A pay toilet is a public toilet that requires the user to pay. It may be street furniture or be inside a building, e.g. a shopping mall, department store, or railway station.

Aug 13, 2021 · In 1968, Dayton, Ohio, teenagers (and brothers) Michael and Ira Gessel were on a road trip in Pennsylvania with their parents when they encountered a pay toilet at a Howard Johnson's restaurant.

Jul 17, 2020 · The first modern pay toilet was invented by an Englishman, John Nevil Maskelyne. Maskelyne was a famous magician, inventor, and conman. So his creation of a device that forces people to pay for a bodily function makes sense.

Dec 8, 2016 · Jumping ahead to the late nineteenth-century United States, many establishments had pay toilets that were opened by staff with the payment of a coin or token. Some histories claim that Walt Disney was the first to install the coin-operated lock version in his café Walt’s in Los Angeles in 1936.

Sep 17, 2014 · Precker explained four methods of thwarting pay toilet locks: the “American Crawl,” in which the urgent victim crawls under the stall door (a New York state senator would later admit to contemplating this from time to time); the “Doorman,” where one individual sacrifices his or her dime and then holds the door open for others; “Stick ...

Apr 29, 2022 · While it's commonplace outside of the U.S., and no one bats an eye at it, pay toilets haven't been a thing in the States for five decades, according to the Associated Press. Why make people pay to go to the bathroom?

Dec 21, 2024 · “Pay toilets are an unethical infringement on basic human rights.” Originally laws to declare pay toilets illegal could not get enough votes to pass. A bill introduced by a California Assemblywoman “went down the drain in defeat” according to the Associate Press.

Token-operated locks are a throwback from the old “pay toilet” days, but still can be an effective way to manage public restroom doors. A special token-operated lock is installed on each restroom door.

Sep 20, 2022 · Paying to use a toilet can be traced back almost 2000 years, to the first century BCE. The charge is often collected by an attendant or by inserting coins into an automatic turnstile; in some freestanding toilets in the street, the fee is inserted into a slot by the door.

The practice of paying to use a toilet dates back nearly 2000 years, to the first century BCE. But thanks to some students, we can all appreciate free access to public restrooms at any time. Four high school students in the 1970s are the reason why America no longer has pay toilets.