page_title: Dry toilet
section_title: Dry earth closets
hierarchical_section_title: Dry toilet / History / Dry earth closets
caption_attribution_description: English: Dry toilet with peat dispenser (in German: Torfstreu-Trockenklosett) on display in a former bunker in Berlin
context_page_description: A dry toilet is a toilet that operates without flush water, unlike a flush toilet. The dry toilet may have a raised pedestal on which the user can sit, or a squat pan over which the user squats in the case of a squat toilet. In both cases, the excreta falls through a drop hole.
  A dry toilet can be any of the following types of toilets: a composting toilet, urine-diverting dry toilet, arborloo, container-based toilet, bucket toilet, simple pit latrine, incinerating toilets, or freezing toilets.
  The urine and feces can either become mixed at the point of dropping or stay separated, which is called urine diversion.
context_section_description: Dry earth closets were invented by English clergyman Henry Moule, who dedicated his life to improving public sanitation after witnessing the cholera epidemics of 1849 and 1854. Impressed by the insalubrity of the houses, especially during the Great Stink in the summer of 1858, he invented what he called the 'dry earth system'.
  In partnership with James Bannehr, he patented his device (No. 1316, dated 28 May 1860). Among his works bearing on the subject were The Advantages of the Dry Earth System (1868), The Impossibility overcome: or the Inoffensive, Safe, and Economical Disposal of the Refuse of Towns and Villages (1870), The Dry Earth System (1871), Town Refuse, the Remedy for Local Taxation (1872), and National Health and Wealth promoted by the general adoption of the Dry Earth System (1873). His system was adopted in private houses, in rural districts, in military camps, in many hospitals, and extensively in the British Raj. Ultimately, however, it failed to gain public support as attention turned to the water-flushed toilet connected to a sewer system.
  In Germany, a dry toilet with a peat dispenser was marketed until after the Second World War. It was called "Metroclo" and was manufactured by Gefinal, Berlin.
caption: Example of a historical dry toilet with peat dispenser which was used in bunkers during World War II in Berlin (Metroclo by Gefinal)
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