[Vwoolf] E.C.?? An article from 1869 about earth closets

Wed Jul 10 08:51:53 EDT 2024

https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/earth-closets/__;!!KGKeukY!1H8jdRHzbu370O3kZbTyzIZowlOl4H-3wy4AOyibZd4nnUA8oKfC32g1PNcu7mFg9iZ778ZIosnrMFZKOBQlqx7Wjd0-$ 
This article was originally published with the title “Earth Closets” in Scientific American Magazine Vol. 20 No. 20
(May 1869), p. 313
doi:10.1038/scientificamerican05151869-313b
The water closet, although a very convenient and almost indispensable appendage to a first-class residence, is open to many objections, arising from carelessness in its management, freezing of pipes, etc., which are too well known to need specification. The earth closet, improved as it has been already, and doubtless will be, is destined, if we mistake not, to prove a formidable rival to the water closet. The general principle which gives value to the earth closet is the power of earth to deodorize decaying and decomposed organic matters. This is due partly to its absorbent power upon gaseous compounds, and partly to chemical reaction, between the substances of which earth is composed and the offensive matters. The absorbent power of earth upon effluvia has been long known. In rural districts the practice of burying clothes to rid them of smell caused by too intimate contact with that personally disagreeable, but to hop-growers exceedingly useful little animal, the skunk, is a common practice. It is well known that excrementitious matters, covered with dry earth, are not only completely deodorized, but form the most valuable of all known fertilizers. The mechanical construction of earth closets, as they are now made, is such, that by a very simple movement, matters deposited therein are instantaneously covered with a layer of dry earth, and, thus deodorized, may be removed with as little offense or trouble as ashes. The plan is commendable in many points of view. On shipboard its introduction would obviate the most intolerable nuisance,. In hospitals it would greatly promote the health and comfort of both patients and their attendants. It is equally applicable to dwelling houses, wherever situated, and under any circumstances whatever, and is as applicable to a commode as to a room set apart for the purpose. It removes all danger of the impregnation of wells with excrementitious matters, an accident now of frequent occurrence, and the cause of frightful epidemics. Its universal adoption would lessen the demand upon the water supply of cities to a very large extent—an important consideration. It can be made convenient in use, and lastly, but not by any means least, such a system might be made to restore to lands the large amount of valuable fertilizing matters which now flow through the sewers of seaboard towns to contaminate the water for miles around. The value of this now wasted sewerage is enormous. It may be estimated in millions annually. Engineers have racked their brains to devise some means of utilizing this waste; it seems to us that the earth closet is the true method for its accomplishment. Not that we believe the Principle has been yet wrought out to perfection, but that it is capable of being applied so as to cover all the requirements of the case. Our attention was first called to this subject by the perfect absence of smell, and the superior cleanliness of the earth closets of the Oneida Community, an association which, whatever its errors of belief, is not open to any criticism on the score of cleanliness. These closets are daily cleaned, without inconvenience, by simply drawing away the earth and deodorized matter with the receptacle allotted to them, and replacing it by another. The compost is used on their lands, and is considered an extremely valuable manure. We are glad to see that public attention is being directed to this matter on both sides of the Atlantic, and we trust the subject will be discussed, and the matter tested until its merits are fully established, A patent is pending at the Patent Office now on a very ingenious earth closet, the invention of an Englishman. As soon as the patent issues we shall probably illustrate the subject in these columns.
[Scientific American Magazine Vol 20 Issue 20]<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.scientificamerican.com/issue/sa/1869/05-15/__;!!KGKeukY!1H8jdRHzbu370O3kZbTyzIZowlOl4H-3wy4AOyibZd4nnUA8oKfC32g1PNcu7mFg9iZ778ZIosnrMFZKOBQlq_-sQR_8$ >This article was originally published with the title “Earth Closets” in Scientific American Magazine Vol. 20 No. 20 (May 1869), p. 313
doi:10.1038/scientificamerican05151869-313b

Vara Neverow
(she/her/hers)
Professor, English Department
Editor, Virginia Woolf Miscellany
Southern Connecticut State University
New Haven, CT 06515
203-392-6717
neverowv1 at southernct.edu

I acknowledge that Southern Connecticut State University was built on traditional territory of the indigenous peoples and nations of the Paugussett and Quinnipiac peoples.

Recent Publications:

Lead editor, Virginia Woolf: Critical and Primary Sources (Bloomsbury, 2020; with Jeanne Dubino, Kathryn Simpson, and Gill Lowe); Editor, Volume One, 1975-1984, Virginia Woolf: Critical and Primary Sources (Bloomsbury, 2020); Co-editor, The Edinburgh Companion to Virginia Woolf and Contemporary Global Literature (Edinburgh, 2020; with Jeanne Dubino, Paulina Pająk, Catherine Hollis, and Celiese Lypka)

________________________________
From: Vwoolf <vwoolf-bounces at lists.osu.edu> on behalf of mark.travis--- via Vwoolf <vwoolf at lists.osu.edu>
Sent: Tuesday, July 9, 2024 5:07 PM
To: vwoolf at lists.osu.edu <vwoolf at lists.osu.edu>; Stuart N. Clarke <stuart.n.clarke at btinternet.com>
Subject: Re: [Vwoolf] E.C.??

Commonly known in the USA as an outhouse.

Mark Scott
Very Common Reader (who has used a few of them in my day)

On Tuesday, July 9, 2024 at 12:27:10 PM PDT, Stuart N. Clarke via Vwoolf <vwoolf at lists.osu.edu> wrote:

I have just remembered that I was told by someone perhaps 10+ years older
than I that when she graduated from her DipEd in NSW, she was (compulsorily)
sent out to the bush (i.e. into the country) on her first school posting,
and the first thing she had to do was dig a latrine trench.  For how many I
don't know.

Stuart

-----Original Message-----
From: Stuart N. Clarke via Vwoolf
Sent: Tuesday, July 9, 2024 7:47 PM
To: Edward Mendelson ; vwoolf at lists.osu.edu<mailto:vwoolf at lists.osu.edu>
Subject: Re: [Vwoolf] E.C.??

An EC is an earth closet.  I've used one, or at least some repellent version
of one.

Stuart

-----Original Message-----
From: Edward Mendelson via Vwoolf
Sent: Tuesday, July 9, 2024 7:35 PM
To: vwoolf at lists.osu.edu<mailto:vwoolf at lists.osu.edu>
Subject: [Vwoolf] E.C.??

Virginia Woolf at least twice writes in her diary about an “E.C.” where the
sense seems to call for “W.C.”:

3 July 1919: "Nor is there hot water, nor a bath, & as for the E.C. I was
never shown it.”

1 October 1920: “execrable weather, no bath, one servant, & an E.C. down a
winding glade.”

Am I misinterpreting E.C.? Does the E. perhaps stand for “eau”? Is there a
private joke in which the “W” written sideways as an “E”? Am I missing the
point entirely?

Enlightenment will be gratefully received.

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