published in “PLOS One” (a peer-reviewed online scientific journal) recently found that it takes seven times longer to debunk a false rumor on Twitter than to prove a true one.
Mencken was making a point not just about silly rumors or satirical jokes, but about history itself, and how quickly a statement goes from word of mouth to conventional wisdom.
In the inimitable words of Mark Twain, “A lie can travel halfway around the world before the truth can get its boots on.”
Authors' note: To avoid further circulating what may be a false fact, it should be admitted that it is hard to find any evidence that Mark Twain actually ever said this. However, Twain or not, whoever did say it clearly knew what they were talking about.
Quotations about Bathtubs
You can often learn a lot about the impact of an invention on society by listening to what people have said about its evolution and integration into daily life. Here are a number of quotations about the bathtub to prove the point.
“Nothing changes instantaneously: in a gradually heating bathtub you’d be boiled to death before you knew it.”—Margaret Atwood
“My parents didn’t like me. For bathtub toys, they gave me a blender and a transistor radio.”—Rodney Dangerfield
“We were so poor we had no hot water. But it didn’t matter because we had no bathtub to put it in any way.”—Tom Dreesen
“Every man has a right to a Saturday night bath.”—Lyndon B. Johnson
“I thought of the nameless inventor of the bathtub. I was somehow sure it was a woman. And was the inventor of the bathtub plug a man?”—Erica Jong
“Writing fiction, especially a long work of fiction, can be a difficult, lonely job; it’s like crossing the Atlantic Ocean in a bathtub.”—Stephen King
“The only way I’d be caught without makeup is if my radio fell in the bathtub while I was taking a bath and electrocuted me and I was in between makeup at home. I hope my husband would slap a little lipstick on me before he took me to the morgue.”—Dolly Parton
“I thoroughly enjoy a good hot bath. That is my ultimate luxury.”—Michelle Yeoh
The Bathtubs of the Future
The bathtub of the future cannot be separated from the bathroom of the future. Most of the people researching and designing tomorrow’s bathtubs generally consider the bathtub to be an integral part of the bathroom as a whole. In other words, bathtubs are increasingly being viewed not as stand-alone products, but as an integral part of a complex interactive system.
Here are some of the features predicted for the bathtubs of the future. Some of these may already be available in very high-end (very expensive) current models but will almost certainly be standard on future models to become available over the next 5 to 10 years.
Turning Your Bathtub Into a Computer
At least one kind of bathtub could be considered a type of computer itself. Why? Because when soaking in a bathtub some people simply can’t stand the thought of being without their phones and laptops. I don’t understand because it seems to go diametrically against the very purpose of soaking in a bath, i.e. to forget the world for a while in order to luxuriate and unwind in the warm, soothing water. However, there are such people, and bath technology innovators have not shunned them.
In 2013 researchers from the University of Electro-Communications, Tokyo developed a bathtub display system known as AquaTop using a Microsoft Kinect camera and a projector mounted above the tub. The system additionally featured a pair of waterproof speakers and a PC to create an “immersive touchscreen” out of the surface of the bath water.
Automating Temperature Control
A consistent water temperature is essential to taking an enjoyable and relaxing bath. With automated thermostat temperature control, smart bathtubs and shower systems are great bathroom tech ideas that can provide just that.
- Smart thermostat
A smart thermostat can be integrated into the heating system of whirlpool tubs to adjust the water temperature as needed. This allows for precise water temperature control, ensuring it stays at the desired level throughout the bath. Bathroom tech ideas can also include smart shower systems that utilize similar technology.
- Temperature sensors
Temperature sensors can detect changes in the water temperature of whirlpool tubs and smart bathtubs and adjust accordingly. These sensors are typically located near the drain or intake valve of the bathtub. They work by measuring the temperature of the incoming water and comparing it to the set point established by the user, ensuring a comfortable and safe temperature.
- Heated surfaces
Smart bathtubs are designed to enhance your bathing experience by providing warm water and heated surfaces, such as backrests or armrests. These features ensure you can enjoy your bath for extended periods without feeling uncomfortable due to cold surfaces.
