The Straight Poop: Innovations That Changed the Way We Do Our BusinessAmerican Standard's Champion 4 Flushing Technology Was, In Many Ways, A Millennium In the Making

LAS VEGAS, KITCHEN/BATH INDUSTRY SHOW (May 8, 2007) -- Toilet flushing. So common, so everyday. It's easy to forget that indoor flush toilets are barely a century old, even younger than the origins of American Standard, the world's largest and best-known toilet company. In fact, when the Standard Sanitary Manufacturing Company was founded in 1875, the norm was still the chamber pot and the outhouse, although history records the first flush toilet in 1500 B.C., at the palace of King Midas.

American Standard's Champion 4 Flushing Technology Was, In Many Ways, A Millennium In the Making

In the eons that followed the Midas flush, however, waste elimination practices ebbed and flowed, along with our understanding of engineering and sanitation. Luckily, every era had pioneers like American Standard who refused to take toilet problems sitting down, constantly advancing technology towards a clean, safe, clog-free flush.

The History of the Flush, Part 1
Disposing waste products has long been a significant health problem, which is why it is said that plumbers protect the health of the nation. Before the health implications were understood, advancements in toilets were driven by the simple desire to eliminate dirt and odors from castle and home:
* In the 6th century B.C., Babylonians learned to go with the flow, harnessing the power of gravity through latrines. Waste dropped into subterranean pipes that used water to carry the waste away. Call them gravity-led toilets.
* A few hundred years after the Babylonians, during the engineering advancements in the Roman Empire, public latrines were used along with water that washed the waste into sewers.
* In the Middle Ages, castles and monasteries used something akin to an indoor outhouse. Castle residents perched on a throne that consisted of a seat with a hole. Waste dropped down a pipe and exited the building through a protrusion in the castle wall, dropping onto the ground or into the moat surrounding the castle.
* During the Renaissance, complex piping systems were out and beautiful chamber pots were in, making up in form what they decidedly lacked in function. "Flushing" consisted of picking up these beautifully designed and colorful pots and simply hurling waste out the window. On the plus side, no clogging. On the down side, Black Death.
* In 1596, Sir John Harington, the godson of Queen Elizabeth I, invented a water closet with an actual flushing mechanism. The story goes that the Queen never used it, believed to be the first recorded instance of a flush that was so noisy, even good performance wasn't worth it.
* Over the next several centuries, chamber pots continued to reign in popularity, followed by outhouses. The latter were especially prevalent in the United States because our rugged American forefathers preferred doing our business outdoors and our busy American foremothers were glad not to have to clean up after them. Thomas Jefferson was one prominent exception. He fashioned a waterless privy at his home in Monticello that used an indoor chamber pot connected to the outside by a series of pulleys, which were operated by his servants.

The Inventor of the Toilet Was...;
No, not Thomas Crapper. Although long-credited as the father of the flush toilet, this account was officially challenged by a 1969 biography of Crapper, as well as others.
Patent records show that it was actually Edward Humpherson, a one-time apprentice with Crapper, who invented the first pedestal, wash-down water closet in 1884 in England. Humpherson's other patents include:
* an improved lead pipe joint and an improved waste water preventer in 1885;
* a siphonic flushing cistern in 1888;
* a pedestal water closet in 1891; and
* an automatic or intermittent siphonic flushing apparatus in 1892.

By comparison, Thomas Crapper has no listed patents pertaining to the design of a water closet suite. He did, however, have a better name than Humpherson.

Flushing Out the Finalists
The era of the Industry Revolution witnessed numerous attempts at creating a flushing toilet, with many patents issued in addition to Humpherson's, primarily in England. The "wash-out" toilet had a hole in the front or back of the bowl, with a trapway shaped like the letter "P" (no pun intended). Like the p-traps still used today underneath sinks, water filled the bend to seal the house from sewer gas.

The P shape eventually changed to an "S," the familiar trapway shape we use today. When the flush lever is pushed, water fills the bowl, rising on the upward leg of the trapway until it spills over the top or the "weir" into the downward leg of the S. The rush of water running downhill pulls waste and water out of the bowl, a process called "siphonic action." Narrowing part of the downward leg of the siphon trapway strengthened that vacuum effect, while gallons of water rushing into the bowl helped push all the waste cleanly from the bowl and the trapway, even through the narrow chokepoint.

So now odors were gone. Black Death was long gone. Outhouses became a punch line. Life was good. Until it became clear that a nation flushing away millions of gallons of water every single day might have its limits.