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Bathroom Toilet History

Bathroom Toilet History

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.