When a toilet atop the Sears Tower is flushed, do the contents fall 110 floors?
Dear Cecil: Something has puzzled me for years. Suppose I worked on the 110th floor of the Sears Tower. Nature has reminded me it’s time to relieve myself of last evening’s supper. Now, I can’t imagine the pileup of poop that would splatter all over the Wacker Drive sewer system if the stuff went straight down the tube. Do they have some kind of diversionary piping system, or does it indeed drop 1,450 feet to street level? — T.J. Crapper, Chicago Cecil replies: When you look at modern architecture, T., you’re supposed to think about the glories of civilization, not toilets. Although now that you mention it, one does wonder about the plumbing arrangements. Well, wonder no more. Having made my usual discreet inquiries … you definitely want to avoid saying things like “splatter” … I can tell you the answer is no, the stuff doesn’t drop in a straight shot from the top floors. There are offsets in the soil pipes every so often where the water runs horizontally for a short distance and then
