An outhouse, (also known as a privy, kybo, jakes or earth-closet) usually refers to a type of toilet in a small structure separate from the main building which does not have a flush or sewer attached.
Terminology
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 or stable.
In North American English, an outhouse (sometimes also called a backhouse) is now a small enclosure around a pit that is used as a toilet. Other names include "shitter", the "crapper", the "john", the "pool", the "bank", the "one-holer", the "two-holer" (for the more affluent and effluent) and more. One example had four large holes, and one child-sized. [[1]]
Brisbane, in Australia was largely unsewered until the early 1970s, with many suburbs having outhouses behind each house
In Australia the outdoor toilet is frequently referred to as a "dunny" or "thunderbox", or more euphemistically as "earth closets", to distinguish them from water closets, or flush toilets. Waste deposited in earth closets was also euphemistically referred to as "nightsoil". In suburban areas not connected to 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.
The term "kybo" is popular within the Scout Movement worldwide. The word is believed by some to have originated as an acronym for "Keep Your Bowels Open" although there is some possibility that it is a backronym. The term "kybo" may have originated at the Farm and Wilderness Camps in Vermont where it came from the coffee cans (Kybo brand coffee) that held the lye or more often lime used to keep odor to a minimum. It was only after Kybo coffee was no longer available and the cans were no longer used that folks began to come up with other possible reasons for the term "kybo". An interesting aside is that toilet Paper is often referred to as "Kybo Tape".
The term biffy is sometimes encountered in the context of U.S. Girl Scouting, and may have originated with the "BFI" logo of what was at one time Browning-Ferris Industries (now part of Allied Waste Industries), a waste collection company whose trade lines in some markets include the servicing of portable toilets. An alternate explanation: when backpackers prepare a cathole or trench latrine in their overnight campsite (even embellishing it with fresh-cut flowers), they call it the BIFF - Bathroom In Forest Floor. A backpacking group will carry a zip-lock bag with a trowel, toilet paper, and a lighter (to burn the used tissue); this bag is known as "the BIFF key".
Kybos are firmly woven into the lore of RAGBRAI, the Register's Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa. Although Kybo portable toilets were eventually replaced by other brands, the term "kybo" is still commonly used. "Kybo Roulette", in which riders waiting in line guess which toilet door will open next, is a common and celebrated diversion on the ride. See external link below to view "Adopt-A-Kybo" humor piece.
In Brazil, specially in rural areas of Rio Grande do Sul, an outhouse is often called patente.
On August 29, 2007, the highest outhouse in the continental United States — which sat atop Mount Whitney at about 14,494 feet (4,418 m) above sea level, offering a magnificent panorama to the user — was removed. Two other outhouses, in the Inyo National Forest, will be closed within the year. All were closed due to the expense and danger involved in transporting out large sewage drums via helicopter. The annual 19,000 or so hikers of the Mount Whitney trail, who must pick up National Forest Service permits, are now given Wagbags (a double-sealed sanitation kit) and told how to use them. "Pack it in; pack it out" is the new watchword. [[2]] Solar powered toilets did not sufficiently compact the excrement, and the systems were judged failures at that location. Additionally, by relieving park rangers of latrine duty, they were better able to concentrate on primary ranger duties, e.g., talking to hikers. [[3]]
Outhouses vary in design and construction. Common features usually include:
A separate structure from the main dwelling, close enough to allow easy access, but far enough to minimize smell.
Being a suitable distance away from any freshwater well, so as to minimize risk of contamination.
A feature which distinguishes an outhouse from other forms of toilets is the lack of connection to plumbing, sewer, or septic system.
Walls and a roof for privacy and to shield the user from the elements -- rain, wind, sleet and snow (depending on locale) and thus to a small degree, cold weather. Floor plans typically are rectangular or square, but hexagonal outhouses have been built.[[4]] Thomas Jefferson designed and built a brick octagon at his vacation home.[[5]]
Having a door, in conventional representations decorated with a small crescentmoon-shaped hole, a source for both air for ventilation and a modicum of light. [6]. The significance of the moon has never been fully explained. In Germany, a heart-shaped hole is traditional. According to a frequently-forwarded claim, at some point, inns began offering "his" and "hers" outhouses.[citation needed] But because most people were illiterate, symbols were used on the outhouses to show which was "his" and which was "hers". Pictures of the sun and moon were the obvious choice. From ancient times, the "sun" had been a symbol of all that was masculine and the "moon" of all that was feminine.[citation needed] The lack of evidence for segregated facilities, the relative rarity of moons, and the total absence of a star-moon contrast in datable photographs prior to the mid-twentieth century cast doubt on the claim, [7]An outhouse exterior as does the appearance of a wide variety of vent-shapes, including the card-pips (diamonds, hearts, clubs), and simple circles.
