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This is the engines of our

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ingenuity, made possible by the

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friends of KUHF Houston. Today,

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let's bathe. The University

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of Houston's College of

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Engineering presents this series

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about the machines that

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make our civilization run

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and the people whose

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ingenuity created them. I

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opened my 1897 encyclopedia

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Britannica to see what's listed

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under the word bath or bathing,

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and neither word appeared, but under

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the word baths. is an eight-page

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double column fine print entry dealing

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with the way we clean ourselves.

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It treats Roman baths in detail,

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showing layouts, plumbing, and accessories. The

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Romans didn't fool around when it

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came to keeping clean. Then the

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article goes into modern systems of

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public bathing, says they're pretty similar

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to the old Roman baths. And

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it talks about vapor baths and

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hot springs. The section on the

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action of baths on the human

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system is an eye-opener. It's filled

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with warning. about bathing in water

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too hot or too cold? Does

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water seep in through the skin?

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What does bathing do to the

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psyche? This long article yields only

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one sentence about domestic bathing. It

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says, cold and hot baths have

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been introduced into English homes to

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an extent never known before. So,

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scarcely a hundred years ago, domestic

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bathing was still a novelty. Coeducational

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public bathhouses were widespread in me,

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the evil Europe. Then, in the

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late 13th century, conservative voices closed

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them down. The resulting drop in

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personal cleanliness left populations vulnerable to

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the Bubonic plague. European personal hygiene

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standards stayed low for a long

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time. It was common to go

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a year between baths in our

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old west. Private bathrooms equipped with

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a tub or a shower were

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creatures of the new late 19th

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century consumerism. They evolved while trial

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versions were being sold. First... were

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shower devices, a typical one consisted

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of a treadle that you worked

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with your feet to pump water

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into a handheld spray nozzle. The

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game changed with the development of

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public water supply systems. In 1885,

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George Vanderbilt had one of the

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first in-house bathtubs supplied with running

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water. Fifteen years later, my 1900

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Sears Roebok catalog offers 10 different

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bathtubs. Prices ranged from 350 for

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a 4-foot tin tub to $30

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for a white enameled iron tub

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with water faucets. No more mention

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of showers. I was raised in

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a large house built in 1898.

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It was typical of middle-class living

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in America until after World War

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II. It had one bathroom upstairs,

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a wash basin in a downstairs

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coat room, and an isolated toilet

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under the basement stairs. The upstairs

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bathroom had an iron tub in

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no shower. In those days a

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tub faucet might have been fitted

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with a hose and a spray

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nozzle, but full private shower stalls

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outside the tub were built into

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it have come into use only

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during my adult life. My 1897

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Britannica recommends that bathing for hygienic

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purposes be done before 1 p.m.

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and on an empty stomach. That

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suits me. It's out of bed

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and into the shower before coffee,

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before thought, before deciding what program

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to write today. I find it

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implausible that I once lived in

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a world where that was unheard

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of luxury. I'm John Leanhart at

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the University of Houston where we're

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interested in the way

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inventive minds work.

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You