Urinal

urinals in an office restroom A urinal ( , ) is a sanitary plumbing fixture similar to a toilet, but for urination only. Urinals are often provided in male public restrooms in Western countries (less so in Muslim countries where washing after urinating is more common). They are usually used in a standing position. Urinals can be equipped with manual flushing, automatic flushing, or without flushing, as is the case for waterless urinals. They can be arranged as single sanitary fixtures (with or without privacy walls), or in a trough design without privacy walls. Urinals designed for women ("female urinals") also exist, but are rare. It is possible for women to use stand-up urinals using a female urination device. The term "urinal" may also apply to a small building or other structure containing such fixtures. It can also refer to a small container in which urine can be collected for medical analysis, or for use where access to toilet facilities is not possible, such as in small aircraft, during extended stakeouts, or for the bedridden.

urinals in an office restroom]] A urinal ( , ) is a sanitary plumbing fixture similar to a toilet, but for urination only. Urinals are often provided in male public restrooms in Western countries (less so in Muslim countries where washing after urinating is more common). They are usually used in a standing position. Urinals can be equipped with manual flushing, automatic flushing, or without flushing, as is the case for waterless urinals. They can be arranged as single sanitary fixtures (with or without privacy walls), or in a trough design without privacy walls. Urinals designed for women ("female urinals") also exist, but are rare. It is possible for women to use stand-up urinals using a female urination device. The term "urinal" may also apply to a small building or other structure containing such fixtures. It can also refer to a small container in which urine can be collected for medical analysis, or for use where access to toilet facilities is not possible, such as in small aircraft, during extended stakeouts, or for the bedridden. ==Description== in Vienna, Austria]] A stand-up urinal can be used conveniently and appropriately by someone who has a penis or other adaptive means with which to urinate from a standing position. There is no age restriction, and urinals are commonly used by men and boys of all ages. Female urinals also exist but are not common. In busy public toilets, urinals are installed for efficiency. Compared with urination in a general-purpose toilet, usage is faster and more sanitary because at the urinal there are no fecal germs, no additional doors or locks to touch, and no seat to turn up. Consistent use of urinals also keeps the toilet stalls cleaner and more available for persons who need to defecate. A urinal takes less space, is simpler, and consumes less water per flush (or even no water at all) than a flush toilet. Large numbers of them are usually installed along a common supply pipe and drain. Urinals may also come in different heights, to accommodate tall and short users. Public urinals usually have a plastic mesh guard, which may optionally contain a deodorizing urinal deodorizer block or "urinal cake". The mesh is intended to prevent solid objects (such as cigarette butts, feces, chewing gum, or paper) from being flushed and possibly causing a plumbing stoppage. In some restaurants, bars, and clubs, ice may be put in the urinals, serving some of the same purposes as the deodorizing block without dispensing odorous chemicals. File:Urinal with urinal cake gsu cit 2004.jpg|Urinal with pink-colored urinal cake File:Many urinals rows with amber lighting in the Tokyo Cinema's toilet.jpg|Urinals in Tokyo, Japan; one at far right is fitted with handle bars for people with disabilities File:2007-08-cesko-344.jpg|Urinals in the Czech Republic File:Urinal 3.jpg|Trough urinal in Los Angeles File:Urinals Munich, Germany.JPG|Train station urinal in Munich, Germany File:GOMA toilets 02.jpg|Modern trough urinal in an art museum in Brisbane, Australia File:Wallurinal.jpg|Old-style wall urinal at Stetson Bowl Stadium in Surrey, British Columbia, Canada File:Historic American Buildings Survey Cervin Robinson, Photographer June 1959 URINAL DETAIL, BOYS' TOILET, BASEMENT SOUTH WING - Mayhew School, Poplar and Chambers Streets, Boston, HABS MASS,13-BOST,67-8.tif|Vintage urinals in Boston secondary school (c. 1933–1959) File:Urinal at the school ,showing boys and girls side. (5075089050).jpg|Outdoor urinals at school for boys (right) and girls (left) in Tamil Nadu, India ==Urinals with flushing== Most public urinals incorporate a water flushing system to rinse urine from the bowl of the device, to prevent foul odors. The flush can be triggered by one of several methods: ===Manual handles=== This type of flush might be regarded as the standard type of flush in North America. Each urinal is equipped with a short lever to activate the flush, with users expected to pull it down as they leave. Such a directly controlled system is the most efficient, provided that patrons remember to use it. This is far from certain, however, often because of fear of touching the handle, which is located too high to kick. Urinals with foot-activated flushing systems are sometimes found in high-traffic areas; these systems have a button set into the floor or a pedal on the wall at ankle height. The Americans with Disabilities Act requires that flush valves be mounted no higher than AFF (above the finished floor). Additionally, the urinal is to be mounted no higher than AFF, and to have a rim that is tapered and elongated and protrudes at least from the wall. This enables users in wheelchairs to straddle the lip of the urinal and urinate without having to "arc" the flow of urine upwards. ===Timed flush=== In Europe and South America, manual flush handles are unusual. Instead, the traditional system is a timed flush that operates automatically at regular intervals. A group of urinals will be connected to a single overhead cistern, which contains the timing mechanism. A constant drip-feed of water slowly fills the cistern until a tipping point is reached, when the valve opens (or a siphon begins to drain the cistern), and all the urinals in the group are flushed. Electronic controllers performing the same function are also used. This system does not require any action from its users, but it is wasteful of water when toilets are used irregularly. However, in these countries users are so used to the automatic system, that attempts to install manual flushes to save water are generally unsuccessful. Users ignore them not through deliberate laziness or fear of infection, but because activating the flush is not habitual. To help reduce water usage when the urinals are not being used, some urinals with timed flushing use a water-saving device. The cistern will be connected with a passive infrared sensor, which makes the cistern stop filling unless the urinals are being used. The sensor can be wall or ceiling-mounted, and will detect movement within the range of the urinals. ===Door-regulated flush=== Used mostly in the countries of Asia. This is an older method of water-saving automatic flushing, which only operates when the public toilet has been used. A push-button switch is mounted in the door frame, and triggers the flush valve for all urinals every time the door is opened. While it cannot detect the use of individual urinals, it provides reasonable flushing action without wasting excessive amounts of water when the urinals are not being used. This method requires a spring-operated automatic door closer, since the flush mechanism only operates when the door opens. Alternatively, a flushing system connected to the door can count the number of users, and operate when the number of door opening events reaches a certain value. At night, the door never opens, so flushing never occurs. ===Automatic flush=== Automatic flush valves solve the problems of previous approaches, and are common in new installations all around the world. A infrared sensor identifies when the urinal has been used, by detecting when someone has stood in front of it and moved away, and then activates the flush. There usually is also a small override button, to allow optional manual flushing when the sensor is not working. Automatic flush facilities can be retrofitted to existing systems. The handle-operated valves of a manual system can be replaced with a suitably designed self-contained electronic valve, often battery-powered to avoid the need to add cables. Older timed-flush installations may add a device that regulates the water flow to the cistern according to the overall activity detected in the room. This does not provide true per-fixture automatic flushing, but is simple and cheap to add because only one device is required for the whole system. To prevent false-triggering of the automatic flush, most infrared detectors require that a presence be detected for at least ten seconds, such as when a person is standing in front of it. This prevents a whole line of automatic flush units from triggering