Rub a dub dub, ideas from the tub
Many of us find inspiration hits us when we’re soaking in the bath. In our busy lives, we don’t often get the chance to enjoy a few moments of quiet relaxation, and that’s often when ideas have the chance to bubble to the surface, along with the loofah.
Here are a few notable people for whom the bath has been a place of inspiration. Have a read and perhaps you’ll be inspired to run a bath yourself and have a soak.
Archimedes
The Greek scholar allegedly discovered displacement when he stepped in the bath and noted that the water level rose as he entered it, meaning the volume of water displaced must be the same as the volume of the object submerged. He was apparently so excited that (after shouting ‘Eureka!’) he ran naked through the streets of Syracuse.
Sylvia Plath
The American poet found deep inspiration in the bath. Here she is writing in ‘The Bell Jar’ about how a bath solves everything.
“There must be quite a few things a hot bath won’t cure, but I don’t know many of them. Whenever I’m sad I’m going to die, or so nervous I can’t sleep, or in love with somebody I won’t be seeing for a week, I slump down just so far and then I say : “I’ll go take a hot bath.”
I remember the ceiling over every bathtub I’ve stretched out in. I remember the texture of the ceilings and the cracks and the colors and the damp spots and the light fixtures. I remember the tubs, too : the antique griffin-legged tubs, and the modern coffin-shaped tubs, and the fancy pink marble tubs overlooking indoor lily ponds, and I remember the shape and sizes of the water taps and the different sort of soap holders. I never feel so much myself as when I’m in a hot bath…
The longer I lay there in the clear hot water the purer I felt, and when I stepped out at last and wrapped myself in one of the big, soft white hotel bath towels I felt pure and sweet as a baby.”
Shigeru Miyamoto
The legendary games designer had a vintage bath tub as a perk at his office at Nintendo. During a highly stressful work period for him in the 1980s when he was under pressure to come up with a game, his bath inspired him to design Donkey Kong. We’re not sure what the links between baths and donkeys is, but we can see how it might have inspired his next great game, featuring two plumbers now known to the world as Mario and Luigi.
Agatha Christie
Is said to have found inspiration for her crime novels while soaking in the tub and eating apples. She’d often be there so long she’d end up surrounded by a ring of apple cores discarded around the edge of the bath.
Douglas Adams
The author of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy loved a bath and often found ideas there. His old flatmate has often reminisced about Adams’ hour-and-a-half-long baths, and the fact that if he wasn’t in one, he was just out of one, or about to get into one.
Winston Churchill
The former Prime Minister was a lover of long and frequent baths and is said to have strategised for World War Two from the bath.
Benjamin Britten
Composer Benjamin Britten is said to have religiously taken a freezing cold bath in the mornings and a scalding hot one at night. We can’t say it <definitely> helped with his Piano Concerto, but it surely can’t have done any harm?
Steve Jobs
Ok, it’s not strictly a bath but needs must when you’re launching Apple Inc. Steve Jobs is said to have found a little quiet and relaxation in the loos at Apple, dangling his feet into the toilet bowl to give them a soak.
The beautiful bath (and dog) pictured above are one of the bathrooms featured on our My Place feature in our September issue. Find more inspirational places to soak starting on p112 of the issue.
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