After a long journey, Frances Allen hoped her portable bathtub would relax and restore the spirits of any traveler. All the user had to do was attach the hoses to a water source and a drain and step in. The person could close the bag with a zipper on the inside and begin to scrub away. Once the bath was over, the plastic bag was drained, and rolled up for another day's traveling. While Frances Allen developed her patent in 1972, many people before her had invented portable bathtubs. This interest in portable bathing may have reflected the fact that the quality of inns and their bathing facilities varied tremendously from area to area. In 1904, Adolf Herz patented a portable bath. It was actually very similar to France Allen's. The major difference was that the water was placed in the bottom of Herz's model before the user stepped into it. |
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