Bathtub

A bath means a container which is used for personal hygiene. It is designed by shape and size so that you can put into it, so that the body is in the water.

History of the emergence

Natural bathtubs as they occur in hot springs in nature in the form of ponds, are used since time immemorial by man and animals. The invention of the home bathtub is attributable to the inhabitants of the ancient Sybaris after the Greek Athenaeus.

Baths were used in the kitchen or in the laundry room ( or your own wash houses ) and were initially washtub, and later free-standing with feet. Only with the distribution of their own bathroom, there is built-in troughs, which are manufactured only as a shell.

A bath tub and gave it from different materials. In Pylos a clay bath from the 13th century can be seen BC. The Romans and other peoples pools built with stone basin. Wooden tub were common at least since the Middle Ages. Bathtubs made ​​of galvanized sheet iron were standard since the 19th century. 1906 began the Brühler tendril plant in the world is the first company with the production of enameled steel bathtubs, which are increasingly displaced the well-known cast-iron pans from the market in the course of the century. Since the 1990s, the proportion of plastic bathtubs took ( acrylic or fiberglass ) to increase. In recent years (2004-2006), however, the steel enamel baths were able to gain market share again. Hold up to 20 years and can also repaint at a possibly occurring matting the surface. Due to higher production and material costs are also rare copper tubs and marble bathrooms to find.

In addition to the body long bath, there is also sitting baths, corner baths, as well as designs for several people (pool, free form swimming pool). Bathtubs with jets for injecting hot water is called a whirlpool or jacuzzi (whirlpool ). Another variant is the bath tub with shower that can be used as a shower and bathtub as a result of the completely sealed shower door.

Especially for medical purposes in physical therapy, there are also Armbadewannen and Fußbadewannen. In nursing homes are lifting (or hub ) common bath, the ergonomic height adjustment for the caregivers. ( The lifting of the patient, however, is done with a seat lift. )

Shape and accessories from bathtubs are still part of the bathing culture.

Common household bathtubs have an average capacity of around 140 liters of water these days. You can save with a space saving tub. A fill is thus already possible in some models with 85 liters.

Purpose strangers use

In agriculture, ancient baths are sometimes used as animal watering. To the amusement of participants and spectators also bathtub races are held on some rivers.

Potential equalization

Until a few years it was prescribed to connect bathtubs to the potential equalization. After the new DIN VDE 0100 part 701 is published, showers and bathtubs made ​​of steel or cast iron need not be connected to the equipotential bonding bar. However, nothing prevents such wells continue to be included in the potential equalization.

Bath as a motif of Fine Arts

In the visual arts there is the motif of the bathtub, inter alia, in the neoclassical painter Jacques Louis David, in his bathtub, immortalized in 1793 murdered the popular hero of the French Revolution, Jean -Paul Marat.

The pop artist Tom Wesselmann titled 1963 his large assemblages, inter alia, " Bathtub No.3" ( Museum Ludwig, Cologne).

The comedian and cartoonist Loriot chose the bathtub as the scene of an absurd communication in the animated film Men in the bathroom.

The German artist Joseph Beuys addressed the bathtub in various art objects. Public sensation was caused by a case in which the SPD at a ceremony at the Museum Leverkusen Morsbroich an art object (→ Joseph Beuys ' bath) has been misused. The tub was equipped with adhesive bandages and gauze and part of a traveling exhibition of the Wuppertal Von der Heydt - Museum. Hilde Müller and Marianne Klein discovered this tub in the search for a suitable vessel to rinse their glasses and cleaned them. As a result, the city of Wuppertal had to pay damages to Beuys.