You’d be amazed by how old plumbing systems really are! Plumbing stretches back thousands of years, all the way to the time of the Ancient Egyptians…
2500 B.C. — The Ancient Egyptians believed that water played a vital role in their religious purification ceremonies, as well as the burial of their Pharoahs. They were the first to construct drainage systems.
1760 B.C. — The Babylonians under King Hammurabi dug and dredged their canals regularly as a means to eliminate waste accumulated along the canal floors, as well as to ensure that the canals stayed in good working order.
1700 B.C. — The Palace of Knossos on Crete had four drainage systems that emptied into stone sewers built by the ancient Minoans.
800 B.C. — The ancient Romans built the first sewers, called the Cloaca Maxima. The system was designed to drain the waste from the massive city of Rome, carrying the detritus toward the nearby River Tiber.
705 B.C. — An Assyrian king named Sennacherib constructed a 10-mile, multi-stage canal designed to bring fresh water from the mountains. The canal also featured two separate dams, a chain of smaller canals, and a water division.
312 B.C. — The Romans built the first aqueducts, which were designed to supply the Roman baths with fresh water.
300 A.D. — By this time, the Romans have built over 850 private baths, 1,350 public fountains, and 11 public baths in the city of Rome.
1596 — The “washout closet” was invented by Sir John Harrington. The system used a drainage design similar to that used in the Palace of Knossos built by the Minoans.
1738 — The valve-type flush toilet was introduced by JF Brodel. This is the first instance of the system that has been adapted into the “modern” toilet.
1775 — Alexander Cumming took out a patent on an early forerunner of the modern toilet.
1778 — An improved version of Cumming’s toilet was patented by Joseph Brammah. This new toilet had two hinged valves. The prototype was adopted on ships and boats.
1829 — Boston’s Tremont Hotel was the first hotel in the world to feature indoor plumbing, including 8 “water closets”.
1848 — In England, the Public Health Act was passed, establishing a code for plumbing that soon spread throughout the entire world.
1857 — The very first package of toilet paper was invented and distributed by a man named Joseph Gayetty. It is sold under the name “Gayetty’s Medicated Paper”.
1858 — British sanitary engineer and plumber George Jennings encouraged the adoption of public lavatories.
1870 — The first “one-piece toilet” was invented by Thomas Twyford. It was an improved version of the toilet patented by Joseph Brammah in 1778, and is built with no metal parts.
