THE STORY OF THE TOILET

Toilet History Lesson

The Earliest Toilets

The toilet as we know it came a long way from its early ancestors. Some of the first known toilet facilities originated in the Indus River Valley Civilization, around the 3rd Millennium BCE, where urban life was beginning to form for the first time. This was actully referred to as ‘The Age of Cleanliness”, since the time gave rise to improved plumbing-like technology throughout the known world.

Urban areas in what is now India and Pakistan had relatively advanced systems, where chutes would dispense waste into street drains and pits, which would get washed away by rain water and flooding. The ancient Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans also took on the technology, as knowledge spread throughout the ancient world.

When in Rome…

The ancient Romans had some very interesting arrangements for sanitation in general. It is hard to imagine, but public bathhouses and public bathrooms were widely used, and with very little concern for the privacy standards of today. Pictured below is one such public restroom, where long rows of these “toilets” ran along the side walls of the facilities without any separation from one toilet to the next.

The Renaissance to Now

Toilet technology was at a relative stand-still up until the very end of the

Reinaissance. In fact, one could say things regressed. Throughout Europe people used chamber pots, small buckets that would hold waste, which would later be dumped out into the street. This is thought to be the origin of the British nickname for the bathroom– “loo”.

The french chamber maids and servants, who were very keen on early standards of etiquette, would yell for people to “Look out for the water,” before they poured out the contents of chamber pots out their windows. L’eau, meaning ‘the water,’ was mispronounced by the British service men and women who imitated them.

It wasn’t until Thomas Crapper (that’s his real name) mass produced the toilet in the 1880’s that society began to evolve towards the waste management system we know and love today.

If you’re ever having toilet troubles in your Simi Valley home call Fix It Fast Plumbing at (805) 623-4417!