Uncle John’s Slightly Irregular Bathroom Reader Read Free Page A

high-traffic public restrooms, these seats have been clinically tested to kill such microorganisms as staph, E. coli, hepatitis A, and strep.
    HOW IT WORKS: After every use, the seat automatically spins in a circle. The sensor-activated rotation takes it through a washing device—located on the back of the seat—that cleans and disinfects the seat in 15 seconds. Not satisfied with the first cleaning? Simply signal the sensor (wave your hand in front of it) for another sanitizing round and you’re good to...er...go.
    PRODUCT: Self-cleaning clothes
    BACKGROUND: Scientists at Hong Kong’s Polytechnic University discovered that titanium dioxide—the same stuff that’s used for self-cleaning windows—can be used for clothes, too.
    HOW IT WORKS: The titanium dioxide, when applied to cotton (no other fabric will work) breaks down dirt and other pollutants into smaller and smaller particles, the same way it does on glass. Sunlight and movement, they hope, will eliminate the dirt.
    The Chinese have been painting their fingernails for 5,000 years.
    RESEARCH RIVAL: Alex Fowler of the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth is trying a different approach. He’s working on a technique that impregnates fabric fibers with various bacteria engineered to consume organic materials. If he’s successful, your clothes would eat their own dirt...and even your sweat. The only problem: you have to keep the bacteria alive by wearing the shirt a lot. Or, as Fowler puts it, “You could end up having to feed your shirt instead of washing it.”
    PRODUCT: Self-cleaning house
    BACKGROUND: By 1952 a 37-year-old designer and professional builder named Frances Gabe of Newberg, Oregon, had had enough of the “thankless, unending, and nerve-twangling bore” of housework. So she designed and built a self-cleaning house.
    HOW IT WORKS: The house is built of cinder block to avoid termites and other wood-burrowing insects, and each room is fitted with a ceiling-mounted cleaning, drying, heating, and cooling device. The inside of the house is covered with resin to make it waterproof. The furniture is made entirely from waterproof composites. There are no carpets. The beds are covered automatically with waterproof material that rolls out from the foot of the bed. Easily damaged objects are protected under glass.
    At the push of a few buttons, soapy water jets out from the ceiling to power-wash the rooms like an automatic car wash. The same jets then rinse off the water, and a huge built-in blower dries everything. The floors are sloped slightly at the corners so that any excess water can run into a drain. The sink, shower, toilet, and tub clean themselves, too. So do the bookshelves and fireplace. The clothes closet serves as a washer and dryer, and the kitchen cabinets are also dishwashers. The house can be cleaned all at once or one room at a time, as often as needed.
    Gabe’s been living in her prototype for the past 50 years (she’s 89) and only cleans the entire house two or three times a year (unless her grandchildren are coming to visit).

    “Cleanliness is next to godliness.” —English proverb
    “Cleanliness is next to impossible.” —Pigpen
    Eeww! Eyes change color after death, usually to a greenish-brown.

STALLED CARS
    The old saying that there’s nothing new under the sun is especially true in the auto industry. Ideas that seem new today may have been floating around for years, but for some reason didn’t succeed the first time around. Here are a few examples .
    B & S HYBRID (1980)
    Ignition: Milwaukee-based engine maker Briggs & Stratton is best known for its lawn mower engines. But in 1980 B & S introduced a unique vehicle: a “hybrid” car—one that improves fuel economy and reduces air pollution by having both an electric and a standard gasoline-powered engine. Today hybrids made by Toyota, Honda, and Ford are common, but at the time this was a strange and exotic concept. The company did not plan on selling the cars itself.