Some objects are so widespread that we tend to consider them immutable. This is the case of the Orinatii, a fixed presence in public bathrooms all over the world, which remain practically unchanged in the form at least since the beginning of the century. Anyone who has used it knows well that, however comfortable, these are objects not without defects. This is why a team of physicists from the University of Waterloo (in Canada) has decided to approach the matter with a scientific method, designing the perfect shape to avoid unwanted urine sketches when using the urinator.
The perfect shape to avoid pee sketches
The history of the urinals is at least a thousand years old. The oldest known examples date back more or less to the year thousand, and adorned the bathrooms of the monasteries of the ancient capital of Sri Lanka. The modern ones were invented in the West towards the end of the nineteenth century: the first patent of an urinal is by an American, this Andrew Rankin, and dates back to 1866, but it is in France that they took on the appearance that we still see today. As Canadian physicists point out in the study in which they detailed their new design for Orinati – published on Pnas Nexus – the famous Orinatorio used by Duchamp for its “fountain” would not be out of place in a bath of the present day, despite going back to 1917.
It was therefore time to review the form of the urinals, to understand if and how it is possible to improve it. The main problem of these sanitary ware is that it is often impossible to prevent it from sketching urine during use, on the clothes of the unfortunate user, or on the bathroom floor, which then must then be dried and sterilized by the cleaning staff. And the costs are not indifferent: in the city of Toronto, for example, over $ 120,000 (Canadian) are spent the year for cleaning each of the bathrooms of the city metropolitan network.
Millions of liters of urine to clean up
According to the calculations of Canadian physicists, in the United States there are over 56 million public urinals, whose use produces splashes of urine for over one million liters per year. In short, the space to improve is not lacking. And using the equations of the dynamic fluid, they believe they have made it. Their calculations have made it possible to confirm that the sketches produced by the use of the urinals are at the least if the impact angle of the flow of urine on the wall of the health workers is less than 30 degrees.
Keeping it in mind, the authors of the study have designed two different models of Orinatio who guarantee the perfect corner to make a standing pee, baptizing them “Cornucopia” and “Nautilus”, and put them to the test experimentally. The results of their experiments have confirmed that both models laugh the unwanted urine sketches just 1.4 percent of those who are experimented with traditional urinals. Their adoption – according to the inventors – would reduce the consumption of water (used to wash the floors of the public bathrooms), would improve hygiene and, in the case of Nautilus, it would make public bathrooms even more accessible, since it is a horinator that can be easily used even by children or people with disabilities. In short, science spoke. All that remains is to see if the market will decide to listen.