When was the crapper invented

That would make the story simple. Skip to primary navigation Skip to main content. Because John Harrington and Thomas Crapper invented the toilet? Believe it or not, this is a tourist attraction in England. This story is just clogged with bathroom humor. He became a pioneer in bathroom showrooms. His clients were the wealthy and noble. Soon he became very rich, receiving several royal warrants. His first royal warrant was from Prince Edward to supply plumbing and thirty lavatories at Sandringham.

Reyburn claims that many American soldiers in WW-I were off the farm -- that they'd never seen anything like the classy English water closets -- that they called them by their brand name, much as the English call a vacuum cleaner by the brand name Hoover. The problem with this explanation is that the word almost certainly derives from the 13th-century Anglo-Saxon word crappe. It means chaff or any other waste material. The modern form of the word was certainly in use during Thomas Crapper's life.

So not only was he not the inventor of the flush toilet -- it's also unlikely that he really gave it his name, either. What he did do was to carry the technology forward. This business points out something historians have to guard against.

Now and then a really good story comes along -- one so well contrived that it should be true, even if it isn't. Many people were afraid of the risk to their ceilings and furniture by having water, under pressure, piped throughout their house. Others considered the idea of defecating within the home abhorrent.

Chamber pots and commodes were intended mainly for urine; if you needed to empty your bowels you used the privy, outside. Many of his WCs, basins and baths were plumbed in, so customers could even try them out! Previously, if you wished to order sanitary ware, a salesman would visit your home with a catalogue and some samples only a few inches high. It was due in no small part to Crapper that people became less embarrassed about purchasing sanitary ware in public.

But it is easy to see how the misunderstanding has arisen because he did have many dealings with royalty. Crapper was also responsible for supplying lavatories to Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle. He laid the drains at the Royal Horticultural Society in Wisley, and at Westminster Abbe y, where three cast-iron manhole covers can be seen to this day bearing his name.

The word has no connection with Thomas Crapper.