Flush Toilet
By Scott Martin
History
In the 1800's people would have to dispose of their excrement by hand. The first "flushable" toilet was introduced in ancient Egypt in 2500 B.C. Toilets were flushed by dumping a bucket of water into it. In 1189 London had a very large problem with cleanliness and stench of the city. A large public wardrobe was deposited into the Thames River and by 1530 gardarobes were no longer in use so people just tossed buckets of sewage into the street.
The First Toilet
The first toilet was called a "water closet" and it was made by Sir John Harrington in 1596. This water closet was made for the Queen of England but was not properly ventilated and leaked all over the bathroom floor. Leonardo daVinci also had ideas for a water closet that had pipes installed into the walls. His ideas were called nonsense and disregarded by the public.
The real MVPs
The first patented toilet was made by Alexander Cummings in 1778. His Idea however was not perfect. The seal on the toilet sometimes emitted gases from the sewers that were very explosive and carried many diseases. In 1860 Henry Moule patented his Earth Closet which dispensed dirt or sand to disposes of the stench of the excrement. However the waste had to be emptied by hand which rendered it particularly inconvenient. The modern toilet was patented by Thomas Crapper and Thomas Twyford. Crapper created a pull-flush system with an air tight seal so that the sewer gasses could not leak through the pipes. Twyford created the porcelain toilet bowls in regular and in odd shapes.