Lavatory tub

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Information in the Zeche Zollern

A latrine bucket , in the miners' language also Bergmannsklo or locally shit bucket called, is a container with lockable lid, which in the miners underground their necessities do. Litter buckets have been used in underground mining since the 19th century.

Basics

Miners underground cannot simply pull out of the pit to take care of their needs. Often the miners helped themselves, especially in earlier times, by relieving themselves in a side tunnel or a stretch . Whenever possible, they buried their waste under loose debris . This resulted in these tunnels and stretches becoming contaminated with human excrement . In addition to the human excrement, the pit work also often contained the droppings of the pit horses . Due to the small amount of weather movement , the excrement polluted the weather with a foul smell and led to diseases. The worm disease was particularly widespread among miners in the 19th and early 20th centuries. The exchange of miners within the individual mines spread the disease even further from mine to mine. In Germany alone, medical experts were aware of over 17,000 illnesses affecting miners. The miners who worked in areas with temperatures around 25 degrees Celsius and high humidity were particularly at risk. In the Oberbergamts districts of Dortmund and Bonn alone, 14,483 miners in 108 mines were infected with the worm disease in 1904. The disease is still recognized today as an occupational disease.

Countermeasures

Instructions for use for the toilet seat

In order to get the contamination under control, the pits had to be cleaned of the excrement at short intervals. This work was done by miners who were supervised by older miners. Both animal and human excrement in the mine had to be disinfected with milk of lime to avoid the introduction of faeces containing worm eggs. Transportable toilet buckets or permanent toilets were installed in suitable places to relieve themselves. Relief in the pit was made a punishable offense. The lavatory buckets had to be brought to the surface at intervals of two to three days, where they were cleaned and returned to the pit. To cover the human feces, these were sprinkled with lime in the lavatory tubs, the emptied and cleaned toilet tubs had to be disinfected for days with milk of lime. As a replacement for the toilet buckets that were reusable after cleaning, some old carbide drums were converted and used as toilet buckets. These converted carbide drums were then disposed of on the mine dump.

Lineup

The installation of the lavatory tubs was regulated in the mining laws and mining ordinances of the respective mining districts. In the Mining Ordinance of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia (BVOST), the setting up of lavatory pots was regulated in paragraph 43 until the end of 1995. From January 1, 1996, the availability of toilets is regulated in Section 12 of the General Federal Mining Ordinance (ABBergV). However, the ABBergV does not regulate exactly how these toilets should look or where they have to be installed underground, but leaves this to the mining company's duty of care.

In essence, the sites were already regulated in the "Catechism of mine maintenance for mine workers and mine supervisory bodies" published in 1876. For example, toilet buckets should best be placed near the shaft or at least in the extending or sideways stream of weather.

The installation of the toilets is also regulated fairly precisely in the General Mountain Police Ordinance. According to the ordinance, a toilet bucket had to be set up in a suitable location for every 30 men on the largest workforce on a shift. The bucket had to be closed with a lid and had to be opaque. Disinfectants had to be kept ready in the area of ​​the buckets.

Removal of the lavatory tub

Transporting the full toilet buckets was not a pleasant job and the miners were reluctant to do it. The miners were then entrusted with this “detention”. B. showed up late for work or were caught doing so-called fudling ( leaving early without permission). At some mines miners were assigned to empty the buckets for this work, while the rest of the workforce jokingly referred to them as assanizers (also: bucket warden , bucket major , bucket swivel or latrine driver ). For this work, disabled people were then assigned , who only had to drive to twice a week and who had to drive to the toilet tub locations according to a specific plan. There the full buckets were exchanged for empty and cleaned buckets and transported away.

Examples of different toilet pots

Web links

Commons : Litter bin  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ WAZ, February 26, 2017, https://www.waz.de/staedte/gelsenkirchen/der-pott-fuer-den-puett-der-scheisskuebel-id209723459.html
  2. ↑ a b Bergmannsklo lavatory bucket . Online ( Memento from December 5, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
  3. ↑ a b c d e Wilhelm Jicinsky, Mining and Hüttenmännischer Verein Mähr-Ostrau (ed.): Catechism of mine maintenance for mine workers and mine supervisory bodies . Commissioned by Prokisch's Buchhandlung, Mähr-Ostrau 1876
  4. ↑ Wolfgang Weichardt: Results of the Hygiene Bacteriology Immunity Research and Experimental Therapy. Twenty-first volume, Springer Verlag Berlin, Berlin 1938, pp. 187–195.
  5. ^ Gerhard Piekarski: Textbook of Parasitology. Springer Verlag Berlin-Heidelberg, Berlin 1954, p. 384.
  6. ^ A b c Carl von Noorden (Ed.): Central sheet for metabolic and digestive diseases. 5th year, January-December 1904, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1904.
  7. ↑ a b Anna Blatt26: Peter Asenbaum: toilets underground . Ed .: Mining Museum Wurmrevier eV Society for mining history and industrial culture. May 26, 2007 ( bergbaumuseum-grube-anna2.de [PDF; 1000 kB ]).
  8. ↑ a b c d A. Gottstein, A. Schloßmann, L. Teleky (ed.): Handbook of social hygiene and health care. Second volume, industrial hygiene and industrial diseases, Springer Verlag Berlin, Berlin 1926, pp. 451–463.
  9. ↑ Inquiry from the BA Dresler to Obersteiger Becker and the master mechanic Lohmann about a list of the costs of the toilet buckets.
  10. ↑ General Mountain Police Ordinance. Sanitary facilities § 340, online ( Memento from June 7, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 228 kB).
  11. ↑ a b Reply from Obersteiger Becker to the request from BA Dresler about the cost of toilet containers.
  12. ↑ Mineral Atlas: General Tools and Aids (last accessed on April 30, 2015).