Bathroom toilet history is somewhat of a mystery because within the past two centuries, the modern world have only begun to use toilets. The truth of the matter is that toilets have been around far longer than we know.
Bathroom toilet history timeline:
Date |
Description |
| 2 300 BC | At Skara Brae in Scotland, stone huts have been discovered with drains that had cubicles over them. They may have been toilets. |
| 2 000 BC | In Northwest India and Pakistan, towns were built with a network of sewers. Toilets are flushed with water. |
| 1 600 BC | On Crete, some toilets were flushed with water. |
| 1 200 BC | Rich people in Egypt used a container with sand, which is emptied by slaves |
| 100 AD | The Romans had sewers to collect rainwater and sewage. They also built public lavatories. |
| 476 | The Roman Empire falls. In Western Europe, sophisticated plumbing vanishes for centuries. |
| 12th Century | At Portchester Castle monks built stone chutes leading to the sea. When the tide went in and out it flushed away the sewage. |
| 1200 | Castles had a toilet on a vertical shaft cut into the thickness of the walls with a stone seat on top. It sometimes emptied into the moat. |
| 1500 | Ordinary people often used leaves from a plant called woolly mullein as toilet paper. |
| 1547 | People were forbidden to do their business in the courtyards of royal palaces. |
| 1596 | Sir John Harrington invents the flush toilet but the idea fails to catch on. People still used cess pits, which were cleaned by men called gong farmers. |
| 1775 | Alexander Cumming patented a flushing lavatory. |
| 1778 | Joseph Brahmah improves the flushing lavatory design. |
| 1850 | Earth closets were popular. When a lever was pulled, granulated clay fell from a box, covering the contents. |
| 1852 | The first modern public lavatory, with flushing toilets opened in London. |
| 1857 | Sheets of toilet paper went on sale in the USA. |
| 1883 | The vacant/engaged bolt was invented. |
| 1884 | The first pedestal toilet pan is made. |
| 1890 | Toilet paper on rolls goes on sale in the USA. |
| 1900 | For the first time, some houses for skilled workers are built with inside bathrooms. |
| 1928 | Toilet paper on rolls goes on sale in Europe. |
| 1942 | Soft toilet paper goes on sale. |
| 2001 | The World Toilet Organisation is formed. |
