Toilets, Pots, and Such

By Carole Christman Koch

What better month than January to write about toilets.  The 27th is Thomas Crapper Day!  Yet, Crapper, whose been given the credit for inventing the toilet, actually didn’t.  He was awarded 9 patents, 3 of which were for water closets.  Yes, he was a plumber in England from 1861 to 1904 and owned a plumbing company, Thomas Crapper and Co.  Even though the “silent valveless water waste preventer” device is attributed to him, it was patented to Albert Giblin, an employee of Crapper.  According to Ken Grabowski, a researcher on Crapper, Giblin either allowed Crapper to use his product, or he sold him the patent.  Grabrowski also states the term “crapper” took hold through World War I soldiers, who saw T. Crapper-Chelsea on tanks and came up with “crapper,” meaning toilet.

I’ve always liked to delve into a bit of history on the subjects I write about.

Our modern flush toilet, which disposes of human waste, came about through a long history of improvements as well as names for the contraption.  No one individual is truly the inventor.

The first known flush toilet, or seat closet, with a sewage system was built in the 26th century B.C. by peoples of the Indus Valley, now mainly in modern-day Pakistan.

The ancient Romans had a sewer system.  Outhouses or latrines were built over these running waters which emptied into the Tiber River.   Smelly!

Queen Elizabeth 1, of Britian, had a flush toilet, invented by her godson, installed in her palace.  Legend tells us she was too embarrassed to use it for fear the staff would hear the loud noise when flushed and would know what she just did.

Another Queen, Victoria had her “water closet” installed in   her Ehrenburg palace in Germany.  Her only stipulation: No one else may use it!

Our second president, John Adams, and his wife, Abigail, moved into the White House in 1800.  They were privileged to use an outhouse privy.  A few years later, under Thomas Jefferson, the privy was replaced with two custom-made water closets.  Indoor plumbing was installed during Jefferson’s tenure also.

 The outhouse or the privy (brivvy) name probably came from another earlier sense of the word, referring to private chamber room for person(s) who didn’t wish to be disturbed. Later privy was defined as a small building that had a bench with holes in it for a person’s waste.   Privies had a one-or-two holer, sometimes  a large hole and a smaller one for children.  They were built in the back yard. The outhouse was used by city folk as well as rural people.  An outhouse originally was an out-building, or small structure, built away from the main building and used by city and country folk.

Some say that the crescent moon, sun, or stars carved in or on a door came about for mostly public places, like inns and churches, to note different genders. Actually, the main purpose of a hole was for venting and light.

The chamber pots, found under the bed, were bowl-shaped with a handle. Mostly they were used during the night and were common until the 19th century.