in succession if someone just walks past them. The automatic flush mechanism also typically waits for the presence to go out of sensor range before flushing. This reduces water usage, compared to a sensor that would trigger a continuous flushing action the whole time that a presence is detected. File:McDonald's waterless urinal.JPG|Waterless urinals used in British McDonald's restaurants File:Waterless urinals grab bars for disabled.jpg|Waterless urinal (waterless urinal at right is for people with disabilities) File:Waterless urinals (2921485136).jpg|Waterless urinals in Switzerland File:Sloan Waterfree urinal.JPG|Waterless urinal in California File:Mingitorios secos (6025791175).jpg|Waterless boys' urinals in Argentina File:Waterless urinal for females (5880398360).jpg|Waterless urinal for women at a station in Frankfurt, Germany File:The flat rubber tube for odour control in waterless urinal of Keramag Centaurus model.jpg|Flat rubber tube for odor control in waterless urinal of Keramag File:Urine stone in urinals from Uridan (2957167291).jpg|"Urine stone" deposits on plumbing components of a waterless urinal in the Netherlands File:Public urinal, Adelaide Street - geograph.org.uk - 1528654.jpg|Modern street urinal in London File:Urinal Vauxhall Cross.jpg|Street urinal in Vauxhall, London File:Public urinal Urilift London Charterhouse Street.jpg|Urilift street urinal can be retracted underground when not needed File:Public Urinal, The Parade, Watford - geograph.org.uk - 714173.jpg|Only a circular ring indicates location of a retracted Urilift urinal when not in use File:Dutch street urinal Sarah Stierch.jpg|Movable temporary urinal in Amsterdam File:Krul urinoir in Amsterdam.jpg|Traditional krul urinal in Amsterdam File:Stockholm urinal.jpg|Street urinal in Stockholm File:20111128 Urinoir Hoge der A Groningen NL.jpg|Street urinal in Groningen File:Pissoir Spielbudenplatz 003.jpg|Modernist street urinal in Hamburg, Germany File:India - Varanasi public toilet - 2118.jpg|"Public Convenience" in Varanasi, Benares, India ==Special urinals== File:Femaleurinal.jpg|Urinals designed for women File:Unisex Urinals.jpg|Unisex urinals which can be used by either gender File:Urinating into urinal while standing.jpg|A woman urinating into a male urinal in a standing position File:Mobile leight-weight female urinal (5880032249).jpg|A mobile light-weight urinal for women File:Urinal mouth.jpg|Controversial Kisses! urinals were designed by a woman. File:CaptiveMedia ExhibitBalham.jpg|Advertising displays for a "captive audience" in London ===Makeshift urinals=== During military operations, such as the Korean War, Vietnam War, or Operation Desert Storm, "piss tubes" were used as makeshift urinals. To make one, soldiers would affix an inverted disposable water bottle on one end of a rigid tube, burying the other end. Removing the base of the bottle made a funnel which would be left at the proper height. Deposited urine simply soaked into the ground; when the area became saturated, the device was relocated. ==History== In the spring of 1830, the city government of Paris decided to install the first public urinals on the major boulevards. They were put in place by the summer, but in July of the same year, many were destroyed through their use as materials for street barricades during the French Revolution of 1830. The urinals were re-introduced in Paris after 1834, when over 400 were installed by Claude-Philibert Barthelot, comte de Rambuteau, the Préfet of the Department of the Seine. Having a simple cylindrical shape, built of masonry, open on the street side, and ornately decorated on the other side as well as the cap, they were popularly known as ('Rambuteau columns'). In response, Rambuteau suggested the name , in reference to the 1st century Roman emperor Titus Flavius Vespasianus, who placed a tax on urine collected from public toilets for use in tanning. This is the usual term by which street urinals are known in the French speaking world, although and are also in common use. In Paris, the next version was a masonry column that allowed for the pasting of posters on the side facing the footpath, creating a tradition that continues to this day (as a Morris column, a column with an elaborate roof and without the urinal). Cast iron urinals were developed in the United Kingdom, with the Scottish firm of Walter McFarlane and Company casting urinals at their Saracen Foundry and erecting the first at Paisley Road, Glasgow in October 1850. By the end of 1852, nearly 50 cast iron urinals had been installed in Glasgow, including