Fire closet
The incinerating toilet is about 1900 invented urinal with an integrated combustion of the excrement .
The excrement was rendered harmless by incineration immediately after it was created. It was possible to obtain from them an ashes suitable as fertilizer. The patent fire closet with Löhnholdtsch patent flash flame firing was used for this purpose.
Urine and feces fell through the pipe connected to the toilet into the drying bowl (retort) in the lower part of the Löhnholdt oven , closed to the outside, in which the liquid components were evaporated by the hot gases flowing through and the solid residues were dried out to form an odorless powder. The toilet drain pipes leading to the retort were closed under the toilet funnel by a movable flap that only opened automatically when it was used.
The operation of the furnace located above the drying tray is continuous. Nevertheless, constant attentive service is necessary. In 1904, the cost of the fuel averaged 3 pfennigs per person per day.
The Lexicon of Entire Technology wrote about the probable future of the fire closet in 1904: “Although fire closets could be of great importance, especially for hospitals, because they are the most reliable way of destroying all infectious germs, they will hardly find any greater use because their operation is in comparison to other facilities is cumbersome and not sufficiently odorless. ”The lexicon thus alludes to the much cheaper water closet.
In the 1970s, Bell Labs developed an electrically heated fire closet for AT&T . It was used in remote radio relay stations and repeater offices without water and sewage connections.