Outhouses Views
The term outhouse originally referred to an outbuilding, or any small structure away from a main building, used for a variety of purposes, but mainly for activities not wanted in the main house. Outhouses are used for storage, animals, and cooking, to name a few uses. Larger structures have names such as barn, stable, woodshed, detached garage and storage shed.
In Australia this toilet is frequently referred to as a dunny[2] or thunderbox . Waste deposited in earth closets was also euphemistically referred to as nightsoil . In suburban areas not connected to the sewerage, such outhouses were not built over pits. Instead, waste was collected into large cans, or dunny-cans , which were positioned under the toilet, to be collected by contractors (or nightsoil collectors ) hired by the local council. Collected waste matter would then be removed from the premises and disposed of elsewhere. The contractors would replace the used cans with empty, cleaned cans. Until the 1970s Brisbane relied heavily on this form of sanitation.[3] See also, the discussion of Australia's Kosciuszko National Park, infra.
In soils with a fast rate of percolation such as sandy soils, or where the base of the pit penetrates topsoils and clay going directly down to underlying gravel and fractured substone, waste liquids entering the unlined pit may quickly seep deep underground before bacteria and other organisms can remove contaminants, leading to groundwater pollution. This fast percolation of liquid wastes out of the pit can be slowed or prevented in newly dug outhouses by lining the base of the pit and the walls with a layer of absorptive organic material such as a thick mat of grass clippings. This material then decomposes and becomes part of the compost pile lining the pit that continues to act as a moisture sponge.
Missouri Outhouses: Another form of vernacular, utilitarian architecture, and the focal point of much humor, especially as the presence or absence of outhouses comes to be seen as distinguishing poor from rich, backward from progressive, and elder from younger generations, or rural from urban communities.
Outhouses Images
