Man who invented the toilet

But Crapper did not invent the flushing toilet. The basic idea of using water to wash away sewage dates back to the Bronze Age. Around 4, years ago, cities in the Indus Valley had sophisticated sanitation — including communal toilets flushed with running water.

Known as a water closet, it was installed in Richmond Palace. Yet despite this royal support, the device was long rejected by the public, who saw it as an expensive indulgence. They met friends, exchanged views, caught up on the news and wiped themselves with a piece of sponge fixed to a short wooden handle. This was then rinsed in a water channel which ran in front of the toilet and rerused. It has been suggested that this practice spawned thge phrase "getting hold of the wrong end of the stick".

In Medieval England, people used " potties " and would simply throw their contents through a door or window into the street. The more affluent would use a " garderobe ", a protruding room with an opening for waste, suspended over a moat above right. The name probably comes from the practice of storing robes in the toilet area so that the smell would discourage fleas and other parasites. Peasants and serfs, however, relieved themselves in communal privies at the end of streets.

A huge public garderobe was constructed in London and emptied directly into the River Thames, causing stench and disease for the entire population. Garderobes and public toilets were eventually replaced by the " commode ", a box with a seat and a lid covering a porcelain or copper pot to catch the waste Marie Antoinette's commode, below right. France's Louis XI hid his commode behind curtains whilst Elizabeth I covered hers in crimson velvet and lace, using sprigs of herbs to disguise the odours.

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 Continuing, the water fills up, raising the float.

Once the water reaches the fill line, it has all the water it needs to perform the next flush. At that point, the float is high enough that it pushes the lift arm down, shutting the fill valve shaft and stopping more water from pouring in.

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