For thousands of years, mankind has gone without toilets, baths, showers, sinks, and countless other conveniences. That’s because plumbing is complex! Plumbing is the only infrastructure that requires an unbroken system of pipes, which is very complicated to create and maintain. We owe a lot to a few individuals throughout history who’ve brought our modern plumbing system into existence. Here are a few of the people responsible for these luxuries:
- The first flushing toilet was invented by Sir John Harington back in 1594 for Queen Elizabeth. Unfortunately, he penned a book about his new invention entitled A New Discourse of a State Subject, Called the Metamorphosis of Ajax – full of bad puns and off-color humor. He was ridiculed to scorn over the book, and never manufactured another toilet. After, the world was toilet-free for almost 200 more years.
- The toilet reemerged and was patented in 1775 by Alexander Cummings. Its design was hugely improved by one Thomas Crapper, who garnered 9 patents during his lifetime, 3 of them for improvements to the flushing toilet.
The history of plumbing is long and storied – too much so to all be contained in one short blog post. Fortunately, you don’t have to worry about it! Leave the history – and the tough repairs – to your Utah plumbing experts.
