Night soil is a historically used euphemism for human excreta collected from cesspools, privies, pail closets, pit latrines, privy middens, septic tanks, etc. This material was removed from the immediate area, usually at night, by workers employed in this trade. Sometimes it could be transported out of towns and sold on as a fertilizer.
A woman carrying buckets of night-soil, photographed in 1871.
Industrially produced "sanitary ware", now in the Gladstone Pottery Museum
A pail closet or pail privy or dirt closet was a room used for the disposal of human excreta, under the "pail system" of waste removal. The "closet" was a small outhouse (privy) which contained a seat, underneath which a portable receptacle was placed. This bucket (pail), into which the user would defecate, was removed and emptied by the local authority on a regular basis. The contents, known euphemistically as night soil, would either be incinerated or composted into fertiliser.
A Rochdale Corporation pail closet. The seated area is on the right. The chamber on the left was for the disposal of common household waste.
Diagram of a midden closet in Nottingham
A full pail, complete with lid (left), and an empty pail, ready to be returned. These are Rochdale pails, made from wood. Manchester's pails were made from galvanised iron, with India-rubber beading around the lids to seal them.
Cutaway section of a Goux pail, with mould
