Ever think how useful, yet simple, the flush toilet is?
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Fortunately, the flush toilet enables us to dispose of human waste extremely easily. Using water to dispose of waste dates back as far as the Indus Valley Civilization, but the development over the years has made it easy, quick and clean so that you don’t have to give it second thought. Flush toilets incorporate a shaped bend that allows the water in the bowl to collect and stop sewer gases from emerging, and when flushed, a valve opens which allows water from the reservoir tank to quickly enter the bowl. This causes the swirling water to quickly rise and fill the shaped bend, where the siphon action pulls the water and waste down the drain and into a septic tank, and then onto a sewage treatment plant. The water lines and valves connected to the water supply refill the tank and bowl so that it is ready for use again.
John or Crapper
Both names have historical basis relating to the toilet.
Thomas Crapper, a British plumber, refined and finalized the toilet. He didn’t develop it from scratch but his company, Thomas Crapper and Company, made so many toilets in mid-19th century England that his name became synonymous with the toilet. Even the manhole covers in London streets sported his company name.
However, it was American soldiers who made the name eponymous, seeing it on toilet walls and then talking about it so much upon return home.
Thus, born the “crapper!”
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But the flush toilet was invented much earlier by John Harington, godson to Queen Elizabeth I. Overexuberantly criticizing the the Queen’s father, Henry VIII got Harington banished to a small village in northern England, Ajax. With time on his hands, the young Harington dreamed up the idea of a flush toilet using leather bellows. The Queen’s visit and use of the device nailed it. Every user would learn it was “John’s device,” soon shortened to “the John.”
Thus, born the “john.”
And now you know it.
