Flush toilet

Flush

toilet

you might take them for granted, but lifesaving toilets aren’t just a public convenience.

The user lifts the D-shaped handle to open the water supply and flush the pan.

More than just a FLUSH in the pan

Ancient toilets

Early toilets were basically open-air holes in the ground, such as this Roman lavatory from the 2nd century ce. Over the centuries, Sewage SyStemS developed for waste to flow into and be carried away. There were simple forms of the flush toilet in many ancient civilizations, including China, Egypt, Persia (modern-day Iran), and Greece.

Royal flush

Centuries passed and chamber pots were all the rage. A pot was placed under the bed for regular use, with the smelly contents often tossed out of the window! John harrington, godson to Queen Elizabeth I of England, invented a more advanced flushing toilet in the 1590s, which let water out of a tank and down a pipe to clean the bowl. He installed one for the queen, who wasn’t impressed, and the invention didn’t catch on.

The first toilet paper went It paved the way for... on sale in 1857, though the earliest use was probably in China during the 14th century. By the way... I wrote a book full of toilet humor about my invention. My godmother, the queen, was so upset she banished me!

The first public bathroom with flushing toilets opened in London in the 1850s. Today’s public toilets are usually housed in separate cubicles with locks.

Deadly diseases, including cholera and typhoid, were spread because waste wasn’t flushed away. In 1775, Scottish inventor alexander cummings came to the rescue with his toilet. His invention was an improvement on previous models because the pipe that took away the waste included an s trap, a double bend that stopped horrible fumes from finding their way back up the pipe. The toilet was a relief to everyone and his design became the prototype for future toilets.

The average person

spends three years on the toilet!

HOW Like Cummings’s toilet, modern versions still use a bend to trap water, IT WO R KS usually in a U shape. There have been some improvements, but the basic flush toilet design has stayed the same, whooshing water down a pipe to carry waste away.

Water from the cistern flushes the bowl when the handle is pulled.

Flushed waste travels along a drain to join main sewers. Bend traps water, which stops smells from coming up from the sewers.

Invented in 1870 by Stevens Hellyer, the Optimus was an advanced toilet design, with an under-the-rim flushing mechanism that was much more effective than previous versions.

Did you know? Before toilet paper, people used moss or leaves. Rich people might have used cloth, such as wool or even lace.

How it changedDiseases caused by sewage can kill. The flush toilet has done more to stop the spread of these diseases than any other invention—saving millions of lives.

the world

CARBOLIC SOAP

Toilets cleaned up their act with the arrival of

disinfectants. Carbolic acid was in use from the 1860s to kill germs and improve cleanliness.

portable toilets, which use chemicals to deodorize waste, were invented in the 1940s for shipyard workers. They are still used at concerts and festivals.