In Western societies, there is at least one seat with a hole in it, above a small pit.
In Eastern societies, there is a hole in the floor, over which the user crouches.
Sometimes having a roll of toilet paper available. Catalogs from retailers specializing in mail order purchases, such as the Montgomery Ward or Sears Roebuck catalog, were also common before toilet paper was widely available, often kept in a can or other container to protect it from mice, etc. Old corn cobs, leaves, or other paper was also used.
Outhouses are commonly humble and utilitarian, made of lumber or plywood. This is especially fit so they can easily be moved if the earthen pit fills up. However, brick outhouses are known.picture needed Some have been surprisingly ornate, almost opulent considering the time and the place.[[8]] For example, an opulent 19th Century antebellum example (a three-holer) is at the plantation area at the State Park in Stone Mountain, Georgia.[9] Such outhouses are sometimes considered to be overbuilt, impractical and ostentatious, giving rise to the metaphor "built like a brick shit house." That phrase's meaning and application is subject to some debate; but (depending upon the country) it has been applied to men, women, or inanimate objects.
A modern analog is the "Clivus Multrum", which is an electric and waterless poop-eating compost-making machine.
Outhouses are common throughout history. Outhouse humor is likewise a constant, which usually involves someone either being trapped in one, falling into the hole, or other social faux pas. Privy-tipping, the act of knocking over the external structure to expose the person within, also features in rural humor. Aside from generic bathroom jokes, some are specific to outhouses, such as this time-honored one-liner, which any rural sort might say, usually making fun of his background:
"We had a fire in the bathroom; luckily, it didn't spread to the house!"
The Simpsons have explored the subject of outhouses from time to time. One eighth season episode mentioned a two-story double-decker outhouse. See also, Episode 357, "The Bonfire of the Manatees". [[11]]
The Jeff Daniels play and movie Escanaba in da Moonlight features a scene where a man shoots a buck through the back wall of the deer camp's outhouse, having heard the animal sniffing around behind it as he was relieving himself within.
There was a small book published in the early 1900s, The Specialist by Chic Sale, which was just earthy enough to be a hugely popular "underground" success, and just tactfully worded enough to not risk being banned. Its entire premise centered on sales of outhouses, touting the advantages of one kind or another, and labeling them in "technical" terms such as "one-holers", "two-holers", etc.
Charles "Chic" Sale was a famous comedian in vaudeville. His monolog "I'm a Specialist" was made into a hit record (Victor 22859) in 1931 by popular recording artist Frank Crumit (music by Nels Bitterman). A common rural slang term for the outhouse was the "Chic Sale".
Another comedy song written by Richard M. Sherman & Milt Larsen was recorded by the New Society Band (Spike Jones alumni) now on CD "Banned Barbershop Ballads) — "The True Legend of Jesse James" ("They shot him in the outhouse").75.8.96.216 17:04, 12 September 2007 (UTC)Milt Larsen host - Hear Them Again (for the first time - CRN Digital Talk Radio
FolksingerBilly Edd Wheeler wrote and performed a song titled "The Little Brown Shack Out Back", a surprisingly sentimental look at the outhouse. The song is often played on the Dr. Demento radio show.
An outhouse is prominently featured as the setting of a pivotal shooting in Clint Eastwood's "The Unforgiven".
As a college student, Richard Nixon achieved renown by providing a three-hole outhouse to be tossed onto the traditional campus bonfire (People's Almanac, Wallechinsky & Wallace).
The United States Army has long been concerned with outhouses and so-called natural functions. It is the subject of many colorful army acronyms and nicknames. Particularly on point is the so-called "John Wayne" which, among other things, refers to the toilet paper from the Meal, Ready-to-Eat, or MRE (pronounced "M-R-E") because "it's rough, it's tough, and it don't take shit from nobody." See List of U.S. Army acronyms and expressions.
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