History of Flushing
From Toiletpedia
The History of Flushing: The Straight Poop on Innovations That Changed the Way We Do Our Business
Toilet flushing. So common, so everyday. It’s easy to forget that indoor flush toilets are barely a century old. Although history records the first flush toilet in 1500 B.C., at the palace of King Midas the chamber pot and the outhouse were the norm right into the 20th century. In the eons that followed the Midas flush, however, waste elimination practices ebbed and flowed, along with our understanding of engineering and sanitation. Luckily, every era had pioneers who refused to take toilet problems sitting down, constantly advancing technology towards a clean, safe, clog-free flush.
The History of Flushing, Part 1
Disposing waste products has long been a significant health problem, which is why it is said that plumbers protect the health of the nation (use poster image?). Before the health implications were understood, advancements in toilets were driven by the simple desire to eliminate dirt and odors from home and castle:
- In the 6th century B.C., Babylonians learned to go with the flow, harnessing the power of gravity through latrines. Waste dropped into subterranean pipes that used water to carry the waste away. Call them gravity-led toilets.
- A few hundred years after the Babylonians, during the engineering advancements in the Roman Empire, public latrines were used along with water that washed the waste into sewers.
- In the Middle Ages, castles and monasteries used something akin to an indoor outhouse. Castle residents perched on a throne that consisted of a seat with a hole. Waste dropped down a pipe and exited the building through a protrusion in the castle wall, dropping onto the ground or into the moat surrounding the castle.
- During the Renaissance, complex piping systems were out and beautiful chamber pots were in, making up in form what they decidedly lacked in function. “Flushing” consisted of picking up these beautifully designed and colorful pots and simply hurling waste out the window. On the plus side, no clogging. On the down side, Black Death.
- In 1596, Sir John Harington, the godson of Queen Elizabeth I, invented a water closet with an actual flushing mechanism. The story goes that the Queen never used it, believed to be the first recorded instance of a flush that was so noisy, even good performance wasn’t worth it.
- Over the next several centuries, chamber pots continued to reign in popularity, followed by outhouses. The latter were especially prevalent in the United States because our rugged American forefathers preferred doing our business outdoors and our busy American foremothers were glad not to have to clean up after them. Thomas Jefferson was one prominent exception. He fashioned a waterless privy at his home in Monticello that used an indoor chamber pot connected to the outside by a series of pulleys, which were operated by his servants.
The Inventor of the Toilet Was…
No, not Thomas Crapper. Although long-credited as the father of the flush toilet, this account was officially challenged by a 1969 biography of Crapper, as well as others. Plumbing & Mechanical magazine’s History of Plumbing series has more on Mr. Crapper.
Patent records show that it was actually Edward Humpherson, a one-time apprentice with Crapper, who invented the first pedestal, wash-down water closet in 1884 in England. Humpherson’s other patents include:
- an improved lead pipe joint and an improved waste water preventer in 1885;
- a siphonic flushing cistern in 1888;
- a pedestal water closet in 1891; and
- an automatic or intermittent siphonic flushing apparatus in 1892.
By comparison, Thomas Crapper has no listed patents pertaining to the design of a water closet suite. He did, however, have a more relevant name than Humpherson.
Flushing Out the Finalists
The era of the Industry Revolution witnessed numerous attempts at creating a flushing toilet, with many patents issued in addition to Humpherson’s, primarily in England. The "wash-out" toilet had a hole in the front or back of the bowl, with a trapway shaped like the letter “P” (no pun intended). Like the p-traps still used today underneath sinks, water filled the bend to seal the house from sewer gas.
The P shape eventually changed to an “S,” the familiar trapway shape we use today. When the flush lever is pushed, water fills the bowl, rising on the upward leg of the trapway until it spills over the top or the “weir” into the downward leg of the S. The rush of water running downhill pulls waste and water out of the bowl, a process called “siphonic action.” Narrowing part of the downward leg of the siphon trapway strengthened that vacuum effect, while gallons of water rushing into the bowl helped push all the waste cleanly from the bowl and the trapway, even through the narrow chokepoint.
So now odors were gone. Black Death was long gone. Outhouses became a punch line. Life was good. Until it became clear that a nation flushing away millions of gallons of water every single day might have its limits.
Championing Low-Consumption Technology
The U.S. Energy Policy Act of 1992 restricted household toilets to 1.6 gallons per flush (gpf) beginning in 1994. Initially, the amount of water changed, but the toilets didn’t, ushering in a new era of bowl scrubbing, clogging, plunging, mopping and cursing, not necessarily in that order.
Pressure-assisted flushing briefly got things moving again by the mid-1990s, generating power from above so the trapway could open up to eliminate clogs. Unfortunately, startled Americans could suddenly relate to Queen Elizabeth’s experience. Nighttime nature calls made your business everyone’s business in the neighborhood.
By the dawn of our current millennium U.S. toilet manufacturers were furiously at work to improve the flush for reduced noise and fewer overflows. Instead of continuing to modify conventional flushing systems. In 2003, the first of the high-performance appeared on the scene, designed by scientists with advanced degrees using sophisticated hydraulic computer modeling to create toilets that could remove more waste, more cleanly with the least amount of water possible. Today, there are toilets on the market independently tested < http://www.cuwcc.org/MaPTesting.aspx> to quietly but forcefully power out 1,000 grams of solid waste. That’s more than two pounds of solid waste. Seriously.
How Low Can We Go?
Most recently, toilets have emerged on the market that flush with even less than 1.6 gallons of water. Called high-efficiency toilets (HETs), they only use 1.28 gpf, or 20 percent of low consumption 1.6 gpf toilets. A voluntary partnership program called WaterSense® helps assure consumers the water conservation products will perform as promised. It is similar to the ENERGY STAR label for appliances, and both are programs of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
And the innovations won’t stop here. With the new mandate to save our water resources, the modern pioneers of plumbing will continue to strive to create new technologies that provide both high performance and conservation.
Images:
Sources:
Plumbing & Mechanical magazine’s “History of Plumbing” [1]
Victorian Crapper [2]
Toiletology [3]
Pumber Protects [4]
