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Question
#42016. mochyn
asks:
Why is a toilet called a "john"?
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mk2norwich
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I thought the flushing toilet was by Thomas what's-his-name?
Dec 06 03, 11:26 AM
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griffinj
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John Harrington did design the first "necessary" in 1596, but he never made another (there is some question if any were made at all) and the idea was lost. “Crediting Harrington for inventing the toilet is the same as anointing Leonardo Da Vinci as father of the helicopter.”
In 1775 Alexander Cummings reinvented Harrington's water closet. Cummings invented the S-trap, a sliding valve between the bowl and the trap. It was the first of its kind. Two years later in 1777, Samuel Prosser applied for and received a patent for a plunger closet. A year later, Joseph Bramah invented a closet that had a valve at the bottom of the bowl that worked on a hinge -- a predecessor to the modern ballcock. Bramah was a bit of a sailor and his closet was used extensively on ships and boats of the era.
J.G. Jennings patented a washout closet in 1852. This unit had a shallow basin with a dished tray and water seal. The flush water drove the contents into the pan and then through the S-trap. Thomas Twyford would refine and promote this until in 1885 he built the first trapless toilet in a one-piece, all china design. The device has remained pretty much unchanged since then.
p.s. The Palace of Knossos had facilities flushed by water 4000 years ago.
 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/696115.stm
http://www.victoriancrapper.com/Toilethistory.HTML
http://www.cbc.ca/kids/general/the-lab/history-of-invention/toilet.html
Dec 06 03, 12:08 PM
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