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Inventors Plumbing, Bath & Toilet History
The History of Plumbing
Ancient and modern plumbing histories from around the world: baths, toilets, water closets.

Showers
One of the earliest and most elaborate is the English Regency Shower developed around 1810.


Drinking Fountains and Water Coolers
The modern drinking fountain was invented and then manufactured in the early 1900s by two men and the respective company each man founded; inventor, Halsey Willard Taylor and the Halsey Taylor Company and inventor, Luther Haws and the Haws Sanitary Drinking Faucet Co. These two companies changed how water was served in public places.

Halsey Taylor's father had died of typhoid fever caused by contaminated public drinking water. His father's death motivated him to invent a the water fountain, to provide safer drinking water.

Luther Haws was a part-time plumber, sheet metal contractor and the sanitary inspector for the city of Berkeley, Calif. While inspecting a public school, Haws saw children drinking water out of a common tin cup that was tied to the faucet. Haws also feared that there was a health hazard in the way the the public was sharing their water supply.

Haws invented the first faucet designed for drinking. He used spare plumbing parts, taking the ball from a brass bedstead and a self-closing rabbit ear valve. The Berkeley school department installed the first model drinking faucets.


Toilets
The first first flush toilet was invented in 1775.

Toilets
The inventors behind the plumbing wonder called the toilet.

History of Toilets
The paper presented at the International Symposium on Public Toilets held in Hong Kong on May 25-27, 1995 by Dr. Bindeswar Pathak, Ph.D., D.Litt., the founder of the Sulabh Movement.

Sir Thomas Crapper
The history and the myth of Sir Thomas Crapper.


Toilet Paper
The following may not be accurate information, the leads I found indicated this: We might owe the 1857 invention of toilet-paper to American, Joseph Coyetty. We do know that in 1880, the British Perforated Paper Company created the first paper to be used for wiping after using the toilet. This paper did not come in roll form, it came in boxes of small pre-cut squares. Toilet-paper in roll form became common in America by 1907.
Toilet Paper Shortage & History of TP

Toilet Brushes
In the 1930's, the Addis Brush Company created the first artificial Christmas brush trees, using the same machinery which made their toilet brushes! In general, the type of material used to make a brush and its design was dictated by the intended use. The hair of animals such as horses, oxen, squirrels and badgers was used in household and toilet-brushes. Various types of plant fibers have been used, such as the piassava obtained from a Brazilian palm and palmyra bassine derived from the palmyra palm of Africa and Sri Lanka. Brush bristles were joined to handles and backs of wood, plastic or metal. Many household and toilet-brushes were produced by inserting tufts of fibers into holes drilled in brush backs.


History of Sewers 101
Humans began to lead a settled life, growing crops to supplement hunting and gathering, only about 10,000 years ago. For all time before that, humans "deposited their excreta -- urine and feces -- on the ground, here and there, in the manner of all other land creatures."
WC and Bidet
A history written in french by R. H. Guerrand - illustrations of old chamber pots.
Water Heaters
Edwin Ruud was the inventor of the automatic-storage water heater in 1889.
Related Innovations
Home Innovations
Plumbing and Mechanical Magazine

©Mary Bellis

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