designs with more than one stall. Unlike Rambuteau's columns, which were entirely open at the front, McFarlane's one-man urinals were designed with spiral cast iron screens that allowed the user to be hidden from sight, and his multi-stall urinals were completely hidden within ornate, modular cast iron panels. Three manufacturers in Glasgow, Walter Macfarlane & Co., George Smith (Sun Foundry) and James Allan Snr & Son (Elmbank Foundry), supplied the majority of cast iron urinals across Britain and exported them around the world, including Australia and Argentina. Back in Paris, cast iron urinals were introduced as part of Baron Haussmann's remodelling of the city. A large variety of designs were produced in subsequent decades, housing two to 8 stalls, typically only screening the central portion of the user from public view, with the head and feet still visible. Screens were also added to Rambuteau columns. At the peak of their spread in the 1930s, there were 1,230 in Paris, but by 1966 their number had decreased to 329. From 1980¹ they were replaced systematically with new technology, a unisex, enclosed, automatically self-cleaning unit called the . In Berlin, the first , in wood, were erected in 1863. In order to provide a design as distinguished as in other cities, several architectural design competitions were organised in 1847, 1865 and 1877. The last design, proposed by a city councillor, was the one adopted in 1878, a cast-iron octagonal structure with seven stalls and a peaked roof, known locally as a Café Achteck ('Octagon Cafe'). In common with British designs, they provided complete enclosure, and were provided with interior lighting. Their number increased to 142 by 1920, but there are now only about a dozen remaining in use. A similar design was adopted in Vienna, though simpler, smaller and hexagonal. They were equipped with a novel "oil system", patented by Wilhelm Beetz in 1882, where a type of oil was used to neutralise odours, dispensing with the necessity for plumbing. About 15 are still in use, and one has been restored and set up as a display in the Vienna Technical Museum. In central Amsterdam, there are about 35 pee curls, which consist of a raised metal screen that curls in a spiral enclosing a single urinal stall, including some two-person examples with the same details but a simpler shape. Though the design first emerged in the 1870s, an updated design by Joan van der Mey dates from 1916. All the remaining examples were restored in 2008. of various sizes and designs, but mostly in patterned cast-iron, can still be found dotted across the UK, with a few in London, but especially in Birmingham and Bristol. A solitary example of Walter McFarlane's one-man spiral urinal remains in Thorn Park, Plymouth. A number have been restored and relocated to the grounds of various open-air museums and heritage railway lines. Rectangular , with elaborate patterned cast-iron panels, similar in design to some of the UK ones, were installed in the city of Sydney, Australia, in 1880 and Melbourne, Australia, in the period 1903–1918. Of at least 40 that were made, nine remain in place and in use on the streets in and around central Melbourne, and have been classified by the National Trust since 1998. In recent years, temporary with multiple unscreened urinals around a central column have been introduced in the UK. A temporary for women called the 'Peeasy' is used in Switzerland. Until the 1990s, street urinals were a common sight in Paris (France), and in the 1930s more than 1200 were in service. They were famous among foreign tourists. Parisians referred to them as vespasiennes, the name being derived from that of the Roman Emperor Vespasian, who, according to an anecdote, imposed a tax on urine. Beginning in the 1990s, the vespasiennes (renowned for their smell and lack of hygiene) were gradually replaced by Sanisettes. Today only one vespasienne remains in the city (on Boulevard Arago), and it is still regularly used. They still exist in other French cities and in other countries. VespasienneLarge.jpg|The last surviving vespasienne, on Boulevard Arago in Paris Vespasienne Honfleur.JPG|Vespasienne in Honfleur, France Vespasienne à Honfleur.JPG|Interior of Honfleur vespasienne Urinal, Bewdley Station - geograph.org.uk - 1148738.jpg|Vintage British urinal, no longer in service Charles Marville, Urinoir en ardoise à 3 stalles, Chaussée du Maine, ca. 1865.jpg|A pissoir on Avenue du Maine, Paris c. 1865. Photographed by Charles Marville. Pisejo sur Largo de António Calém (Porto, Portugalujo) 