The Fascinating History of Bidets

Though some inventions are automatically self-explanatory and make excellent sense, the bidets toilet does make a lot of people wonder. If you have never seen a bidets before, you might not even know what it does or how it works.

Of course, the history for the bidet is quite fascinating and goes back to ancient times. Everyone knows what a bidets is: it washes your behind with water so that you don’t have to use toilet paper or wet wipes. Still, the question is: When was it invented, why it was so popular then, and why are they also essential today?

Toilet Etiquette throughout the Ages

Back in the 17th century, personal hygiene wasn’t very easy to do. History shows that the Ancient Greeks used small stones or pieces of clay to clean themselves after going to the bathroom. For the Ancient Romans, however, they used a long stick with a bit of sponge on the end. While this seems more hygienic and comfortable, that single sponge was shared throughout the whole community. Of course, royalty and their families only shared amongst themselves, but it is still unimaginable in this day and age.

Then, in about 1391, there was a Chinese emperor during the Song Dynasty who had had enough. He created some larger sheets of paper and demanded that they be installed in the bathroom of his palace. Before that specific moment in time, the Chinese just used whichever paper products were around to clean themselves. With this new invention, the first-ever toilet paper (designed for that purpose), things continued to march onwards.

Bathroom etiquette also pressed forward. When the rebels left Great Britain and started searching for the colonies, they had little paper and not much else to clean themselves after going to the bathroom. They started using corn cobs for this purpose. To people now, this seems highly uncomfortable and a bit odd. Of course, corn cobs fell out of fashion when paper was readily available again. Still, no one really wanted to use their reading materials to clean up.

As you can see, the bidet for the toilet is an excellent upgrade to the other options.

From Where Did It Come?

Most historians believe that the toilet bidet came from the French and that, in the late 17th or early 18th century, it was invented by French furniture makers. In a sense, this mechanism is the adult version of a chamber pot. This was a small and portable container that ladies of luxury took with them on long trips. Though the portable bidet hadn’t been invented yet, this is how it came to be.

The word itself is French, and it means “a small horse” or “pony.” Though it makes little sense that something used in the bathroom could be called that, the colorful name has a story behind it, too. Back then, the bidet’s stature and size were focused on during the naming. Traditional and authentic bidets looked like a miniature porcelain horse, and you squat over it while using it.

The first bidets

The first bidets created featured a bowl of water set onto a wooden stool. People crouched over them after doing their business and used their hands to splash water on their behinds. With a few more decades, the bidet became more advanced, allowing a hand pump to spray the water. This is similar to a bidet sprayer for the toilet, though primitive.

When plumbing was invented, bidets became highly convenient devices with toilet spray functionality in the bowl and nozzles that could be set to specific angles to clean thoroughly.

Of course, now, the bidet is a device used for cleanliness. It’s considered more effective and sophisticated than wiping with dry paper.

In 1726, someone first wrote about the bidet in Italy. In the late 18th century, the Queen of Sicily and Naples, Marian Carolina of Austria, requested to have a bidet installed in the Royal Palace of Caserta.

She was the trendsetter, but the bidet did not become popular in Italy until World War II, and it is only now becoming popular in America. Remember, American soldiers always saw bidets in brothels overseas. Therefore, it became synonymous with immorality and contraceptives.

The Rise of the Modern Bidet

While every other country came to realize that bidets were a good thing, Americans still haven’t really caught on. Though the bidet sprayer is hugely popular in Europe, the Middle East, and Asia (with many of them calling it a shattaf). Americans have just started to realize how good water is at cleaning their bottoms.

Though the Japanese are credited with the bidet attachment, which sits under the rim and looks like a small irrigation sprayer, no one knows for sure where it was invented. Some believe that Switzerland created it while the Japanese got it patented and took credit for it.

Functionality

It is said that the Japanese desired the American toilet style, but they required the functionality that a bidet offered.

With time, the Japanese combined the two elements and came up with the porcelain toilet with a toilet set that had a variety of controls. Some come with a dryer, and others use a retractable cleaning jet. Over 80 percent of households in Japan have a bidet with a toilet seat.

In 1981, the Japanese first introduced this device to the United States. Now, about a dozen companies have them available for purchase.

Generally, US bidet users often include baby boomers, who discovered this luxury and can’t live without it. However, millennials are also finding that it works very well and want to utilize it. Because it is so essential to clean yourself thoroughly and protect such a sensitive area, bidets are now a fashion-forward option for many housing options, including urban lofts.

Those who install a sprayer attached to the wall can also use it as a diaper sprayer. If you use cloth diapers, it’s ideal. You’re saving the planet by not throwing away diapers, and it is better for your baby’s skin. Plus, they are reusable, though you need to rinse them out before washing them, and the sprayer works well.

If you’re thinking about buying a bidet, you’ve got many options. Now is the time, as they are becoming more popular, and many Americans desire to have them in their home.