Product Description

"The unsung hero of human history was, of course, the Brain of Drains, the Hub of Tubs, the Power of Showers, the Brewer of Sewers...the humble plumber." -- W. Hodding Carter

When we consider the amenities that really make a difference in our well-being, surely good plumbing must rank near the top. But rarely have we taken the time to appreciate the engineering marvels that bring clean water into our homes with the turn of a tap and the flip of a lever. Until now.

Witty, anecdotal, and thoroughly entertaining, Flushed chronicles the long and notable history of plumbing, while following Hodding Carter's travels and travails around the most underappreciated pillar of civilization. It's a winning combination of history, science, and firsthand experience -- a book that will both entertain and educate those who have never contemplated the hidden intricacies of this miracle of everyday technology.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #60953 in Books
• Published on: 2007-05-15
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 256 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780743474092
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

From Publishers Weekly
Though it's a pretty safe bet that the only people who pick up this book will be those who interested in sewage, the author's easy humor, average homeowner's point-of-view, and excitement for his subject should ensnare the casual browser. The book's also extensive: Carter, a history and nature author, discusses water-delivery and sewage systems from the height of Rome to the sewers of London to present-day Boston. Anecdotes and interviews pair well with thorough history and technical explanation, and Carter reserves a chapter to discuss the plumber himself: his profession, his training, and why, in the case of a nuclear holocaust, plumbers "will be our knights in droopy jeans." Though he can be a little too loose with the toilet-humor (chapter 12 is called "The Power of Poop"), his populist, live-and-in-color approach could make this a crossover hit.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review
If you're going down the drain, you need an expert guide, a life-plumber, if you will. Reader, Hodding Carter is your man. He's studied toilets, sloshed through metropolitan sewers around the world, and built his own pipes based on ancient Roman techniques. Carter is unfailingly good company throughout this genuinely underground history. And unlike a real plumber, you can get him when you need him -- right here, right now.

-- Will Blythe, author of To Hate Like This Is to Be Happy Forever

Review
"Witty, enlightening, and just plain fun to read."

-- Minneapolis Star Tribune

"Delightful."

-- Los Angeles Times

"Hodding Carter has enough charm to fill a toilet tank, and I don't mean the new 1.6 gallon low-flush. No one else could make me laugh heartily while reading about the miraculous lead pipes of ancient Bath.... Got to love it all."

-- Mary Roach, author of Stiff and Spook

"Carter is unfailingly good company throughout this genuinely underground history."

-- Will Blythe, author of To Hate Like This Is to Be Happy Forever

Customer Reviews

Oh what shall we do with all our poo?
Most people just don't understand
the wonder of the flush
Now here comes Hodding with his book
To get you off your tush

The Romans they used aqueducts
The French called "Garde L'eau"
London stank before they learned
to use the water flow

Where now exists a porcelain bowl
With custom seat and lever
Once plagued the mighty London town
with cholera and fever

All the people in the world
Make tons of poop each day
We never bother where it goes
Once we flush it away

We need to find efficient ways
To utilize our waste
A topic that we all ignore
And treat with much distaste

So all hail the humble plumber-guy
No joking `bout the crack
Without his help the stuff you flush
may soon be coming back

A simple, concise, funny book
the writing's off the wall
The perfect gift for homeowners
for reading in the stall


Amanda Richards, July 7, 2006

The Art and Mystery of plumbing
Carter, a "great sanitation scholar," gives us an outstanding tour of the world of plumbing; several tours, actually. One is the historical tour, from classical times to the present day and beyond. Carter goes back to the Romans, whose pipes made of lead ("plumbum" in Latin) gave us the word for plumber. The trip through time make brief stops in the dark ages, where monks railed against pagan rituals of water and washing, while quietly enjoying the highest levels of sanitation around. Carter's next historical high points come in the 18th and especially 19th century, when Europe finally recovered and surpassed the Romans' level of engineering sophistication. The story continues into today, with recent innovations like the 1.6 gallon flush, and into some truly exciting possibilities for the future of human waste processing.

Another kind of tour lets us visit the technologies of waste removal. Up until the 1800s, that largely consisted of an open window, a shouted warning to anyone passing below, and a mighty heave of the "thunder mug," which left the streets in a condition that beggars modern imagination. From there, Carter works up to the high-tech digesters that biologically decontaminate Boston's sewage stream, and to practical demonstrations of recovering energy from methane given off, or even bacterial fuels cells that generate electricity directly.

It's also a story of social progress. People live longer and fewer children die of disease spread by fecal contamination, to be sure. Carter also describes low-tech innovations in India that promise to improve the lives of the untouchable undercaste, once they are freed from the necessary but "unclean" duty of clearing away the human waste of India's hundreds of millions.

Not least, it's a story of Carter's own adventures and misadventures with the maze of pipes behind his own walls. That's part of what makes this book so enjoyable: the enthusiastic and highly personal tone of his writing. It's a summary of his wide-ranging studies in what we do with the poo, but always light and readable. I fault his research for only one small point, his neglect of the New World before the European arrival. The Aztecs built some of the world's most populous pre-technological cities and dealt with their excreta much more effectively than European cities of the same size and period. Still, it's an informative and enjoyable look at what we'd usually rather not look at.

//wiredweird, reviewing a complimentary copy

Freaky Serendipity
We were eating at Balthazar's yesterday and found this book in all places--the bathroom or the BUD (Bathing, urinating and defecating room), as Mr. Carter would have us call it. It is hilarious--had me laughing on the floor 2-3 times and chuckling out loud in bed--which is really weird since I thought it was just going to be a typical guys book. He writes about the things I've always been afraid to talk about with charm and serious understanding. I loved it. Great stuff on the dalit (untouchables) in India near the back of the book. His writing reminds me of some other author I can't remember right now that I use to love--very simple and straightforward.