002.jpg|Outdoor urinal in Porto, Portugal BS Pissoir Fallersleber Tor.JPG|Restored heritage protected public urinal in Braunschweig, Germany Cast Iron Pissoir - Miller's Point, Sydney, NSW (7875768066).jpg|Victorian cast iron urinal in Sydney, Australia (c.1890) Rothesay Victorian Toilets - men's urinals.jpg|Urinals in the Rothesay Victorian Toilets, Rothesay, Bute (c.1899) ==Society and culture== Examples of urinals in popular culture include: Marcel Duchamp's Fountain (1917), which some have called the most influential modern artwork, is a urinal which Duchamp signed "R. Mutt". Police in Nassau County, New York adopted talking urinals in an anti-drunk driving initiative. Using Wizmark, a talking urinal display screen, police can provide bars with free pre-programmed urinal messages urging patrons not to drink and drive. Ernest Hemingway converted a urinal from Sloppy Joe's bar into a water fountain for his cats. The fountain remains a prominent feature at his former home in Key West, Florida, a popular tourist destination in the town. Pissoir, retitled Urinal in some countries, was the first feature film directed by John Greyson. It was released in 1980 and takes place in a toilet. Gabriel Chevallier's 1934 satirical novel Clochemerle deals with the ramifications of plans to install a new urinal in a French village. Indiana Urinalysis (1988) is a documentary on the subject of urinals. Topics include "types of urinals, urinal etiquette, usage of urinal cakes, why urinals are always white, preference of urinal vs. toilet, and urinals for women, as well as a collection of urinal anecdotes." It received a Citation Award from the Indiana Film Society in 1990. "Mystery of the Urinal Deuce" is an episode of the American adult animated sitcom South Park, in which the plot revolves around the elementary school's efforts to establish the identity of a person who defecated in a urinal. File:Jiangxi Sheng Bowuguan 20120627-54.jpg|Ancient portable urinal, Western Jin Dynasty (c. 265–316 CE) File:Urinal in the form of a tiger. Stoneware with olive green (celadon) glaze. Southern Dynasties, 500-589 CE. From China, Zhejiang. Victoria and Albert Museum.jpg|Urinal in the form of a tiger. Stoneware with olive green (celadon) glaze. Southern Dynasties, 500–589 CE. From China, Zhejiang. Victoria and Albert Museum File:Duchamp Fountaine.jpg|Fountain, a urinal which Marcel Duchamp exhibited as a controversial artwork File:Charles Marville, Urinoir en fonte à 2 stalles avec portes, ca. 1865.jpg|Ornate illuminated French urinal, c.1865 File:Charles Marville, Urinoir en ardoise à 6 stalles avec écran surélevé, Place de l'Église, ca. 1865.jpg|Basic six-stall Paris urinal, c.1865 File:Gothic urinal in the men's room at The Mini Bottle Museum in Oslo, Norway.jpg|Goth-inspired urinal in Oslo File:Urinal at the Industrial Saloon.jpg|"Steampunk" styled urinal at a bar File:Hand Wash Sink on the Urinal in Mito-SA 2014.jpg|Japanese sink/urinal saves water and physical space File:Bucket Urinals.jpg|Urinals with a view, at the restaurant UFO in Bratislava File:Madonna inn restroom (5641720565).jpg|Fancy decorative urinal at Madonna Inn File:Publika necesejo en Jardim do Passeio Alegre (Porto, Portugalujo) 002.jpg|Public urinals in Portugal File:Victorian Toilets Rothesay.jpg|Victorian urinals in Scotland from 1899 File:Eléments d'architecture - urinoir (Biennale d'architecture 2014, Venise) (15281481685).jpg|Neo-baroque style decorated urinal File:Open plan Men's toilet in Japan.jpg|Open plan public toilet in Japan File:Urinal in Tropfenform.Jpg|Styled urinals in St. Peter Port, Guernsey File:Brewery urinals.jpg|Brewery urinals in Christchurch, New Zealand File:Cheap waterless urinal in Burkina Faso (2957045465).jpg|Low-cost waterless portable urinal in Burkina Faso File:JR Tower 38th floor Men's Room -Hokkaido (2008.9.11).jpg|Urinal with a 38th floor view in Hokkaido, Japan File:Washbasin & Urinal panorama.jpg|Stand-up urinals in open arrangement File:Old-fashioned urinal at AMNH.jpg|Urinals in a bathroom in the American Museum of Natural History File:Duo urinal.jpg|A double urinal. One person can urinate on each side. File:Vista House mens toilets OR3.jpg|An example of floor standing urinals in a men's bathroom ==See also== Female urinal Interactive urinal communicator Public toilet Reuse of excreta Sanistand Telescopic urinal ==References== ==External links== Collection of urinals worldwide (e.g. Berlin wall, flowers and at the South Pole) Photos of waterless urinals worldwide

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