World's First Portable Toilet

Today's New York Times "Patents" column by Teresa Riordan brings us news of the invention we've been waiting for since forever: a toilet that folds up to look like an attaché case.

Said inventor Susan Perry Hinton, a pharmacy professor at Xaviar University in New Orleans, of her creation (U.S. Patent No. 6,782,565), "No one would ever know you're carting a toilet around."

Nuff said.

Hinton's husband Calvin has found a couple companies interested in producing the seat, which they've named the Perry Potty portable toilet seat.

As always, necessity was the mother of invention.

Hinton said, "We were traveling and had to go to a family reunion in Chicago. All the public bathrooms were atrocious. The idea just popped out of my head."

When can I get one?

Here's the Times story.
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A Truly Portable Potty

Since the porcelain high-pressure flush toilet came into use about a hundred years ago, thousands of inventors have tried to improve upon it.

Recent contributions to toilet innovation include urinals designed for women, male urinals with built-in TV screens, automatic seat lifters, talking toilet paper dispensers, toilets that automatically weigh the user and toilets that take urine samples.

Last month alone, the United States Patent Office granted about 60 toilet patents.

One of them, No. 6,782,565, went to Susan Perry Hinton, a pharmacy professor at Xavier University in New Orleans for her portable toilet seat.

"We were traveling and had to go to a family reunion in Chicago," Professor Hinton recalled. "All the public bathrooms were atrocious. The idea just popped out of my head."

When she got back to Louisiana, Professor Hinton sketched some plans for a personal bathroom seat that the hygienically minded can tote from toilet to toilet.

The hinged seat folds in half and has four telescoping legs packed inside it, so that when it is closed it is a self-contained unit that looks like an attaché case with an indentation in the bottom.

All told, it weighs about 6 pounds.

"No one would ever know you're carting a toilet around," Professor Hinton said.

The legs, which support the seat, have three different settings.

When extended to their full length they allow the seat to hover about an inch above the real toilet seat.

To fit over a seat in a temporary toilet like the plastic booths that are ubiquitous at rock concerts, sporting events and construction sites, the legs are pulled out only a few inches.

For users who find themselves in al fresco situations, the seat legs can be pulled out to their middle setting.

Professor Hinton says that her invention can be used by drivers at rest stops, by campers, by travelers in remote areas and by those attending outdoor concerts.

She thinks her toilet, which can be fitted with disposable plastic bags to trap waste when it is not used directly over a toilet, may be appropriate for military use during warfare.

Her husband, Calvin Hinton, has found a couple of manufacturers who are interested in producing the seat, which the couple have named the Perry Potty portable toilet seat.

Among the other toilet innovators who won patents last month were Harry Hepfner of Marktoberdorf, Germany, who designed a tulip-shaped toilet seat with matching lid (Patent No. D495,040).

He is certainly not the first innovator who has tried to beautify the toilet.

Water closets from the 19th century were enclosed in ornate cabinetry.

"The woodwork trapped water, sheltered rodents, and was nearly impossible to keep clean," observed Maureen Ogle, the author of All the Modern Conveniences: American Household Plumbing, 1840-1890 (Johns Hopkins, 1996).

Mr. Hepfner's toilet seat appears to be functional as well as decorative.

The tulip-petal flanges could replace side rails used by the handicapped or the elderly to push themselves up from the seat.

While certain people advocate training a cat to use a human toilet, Chui-Wen Chiu, an inventor in Toronto, Canada, has designed a flush toilet specifically for dogs.

On Aug. 3, he received patent 6,769,382 for his invention, which is basically a walled basin, with a tank of water above and a drain below.

The dog would be led into the structure and then restrained with a bar which positions the dog near the drain opening.

Mr. Chiu, who works full time as an inventor, is something of a visionary.

Last year he received a Canadian patent for a commercial jet that, in the event of a fire, a mechanical failure, or a missile attack, would automatically break into sections that would parachute safely down to Earth.

Mr. Chiu has not yet built a prototype of either his parachute-equipped jet or his dog toilet.

Ms. Ogle, the plumbing scholar, questions whether toilet innovation is necessary.

"These inventors have an entrepreneurial bent, a creative mind," she said. "But are these things necessary? Of course not."

Ms. Ogle reserves her praise for the flush toilet, which she says was developed by dozens of anonymous inventors tinkering with the same problem.

"The porcelain flush toilet," she says with a sigh, "now THAT was a great invention."

Patents may be viewed on the Web at www.uspto.gov or may be ordered through the mail, by patent number, for $3 from the Patent and Trademark Office, Washington, D.C. 20231.