Myth: Thomas Crapper invented the (flush) toilet
01/01/07 00:00 Filed in: History
Did Thomas Crapper invented the
(flush) toilet?
Myth
Thomas Crapper (1837-1910) invented the flushing toilet that has become the predominate design for all modern lavatories.
Reality
Sorry to spoil a lovely pun and it would be so funny to be right. But the fact is that the most likely candidate in recorded history for the invention of the modern flush toilet was in fact Sir John Harington (1561-1612), a British nobleman and godson of Queen Elizabeth I who in 1596 invented a valve that when pulled would release water from a water closet. That is to say a flushing toilet; which he wrote about in his book on this invention, called "The Metamorphosis of Ajax". The pun there being that "a jakes" was period slang for a toilet.
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