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What are the origins of the toilet
00:00 Fri 14th Dec 2001 | Home & Garden
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It is said that King Minos of Greece had the first flushing toilet 2,800 years ago, but it was the Romans who first built latrines (holes in the round) over running water to carry waste away and also built the first underground sewers.�
In Britain, the first toilet was apparently invented in 1596 by Elizabeth I's godson Sir Thomas Harrington for the queen. It was a covered box with handles that could be carried away. But his invention was greeted with derision at the time and it wasn't for over 200 years at the idea of the flushing toilet resurfaced.
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Until Victorian times the common way of disposing of human waste was either to bury it in a trench, or in urban areas to collect it in a bowl or chamber pot which was then emptied into the street or river by throwing it out of the window.
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In France it was common courtesy to warn pedestrians of the impending shower by shouting 'Gardez l'eau', pronounced Gardy-loo, which a phrase which was eventually corrupted in the English loo, for toilet.
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Q. So who invented the flushable toilet
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There had been a number of variations on Harrington's invention patented in the 1770s and 80s, which consisted of a bowl with water and a hinge to release the contents. Perhaps the most famous was invented by Joseph Braham, whose closets became commonly used on boats and ships.�
However, the first flushable toilet with a water tank - the cistern - that connected to the toilet to produce the flush is commonly held to have been invented by the gloriously named Thomas Crapper in 1872.
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However, this is much disputed and the evidence point to it having been invented by a certain Albert Giblin, who patented a similar device in 1819. It is possible that Crapper, a plumber's merchant by trade, bought the idea off Giblin and marketed it.
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Q.� How has it changed through the ages
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Master potters such as Thomas Twyford developed the first integrated, trapless systems made from china, and the toilet became a status symbol in Victorian houses where they were plumbed in to the new urban sewerage systems.�
During the early 20th century the cistern was gradually lowered closer to the bowl until it became one unit and gradually developed lower flush models which used much less water than previously, but apart from this the essential technology remains very much the same.
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Q.� So when did they become part of the house
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Richer Victorians would incorporate as toilet or water closet into the house but the working class privy was situated outside in the yard, something we can still see in Victorian terraces to this day.�
The rise of the suburban middle classes saw houses built with two or more toilets, but up until relatively recently they were still small functionary spaces. In the post-war years toilets were incorporated into the bathroom, often distinct before then, and from the 1970s onwards the bathroom has grown bigger and bigger, increasingly used as a symbol of wealth and a private retreat.
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By Tom Gard
