Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Books on Washing
These fall roughly into three genres:
Scholarly, and also wry but not jokey, topics for adults: In the development of our
understanding of the connections between culture and technology,
Mechanization
Takes Command
(1948), by the historian and critic of architecture Sigfried
Giedion (
1948
), has a special place and is the forerunner of new ideas, continu-
ously developed to this day, about these connections. Part VII,
The Mechanization
of the Bath
, is about much more than its title suggests. I will mention a few of the
topics on the subject which are, in my opinion, among the most signifi cant and
relevant to the present study. In the 'pre-Giedion' period is an early report,
The
Ensign of Peace, showing how the health, both of body and mind, may be pre-
served and even revived by the mild and attenuating power of a most valuable
and cheap medicine
by Friendly Traveller (
1775
)
.
Friendly Traveller is identifi ed
on p 404 of Smith (
2007
) as 'medical author and sailor Peter Crosthwaite'.
Another early account is George Ryley Scott's (
1939
)
The Story of Baths and
Bathing
, which is interesting for its information, its illustrations and its insight
into ideas and practices of the early twentieth century. Moving forward, an early
'post-Giedion' offering is Lawrence Wright's (
1960
)
Clean and Decent: The
Fascinating History of the Bathroom and the Water Closet and of Sundry Habits,
Fashions and Accessories of the Toilet, Principally in Great Britain, France, and
America
. This topic was infl uential in reinvigorating a genre of wryly humorous
but informative books about cleanliness, a recent example being Katherine
Ashenburg's (
2007
)
The Dirt on Clean: An Unsanitized History.
This genre
played into an interest in 'the body' from academics in the humanities. This has
led to a number of studies in recent decades, notable ones being Timothy Burke's
(
1996
)
Lifebuoy Men, Lux Women: Commodifi cation, Consumption, and
Cleanliness in Modern Zimbabwe
and Virginia Smith's (
2007
)
Clean: a history
of personal hygiene and purity.
Jokey topics: In Kay Woodburn and Aggie MacKenzie's (
2004
)
Too Posh to
Wash
, I sense that, even when all over-the-top humour is acknowledged, there
remains an extreme fastidiousness - a great fear, perhaps even hatred, of nature.
This way of thinking precludes awareness of the grossly unsustainable consump-
tion of water and energy required by the authors' demands.
Child education books: There are a very large number of such topics of which I
will mention just a couple. Eleanor Allen's (
1976
)
Wash and Brush Up
is a
straightforward account, not arch or edgy like so many others, of washing and
bathing through the ages. Thompson Yardley's (
1990
)
Down the Plughole:
Explore Your Plumbing
has a blokeish style, presumably aimed at interesting
primary school boys of western culture, imbued as they are with a mechanistic
worldview, in caring for the earth and ourselves.
Engineering in a Learning Together Culture
The education system as it now
exists is in a deep two-way relationship with many distortions of our unjust and
unsustainable culture. Those drawn to engineering or technology have to make their
way, as best they can, in a milieu oriented to private monetary gain. Their creation
of new useful arts and development of existing ones achieve only a part of its
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