In the Hot Seat

If your toilet isn't hooked up to sewage system, what do you do with the, erm, contents? Burn it! Gas or electricity-powered incinerating toilets fire up to 1000 degrees Fahrenheit, turning excrement into sterile ash. Talk about lighting a fire under your butt.

These toilets are a hotter, less odorous alternative to Porta-Potties in remote areas or construction sites. Though not as widely used, they're nothing new. The incinerating toilet pictured here is from a German encyclopedia published in 1904.

Wikimedia Commons/Lexikon der gesamten Technik (dictionary of technology) from 1904 by Otto Lueger