Caught with his pants down

Going to the bathroom in the comfort and privacy of your own home, or in any building for that matter, is a relatively new convenience of modern living.

As recently as the mid- to late-1800s, engineers and tinkerers were still trying to master the art of a flushing toilet. And towns were still devising ways to dispense with the waste.

For John Dihrberg of Visalia, the indoor "water closet" solved one inconvenience but only gave rise to another - bathroom bargers. In 1890 he patented a way of letting people know when a toilet was in use.

"This invention has for its object the doing away with that annoyance which attaches to water-closets, especially in hotels and boarding-houses, owing to the absence of anything to indicate from the exterior when said closets are occupied or vacant.

"Many of such closets are not provided with interior hooks or bolts to secure the occupant from intrusion, as such fastenings are in many cases objectionable and have even necessitated the breaking in of the door in case of sickness of the occupant, or when from other reasons the closet has been unduly long occupied, while if the closet-door only be shut to and not bolted or hooked occupants are frequently exposed to the annoyance of attempted intrusion by others, which is equally annoying to the intruders," he wrote of his invention.

Little did Dihrberg know that his invention would be adapted for use on airplane bathroom doors and porta-potties.