- Smart home systems
Smart home systems can be programmed to set specific water temperatures for different users on bathtubs, whirlpool tubs, and showers. For example, one user may prefer their bathwater at 38 degrees Celsius (100 degrees Fahrenheit) while another person may prefer a temperature of 40° C (104° F). The smart home system remembers each user’s preference and adjusts the water temperature accordingly. Moreover, the system will ensure that the water remains at the desired temperature throughout the bath. No need to reheat the water halfway through. As a bonus, maintaining a consistent water temperature through automated temperature control reduces the risk of scalding or burns from hot spots in the water while bathing.
Self-cleaning Technology for Your Tub
Self-cleaning features have become increasingly popular in smart bathtubs. Sensors detect when cleaning is necessary and eliminate the need for manual scrubbing and harsh chemicals. Self-cleaning bathtubs also have a water recycler to ensure efficient water usage while the user is soaking.
- Advanced sensors for optimal cleaning
Smart self-cleaning technology uses advanced sensors to detect when cleaning is necessary. Such sensors can detect dirt, grime, and other particles that may accumulate on the surface of the bathtub over time. Once detected, a cleaning cycle is automatically triggered to remove potentially dangerous debris or bacteria.
- Elimination of harsh chemicals
Traditional cleaning products can be dangerous to human health and harmful to the environment. Using self-cleaning technology reduces exposure to these hazardous substances.
- Maintaining hygiene
Harmful microorganisms such as bacteria thrive in warm, moist environments such as the bathroom. Self-cleaning technology ensures that the bathtub and shower remain free from such harmful microorganisms by automatically eliminating them as soon as they are detected.
Chromotherapy Lighting
Chromatherapy, also known as color therapy, uses LED lights to create a range of colors that can affect mood and promote relaxation during shower or bath time.
Chromatherapy lighting can be used with aromatherapy and radiant floor heating to create a spa-like atmosphere in the smart bathroom. Combining these features can help reduce stress and anxiety, improve circulation, and promote better sleep.
Smart bathtubs with chemotherapy lighting can be customized to the user’s preferred light color and light intensity Blue light is known for its calming effects, reducing stress levels. Green light promotes balance and harmony, ideal for unwinding after a long day. Red light stimulates energy levels, while yellow light enhances mental clarity, etc.
Built-in Speakers
Many people today feel that being without their smartphone or tablet is like being without one of their arms. Built-in speakers provide seamless wireless audio connectivity without worry of water damage.
Hydrotherapy Jets
Powerful hydrotherapy (massage) jets provide a relaxing and therapeutic experience that can help reduce stress, improve circulation, and soothe sore muscles. The jets are strategically placed throughout the bathtub to target specific body areas such as the back, neck, shoulders, and feet. Additionally, the pressure of the jets can be individually adjusted, allowing users to achieve exactly the individual massage effect they desire.
Digital Control Panel
The digital control panel permits easy control of smart bathtub features. For example, the digitally controlled valve system allows the user to adjust water temperature, pressure, and flow rate with just a touch of a button. If pressing buttons is deemed impractical (e.g. due to a physical handicap) or deemed just too much trouble (e.g. for the outrageously lazy), voice commands can turn the water facet on and off and adjust the water temperature without touching any buttons.
Adjustable Privacy Glass
A privacy glass is a glace structure put in front of the bathtub to shield it from the rest of the bathroom for people who like to feel a bit secluded. Being adjustable, the privacy glass allows the person in the bathtub to effortlessly adjust the opacity of the glass to ensure maximum privacy when someone else enters the bathroom.
Smart Scale
Using built-in sensors, the smart scale feature of the smart bathtub permits the user to effortlessly monitor their weight. In sync with a smartphone app, the user can track weight change over time. Such data permits users to periodically make adjustments to their weight control program, thus ensuring that they do not inadvertently drift too far away from the weight control goals.
Power Reserve
Power outages when someone is taking a bath, but they can happen. Smart bathtubs can be equipped with reserve backup batteries that last up to four hours. Catastrophe avoided. Guaranteed peace of mind.
These extraordinary features of some current high-end bathtubs (and soon features of virtually all bathtubs) are only the tip of the iceberg. What will come next is hard to imagine. But whatever the future holds for the bathtub, it is almost certain that it will be imaginative and surprising. And completely certain that computers and computer science will play a key role.
