By Bill Primavera
Sometimes I’m asked where I get the ideas for my articles and the answer is simple: I just write about what I live.
Just today, as I flushed the toilet, then turned on the sink in my bathroom and the clean water magically poured in without me having to do anything, I thought, ah, there we go for this week: indoor plumbing fixtures.
When I first moved to Westchester it was a very old house dating back to 1734. There was an unsightly dilapidated outbuilding in the back yard which I soon removed. As I did so, I thought about how hard it must have been to visit this facility in the winter.
As I researched the history of indoor plumbing online, I was reminded how much I admire the talents and work of DIY enthusiasts, especially those who know a lot about the background to their work. I found a plumber in Virginia named John C. Flood who added to his website the history of plumbing that he personally researched and I give full credit to his work in the timeline below.
Flood teases the reader with the following introduction: “The history of plumbing is extremely long and has not always involved the installation of indoor plumbing. While we often take modern indoor plumbing for granted, it hasn’t always been that practical.”
He then traces the many decades it took for development, beginning between 4000 and 3000 BC. Archaeologists discovered the first aqueducts in the Indus River in India. They date back to when the Egyptian ruler Menes supported a thriving civilization by building canals. Irrigation ditches and basins.
Around 2500 BC The Egyptians developed copper pipes to build sophisticated bathrooms with irrigation and drainage systems in the pyramids. Since the Egyptians believed that the dead needed food, clothing and other essentials in the afterlife, they also set up toilets in tombs. It was around this time that seated toilets appeared in the Harappa civilization (now India), although it is not known exactly who invented the toilet.
Between 1500 and 1000 BC Around 3000 BC, under the reign of King Minos, the people of Crete created sophisticated sewage disposal and drainage systems using underground canals. During the same period, the first flush toilet with a wooden seat was invented. Archaeologists have also discovered a bathtub in America that resembles late 19th-century cast-iron bathtubs.
Around 710 BC The Assyrian king Sargon the Great invented the first shower by having slaves on ladders douse him with water while he was bathing.
Between 500 B.C. Between 1000 BC and 455 AD, the Roman Empire developed complex ancient plumbing systems, including aqueducts, underground sewers, public baths, bronze and lead plumbing systems, and even marble fixtures. By AD 52, Rome had an estimated 220 miles of aqueducts, pipes, and water channels that supplied baths, homes, and public fountains. The water channels were powered by gravity and carried 300 gallons of fresh water for the citizens of Rome.
In 1596, Sir John Harrington, godson of Queen Elizabeth I, designed the first flush toilet for his godmother – first used at Richmond Palace. He also built a toilet with flush water for himself at home. The apparatus included a seat, a bowl, and a water cistern behind the seat.
In 1640 King Ludwig ordered
The prototype of the modern toilet was first developed in 1775 by Scottish inventor Alexander Cummings. Harrington’s water closet could flush, but had no siphon. Cummings’ prototype included an S-trap (a slide valve between the bowl and the trap) that allowed some water to remain in the bowl. As a result, the water no longer smelled like sewage and the bowl could be easily cleaned after each use.
In 1804, Philadelphia was the first city to switch entirely to cast iron pipe to create a new water supply system.
In 1829, the Tremont Hotel of Boston was the first hotel to offer indoor restrooms for its guests. Eight toilets were built by Isaiah Rogers. By the 1840s, indoor toilets were a common feature in the homes of the wealthy and luxury hotels. Soap for bathing was soon introduced and prevailed for reasons of hygiene.
The White House first received running water on the ground floor in 1833. The upstairs plumbing was introduced later when President Franklin Pierce was in office.
Chicago was the first US city to have a comprehensive sewage system, completed in 1885, and in 1891 Thomas Crapper (no jokes about the name) patented his valve and siphon design, modernizing the modern toilet. His work revolutionized the modern concept of plumbing.
In 1910, the elevated water tank became the most modern enclosed toilet water tank and basin that most people have in their bathrooms today.
In 1996, non-metallic and plastic plumbing systems for toilets were first introduced.
In 2003, the International Code Council (ICC) was formed through the merger of three model building code agencies. The council helps to ensure that all future developments in all projects follow a strictly enforced code and standard.
And so we have the modern conveniences of plumbing that most of us take for granted. But think about what we would do without them!
Bill Primavera is a real estate agent associated with William Raveis Real Estate and the founder of Primavera Public Relations, Inc. (www.PrimaveraPR.com). To use The Home Guru’s services to market your home for sale, call 914-522
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