siphonic flush

History of Sanitary Ware

Outhouse

The next time you reach over to pull the lever (or push the button) to flush a toilet, take a moment to think about a world without these marvels of human engineering.  It’s never thought of being on the same level as the invention of the wheel or the light bulb, but if you think about it, it really is one of the most important inventions around.  Can you imagine a modern world without the flushable toilet?  I don't think I want to really.

Non flushing water closets, portable pieces of furniture with removable containers for waste, became the standard in pre-Victorian England, though many households continued to rely on the backyard privy.  The problem of automatic, hygienic waste disposal, whether from a chamber pot or from an overused hole in the ground, remained.

Almost everyone will have heard of Thomas Crapper, who often gets all the credit for designing/inventing the flushable toilet as we know today.  It’s fair to say that he did play a large part in the task, however his design was simply an improvement on an earlier model which he then patented and started producing.  His toilets, imprinted with “T. Crapper Brass & Co., Ltd.”, inspired a generation of young American soldiers stationed in England during World War I, and they returned to America with a new slang term for the relatively new household fixture.

Thomas Crapper's Design

With the invention of the sanitary flushable toilet, the fixture that made the modern bathroom possible, the crowded urban masses no longer needed to rely on chamber pots and open windows and backyards to dispose of their waste.  Nor did they have to fear sewer gases, such as methane, seeping back up into their homes and igniting explosively.

The first indoor bathrooms that were made possible by the refinement of the toilet were communal affairs shared by many people.  Previously, water closets were portable, so a dedicated space for their use wasn’t necessary.  It didn’t take long for indoor plumbing to gain acceptance as a good idea, and by the 1920s, American building codes required indoor bathrooms in all new single-family residential construction.

Interestingly, the modern toilet and its associated plumbing was as much a response to urban industrialization as it was a result of the manufacturing technology that industrialization made possible. In a rural society, an indoor toilet may be a convenience, but it isn’t essential. Basically the more densely populated an area becomes, the greater the need for efficient plumbing, sewage and toilet facilities.

Nowadays, the design of toilets revolves around the reduction of water waste as we are constantly encouraged to save water.  This is one of the reasons that all of our toilets have siphonic flush systems which reduce water wastage and are more efficient.