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Bath tubs and the name Bath
TThe terminology for bath tubs originates most
likely, for those who speak English, from the English city of Bath. This
town in England is the only place where there are natural thermal mineral
springs, so the place is entirely special for people who live there and
have made it into a popular tourist destination, full of modern, newly
constructed luxury health centers and spas. The waters at Bath are 120
degrees Fahrenheit when they bubble up from deep in the ground, and they
generate over one million gallons of mineral water each and every day. The
waters of Bath are healthy to bath in, although researchers have
discovered that they do have a a slight radioactive charge in them that
gives off a weak reading when measured. The waters contain over thirty
natural minerals such as salt, calcium, sulfur, potassium and magnesium.
So it is probably that the first traditional town in England for gathering
to take baths became the designated name we now use to talk about our bath
tubs, even though we don't even know why we call them that because the
relationship to those mineral baths in the countryside of England is so
removed now, when most of us just turn on the faucet and we have no idea
where or how the waters come to us, nor do we understand that is in the
water that we bath in - and in some cases we probably do not want to know.
In one major city in Texas, for example, it was discovered by researchers
studying the water supply that the water people bathed in, drank, and
cooked with had previously been used upstream by the people of another
large Texas city. After they used it, it was sent through a water
sanitation system and then recycled into use two hundred miles away by
other residents of Texas. And this may be the case in more instances than
we realize, that the water we bath in and drink today was a few days ago
used by others. But in places like Bath and in other areas that have
pristine water supplies, people report that bathing not only cleans them
and makes them feel refreshed, but it makes them feel healthier and cures
things like arthitis and back pain. This is attributed to the fact that
some of these waters contain minerals that are very healthy for the human
body.
So some day, take a trek to the origin of your household word for bath
tubs and visit the original and natural bath, in the town of Bath, in the
UK.
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