Jake Wulf is a gifted 9-year-old boy from Odebolt, Iowa who has but one weakness: he can't remember to lower the toilet seat after he's done.
Tired of his mom getting mad at him, he decided to invent the Privy Prop, a foot-powered lever sort of like the one you see for trash cans:
It was during a visit to a doctor's office that Jake's idea for the "Privy Prop" began to take shape.
He noticed the lid to a small trash can, which opened and closed with a foot-powered lever. He went home and told his parents that he wanted to design a similar device for the toilet. [...]
Jake built plywood base and then cut thin pieces of steel and fashioned a teeter-totter at the bottom. You step on it and the seats raises. You step off and it closes.
http://www.philly.com/philly/news/weird_news/20071102_ap_boysinventionkeepsthelidon.html - via The Misfit
That granted, why it is his job to lower the seat when finished? Why doesn't his lazy mother raise it WHEN SHE IS DONE? Why is the optimum default position "down" ? Who made that rule up?
Each person should set it however they like and leave it however they like. Freedom, man!
US Patent 5829068 (11-03-1998)
I may be 17, but I too would easily be able to fix this up home, but it would be useless as none of us at home cares. And if this boy hasn't noticed these trash-can lids before now, no wonder he forgets the seat...
If an adult came up with this, people would go *eh*, not want to pay money for it, and move on.
BUT SINCE ITS A KID...
Lower the seat :
- avoids dropped objects to be wet
- avoids projections when flushing (European toilets even more)
- avoids particules to be sent airborne
- avoids mom to be mad at you. you love ur mom, don;t u? ;)
Just for the 1st 1 I lower it. Cluttered bathroom and clumsy people don't go together :)
For more comments, please visit my blog post on this at:
http://angrylabrat.blogspot.com/2007/11/privy-prop.html