Who invented indoor toilets

Actually, there is no known single inventor or individual invention of what we now know as the toilet, and all of its many synonyms. What we do have is a generally known and accepted historical timeline listing milestones along the way of the evolution of the toilet. So there you have it.

Not one individual is known to history as the inventor of the toilet; many have made their contribution to the single most significant product which helps promote and protect good health for people the world over. Sources: 1. The History of Toilets, About. Now Hiring! See Openings Here. So…who invented the toilet?

Thomas Crapper? In a few cities it was discovered that a flush toilet was in almost every house, attached to a sophisticated sewage system. King Minos of Crete had the first flushing water closet recorded in history, over years ago.

It is a widely-held belief that Thomas Crapper designed the first flush toilet in the s. It was actually years earlier, during the 16th century, that Europe discovered modern sanitation. The credit for inventing the flush toilet goes to Sir John Harrington, godson of Elizabeth I, who invented a water closet with a raised cistern and a small downpipe through which water ran to flush the waste in He built one for himself and one for his godmother; sadly, his invention was ignored for almost years: it was was not until that Alexander Cummings, a watchmaker, developed the S-shaped pipe under the toilet basin to keep out the foul odours.

As the population of Britain increased during the 19th century, the number of toilets did not match this expansion. In overcrowded cities, such as London and Manchester, up to people might share a single toilet. Sewage, therefore, spilled into the streets and the rivers. This found its way back into the drinking water supply which was brown when it came out of the pipes and was further polluted by chemicals, horse manure and dead animals; as a result, tens of thousands died of water-borne disease, especially during the cholera outbreaks of the s and s.

In , the government decreed that every new house should have a water-closet WC or ash-pit privy. However, after a particularly hot summer in , when rotting sewage resulted in " the great stink pictured right in a cartoon of the day ", the government commissioned the building of a system of sewers in London; construction was completed in At last, deaths from cholera, typhoid and other waterborne diseases dropped spectacularly.

He patented a number of toilet-related inventions but did not actually invent the modern toilet, although he was the first to display his wares in a showroom right. Bathroom technology really arrived in the 20th century with flushable valves, water tanks resting on the bowl itself and toilet paper rolls first marketed only in As a result, companies all over the world moved to develop better, low-flush toilets to prevent clogging.

Many toilets now have automatic flushes and the sealed " vacuum water closet ", as seen on planes or boats, is already being introduced in some countries, most notably Japan. Some of these toilets also compost the waste produced so it can be used as a garden fertiliser pictured right.

Going to the toilet, wherever and however you do it, is common to us all and flush toilets, clearly, are here to stay! This site uses cookies to bring you the best experience. Find out more.

My Links Use this area to add quick shortcuts to your favourite pages. Crapper set up his sanitary works in Chelsea and married his cousin, Maria Green, in In he returned to the London suburbs, settling at No 12 Thornsett Road, Anerley, where a commemorative blue plaque can be seen on the wall today.

By this time, Crapper had taken out nine patents related to sanitary ware, copies of which are held in Kensington Library. His death certificate records that on 27 January , aged 73, he died from bowel cancer. Thirty water closets with cedar seats were installed, as well as flushing urinals for a room adjoining the billiards room.

The census shows that he was still at school until at least when he was 14 years old. It is most unlikely that he walked to London. Why should he? His family were not that poor. His brother George was a master plumber in London.

He had several men working for him, and was happy to take Thomas on as an apprentice in and give him an attic room in his house in Robert Street, Chelsea. Reality: Untrue. But it was expensive to install, so most people carried on using chamber pots.