Thunderbox

True, our cash would run out, but Charleton wouldn't let us starve. He'd put us into shorts, and we should wash the dishes and clean the thunder-boxes and take out guests for walks.

Then, after another pause, he said: "Well, if you must know, it's my Thunder-box." […] He opened it, showing a mechanism of heavy cast-iron brass and patterned earthenware of solid Edwardian workmanship. On the inside of the lid was a plaque bearing the embossed title Connolly's Chemical Closet.

[T]he response would sound from some soldier unseen, perhaps astride a thunderbox in the ablutions.

In the present age the historian must content himself with the role of humble camp follower to the sociologist and economist. But like the sweeper in my regiment who carried the thunder-box of the sahibs through the Arakan campaign there is the hope that in the end it is he and not they who will be awarded the decoration.

Then there were the million-odd Indians, coolies, gardeners, house servants, ayahs, syces and others who performed the tasks that no one else would tackle; they emptied the "thunder boxes", collected the refuse and were the main source of labour in the docks.

I am afraid his history on the advent of pan latrines or what is better known to 'thoroughbred colonials' as "Thunder Boxes" was rather wanting; and I don't blame him. […] [W]ell after the end of the Second World War some boarding schools in Cape Coast were still using "thunder boxes".

At Roorkee, in King George's Own Royal Bengal Sappers and Miners quarters, thunderboxes with a china receptacle were the only form of sanitation. Outside the little room in which the thunderbox was enclosed prowled a "sweeper" with a wickerwork basket. As soon as the thunderbox had been used, the sweeper hurried forward and carried off triumphantly the china receptacle and contents.

The adults in the family used commodes or ‘thunderboxes’ – European-style toilets on which one sat. The children and servants relieved themselves in the traditional Indian way at ground level. […] [W]hen running water was introduced, the thunderboxes became flushable.